ecoartspace Blog

April 2026 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Wed, 01 Apr 2026 17:37:12 GMT

March 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

March 2026 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 15:56:36 GMT

March 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

Interview with Evgenia Emets of Eternal Forest in Portugal by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Sun, 01 Mar 2026 14:10:58 GMT

Fossilidades, REVELAR, Forest Design, fragment, Evgenia Emets and Te.Ra Landscape Architecture, 2026

Guardians of Future Forests: Evgenia Emet’s Holistic and Metaphysical “Eternal Forest” Project

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Evgenia Emets works collaboratively with both communities and the land in her “Eternal Forests” project. Pairing ecological dialogues and community co-creation with cultural and biological research, she creates living forests that she hopes will protect and build future forests.

Evgenia, your current Fossilades project has been planned in Torres Verdras as part of the project REVELAR at CAC Centro de Arte e Criatividade, curated by Jorge Reis and opening in March in an exhibition titled A Memória Dos Pássaros Que Não Voam. What are you most excited about for the exhibition?

Fossilades combines fóssil and possibilidade (fossil and possibility in Eng). When I was invited to create work for the REVELAR project, the point of departure I chose was an ancient Araucaria’s fossilized trunk found in the territory. Witnessing millions of years, I heard it ask whether this memory of deep time can become a catalyst for ecological imagination.

The resulting project unfolds in two directions:

One is a film installation created in collaboration with Marco Piano, presented at the exhibition. Five women exist in the forest in cyclical time. Their gestures are ritualistic, dissolving the boundary between body and woodland. It is a communion, a reenactment of becoming one with the forest.

The second dimension is architectural and ecological. I mapped the quality of reflectivity in an ellipse in the former bullring’s oval arena. Using its two foci (ellipse focal points), I positioned symbolic nodes as offering places for fire and water elements, then traced intersecting lines to generate planting coordinates.

My intention in restoration work is to maximize habitat potential - layering canopy, understory, and ground cover. I began with biodiversity research and received 75 trees from the local Municipality - all suited to the local climate and ecology which I paired with shrubs and medicinal plants that historically existed in the territory but were reduced through intensive agriculture.

The work will be complete if the land reveals myths and creates a new story shared and enacted collaboratively by the community and that people choose to become guardians of the proposed community forest.

Eternal Forest Grove, Picote, Marco Piano, Eternal Forest, 2025

In the restoration element of the work, you have mentioned deforestation and forest fires as inspiration for your “Eternal Forest” project. How has this project developed from focusing on destruction to seeking solutions and planting trees?

“Eternal Forest” is about rebuilding emotional and spiritual connections between people and forests, while also creating physical spaces for biodiversity habitats. It is not only about planting trees, but about planting a seed of care in each community so they can exist for generations.

In 2017, I experienced deep ecological grief in the aftermath of destructive fires in Portugal. The questions I had were: What collective wound was I feeling in our relationship with the forest? How did people create landscapes that are mostly productive, often highly extractive? And where are the spaces for natural forests to thrive?

I did not want to focus only on devastation. I wanted to understand how, through art and connecting with communities, we can create and protect forests.

Sacred forests and groves exist in almost all cultures. Some survived, some were hidden, and many suffered with the spread of Christianity and later with colonization and industrialization. Yet many (such as sacred groves and forests in India, Ethiopian, and Eastern Europe) remain in people’s consciousness and therefore can be traced through cultural research.

Eternal Forest Grove, Picote, Marco Piano, Eternal Forest, 2025

Reflecting your international perspective, the “Eternal Forest” project mission statement – i.e. creating 1000 sacred sanctuary forests for 1000 years and beyond human life – seems to parallel the Indigenous concept of “Seven Generations” (J. Vukelich Kaagegaabaw 2024) held by Anishinaabe / Ojibwe tribes. How have you interpreted “native” and “non-native” aspects of trees/plants when working with different lands and cultures?

I understand that my role is not to impose, but to adapt the vision of Eternal Forest to a specific place, culture, knowledge, and living ecosystem by creating from a space of deep listening through ecological dialogue. In collaboration with local ecologists and botanists, I work to understand what strengthens biodiversity and resilience to support the ecosystem long-term.

The idea of creating one thousand sanctuary forests for one thousand years is rooted in a long-term perspective. This does resonate with the Seven Generation principle, which incorporates thinking about the generations ahead and how the decisions we take today will affect them.

I try to approach working with native and non-native plant species with care and humility. Native species are fundamental because they support insects, birds, fungi, and entire systems of interdependence locally in these places. At the same time, I recognize that landscapes are dynamic and plants mobilized when aided by human migration and a changing climate.

Fossilidades, REVELAR, Performance, CAC, Marco Piano, 2026

You really take a long-term perspective, which makes me wonder: what do you hope the project will accomplish for future generations who will experience it? In other words - What elements constitute a successful “Eternal Forest”?

I would consider an “Eternal Forest” successful when being “forest guardians” becomes part of people’s psyche. This is why we are actively working on connecting to landowners and stewards who are interested in creating forest sanctuaries with us and being part of the network.

In five years, I envision several Eternal Forest Sanctuaries rooted in distinct regions.

In ten years, I hope we have established an ecological and cultural network that shares research, artistic exchange, and stewardship practices.

In twenty or thirty years, success would be measured by continuity and whether the forest is embedded within the local community. For me, this would mean having an effective cultural and artistic program, and people who come to visit, learn and spread knowledge.

Fossilidades, REVELAR, Performance, CAC, Marco Piano, 2026

As a localized and site-specific project with a collaborative mission, how does your approach to a new community differ from or is similar to your approach to nature?

Regeneration cannot be rushed, and neither can trust. So we move slowly to understand, build trust, and create a feeling of ownership for the project. Through patience, listening, and transparency the project gains depth. Communities feel like co-authors rather than spectators through conversations, shared walks, gatherings, and artistic co-creation. In my experience, I have found that a speedy top-down approach does not work.

My approach to land is similar to my approach to community because I consider humanity an extension of a more-than-human world. When approaching ecosystems, listening, for me, means approaching the land and its beings in an active, compassionate way as co-creators and co-inhabitants by studying species composition, hydrology, soil structure, exposure, and existing ecological pressures.

To me, our experiences and point of view act as different ways to explore reality that bring these manifestations into the world from the idea space. Place and time, and awareness are important in understanding this context. When everything is in sync, the work feels inevitable rather than constructed.

The land shapes the concept. The concept refines the intervention. What we call the material world: soil composition, water presence, sun and wind exposure - correct and ground the vision.

February 2026 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 16:39:58 GMT

February 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

In Collaboration for Restoration, The Intrinsic Role Artists Play in Developing Effective Scientific Soil Solutions

Sun, 01 Feb 2026 15:00:00 GMT

This paper was submitted by ecoartspace blog interviewer Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein to the Journal of Geoscience and Eco Agricultural Studies, and was published on wmjournals.com, January 7, 2026.

Abstract

Many artists are increasingly acting as interlocutors between the Arts and Sciences to promote and develop real solutions to challenges including soil restoration through interdisciplinary collaboration. Individually and in collaboration, artists play an intrinsic role, unique to the 21st century, as contributors to effective en-vironmental soil management solutions beyond visual representation. The broadened 21st century definitions of art have allowed the discipline to grow past awareness work, and into projects related to soil restoration, agricultural biodiversity and permaculture solutions, and nature-based-solutions. The projects that I will survey include both artists who are trained scientists as well as artists in collaboration with scientists specifically addressing soil replenishment and innovative solutions for arability. As an artist, writer, and chef, who has held a vertical integration practice related to ingredients and materials, interviewed many prominent contemporary environmental-artists, and contributed to academic work on contaminated vacant-land restoration through Nature-Based-Solutions, it is clear to me the relevance and effectivity of STEAM frameworks related to soil. Artists’ role as innovators who base their work on a bottom-to-top process based on observation, acts in informative contrast to the scientific ‘top-to-bottom’ hypothesis approach, which like ying and yang complete each other in developing holistic solutions for soil and beyond. Faced with growing challenges from past contamination and malpractice, these frameworks will be pertinent in resolving climate and soil solutions.

*Corresponding author: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein, Artist and Educator, Entrepreneur, Hessen, Germany.

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January 2026 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Thu, 01 Jan 2026 19:31:07 GMT

January 2026 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

The British Society of Soil Science Conference (BSSS) review by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Mon, 15 Dec 2025 22:32:16 GMT

Day 3 Soil Conference, Photo from British Society of Soil Science LinkedIn Post

The Basis for All Life and Fertile Growth: Interest for Art/Science Collaborations Blossom at The British Society of Soil Science Conference 2025

Field Report by: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

“Are you a gardener?” Asks a man offering seeds. I took three: a flower, a pepper and an herb; healthy soil’s delicious gifts. And as discussions of soil remediation permeated the dull walls of this multi-floor conference building, reassurance of interconnected and ubiquitous life brightened the rooms with hope. This was hope made of growth, healing and the magic beneath our feet. Art brings things to life, I am told, the world needs to know about our soils, art can bring people closer to this planet and help restore it. “Both art and science imagine possibilities” Rebecca Hearn tells me with glistening eyes.

Manchester is an ironic backdrop for a soil science conference. A city haunted by its industrial past, rare greenspace dots a city center filled with tall repurposed mill and factory buildings. Still students and creative souls are vibrant in a backdrop of grungey and damp red brick dotted with murals. This backdrop was the overarching ghost that haunted these soil scientists as they dedicate their lives to challenge industrial farming practices like tillage, compaction, runoffs, and overfertilization with experiments proving the benefits of crop biodiversity, field rotation, and nature-based solutions. Many face the contamination in British soils head on as they measure how micro-plastics enter the soil as litter begins to break-down, and the arsenic, lead, asbestos, heavy metals, tars, cyanide and hydrocarbons industry left behind.

I thought of the seeds I was gifted, their nourishment completely dependent the soil’s health they grow within. The participants shared a disappointment in people’s common ignorance: how many urbanites have never touched soil or know how their food is grown; and how many rural communities have decreasing access to healthy soil, and lack knowledge to make thriving black earth.

Jo Pearl’s exhibition table at BSSS Conference 2025, photo: Hallstein

And yet, I am told that soil is becoming more visible and interesting, as the basis for all life and the fertile beginnings for nourishing ourselves and our world. Exhibitions like the recent “SOIL” exhibit at Somerset House emphasized this. ecoartspace member Jo Pearl exclaimed, “People want to talk about Soil! Even the King!”. Her work “Dirty Secret” will travel across Europe in the exhibition Soil Art Tales funded by the EU’s Mission Soil (www.SoilTribes.eu) this spring. On this and other projects, Jo explained in her presentation: “When people feel things, they act. Art is a way to get people to feel things and to shift perspectives. In a germaphobic world, how do we get people to see what is underneath our feet? If the biome could speak, I imagine the worms would say ‘Save Our Soil’.”

Daro Montag’s installation at BSSS Conference 2025, photo: Hallstein

ecoartspace member Daro Montag reminded the crowd in his presentation that “When thinking of art and soil, people may focus on colors – like pigments from the earth” His own work focuses on imaging soil microbes. His research has shown how “even older soil samples are very much alive.” Emphasizing the benefit of working across the two “cultures” of art and science –he spoke about a shared spring of curiosity and how bridging the discipline gap makes both richer. Excitedly, Daro went on with a call for reconnection “Soil is more important than most of us remember, not just underneath our feet, but as the basis for our very existence- soil exists on your minds, under your fingernails, and in your veins.”

Paul Granjon (Zprod.org) connected how important integrating audience participation is in making soil vitality visible and creating nature connection. His work as an artist and educator with Microbial Fuel Cells and Mud Batteries through bioelectrogenesis creates projects like moving robots fueled by the microbe in mud. Projects like Mud Machine wrekshops and singing solar powered compost greet primary school students and adults alike. He said “it helps when things move and flash to get people excited because the mud is alive” calling artists to promote their passions through practice. “Good times are important! People need a positive slant to focus on or these dire situations will not change,” he said “joy and excitement motivates through hope”.

Design is represented in mapping experiments and landscape projects that parallel our member artists’ focuses on sustainable development. Some scientists reimagine wasteful heavy industry as a space for activity, education, and leisure. There was a heavy emphasis on recycling, repurposing and regenerative practices as parts of net-zero and circular development. I learned that best practice emphasizes soil and concrete repurposing as well as green mulch that best practices are regenerative practices; to start with soil in order to reach net zero foundational design. “Soil is living, its not just spoil, it needs treating as a biologically important resource” said Jonathan Atkinson.

A question from the crowd during a panel on Regenerative Agricultural Practices echoes the work of many ecoartspace members taking inspiration from indigenous and historical practices, “Can we look to the pre-industrial past and our ancestors for future innovations?” The response: There is amazing documentation of these practices, but it is not digitized so it is difficult for people to access. And, as images of porous and compacted earth pass by, I wonder: Is our exponential digital growth leading to a similar porous knowledge base reflecting the porous and easily eroded lands industry produced?

Weaving through posters in rows, topics are varied, but share a dedication to solution-oriented research and a deep passion for this planet. I learn that Artists are activating many of these spaces with poetry and land art, and are fostering these projects with their research-based creative practices. Arts Universities and creative organizations dotted the posters of many of the scientists. In fact, these fruitful collaborations brightened these researchers’ eyes, many seeking broader platforms to build public awareness and aide in saving our earth.

“In Collaboration for Restoration” Poster by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein at BSSS Conference 2025, photo: Hallstein

At my poster on artists’ role in science, many scientists shyly whispered in my ear how they also like to draw or paint or work with ceramics as they passed me photos of their meticulously drawn landscapes. So, the “Soils Turn” book (available for purchase here) was well-suited to the scene. Many flipped through the book with excitement, buzzing with potential future collaborators and inspiration. My poster “In Collaboration for Restoration” drew a crowd excited to interact and respond to the questions I posed: “What Issues in Soil Science Should be Addressed by Artists?” And “What Unique Role Can Art Play in the Soil Science Field?” Responses revolved around how artists use their skills to communicate and grow connection.

“Soil has a PR problem. Art is a communication tool,” Jo says, “for me at least it both about beauty and communication.” And translation is necessary in collaboration between the two disciplines’ specified languages. A solution? Be unafraid to ask ‘what do you mean?’ and make sure there is clarity while working together and be open to learning new things and terms. In discussions about developing art and science collaborations: ask what is a good outcome? The scientists expressed hope on learning how to collaborate, build trust and spread trust between the disciplines. Most of all, they said, always remember that the goal is to bring what’s underneath to the surface by spreading the experience of getting your hands dirty, to engage people, and help change the way we think about soil not as ‘dirt’, but as something magical. A good result? Visitors getting excited about the complex world beneath their feet.

Participants at Lecture in Main Hall at BSSS Conference 2025, Photo from BSSS Instagram Post

Some organizations and resources represented at the conference who are building collaborations between soil scientists and artists are: IMPACT, University of Art London, Lancaster University, The National Trust, Somerset House, and Rothamsted Soil Archive.

December 2025 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sun, 30 Nov 2025 19:27:08 GMT

December 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

When Earth Speaks, an interview with Miranda Whall by Colette Copeland

Sat, 29 Nov 2025 20:24:16 GMT

When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble by Miranda Whall, film stills from the film by Amy Daniel, 2024

When Earth Speaks: Miranda Whall on Drawing, Performance Data and Gentle Activism

This month’s interview with Miranda Whall, based in Wales (UK), was conducted by fellow ecoartspace member and performance artist Colette Copeland (TX, US).

Whall studied at UWIC Cardiff, Emily Carr Institute, Vancouver, the Royal Academy Schools, and Goldsmiths, University of London, and was the recipient of a creative commission from UKRI CO2RE – Greenhouse Gas Removal Hub, Oxford University 2025 – 2026 for When Peat Speaks (2025–26). In 2024, she was awarded the inaugural Live Art Rural UK Fellowship by the Live Art Development Agency (LADA). Whall has been a co-investigator on several recent NERC-funded cross-disciplinary projects and works at the intersection of performance, expanded drawing, film and environmental science. She is the director and performer of two recent stage productions When Seeds Speak: A Seedy Ensemble, Seligman Theatre, Chapter Arts Centre, Cardiff 2024, and When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble, Aberystwyth Arts Centre 2024.

Her work was included in the groundbreaking exhibition Soil: The World at Our Feet at Somerset House, London early in 2024, work that is also featured in the current ecoartspace publication Soils Turn. Whall is a postgraduate and PhD research supervisor and lecturer in Fine Art at Aberystwyth University, a creative coach, and mentor for Arts Council Wales.

When Earth Speaks: A Dirty Ensemble by Miranda Whall, photos by Ashley Calvert, 2024

CC: Miranda, there is so much to unpack with your work. While it is very complex your website beautifully clarifies your concepts and process. As I reflect, a few threads recur: collaboration with humans and other-than-humans, embodiment—embodying process, embodying data, embodying what cannot be seen, the role of the artist as a witness and as you eloquently described in one article “gentle activism.”

Let’s begin with collaboration. In your performance works, you collaborate with scientists, filmmakers, dancers and musicians, but also with other-than-humans who inhabit the land. You’ve collaborated with trees in your crawling performances. In the series When Peat Speaks, When Earth Speaks and When Seeds Speak, you collaborate directly with all the living aspects in the environment. Data is also a key component in these works.

How do you approach collaborating with non-sentient beings such as data and how do you negotiate that relationship in your spoken word performances and durational drawings?

MW: Thank you Colette for your generous and layered questions, it is a great pleasure and privilege to spend time answering them. In my recent and current work, I am attempting a non-anthropocentric, non-sentimental, post-humanist approach, and so there is purposefully no direct influence running in either direction, between me and the data, and no decision-making based on what the data is actually conveying. I am not translating the data, adjusting my drawing, composition, or musicality in response to it. And I am not interpreting it or aestheticizing it. Similarly, the data is not communicating, responding, or negotiating with me. The data and I, and the musicians and dancers, simply coexist. I ask the collaborators to think about the material ecology the soil, seed, or peat, but not about the data per se. My drawings, sculptures, and performances unfold through their own internal logic, and the data unfolds through its own internal logic. Neither bends toward the other. They meet only because they occur in the same temporal and spatial field. What is shared is time, not meaning, and an appreciation of that fact that we don’t understand each other. We are like parallel systems, or, as I like to think of it, like friends who are comfortable enough to coexist in silence.

This way of being together establishes a deliberately matter-of-fact relationship rather than an expressive or interpretive one. I am interested in a refusal to translate, a refusal to respond, and a refusal to represent. The data is allowed to remain data, and I am allowed to remain human, and we encounter each other and the gap between us. I am drawn to the illegibility and impenetrability of vast numerical fields; their opacity and strangeness are part of the data’s presence. I see other artwork with data leaning towards anthropomorphizing, where it is treated as if it has intention, character, or narrative, in my thinking—this can be left to the scientists. What I am interested in is a non-anthropomorphic empathy: staying with what is strange about it, and problematic with it, and so ‘staying with its trouble’.

Translation, where it might happen momentarily, for example in the collaborative performances, is without sentimentality; this is why I work with improv musicians rather than composers and interpretive, or score-based musicians. Patterns in the data stream might be followed; errors and absences might be noticed, but they simply prompt improvisation that moves quickly on. The musicians and dancers do not attempt to sonify, translate, mirror, or respond to the data itself. The performers are not improvising to it, synchronizing with it, or using it as a score. Their actions unfold according to their own internal logics, durations, and constraints, just as the drawings do. Instead, sound, movement, drawing, and data occupy the same temporal field in a kind of non-negotiable way. They run alongside each other as independent systems, co-present but non-interactive. The ‘ensemble’ is therefore not built on dialogue or responsiveness, but on simultaneity and coexistence.

Underlying this approach is a shift from using data to being-with data. I treat it both as raw material and as a co-presence: a non–sentient being whose behavior I spend time with and witness. My role shifts from author to mediator, or caretaker of a material that simply keeps being generated.

A Boggy Gassy Cloud: Jumping in progress by Miranda Whall, photo by Ashley Calvert, 2025

CC: Your body is always active in the durational data drawings and in spoken word performances, live and on film. Many artists visualize data; you embody it to cultivate environmental awareness and empathy.

Could you walk us through your preparation—somatic, cognitive, and technical for your durational work? How do endurance and concept inform one another in your practice? When does time become a method, and when does it become the material?

MW: My preparation for durational work is practical and rather mundane. I don’t do somatic or cognitive warm-ups in a performance sense. Instead, I make sure I have set the right conditions: that I have enough time, and that I have all the right equipment, tools, and materials to enable me to step into the temporal and spatial field, a bit like preparing for a long walk into the mountains.

In the Boggy Gassy Drawing I have just finished, where I inscribed half a million digits in ink onto a 152 × 101 cm sheet of paper. I set myself the task of writing in increments of one thousand data points, roughly 6,000 digits per hour, and to work for around four hours a day, inscribing approximately 28,000 digits. At the beginning of the process, I worked in 30-minute increments set by my phone alarm. Both approaches gave me clear goalposts and a reward system that made the work sustainable. Someone once suggested that I allow myself to fall into the process more deeply, over longer, unbroken periods, but that would have made the work unsustainable—I would burn out, damage my body, and ultimately render the work impossible.

When making my drawings or pin-pricked Boggy Gassy Cloud, I make sure I am warm in my studio, stable enough—physically and mentally—to stay with one task for a long time. This usually means very basic things: checking posture, organizing the space so I can reach what I need, confirming that batteries are charged and cables inserted correctly. In the breaks, I make drinks, look out of the studio window, stretch, catch up with emails, or message people I have been thinking about during the work.

The mindset while writing/drawing is sometimes very challenging. When caught within what can feel like an endless stream of numbers, reciting internally, thousands of digits, the process can be mentally demanding. Because I cannot escape the stream, move or leave the activity, a single negative thought can get stuck and loop itself again and again, becoming difficult to manage and, at times, overwhelming.

I can’t listen to podcasts, but I can and do listen to certain kinds of music, for example, Arvo Pärt or Max Richter. The nature of their music is slow, repetitive, restrained, with limited harmonic movement, and a steady temporal pulse. The music fills and holds time without demanding my attention. It somehow supports the durational work rather than distracts from it.

The Boggy Gassy Bubbly Ensemble, photos by Ash Calvert and film stills by Gilly Booth, hijack film

I keep the structure very clear. I decide the rule I will follow and once the work begins, I do not adapt or interpret. The rules hold. The data runs, and I run alongside it. We remain independent. Technically, the setup is precise but not complicated. When there are sensors involved—the ‘talkie boxes’ (custom-made microcontrollers), I check that they are working properly i.e., speaking to the sensor network in the peatbog for example, but I do not react to what the sensors generate. In When Peat Speaks: A Boggy Cloudy Bubbly Ensemble, for example, the real-time peat data runs continuously from the sensor network installed on the peat bog, but my own and the musicians’ actions do not change because of it. Our bodies and the data simply occupy the same time frame.

Duration and concept meet in this non-interactive commitment. The duration creates the conditions: staying in one action long enough so that it becomes factual, almost procedural. The concept is sustained by endurance rather than expressiveness. I follow the instructions I have set for as many hours as it takes, and drawings and sculptures accumulate because time accumulates; nothing is performed in response to the data.

Time becomes a method when it is the structure that holds the process in place. Speaking numbers continuously for an hour, for instance, forces a mechanical pacing that does not rely on emotional interpretation. Time becomes the material when the trace of that pacing, on paper for example, shows the body doing one thing for a long period. The content does not shift, but the body inevitably registers fatigue, pressure, and repetition.

The main idea is that I do not try to embody the data in an expressive way. I do not translate it, react to it, or use it to guide my actions. My body is simply present with it. The data continues as data, and I continue as myself. The work comes from the coexistence of those two ecologies over time.

CC: Your projects generate extensive documentation, yet the films operate as artworks in their own right—with an uncanny, sci-fi charge that feels dreamlike or like an alien encounter. The lighting and sound deepen that sense of mystery and otherworldliness.

How do you envision the films functioning within the larger project—evidence, portal, score, autonomous work, or something else? What are the relationships between fieldwork, documentation, live performance and film?

MW: The films sit in a deliberately ambiguous position within the larger projects. They are not straightforward documentation, and they are not simply autonomous artworks either, although they can operate as both. I think of them less as evidence and more as a kind of trace of what has happened in a performance, maybe a witness, but they do not attempt to explain it. What matters to me is not recording what took place but creating another platform where the work can continue to unfold in a different temporal and sensory register.

I love that you have picked up on the uncanny, sci-fi quality of the films. I have been surprised and so pleased that both filmmakers; Amy Daniel and Gilly Booth (Hijack film), who made the films of the three ensembles performed so far, have created this atmosphere. This has emerged through their own interpretations, or sensed readings of the ensemble performances, and perhaps also from my own articulation of a refusal and resistance to representation.

If you are referring specifically to the films of the tree-crawling projects, which I filmed and edited myself, I think it is Bert Barton’s tree-generated composition, which forms the soundtrack to the crawls, that so strongly defines the atmosphere of that series of films.

In the recent filming of the Dirty, Seedy and Boggy ensembles, the films do not tell the viewer what the data means, or what the action signifies, instead, they sustain a sense of strangeness, opacity, and distance that feels closer to how I experience the work in situ—as something unfolding around me rather than something I am interpreting.

I think live performance and film operate as parallel but connected. The live performance is where conditions are inhabited in real time and the film attempts to engage with that experience and encounter, as present but separate. I think the films are not so much a record of the encounter but a re-materialization of it—another iteration that has its own internal logic and temporality. The film and performance affect each other, but neither of them stands in for the other.

So, the film is not a score, and it is not simply evidence. It is closer to a kind of after-image—something that carries the trace and residue of the performance, while also being autonomous.

When Seeds Speak: A Seedy Ensemble by Miranda Whall, photos by Ashley Calvert, 2024

CC: You’ve written about artists as conduits, connectors, and processors.

In your role as witness/observer, what have the earth, soil, bog, and seeds communicated to you? What does deep listening look like in practice? And how might “gentle activism” guide concrete actions that help audiences serve as conduits and connectors for the earth?

MW: The soil, seed and peat do not communicate to me in any direct or legible way. I do not experience these encounters as messages to be interpreted or translated into a meaning that humans can understand. Instead, what I hope they offer is a deeper understanding of how to be present in time, in a time different from our own human time. Through fostering a kind of attunement to the data—a language we have offered to these material ecologies, I have come to understand the slowness and density of matter, the way moisture, pressure, decay, and time shape everything quietly and without spectacle. What I learn is not content so much as scale, rhythm, and endurance. The bog has taught me about accumulation, about holding rather than revealing, about futures that are measured across centuries rather than in human attention spans.

Deep listening, in my practice, is therefore not an act of interpretation but a kind of suspension. It means ‘getting out of the way’ or ‘staying with,’ setting aside the impulse to extract meaning, to represent, and to narrate. ‘Being with’ the data and one repetitive action for a long, uncomfortable time, without the anticipation of an outcome, becomes a form of protest or resistance. It involves mindless boredom, fatigue, and discomfort as much as insight. I believe there is a kind of profundity in the mundane. I have always been drawn to the overlooked, and in this current work it is through sitting with the overlooked—the soil, seed, and peat, that a form of deep listening is cultivated, and with it, a gentle insistence that this is worth doing.

I invite audiences into durational encounters where nothing is resolved or explained. Thousands of numbers are deposited onto a sheet of paper and add up to nothing more than the sum of their parts—no form, no image, no picture, just the material evidence of repetitive action over time. Audiences are asked to look into these ink-on-paper data landscapes or clouds, or to step onto the bog, to share time with material processes that exceed them.

The activism is gentle because it does not instruct people what to think or feel; it instead offers a space in which they might begin to sense their own position within larger material, ecological, and temporal systems—planetary systems. To serve as conduits and connectors for the earth, in this sense, is not to speak on its behalf, but to learn how to walk into it, and to sit with it. I believe that if we can learn to sit with material ecologies, to remain in their company, we can learn to understand their value beyond resource.

November 2025 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 15:09:27 GMT

November 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

Forms Fostering Growth: Mara G Haseltine’s NGO “Geotherapy Institute for Art and Field Sciences” interview

Sat, 01 Nov 2025 14:55:35 GMT

Corals from Laguna de Maya Cuba ©Luis Muiño

Forms Fostering Growth: Mara G Haseltine’s NGO “Geotherapy Institute for Art and Field Sciences” Builds Nurseries for Coral Reef Restoration in Cuba

Olivia Carye Hallstein

Artist Mara G Haseltine, Director of the “Geotherapy Institute for Art and Field Sciences,” has developed her first project for coral nurseries in Laguna de Maya, Cuba. She has expanded her creative work to collaboratively produce an effective regenerative solution for bleaching coral. As a result, The Coral Nursery applies creativity with restoration within a non-profit framework. Working as an official business entity coordinating with local government and other institutions allows the project to surpass common limitations.

Geotherapy Institute For Art and Field Sciences official Logo

Mara, your project and NGO address coral bleaching in Cuba. What factors did you take into consideration when deciding on location for this project?

Corals are the ‘canary in the coalmine’ for our planet. When healthy, they soften the shorelines creating natural self-healing beach-breaks, create biodiverse habitats for a myriad of aquatic life, create sustainable fishing opportunities, and offer endless opportunities for scientific research including medicine. These delicate biodiverse habitats are headed for mass extinction and preserving them through anthropogenic means is now our only window into their past glory for future generations.

Cuban waters of course are undergoing the same effects of climate change that we are seeing globally. And there are many Cuban nationals working on this topic in different ways. Acidification and temperature rise both create large-scale bleaching leading to the decimation of coral reefs worldwide. However, Cuba has little or no agricultural runoff from fertilizers used to farm, drastically less commercial building, and less automobile traffic. As a result, there is much less pollution going into the sea surrounding Cuba, making it far more pristine than the surrounding islands in the Caribbean. This makes it a better place to do coral restoration and study the effects of coral restoration scientifically.

And to restore these corals you have expanded this project by launching The Coral Nursery in Havana, Cuba as an NGO. What has your process of starting an NGO and working amongst scientific institutions as an artist looked like?

I see my specialty as an artist as ‘making the microscopic megascopic’; sometimes on a very large scale. Art is a wonderful tool for public engagement and can make something so visually seductive that the viewer wants to learn more about it to ‘understand’ and thus be compelled to engage with the work.

The creation of this NGO ‘the Geotherapy Institute for Art and Field Sciences’ and becoming its Director is another level of magnification. There are so many moving parts and it has become organic in its growth, taking on a life of its own. We are building an unstoppable team all dedicated to infusing art into the field sciences: with students and Professors from the University of Havana, Finca Artnomista (a sustainible organic farm), Cuban artists like Isrealito Matanzas and NGO’s like Cresta, the Global Coral Reef Alliance and The Ocean Foundation.

The word ‘Geotherapy’ acknowledges that we are in the age of the Anthropocene. It is our moral duty to care for our injured biosphere with ‘nature-based’ solutions as a doctor would tend to a sick patient. My goal with this project and subsequent projects is to create something so poetic that this vital relationship we have with nature cannot be ignored. In the end, you will not see the reef structures we have carefully crafted but a vibrant healthy reef…

I have been a practicing ‘environmental sci-artist’ working with scientists and scientific teams for over twenty-five years. The intense connections and inspiration that come from learning about the science has been a source of inspiration as well as one of camaraderie. I am drawn to people that think outside the box (and sometimes very differently from me). I firmly believe that scientists are like artists in their approach to problem solving… striving for solutions that have not yet been created.

Coral nursery model ©Mara G Haseltine

Problem solving by “Making the microscopic megascopic” sounds like a great way to describe this project! So, how does it work?

My design is for a coral nursery. The ceramic stars have cross-bred gametes using a process called ‘sextual coral larval propagation’. The stars have cross-bred gametes individually placed on them by scientists who capture the gametes during full moon spawning events. Crossbreeding strengthens their immunity which is crucial in acidic and warmer waters due to climate change. The nursery grows these corals on the ceramic stars until the nascent corals are ready to be placed on top of the reef with a sextual coral larval propagation design component.

My theory is that the lightly electrified nursery structures will also increase the survivability of these cross-bred gametes. The corals we are focusing on are hard corals like stag and elkhorn both from the Acropora genus; they are endangered. As the reef builders upon which many other forms of life and coral attach to or lay eggs or nest in, they play a crucial role.

Ceramic substrates for coral larval propagation © Mara G Haseltine

What a fantastic example of research-based design. As an artist, I am curious to hear: what contributed to your design decisions for shape and material?

I chose the shape because I found it beautiful, but also functional. The domed structure with a flat bottom and flanges make it incredibly sturdy, which is crucial for aquatic environments. Corals create energy in two ways through catching tiny nutrient particles that float nearby and through photosynthesis through symbiotic algae called xoonathalle, the design has open space for nutrients to flow through and sunlight to reach to aide these functions.

For the stars I chose high fire ceramics, because they have low porosity and perfect for sub-aquatic environments and added a coral texture for the gametes to cling too. The Biorock method employed for the metal structures which applies light volts of electricity to metal, creating an accretion process coating the metal with layers of calcium carbonate. This is the same substance coral skeletons are made from, which if grown properly creates a self-healing substrate 5x’s the strength of traditional concrete. The light volts of electricity boost the immune system of corals attached to the structure and in nearby waters.

Plankton pod © Mara G Haseltine

It seems like, just as you are nursing the complex ecosystem of these coral reefs, you are also fostering a parallelly diverse community onshore. With so many people involved in different ways, what hopes do you have for this project beyond the coral reefs?

We have built an incredible team, over the past three years of working on this project. I could never have done this single-handedly. Some of the scientists and explorers working on this project have been colleagues for over twenty years, bringing a depth of knowledge to the project one person alone could never do.

I envision a future where many other artists and scientists can come and collaborate, creating an underwater sculpture park that champions ‘nature-based’ solutions. I also hope Laguna de Maya becomes known globally for its dedication to art, local culture, science and above all stewardship for the planet.

A healthy reef is diverse, the stake holders in this project are diverse as well and there can be many positive outcomes from educational documentary films to sustainable fishing, eco-tourism and above all hope for a brighter future - the possibilities are endless…

Thank you, Mara, for sharing your valuable insights and work!

Mara G Haseltine teaching in Cuba © Mau Abascal

October 2025 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Wed, 01 Oct 2025 15:28:03 GMT

October 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

The Hidden World of the American Oystercatcher, Rachel Frank Audubon feature

Sun, 21 Sep 2025 14:43:36 GMT

Through her circular sculpture, artist Rachel Frank depicts the American Oystercatcher in its tide-pool habitat. Photo: Sydney Walsh/Audubon

The Hidden World of the American Oystercatcher

Inspired by ancient offering vessels, Rachel Frank’s sculpture captures the delicate cycle of a shorebird’s life in the intertidal zone.

Words by Jessica McKenzie, Reporter, Audubon magazine, published Fall 2025

Sculptors often spend a lot of time with their subjects, but Rachel Frank takes that connection to another level. As a rehabilitator at the Wild Bird Fund in Manhattan, she’s cared for an array of creatures that live in or pass through the city, including rodenticide-poisoned owls, kestrels injured by cats, and diseased hawks. Her intimate knowledge of wildlife infuses the ceramic sculptures she creates in her Brooklyn studio.

Originally from a small town in northern Kentucky, Frank grew up working with horses and helping out on family farms. When she moved to New York City in 2005, she missed those regular encounters with animals and nature. So while working as a sculptor and art instructor, she began volunteering for the Wild Bird Fund and then signed on full time after she lost her teaching job during the pandemic. Now she is in charge of one of the most diverse departments: waterfowl, raptors, and—surprisingly, given the facility’s name—turtles. “There’s very different treatments between a lot of these different species,” Frank says, “but I really like the challenge.”

Artist Rachel Frank, with her commissioned piece for The Aviary, in her studio in Brooklyn, New York on July 15, 2025. Photo: Sydney Walsh/Audubon

Some of the standouts on Frank’s long list of patients are the American Oystercatchers that have come into her care with wing injuries and swallowed fish hooks. The large black and white shorebird, which inhabits quieter patches of New York City beaches like the Rockaways and Jamaica Bay, is instantly recognizable: “It has such a bright, orangish-red beak, and a haunting, whistling, kind of laughing call,” Frank says.

The artist features this distinctive species in her piece for The Aviary, titled “Liminal Offering Vessel: American Oystercatcher and Tide Pools.” The statue’s shape was inspired by ancient Mediterranean vessels called ring-kernos, circular pieces with bowls attached to hold offerings of honey, oil, wine, or grains. Frank likes working in this form because of its long history and rich symbolism; many of the earliest ceramics were vessels. “I’m interested in sculptural objects that are tied to ideas of exchange, connection, movement, and ritual,” she says.

Continue reading article at Audubon magazine here

Connecting with Community and the Land: A Workshop on Sustainability in Art & Life l Glasstire

Wed, 10 Sep 2025 00:20:14 GMT

Connecting with Community and the Land: A Workshop on Sustainability in Art & Life

by Colette Copeland September 8, 2025 l Glasstire

Last month, I spent a week living and learning at Chelenzo, an organic farm outside of Santa Fe in Cerillos, New Mexico. Patricia Watts, curator, writer, and founder of ecoartspace — a global community of environmentally focused artists, scientists, and advocates — organized a retreat-style workshop that asked participants to understand materiality through traditional and sustainable methods in artmaking. We learned to make adobe bricks and natural plant dyes, and we did it together, living and working as a community.

I’ve been an ecoartspace member for about a year, attending many of their Zoom lectures by artists and scientists, and this was my first in-person meetup with fellow members. It can be tricky to live, eat, and work alongside relative strangers, but this week was drama-free: everyone arrived excited to learn, interact, and collaborate. Lorenzo and Chelsea Dominguez and their family cooked organic, fresh-picked food from the farm and we all came home a few pounds healthier and happier from the meals and good company.

The farm offers majestic vistas and hiking trails. Each morning, I walked to engage my senses and set an intention for the day. For urban dwellers, the absence of traffic noise and clean air is grounding and healing.

Mornings were spent with workshop leader Jeanne Dodds, an artist, conservationist, researcher, and educator whose creative practice embraces connections and materiality with non-humans. Dodds taught us about the ethical harvesting of plant materials and we created contact prints on fabric using sunflowers grown on the farm.

Continue reading on Glasstire here

September 2025 Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 21:28:18 GMT

September 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers and non-members is here

The Ecological Power of Contemporary Art, An Interview with Aviva Rahmani conducted by Antonino La Vela, for Art Tribune

Mon, 01 Sep 2025 17:05:06 GMT

The Ecological Power of Contemporary Art:

An Interview with Aviva Rahmani on Art and Ecology, an American artist who combines feminism, activism, and environmental renewal in a single practice of social commitment

originally published May 31, 2025 via Art Tribune online, interview by Antonino La Vela

Aviva Rahmani (New York, 1945) is an artist who combines creativity with a commitment to environmental and cultural renewal. At the heart of her work is the Aviva Rahmani Eco-Art Project, which includes works such as Blued Trees, Ghost Nets, Cities and Oceans of If, and Gulf to Gulf. These projects denounce humankind's destructive impact on the environment and ecocide, inviting audiences to reevaluate their connection to an environment that is fundamental to our cultural identity.

Who is Aviva Rahmani With a solid background in art and environmental studies, Rahmani has developed theories that challenge traditional conventions. Her work combines conceptualism with cultural criticism, intertwining historical narratives and literary legacies, connecting the past to today's social changes, making them symbols of resilience and renewal. We discussed her practice in this interview.

Interview with Aviva Rahmani

Let's start from the beginning. What role can your cultural and landscape experiences, your sensitivity to nature, and your exploration of performance and conceptual art play in environmental renewal?

My earliest memories, linked to nature and an insatiable curiosity for the world, drew me to performance and conceptual art. As a young artist, I wanted to express both my creative impulses and growing environmental concerns. These experiences laid the foundation for my work, which I call Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism. Confronting phenomena such as deforestation, pollution, and ecocide has driven me to create art that aims to spark real transformations in the relationship between humanity and the environment.

The projects Blued Trees, Ghost Nets, Cities and Oceans of If, and Gulf to Gulf have become fundamental in this field. What message do you intend to convey?

Each of my works stems from the belief that a small gesture can make a difference to the environment. Blued Trees and Ghost Nets highlight the serious consequences of ecosystem collapse, while Cities and Oceans of If and Gulf to Gulf imagine a future where urban spaces and natural environments coexist in harmony. Together, these works invite us to recognize our responsibility to the planet, reminding us that every creative gesture can contribute to healing the planet's wounds.

You have collaborated with prominent figures such as Judy Chicago, enriching your work with a feminist perspective.

Working with Judy Chicago revolutionized my concept of performative collaboration, deepening the connection between feminism and ecological activism. This experience challenged and transcended patriarchal and colonial narratives. The work Ablutions, created together with Judy, Suzanne Lacy and Sandi Orgel in 1973 on the theme of sexual violence, further strengthened my commitment to combating the colonization of the territory and social injustice, themes that have accompanied me since the early days of the feminist movement.

Your art combines science, indigenous wisdom, and cultural criticism in an original way. How do they come together in your creative process?

I consider the world a complex and interconnected system. I draw on physics, environmental studies, and indigenous traditions to construct a holistic vision that guides my work. This approach allows me to create rigorous and emotionally resonant works, highlighting the connections between ecological health, cultural identity, and the devastating consequences of ecocide. This vision opens spaces for thought and concrete action.

Despite international recognition, your work in Italy remains little-known. You presented Trigger Points / Tipping Points at the 2007 Venice Biennale, but much remains to be discovered. Italy's high artistic culture offers the ideal context for a dialogue on the environment.

I see the opportunity to engage the public more, not only by exhibiting my works, but also by stimulating profound reflection on sustainability and ecological justice. This commitment is essential at a time when global challenges, such as ecocide, require innovative and restorative solutions.

In your most recent project, Tolstoy & I, you reimagine classic literature through blue pencil self-portraits, drawn on torn pages from an old edition of War and Peace that belonged to your mother.

Tolstoy & I is an introspective journey into my personal history and my relationship with contemporary politics. Reusing pages from my mother's beloved copy of War and Peace, I grapple with the violation of history —that is, the way political forces fragment collective memory. The use of blue pencil, a reference to my project Blued Trees, creates a symbolic link between my ecological activism and literary reflection, inviting us to rediscover hidden narratives and understand how memory, legacy, and political reality are inextricably linked.

Looking to the future, what message would you like to convey to emerging artists and environmental activists today?

Embrace your creativity as a tool for transformation. Art can speak truth to power, challenge the status quo, and imagine alternative futures. I invite young artists to dare, transcend disciplinary boundaries, and use their voices to address the urgent issues of our time. Our planet needs innovation, passion, and decisive action: every creative gesture is a step toward a more sustainable and just world.

Antonino La Vela

Original article in Italian here

ecoartspace recently did a 1.5 hour interview with Aviva Rahmani in her studio in Vinalhaven, Maine (July 2025), as part of our video archive, which is available to researchers up request.

August Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Fri, 01 Aug 2025 19:08:11 GMT

August 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Artist speakers announced - Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio Course Fall 2025

Sat, 26 Jul 2025 14:59:11 GMT

Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio online Course, Fall 2025
October 18, 2025 - December 20, 2025

DEADLINE September 1, 2024

This will be our seventh course designed exclusively for ecoartspace members that will prepare artists to develop ways of thinking about sustainability in their practice, both conceptually and physically. Participants will learn how to wildcraft art materials, a practice that requires one to deepen their relationship with land, creativity, and self. We will also think critically about how one’s community and ecosystem are vital allies in a time of socio-ecological destabilization.

The first half of the course includes lectures, guest artist talks, resource offerings, and group discussion, as we explore the implications of a bioregional perspective and investigate the function of art today. In the second half of the course, each student will work on their own project, informed by course content (this may include a project already in progress). They will receive feedback from Anna and the class before a final presentation, open to the public.

All classes will be held on Saturdays from 2-4pm ET. The first three sessions will take place over three consecutive weeks, beginning on October 18. The final two classes will take place over two months, giving student time to execute a creative project of their own inspired by course content.

Speakers

Koyoltzintli is an interdisciplinary artist and educator living in Ultser County, New York. She was raised on the Pacific coast and in the Andean mountains of Ecuador. Her work revolves around sound, ancestral technologies, ritual, and storytelling, blending collaborative processes with personal narratives. @koyoltzintli

Nicole Dextras is committed to making art that is completely compostable as an active alternative to plastic and fossil fuels. Her previous material developments include: Willow bark leather, Yucca fibre and fruit peels. The objective of her research is to produce garments that demonstrate and encourage ethical and sustainable futures for the garment industry. @nicoledextras

This online ecoartspace course is taught by Anna Chapman @owl_and_apple

For more information and to sign up, email: info@ecoartspace.org

Call for Artists: Novel Bodies - Deadline October 15, 2025

Mon, 21 Jul 2025 16:00:48 GMT

Call for Artists

NOVEL BODIES
Scientific Art Posters for Society of Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry (SETAC), 46th Meeting, Portland, Oregon

Conference dates: 16–20 November 2025

Novel Bodies is organized as a parallel visual compendium to traditional scientific posters at the 46th Annual North America SETAC meeting. This year’s conference theme is The Essence of Science: Curiosity, Discovery and Solutions. Scientific abstracts and posters will be organized according to the session tracks (below). This exhibition will be curated by Minal T. Mistry, scientist, artist, and conference committee member from Oregon Department of Environmental Quality and Patricia Watts, founder and curator of ecoartspace.

Twenty visually captivating posters will be selected. Art posters will be displayed alongside those for accepted scientific abstracts. Artists are encouraged to submit a short abstract (250 words) describing their submission to aid the viewer. Viewers will be encouraged to share impressions from the dual poster format in a journal and will be shared with selected artists. In person conference dates: 16–20 November 2025.

Submission Deadline: 15 October 2025
Submission Form: https://forms.gle/XAGmoM45Sv11wKxg8

Background

Society of Environmental Toxicity and Chemistry (SETAC) is the professional organization with the mission to advance environmental science and management. SETAC is dedicated to advancing environmental science and science-informed decision-making through collaboration, communication, education and leadership. It fulfills that purpose through events, publications, awards and education programs. The annual North America meeting draws a couple thousand attendees (may be affected this year due to federal changes).

Guidelines

Posters should address a topic suitable to SETAC. See below in Session Tracks for focus areas.
Posters should stand on their own, telling the research/topical story without a verbal narrative. Artists may submit an optional abstract (250 word max.) as a companion to the poster.
Poster size: 18 x 24 inches or 24 x 36 inches
Layout: Horizontal or vertical in either final print size
Text should be readable from a minimum five feet away.
Format: Submit printable PDF of artwork formatted for either of two sizes
No AI generated submissions please.

For clarification please contact Minal Mistry (materials.deq at gmail.com)

Conference Session Tracks

Environmental Toxicology and Stress Response: Explores environmental toxicology and response to stress (biological, physical and chemical) in various systems. Encompasses in silico and in vitro tools and methods involving adverse outcome pathway (AOP), mode of action, molecular toxicology, -omics, animal alternative testing, quantitative structural activity relationship (QSARs), high-throughput techniques and emerging approaches for statistical toxicology.
Aquatic Toxicology, Ecology and Stress Response: Explores ecology, ecotoxicology and response to stress of all aquatic systems, including lentic and lotic freshwater systems, estuaries, coastal and marine environments.
Wildlife Toxicology, Ecology and Stress Response: Covers all life forms of wildlife not strictly aquatic (amphibian, reptiles, birds, mammals and other organisms) living in areas from the deserts to the tropics and everything in between.
Chemistry and Exposure Assessment: Comprises all aspects of chemical analysis, monitoring, fate and modeling, green chemistry and alternative chemical assessment.
Environmental Risk Assessment: Bridges both aquatic and terrestrial environments, and all potential stressors (physical, chemical, biological and biotechnological) with human and ecological endpoints towards the goal of integrated holistic assessment such as “One Health.”
Engineering, Remediation and Restoration: Addresses remediation and restoration of stressor-impacted air, water, and soil and sediment, including tools for predicting, monitoring and evaluation; technologies and methods for remediation and restoration; environmental engineering; green remediation; damage assessment; and strategies for management.
Policy, Management and Communication: Includes all aspects of science application in policy or regulations and management (regulatory science), as well as science communication to stakeholders in diverse audiences.
Systems Approaches: Uses cross- and trans-disciplinary approaches seeking to address complexity and large-scale issues by applying and integrating concepts such as life cycle assessment, sustainability, ecosystem services, impact assessment and environmental economics. Topics include regional and watershed-scale environmental management, climate change, resiliency and other related areas

Conference information

Terra Madre | on the work of Katrina Bello

Tue, 08 Jul 2025 18:49:29 GMT

Katrina Bello, Lupain (Posoge 1), 2023, charcoal and pastel on paper, 53.5 x 48 inches

Terra Madre: Katrina Bello

Carina Evangelista on the work of Katrina Bello. May 30, 2025

Charcoal—in use for human visual expression since 26,000 BCE—is Philippine-born artist Katrina Bello’s preferred medium fortranscribing her response to landscapes she immerses herself in. Exploring the terrain inart residencies in different parts of the U.S. is Bello’s way of finding elemental connections to her adopted country. The haptic—the sense of touch—is ever-present in her process and production. From the earth, dirt, or rocks that she collects or crushes to the charcoal and pastel that she smudges onto paper to create the skeins of lines and the shades of crevices in the tree bark or stone striations that she draws, her hand serves as the medium through which she meditates on what it means to embrace what feels like terra incognita.

Zane Bennett Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, New Mexico

Read full essay here

Gallery interview with the artist here

July Newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Tue, 01 Jul 2025 15:20:34 GMT

July 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

The Sound of Time, Soon is Now review by Irene Lyla Lee

Mon, 23 Jun 2025 13:22:15 GMT

The Sound of Time

Review of TINKUY, SEVEN ACTS FOR THE BEGINNING, END, AND BEGINNING OF TIME

By Irene Lyla Lee

TINKUY, SEVEN ACTS FOR THE BEGINNING, END, AND BEGINNING OF TIME is a performance and exhibit, at Soon Is Now until July 6th, located at The River Center at Long Dock Park in Beacon. A workshop on creating sound objects takes place on June 28th. Register here

Koyoltzintli’s artwork is an aesthetic language informed by the pre-Columbian indigenous traces from Ecuador, the place of her upbringing. Though thoroughly studied, from the Andes to the Amazon, the Ecuadorian coast is largely ignored. Due to this lack of research, objects from long ago remain there. Much of the mountains and forests are threadbare, yet the shores remember a culture whose nearly forgotten stories were colonized. Koyoltzintli delves into the mostly clay objects utilized by the local Chorrera culture (1300–300 BCE). “Rocks hold the ancient memory of the earth,” Koyoltzintli observes.

Tinkuy is Quechua/Kichwa, meaning “two meetings to produce a third.” After one of her elders passed away, Koyoltzintli visited the “Americas” section of a nearly empty Metropolitan Museum during the pandemic. There she found silence and objects frozen behind glass. Koyoltzintli has made over 100 pieces, some exact replicas of pre-Columbian flutes and some her interpretations based on the geometry of ancient designs specific to what is now Ecuador.

Rocks hold Tinkuy like a vessel. The performance plays on a loop in the exhibit and broadly illustrates seven ages: The Time of Ether, The Time of Fire, The Time of Water, The Time of Wind/Birds, The Time of Voices, and The Time of the Anthropocene. The sonic performance is assisted by recorded birds, glaciers, and the sound objects exhibited. Performers include Koyoltzintli, Bel Falleiros, Cristina Mejía, Daniel Blake, Ricardo Gallo, dance performed by Mar Parrilla, and Mohawk singer Theresa Bear Fox.

The Chorrera culture was one of the most sonically sophisticated societies of the ancient world. Many of the objects come from a deep legacy of ritual, healing, and connection. Western science even coincides with the geometry of the objects, like a universal language. Some sound objects use water; some are bowls, flutes, or whistles. Many are shaped like birds or humans. Some have feet. Flecked with mica, a finely layered rock where early bacteria developed, they have a cosmic appearance. One is a dodecahedron, which scientists consider the possible shape of our universe. These sound objects are rounded bodies for wind and water that create a negative, making space for the person or element engaging it.

At the north end of the exhibit is a beaded, door-like shape of an intuitive vision brought to the artist after collaborating with another musician. A visual manifestation of the third created by an encounter. A democratic value is placed on every measure of time, whether ancient or immediate.

These objects were never made to produce beauty. Sometimes the breath breaks the note, or water pushes air through their tubes to release a lonely call. In The Time of Wind/Birds, the performers use small flutes, feathers, and a boa-like sound object that is Koyoltzintli’s design, inspired by an ancient flute. Koyoltzintli describes how quickly some animals took flight in a world of winds after they emerged from the water. There can be a difficulty in the uncertainty of rhythm or tone, like wind under unsteady wings, a discord that brings awareness.

Koyoltzintli says she’s used to sound objects on the floor of her studio, but the wooden displays, which are no more than a foot off the ground, produce the intimacy of a bow, a humble acknowledgment of earth. Aware of negative space throughout the exhibit, Koyoltzintli traces the glyph of a mountain made by the displays, which faces the Hudson River, visible beyond a field, the same direction as the Ecuadorian coast: a continent consolidated into one orientation. Koyoltzintli says the West is a point to reflect and face discomfort. The show implicates us, inviting us to consider our role in environmental disruption, as the performance ends with everyone–performers, and audience–cracking rocks together. These rocks are now suspended against the wall: a visible tension. Sound marks time, and these objects–so specific to the time and place when they were created–also fold time when they are played. Though the performance is over, the echo remains. We continue the music in our lives.

Humans are a small piece of this cacophony. Pieces of black and white Japanese paper lining the exhibit tables honor the mockingbird who serenaded the performers during practice. Looking for new sounds to try, with hope, the mockingbird will practice the music too, replicating the surrounding world.

the secret sounds of soil, Kim V. Goldsmith

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 03:41:24 GMT

A microscope view (200x magnification) of a worm in the soils on the farm, ‘Willydah’. Image: Kim V. Goldsmith

the secret sounds of soil, Kim V. Goldsmith

…soils not only speak to us, but can be great subjects for art and music…soils truly are sexy. – Dr David Eldridge

I’ve been purposely listening to the sound of soils for the past three years. It’s been a process of digging into the layers, questioning everything, reading extensively, and creating an attentive listening discipline that demands time, stillness, and an open mind.

Compared to the clear, resonant melody of solo birdsong or a choral dawn chorus, the scritchy scratches, crunchy crackles, gurgles and soft thumps of life beneath our feet are a test to the human ability to tune into life that more often goes unseen, unheard, and unnoticed. It can at first sound like white noise.

In its simplest form, soil is made up of mineral particles, organic matter, water, air and living organisms that slowly and continuously interact with each other. Weathered rock reduced to tiny particles that are moved and manipulated by plants, bacteria, fungi, invertebrates, animals and humans through cycles of growth, decay, and at times, disruption—generating enormous amounts of energy in the process. Sound is part of this energy mix.

Continue reading here

June 2025 newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Mon, 02 Jun 2025 02:28:53 GMT

June 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

An Aural Nest Tuned to Nature’s Musings: Interview with Jody Redhage Ferber

Thu, 01 May 2025 14:25:49 GMT

Jody Redhage Ferber playing her cello in response to the environment below a cliff

An Aural Nest Tuned to Nature’s Musings:
Jody Redhage Ferber on her process and upcoming concert on May 17th at Montage Music Society in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Jody Redhage Ferber has developed an expertise in tune with the natural world. Her compositional and performative concepts as a cellist draw directly from her on-site experiences and interactions in nature. A process parallelled by NILS-UDO, a German Environmental Artist, Jody and her quartet will respond to his piece Red Rock Nest from 1998 in an evening of music on May 17th with the Montage Music Society, at Quail Run Clubhouse in Santa Fe, New Mexico at 4pm.

Montage Music Society Ticket Orders 2025 & 2026

Audience at an Ecotones concert with Jody Redhage Ferber and orchestra, photographer Andrea Swenson

On May 17th you will be playing cello alongside two singers and a pianist. What considerations have you taken while preparing this concert and what are you hoping to create in the evening experience?

On Sunday, May 17, 2025 we’ll perform a full program for two sopranos (Ilana Davidson and Krista River), cello (myself, Jody Redhage Ferber), and piano (Montage Music Society director and founder Debra Ayers). These three musicians with whom I am privileged to collaborate are absolutely world-class and I am honored to have musicians such as these premiere a new work of mine.

This concert will be my first time in Santa Fe. So although this Montage concert wasn’t a chance for me to musically respond to the flora and fauna of Santa Fe, I did chose this particular work of Nils-Udo’s because of a Santa Fe connection: ecoartspace founder & director and current Santa Fe resident Patricia Watts was responsible for commissioning Nils-Udo’s Red Rock Nest in 1998 when she lived in Los Angeles.

I’ve responded to photographic documentation of Nils-Udo’s piece Red Rock Nest, made in a cave in Topanga Canyon, California (and which ended up existing for 10 days before being dismantled by local residents). Additionally, as the piece involves vocalists, I’ve chosen a poem by 15th century Indian poet Kabir as lyrics, which intriguingly converge with Nils-Udo’s piece. The program features a variety of nature-themed works for 2 sopranos, cello and piano from a vast span of composers from the baroque, classical, impressionistic, and modern eras. Montage Music director Debra Ayers, sopranos Ilana Davidson and Krista River and I all worked together to program the repertoire. Along with the premiere of the commission Build a Nest for the Mystery, we'll also perform two of my existing compositions: snow peace calms us, written while I was caught (indoors!) during a blizzard in Vermont, with a sublime poem by Wyoming poet Ella Cvancara as the lyrics; and The Silent Articulation of a Face, in which I have set a Rumi poem (translated by Coleman Barks) as the lyrics--with Rumi encouraging those willing to “dive deeper under, a thousand times deeper” to "hear the green dome's passionated murmur."

Ecotones concert, photographer Andrea Swenson

You are drawing from such a range of experiences and considerations! As part of Montage Music society with a unique vision for music in response to art: what has informed your process while responding through music to Montage’s environment and art concept?

I characterize my current compositional process as ‘whimsical sonic representation’ of the specific traits, characteristics, design features or the materiality of a chosen nonhuman being or species to which I am creatively responding. With Nils-Udo’s Red Rock Nest, he has crafted a nest out of Arundo donax reeds, and instead of his ubiquitous eggs, he uses citrus fruits that grow in the Topanga canyon area as ‘ovum.’ Nils-Udo’s repeating circular pattern of overlapping donax cuttings and the spherical dimensionality of the citrus led me to choose a time signature of 3/4, to give the piece a rolling, circular feel of three-beat patterning. The entire composition is based on an ostinato (recurring pattern of notes) that swings backs and forth between two tonal centers—sonically reflecting the artists' physical motions of laying the donax twigs overlapping in a circular, unfurling pattern that expands outward like a a fractal expansion, with each twig slightly overlapping the next. I imagine that he began in the center of the nest and expanded by spiraling outward. Similarly in the music, I begin with a simple, pared-down representation of the toggling between these key centers—and as the piece unfurls, I reach to different harmonic destinations that seem blissful or joyful—harmonically reaching a celestial realm where Kabir’s “bird spends the night.”

NILS-UDO, Red Rock Nest, Old Topanga Canyon, California, 1998

As he builds his work, I imagine Nils-Udo embodying the mystery bird of which Kabir speaks— dipping into the realm of ‘no color, no form, no shape, no boundaries—in the shadow thrown by love” as an animating spirit leading him toward his decisions in every moment as his work unfurls. In building this work, he creates a nest for Kabir’s mystery bird—an encouragement for us all to build our own nests.

It was fascinating and somehow very intimate to continually imagine Nils-Udo bending, choosing, collecting, sorting, hiking, balancing, stopping, cutting, placing, balancing, discarding, forming, breathing, thinking, feeling, weighing, & considering as he crafted his piece. All of the artist’s physical movements seemed to take on a rhythm for me—as if my musical imagination was creating a soundtrack for his nature-art-build. And in fact, this responsive process has allowed me to connect the ephemerality of Nils-Udo’s work, Kabir’s focus on the ephemerality of the “mystery” as “no form, no color, no shape, and no boundary,” and the fact that I work in a most ephemeral of artistic mediums: music.

In a number of ways, these topics are an extension of your ongoing project “EcoTones” where you are also exploring the ‘interrelatedness amongst humans, flora, and fauna.” What are some differences and similarities in approach between the EcoTone and the Montage concerts?

My ongoing public performance project EcoTones Concerts sites live musicians on trailside stages with a mobile audience in public nature spaces, performing creative acoustic music directly inspired by the flora and fauna surrounding each trailside stage. I partner with entities that manage the land (conservation groups, park nonprofits or other ecology organizations) and I engage in multiple site visits to make field recordings of the nonhuman inhabitants. Each event is specifically designed to celebrate and highlight the nonhuman residents’ unique characteristics, design features, and notable abilities through the music.

By inviting human performers and audience to a nature space, we are literally creating an ecotone between the human biome and the natural biome of local flora and fauna— encouraging direct engagement with nonhuman beings, and a questioning of the mainstream human perspective of dominance over all other beings. This music is for growing stewardship, humility, and compassion from the humans to the nonhuman members of a local ecosystem. These performances get locals asking questions, shining attention on the chosen nature site, digging deeper into the "personalities" of the local flora and fauna… there are so many layers of intrigue!

Jody, this sounds like a fabulous and one of a kind evening of music you are preparing! I wish I could join and cannot wait to hear all about it from our members who attend!

"Light Bending the World", Montage Music Society Salon Premiere
(Recording of a previous Montage Music Society salon concert in response to the Art of April Gornik, November, 2023)

May 2025 newsletter for subscribers and non-members

Thu, 01 May 2025 11:50:52 GMT

May 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member SPOTLIGHT: Tracy Penn

Mon, 14 Apr 2025 15:56:34 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 14, 2025

This month we recognize Tracy Penn in an interview with Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein.

Bits and Pieces That Live Forever Within Us: Tracy Penn on her Ubiquitous Exhibition on Microplastics

Tracy Penn is a mixed media artist working primarily around awareness of plastic waste. Drawing from a wide range of experiences in various fields, her approach to developing artwork is as much about the message and space as it is about the artworks themselves. Integrating upcycled plastics into 2D and 3D installations, Tracy’s mission of awareness adapts itself to its surroundings, allowing her message a longevity not unlike her microplastic subject.

Tracy, your work “celebrates the wonder of the natural world and raises awareness about sustainability, plastic reduction” and the protection of nature. How did this become your focus and how has your approach evolved over time?

I have always cared about the environment, but I became invested in upcycled plastic when I was trying to create texture and a distorted grid pattens in my encaustic paintings. The more I worked with plastic, I came to understand how it was repelled by the natural materials I was working with. I also became acutely aware of how much single use plastic was in the environment. As I began to change my lifestyle and reduce my consumption of single use plastic, I realized I could use my artistic platform to spread the message about the dangers of plastic. In addition to my art practice, I have become involved with legislative efforts to reduce plastic packaging in NY State.

The more I read about plastics the more I became concerned about microplastics in the body. When I started the Ubiquitous project in 2022 scientists had found microplastics in every natural environment and in the human body, but they were unclear if microplastics were causing health issues. As of today, microplastics have been found in the brain, heart arteries, lungs, blood, kidneys, livers, intestines, testicles, reproductive organs, joints, bone marrow, breast milk, and placentas of humans. In addition, it is now clear that microplastics are harmful to our health.

Uff… That’s not good for our health! “Ubiquitous” explores this microplastics topic through a multi-media installation with creamy white painted sculptures and cool-toned abstract paintings. How did you decide on materials and techniques? What does your process involve?

After working with upcycled plastics for many years, in 2022, I took the ecoartpace class, Sustainability and the Art Studio, and closely examined my materials, safety practices, supplies, tools and studio practice to determine if I could make my work process more environmentally friendly. My primary material is encaustic paint, which is created from beeswax, damar resin and pigment, which is more environmentally friendly than many art materials. I spoke to R&F Paints, the primary manufacturer of my encaustic paint, and learned that their company is committed to sourcing and producing environmentally friendly practices from their small factory in Kingston, NY. I have discontinued use of all cadmium color encaustic paint, as cadmium can be toxic and only use brushes made of natural materials. I shop locally whenever possible and use upcyled materials in much of my work. In addition, I have improved the ventilation system in my studio and wear a mask when I mix my own paints. In the last few years, I have begun to focus on creating works on paper which use less material, and create a smaller carbon footprint, than creating paintings on panels.

The recent paintings were all painted in colors which embrace the beauty of nature … the blues of the sea and sky, the greens of the earth and trees, and the yellow of the sun. Like the sculptures, the paintings were textured with upcycled plastic. I use upcycled material in my work, because it allows me to spark conversations about sustainability, plastic reduction, and the urgent need to protect the world we inhabit.

I experimented with many color variations for the sculptures in my Ubiquitous installation. My goal for the installation was to bring viewers in with the beauty of the sculptures and then, when they were immersed in the installation, they would come to learn that the sculptures represented microplastics in the body and focus on the shapes and texture of the pieces without getting lost in the color. I landed on the simplicity of the creamy white.

I really appreciate how many factors you consider when creating this work. Beyond your mission and interest, you seem to attend to the viewer and how the pieces live in curated space. Does this awareness come from your varied career background? Has becoming an artist after having other careers informed your approach?

I made a lot of art as a teenager, but I grew up in a family where you went to college to prepare for a career. Studying studio art in college was never something I ever imagined; however, I did take a few art history classes while getting a degree in mass communications and marketing. I worked in art related careers for over 20 years, not only at MoMA and the Guggenheim, but I also worked in advertising, both in the US and overseas. Then, through the years that I was a stay-at-home mom, I took courses at the International Center for Photography and at the New York School for Interior Design. In retrospect, I realize I had been circling the idea of my own art practice for many years without realizing it.

When I was in my 50’s and dealing with some difficult family issues, I was finally brave enough to begin taking classes at the Art Students League of New York and workshops with experienced artists working in encaustic. I had to make myself vulnerable, be willing to challenge myself, and pick myself up when I failed. The time I spent working in museums exposed me to the work of many contemporary artists, gave me a stronger appreciation for curation and showed me how art can be used as an immersive experience.

My non-traditional artistic training has taught me to look deeply at art, to embrace balance, not symmetry, to appreciate scale and size, and to become obsessed with texture. I sometimes wonder how a traditional art school background would have affected my practice. Perhaps I would draw better or would have been further along in my career as an artist. But my winding background has made me who I am today, and I wouldn’t change it. When I studied interior design I took classes in color theory, art history, textiles, and drafting. I use these skills in my work today and they give me better understanding about how work looks in a space. Studying photography taught me about composition and proportion, which are integral to my current work. And I use my marketing and organizational skills from my advertising days in the administrative part of my work.

As for the future of my practice, I am currently developing a series of encaustic monotypes based on the concept of patina. I have learned that patina is not corrosion, but a protective layer that can prevent further deterioration. I am developing the idea that like patina, art can protect us from the negativity in the world around us. I don’t see art as a place to hide, but as a place to pause and find respite, before we head back to fight another day.

Thank you, Tracy! You’ve offered a lot to consider in both message and space.

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Tracy Penn, Ubiquitous, 2024, mixed media and upcycled plastic, installation view, Sandwich, New Hampshire, USA; These Are Days, 2022, encaustic, oil, and upcyled material on panel, 36 x 72 x 1.75, commissioned work; Ubiquitous, 2024, mixed media and upcycled plastic, installation view, Sandwich, New Hampshire USA; Ubiquitous, 2024; portrait of the artist (below).

Earth Artists in Residence at the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass Amherst

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 13:58:22 GMT

Suzette Martin, “The Sacred Theory: Deluge and Conflagration,” installation view at Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, 2023

Our Environmental Future, Rooted in the Past:
The Renaissance of the Earth Artist in Residence at the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass Amherst, 2025-2026

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein 

The Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass Amherst invites 2 to 3 artists each year to engage with their Renaissance rare book collection and activate their grounds through related art projects. Focusing on both teaching and activating, the “Renaissance of the Earth” residency allows for a distinct projects that make the past alive again while innovating with inter-disciplinary knowledge and collaboration. Liz Fox, Program Coordinator, and Marjorie Rubright, Director, are focusing this year’s residency focuses on Earth and Air. Applications are due by July 31st.

For more information on the Kinney Center at UMass Amherst: The Renaissance of the Earth : Arthur F. Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies : UMass Amherst

For more information the Artist in Residency at the Kinney Center: Residencies — Renaissance of the Earth

“Small Bursts of Knowledge Series”, Artist Brandon Graving and Liz Fox, PhD. Arts & Academic Programs Coordinator | Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies at UMass, Amherst, Ma. excitedly review Brandon's newest sculptures for her solo exhibition

Liz and Marjorie, This Kinney Center residency is especially unique. How does the Kinney Center’s programming lend to collaborative work, especially with environmental artists?

The Kinney Center is home to the Renaissance of the Earth, a project that revolutionizes what it means to engage the early modern past with questions about our environmental future. Renaissance of the Earth puts students, artists, and scholars at the center of an interdisciplinary research model with the goal of discovering diverse avenues for creating sustainable and equitable life.

Environmental artists play a central part in the Renaissance of the Earth project. During their residency, artists research and explore our rare book collection, often work hands-on in our historical gardens, and bring us new ways of thinking about the connections between the Renaissance and our world today. Artists offer masterclasses, performances, exhibits, and other programs that engage students, researchers, and the public. Our artist-centric events foster space for creative inquiry and encourage collaborative and cross-disciplinary relationships to flourish.

Kitchen Garden at the Renaissance of the Earth at the Kinney Center for Interdisciplinary Renaissance Studies, UMass Amherst

Having visited last summer, I was struck with how beautiful the Kinney Center grounds are in such a gorgeous and varied natural landscape. And with that kitchen garden area. What a dream. What are some particularly inspirational aspects of your location in Western Massachusetts?

We sit on 28 acres of a biodiverse landscape. Artists, scholars, and students find all manner of inspiration here. Students studying sustainability and permaculture experiment using our land as a laboratory and get hands-on experience with methods in soil sciences, for instance. The UMass beekeeping club has built their hive in our meadow. Professors bring their classes for practica in plant identification and landscape design and students have set up wildlife cameras to document animal habitats. A lot happens here!

In addition to our outdoor eco-systems, we have a reading room, gallery, and library that feature rotating exhibits of rare books and art. The library’s special collections include over one thousand rare books and manuscripts from 1375 - 1750. These books invite visitors to explore the inherently interdisciplinary nature of the Renaissance, from its literature, music, and art, to the sciences of anatomy, botany, geology, and cartography. Our visitors love learning that the Renaissance was “pre-disciplinary”: a radically different way of thinking about the world than siloed “departments” would have us believe. Then, it was as common to be both an artist and a scientist, a botanist and a poet. To choose would have been entirely counterintuitive.

Andrea Calouri, Mapping Terroir: Memory & Myth, Exhibition Published on Jun 15, 2022 https://issuu.com/umasshfa/docs/mapping-terroir-catalog

An interdisciplinary center in keeping with in renaissance both in study and practice! What do rare books and historical knowledge teach about how to reshape and build resilience for our environmental future?

Scholars of the premodern world have been at the vanguard of environmental history and eco-criticism in the humanities, exploring how seemingly- presentist conversations regarding environmental disaster, sustainability, and resilience traffic in ideas, metaphors, and modes of thinking whose roots extend into the Renaissance. The mission of Renaissance of the Earth is to go further: organizing collaborative research across interdisciplinary scholarly communities and the public to consider how early modern habits of thought and practice might aid in imagining alternative forms of habitation and cultivation of the earth. As a multidisciplinary project, the Renaissance of the Earth aims to reimagine our approaches to the past and its relation to the present by exploring the legacies of early modern environmental injustice.

Susan Montgomery, “Poisonous Revenge”, Mixed Media Print, Kinney Center Renaissance of the Earth 2023-2024

This is such a necessary and urgent legacy and there is so much to be learned from the past. What have been some impactful approaches to environmental justice through your center?

Both humanists and earth scientists contend that the rise of globalization in the Renaissance marks the dawn of a geological epoch: “the Anthropocene.” This epoch was inaugurated with both the extraction and transportation of natural resources and the forced migrations of human beings around the globe. It was the moment of the trans-atlantic middle passage as well as the extraction and redistribution of natural resources around the globe. The

Renaissance of the Earth project is committed to exploring those connections that present us with the most challenging legacies: extractive colonialism, racism, forced human migration, and the asymmetries of environmental devastation around the globe.

For instance, we sometimes start with the micro at a very local level. Our students in a Permaculture Design and Practice course here at UMass recently grappled with a single question: What does land acknowledgement look like here? “Here” being a Renaissance Center at a land-grant institution in Massachusetts and “here” being a landscape whose indigenous histories are often effaced by the supplanting of state institutions, like our own. Drawing from our library, their coursework, and involving intense independent research, student responses to this question varied from implementing alternative land management practices to creating signage and pathways that invite visitors to engage with both indigenous knowledge systems and the specific local histories of settler colonialism.

Madge Evers with “Candle, Show Me the Way” mycelium Print during Kinney Center Residency 2022, Photo Credits Jill Kaufman

I find it so refreshing that the Kinney Center is able to practice what it preaches. Your institute really brings the learning to life. How do practitioners and students to engage at the Kinney Center differently than academic research study alone?

We imagine our rare book library first and foremost as a teaching library, meaning that we make our materials accessible and place books in the hands of students and artists alike. We also encourage students, artists, and the public to move back and forth from our library to our outdoor landscape to discover not only what they might learn, but what they might do.
In the Renaissance knowledge and modalities of learning were not siloed into different academic disciplines. There were no “majors” and “departments”. People studied history, science, religion, agriculture, philosophy, and classical literature because they understood them to be within related knowledge systems. So, at the Center, we prize both book knowledge and hands-on learning. For instance, understanding soil composition was essential to increasing the yield of crops in practice, so both knowledge and skill arise out of observation and engagement. Our students take our books out into our orchard, for instance, to discover how to improve the life of our apple trees by adding to the biodiversity of plants that grow beneath each tree (called, companion planting), a practice they knew well in the Renaissance.

Since your rare book library focuses on teaching, do invited artists contribute to activating your goals and visions? How do they help students do?

Artists are catalysts for interdisciplinary programming at the Kinney Center and play a central part in the Renaissance of the Earth project. One recent artist in residence is ecoartspace member, Suzette Marie Martin, whose exhibit Apocalypse: Science and Myth in 2022-2023 offered viewers an allegory of consequences for industrialized humanity’s cumulative, destructive behaviors, by layering data from climate and environmental research with the Biblical tale of banishment from paradise, returning to past stories of apocalypse to highlight our current eco-anxieties. Her catalogue can be found here.

One of our ambitions with our Artist in Residence Program more specifically is to foster interdisciplinary explorations and cross-campus collaborations. Suzette’s original work “Tipping Points” was featured in The Futuring Lab (Architecture Department) exhibit “Elemental Futuring” which included short talks from artists, scholars, and climate scientists. Happily, as a direct outgrowth of her residency at the Kinney Center, Martin was selected as a 2024 Artist in Residence at the Folger Shakespeare Library in Washington, D.C.. She is now at work on a new project creating an herbal centered on biodiversity loss with the research she embarked on here at the Kinney Center and continued through the Folger. The afterlife of the Renaissance of the Earth is almost immeasurable!

Thank you so much Liz and Marjorie! This residency sounds like such a dream!

April 2025 newsletter for subscribers and non-members

Tue, 01 Apr 2025 12:02:12 GMT

April 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

March 2025 newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sat, 01 Mar 2025 15:57:16 GMT

March 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Nature Needs Art More Than Ever: Interview with Jenny Zeller at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Kentucky

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 23:17:35 GMT

Within the Forest : Without the Forest by DOMM Architecture Studio, 2024

Nature Needs Art More Than Ever:
Arts in Nature Program at Bernheim Forest and Arboretum in Kentucky

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Bernheim Forest and Arboretum focuses on horticulture, conservation, education, and arts in an expansive forest area larger than Manhattan Island with 350,000 visitors a year. Arts in Nature Curator, Jenny Zeller, describes the history of their programs, highlighting opportunities through Bernheim's Artist Residency Program and newly established L+A+N+D (Landscape + Art + Nature + Design): an experience of discovery initiative for which they are accepting applications until March 24.

Jenny, Bernheim Forest and Arboretum combines art and science through a landscape “infused” with art. What makes this combination powerful and where did the inspiration for this come?

Art engages people in ways that are different from science and education. Art attaches people’s hearts to what they find important and to makes emotional connections which inspire change. And Bernheim believes that nature needs art now more than ever as scientific facts alone have done very little in the fight against climate change.

Nature-inspired art has been a part of Bernheim Forest and Arboretum since its inception in 1929 due to the foresight of our founder Isaac W Bernheim who envisioned this land as a space for nature-based education, recreational activities, and a venue for high-quality artistic expression. 96 years later, art is what distinguishes us from similar organizations in the region and far beyond.

This vision of integrating art with nature took shape in 1980 when Louisville sculptor Paul Fields won the proposal to create a significant entryway artwork for the Sun in Shade Trail. Shortly after moving on-site to complete the two-year project, the Artist-in-Residence program was born.

Call for Proposals, Bernheim L+A+N+D Artist Residency, 2025

Your L+A+N+D program focuses on the connections between humans, nature, biodiversity, conservation, sustainability, landscape, climate change and justice. What conversations do you hope to provoke by inviting artists there?

Artists can inspire new ways of thinking, deepen emotional connections to nature, and motivate collective action toward a more sustainable future. L+A+N+D celebrates innovative design concepts for immersive outdoor installations on a grand scale that spark imaginations and conversations.

Artists and creatives offer unique perspectives that challenge and expand our understanding of the connections between humans, nature, and sustainability. Through the L+A+N+D program, we hope to spark conversations about our relationship with the environment, the urgency of climate action, and the role of art in fostering ecological awareness.

ACRE by Anne Peabody, planted 2023

Within your space, the potential for projects and impact is huge! What unique opportunities does this amount of space and community allow?

Bernheim’s exceptional size of 16,319 acres, offers unique opportunities for environmental stewardship, education, and community engagement. The expansive space supports diverse ecosystems, large-scale conservation efforts, and wildlife protection, while also providing visitors with immersive experiences in nature. We offer over 40-miles of hiking trails, a 630-acre arboretum, research initiatives, a 17-acre natural children’s playground, a 4-acre edible garden, a robust arts program, immersive outdoor installations, and hands-on learning programs through an amazing nature-based educational programs that helps foster a deeper connection between people and the environment. This blend of preserved wilderness and public interaction creates a rare balance between conservation and community involvement. Bernheim provides an endless source of inspiration to all, but especially to artists.

Through the L+A+N+D program, you are inviting international, national, and regional proposals with creatives of all kinds and multidisciplinary teams. What have been some project highlights?

Our inaugural year of L+A+N+D, brought mostly individual artists and architectural teams, from all over the world to Clermont, Kentucky, including Chili, Turkey, Norway, and from states across the United States as well as regional representation from the Louisville region.

Through works like Chrysalis by Nikki Pike and Sylvan Sycamore by Stuart Ian Frost, we explore nature’s fragility and resilience, highlighting the impact of invasive species and extreme weather on ecosystems. Becoming Nutrient by Nicole Banowetz and BIOS by Radix Lucis delve into the microscopic and symbiotic processes that sustain biodiversity, while Within the Forest: Without the Forest by DOMM reimagines human interaction with nature through architectural interventions.

Studio MAYO Architects addresses water scarcity at a human tangible scale through H2Oh! by emphasizing the planet’s limited water resources, while Bloom, Wither, Repeat by Jonathan Pellitteri visually translates rainfall conditions into kinetic movement. The interactive elements of At Least We Looked Good created by the Bernheim Team encourage sensory engagement and critical reflection on fast fashion’s hidden environmental toll.

For future projects, we are hoping for low maintenance works (LOL) that are multi-sensory, thought-provoking, playful, and whimsical while remaining both physically and conceptually accessible, so that all visitors can meaningfully engage.

Becoming Nutrient by Nicole Banowetz, 2024

Engaging with sustainability and climate resiliency are at the heart of your mission. These topics are dire yet contested. How has your approach as an institution shifted to accommodate these challenges?

Bernheim’s mission is connecting people to nature, a vision rooted in the values of our founder, Isaac Wolfe Bernheim. In 1929, his belief that this land should be a place for all, regardless of race, creed, or social status, was remarkably progressive, especially in rural Kentucky.

Today, we remain committed to upholding his vision, ensuring that Bernheim is a welcoming space where everyone, regardless of background, beliefs, or political affiliation, can experience the benefits of nature and find a sense of belonging. We continue to fulfill our mission while addressing climate resiliency through a science-based, human-centered approach and have become more outspoken on environmental issues as we witness and experience the devastating impacts of a more extreme climate.

At Least We Looked Good by Bernheim Team, 2024

What a beautiful statement of coexistence and thriving on a nature preserve focused on resiliency, research, and education. What changes have you noticed in your local environment and what conservation measures have you integrated into the landscape to support its resilience? How has Bernheim responded to these changes?

Kentucky's environment has experienced increasingly severe weather in recent years, reflecting broader climate trends. More frequent and intense storms, heavy rainfall, and strong winds have led to flooding, tree loss, and disruptions to natural ecosystems.

Rising temperatures and prolonged dry spells have also heightened the risk of drought, further stressing local landscapes. These extreme weather patterns not only impact the region’s biodiversity but also affect surrounding communities, reinforcing the urgency of climate resilience and conservation efforts.

Guided by our Climate Crisis Action Plan, we implement best practices in energy and water conservation, education, and land stewardship. Recent efforts include acquiring the 182-acre Buffalo Creek Tract to protect Bardstown’s water supply and securing a conservation easement on a neighboring 856 acres to safeguard habitats. Our wetland and stream restoration projects enhance biodiversity, reduce flooding, and improve water quality. We are deploying art to change hearts and minds, with the addition of our new L+A+N+D program and recent living art installation by Anne Peabody entitled ACRE, that connects people to nature and Bernheim’s history through 81 Merlot Redbud trees outlining the perimeter of a one-acre space, representing the daily rate of tree loss during the iron-ore industry’s peak. This installation serves as both a historical reflection on conservation and a breathtaking seasonal spectacle.

To Apply to the L+A+N+D program here

Please Don’t Cut Me Down: Donna Bassin’s “Portraits of a Precarious Earth”

Wed, 26 Feb 2025 17:51:59 GMT

Please Don’t Cut Me Down:
Donna Bassin’s “Portraits of a Precarious Earth”
at The Newport Art Museum, Newport, Rhode Island

Through May 5, 2025

Review by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

A golden lit Fachwerk building stands welcoming guests as the sun sets over the ocean in gilded Newport in Rhode Island. The landscape is captivating on the drive to the museum, where elegant and impressive bridges cross marshes and sparkling bodies of water in the surrounding bays. As the sun sets over the glistening waters and lush vegetation, I am awestruck by the natural beauty interwoven with mansions built with the wealth of early industrialization. Yet, I am told, that Newport is a place of contradictions, where extreme wealth meets poverty and underfunded schools, where development projects threaten the pristine environment. These contrasts met me in both Donna Bassin’s environmental photography collages and in conversations at the opening of “Portraits of the Precarious Earth”.

Donna Bassin has built a career surveying her reactions to a range of injustices internationally through photography and collage. Her work is emotionally provocative integrating her perspective as a psychologist as well as historical events. Its range includes Japanese, Burmese, and US-American societal reparations through photographic collages and mixed-media, often cross-referencing themes and traditions to visualize overarching hopes of healing societal inequities and woes.

Tackling environmental degradation in the “Portraits of a Precarious Earth” Bassin's uses assemblage, color, and repurposed golden frames to contrast historical and contemporary images of the US environmental landscape. The historic photographs portray thriving ecosystems mounted onto monotone depleted landscapes with red embroidery thread or Japanese Washi mending techniques. It is meant to evoke “themes of repair, renewal, and resilience in the face of ecological challenges… (that) intertwine loss and recovery, encouraging reflection on the human impact on the planet”. The series is an extension of her global perspective and work as a trauma therapist. Speaking with Bassin, she emphasized the larger scale images of sequoia trees on four of the museum’s walls. For her, their incredible age, size, and international abundance embody the consequences of human-made devastation and the passage of time that her series focuses on.

The changing tides of history seem ever present in the museum rooms, where Bassin’s paintings mix alongside selections from the Newport Art Museum’s historical landscape collection in a salon-style curation. They also interact directly with other industrial-era symbols. Alone the wooden architectural embellishments that define the museum’s interior provide foundations for conversation surrounding the wealth and exploitation extrapolated from Bassin’s sacrificed landscapes.

Speaking to the Museum’s Interim Director, Ruth Taylor, who has lived in the area for several decades, she tells me stories about whole beaches full of lobsters “so many you could just reach down and pick them up”, and of the inconsistent oyster harvests, and how local mismanagement of resources has led to diminished wildlife presence on the island overall. Clearly Bassin’s environmental reflections hold true in Newport, just as they do elsewhere. Ruth introduces me to Danielle Ogden, the Creative Director of the museum and curator of the show, who greets my questions about her plans for the traditionally historical museum enthusiastically. Passionate about both contemporary response to their historical collection, local history and environment, and photography, Diane has a whole series of environmentally focused exhibitions planned for the coming year and a half. In fact, the museum now has a residency program that provides month-long housing for accepted artists to make response work for exhibition in their spaces.

Lively museum halls bustle with multi-faceted conversations surrounding the environment as a local Land Trust meeting empties from one of the rooms into the exhibition space. A large scroll depicting an ocean-scape embraces the rows of chairs, just as the Aquidneck island where Newport sits is embraced by the ocean. At the entrance of the room, several Aquidneck Land Trust employees patiently respond to my flurry of questions. From preserves to farmland, the Land Trust conserves both the local landscape as well as prepare the island for resilience in the face of storms and other natural events. Efforts have been made to build natural infrastructure to help mitigate fresh water salination from ocean storms while using nature-based solutions to decontaminate the marshes and regenerate native wildlife.

Still, they explain, other challenges like ground water contamination from new developments and extreme weather mean that the finite fresh water resource on the island needs a lot of treatment to be safe to drink; since this makes the water taste strange, many on the island decide to drink bottled water instead and I am told the landfill is almost at capacity. These are understandable choices that perpetuate the destructive cycle leading to the changing landscape. Bassin’s work shines a colorful spotlight on these changes on the neighboring walls.

Bassin struck an important note when underlining the future as a result of the past, where a next generation in our nation struggles to find footing on eroding ground. Though the museum is situated in the historical district of Newport, full of mansions and large estates, the contrasts between this pristine environment and the realities of many of its residents is ever-present. Behind its embellished face, many locals struggle with underfunded public schools, strange tasting water, and growing economic uncertainty. The island struggles like many places globally with little industry or local economic opportunity beyond the service industry and tourism.
Partnering with local schools, the Newport Art Museum makes efforts to integrate the next generation in the art-making process through workshops and programming. Students from several grade levels worked with Donna Bassin and responded with artwork to her exhibition on display in a second building on the museum site. Their response works feature industrial smokestacks, landfills, extreme weather events, and bad air quality juxtaposed with colorful sunsets and beaches.

These are contemporary challenges that Bassin’s and the museum’s historical landscapes could not have imagined, yet they are the first things that come to mind to these young people. It is an awareness that makes me shudder, after a striking evening presenting the changing times on the world we live, through history, and efforts for a better future. As we say goodbye, Donna Bassin stands between one of her proud and resilient sequoia trees and a green painted wall with quotes from the kids written in chalk. The writing on the wall begins with, “Please don’t cut me down”.

The Fragile Power of Sund: Time, Tides, and Textiles in Moira Bateman’s Solo Exhibition

Tue, 25 Feb 2025 18:24:51 GMT

Fjord, 2024. Organic peace silk, thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 30 x 47 Image courtesy of Jeff Cords.

The Fragile Power of Sund: Time, Tides, and Textiles in Moira Bateman’s Solo Exhibition

Review By Laura Laptsevitch

Moira Bateman’s Sund (Notes from the Sea), on view through March 8 at Form and Content in Minneapolis, Minnesota, presents a compelling meditation on the vulnerability of our waterways and the urgent need for their protection. This exhibition, drawing from Bateman’s summer 2024 residency in Ålvik, Norway, prompts a sobering reflection on Norway’s industrial fishing industries and the pollution of our water. Sund is topical—at a time when textiles are experiencing a resurgence in contemporary art, and environmental consciousness is more relevant than ever, Sund stands at the intersection of both, a powerful and timely moment.

Details of Seadrift 1 (left) and 2 (right), 2024, sea-weathered woven plastic fisheries “big bag” remnant recovered in Hardangerfjord, Norway, 20 x 41 inches. Images courtesy of Arts District Imageworks.

Entering the gallery, the first piece along the wall is Seadrift 1-3. Recovered in Hardangerfjord, Norway, Seadrift sets the tone for Sund. It is one of just two types of found objects present in the show. With Sund (Notes from the Sea), there is an essential desire to give voice to the landscape. Seadrift 1-3 presents a strong voice.

These objects were recovered by Bateman in a Norwegian fjord—a deep, elongated, narrow inlet carved by glaciers filled with seawater. Leftovers of the salmon farming industry, these fragments were once a “big bag” used to transport fish feed. According to notes provided by Dr. Marte Haave, these fragments are, more than likely, several years old. A great deal of litter washes up in Norway’s fjord; plastic waste remains a problem. The bags, now Seadrift 1, 2, & 3, have been run down by sea currents and weathered by rock abrasions. What is left is the irregularly shaped plastic weave broken down into bits.

One can’t help but look closely. I noticed the silhouette is similar to the shapes found in topographical maps—both land and water. I was not off in my estimation—Bateman’s degree in landscape ecology and landscape architecture has a hand in the choice of silhouette. With an ode to maps, the presentation of Seadrift 1-3 puts forth another connection: a reference to the scientific.

Seadrift 1-3 are presented like specimens, arranged neatly and purposefully along the wall. One is urged to look closely; this close looking, this watchfulness, is yet another way to examine and experience the pieces of Sund. I can’t help but examine the rest of the gallery with the same careful eye.

Sund (Notes from the Sea) at Form+Content Gallery in Minneapolis, 2025. Right: Crosscurrent, 2024, organic peace silk, thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 50 x 41 inches. Left: Just Beyond Fyksesund, 2024, organic peace silk, thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, pigments, 48 x 36 inches.

Following Seadrift 1-3 are Crosscurrent (right) and Just Beyond Fyksesund (left). Both are made from organic peace silk, thread, wax, and fermented mineral mud dye. Just Beyond Fyksesund, though, includes the addition of natural pigments to achieve its color.

The object itself is equally as important as the slow, intricate process. Bateman utilizes a fabric dyeing technique to achieve the deep color, using fermented mineral mud dye, a practice that combines plant tannin's, mineral-rich mud, and microorganisms to dye cloth. Through working with mud on site in the natural waterways, the organic matter feeds the microorganisms in the mud, converting the mud’s natural iron into ferrous sulfate. It’s a delicate balance of experimenting with the dyeing processes and letting the world’s forces naturally erode the fabric.

Crosscurrent, 2024, organic peace silk, thread, wax fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 50 x 41 inches. Image courtesy of Jeff Cords.

Perhaps the most striking piece in Sund (Notes from the Sea) is Crosscurrent. The way the silk is extended from the wall, floating so gracefully, with such intricate cast shadows and erosion, placing attention on the slow process of decay—I am convinced Crosscurrent could not be replicated in any other fashion. Time is a key element.

It's powerful viewing Crosscurrent and Just Beyond Fyksesund together. Both are so different. Though each have endured the same elements for the same length of time, Just Beyond Fyksesund did not experience the same type of decay as Crosscurrent. There are no holes, no abrasions; just wrinkles, creases, and the deep hue. There’s an element of unpredictability with Bateman’s process; two fabrics can be treated in the same fashion yet experience aging so differently. Just Beyond Fyksesund stayed intact, while Crosscurrent sustained rips, cuts, and gashes. Maybe that’s the point: one way or another, through time or chance, we all experience the natural outcome of the life cycle.

One element that stands the test of time is rock.

Emiliania huxleyi, 2024, Plastifolie, 41 x 37 inches. Image courtesy of Form+Content Gallery.

Sund’s next piece, Emiliania huxleyi, contains the second found object—the cast of a rock recovered at Hardangerfjord. This rock is the agent that pinned Seadrift 1, or the “big bag,” in a rock crevice along the fjord at Norheimsund. With 49 individual castings, the rock has given shape to many of the individual parts of Emiliania huxleyi.

I cannot help but notice the color. The turquoise is distinct. With an overwhelming dominance of dark neutral colors, Emiliania huxleyi reminds us where we are: deep in ocean water. In this work, the hue can be credited to Plastifolie, a Norwegian plastic wrap composed of 70% recycled plastic. When layered, the blue-green color forms. The same turquoise of the Plastifolie can be seen at Hardangerfjord every few years in the spring. For just a few weeks, a type of microscopic marine algae blooms—a primary single-cell phytoplankton called Emiliania huxleyi, which gives Hardangerfjord the bright turquoise hue.

Every element of Sund ties back to place. This is not limited to color. Even the shape of the rock, the elongated oval, is the very shape you would find examining phytoplankton under a microscope. Bateman has a knack for examining things closely—an understatement with Sund’s next piece, Seadrift 1.

Seadrift 1, 2024, scanned and enlarged image of sea-weathered woven plastic fisheries “big bag” remnants recovered in Hardangerfjord, Norway, print on archival paper, 50 x 96 inches. Image courtesy of Form+Content Gallery.

Seadrift 1 is a scanned, enlarged image of the woven plastic material seen previously in the gallery. It pictures the sea-weathered plastic fishers, or “big bag,” printed on archival paper. Seadrift 1 commands attention. At 50 x 96 inches, Seadrift 1 has a particular presence; it cannot be ignored. There’s beauty in seeing so clearly—being engulfed in the archival print. At a high resolution, 850 ppi, I can see the smallest of details, including the razor-thin, individual hairs of the plastic. There is some irony; instead of a small bag in a big ocean, we have a big bag in a small gallery. It shows the complexity, even the beauty, of the polluted materials in our water.

Perspective matters with Seadrift 1. At such a large scale, one could imagine that we are now the algae at Ålvik’s fjord, confronted with a vast, foreign object. As non-biodegradable plastic, it serves as a toxic force to our water. Had Bateman not recovered the object in Hardangerfjord, it would likely remain wedged in the rock and continue to interfere with the natural ecosystem.

In Sund, one object that, conversely, serves the ecosystem is the organic peace silk. Unlike woven plastic, it is non-toxic and biodegradable, even feeding the microorganisms in the mud and water.

Sund (Notes from the Sea) at Form+Content Gallery in Minneapolis, 2025. Right: Fjord, 2024, organic peace silk, thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 30 x 47 inches. Left: In the Night Sea at Fosse, 2024, organic peace silk, wax, green indigo, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 30 x 29 inches.

Similar to Crosscurrent and Just Beyond Fyksesund, we see the following objects on the left side wall: Fjord (right) and In the Night Sea at Fosse (left). I find myself drawn to the weathered portions of the silk. Instantly, I noticed Fjord.

Fjord (top image) is anthropomorphic. The way the fabric looks human, the way the holes gape open, uncanny, so wound-like, the way it aged so much like leather, the wrinkles, the creases—it summons a quiet, sober reverence.

There is respect for Fjord and a deep compassion for the history of the silk. Perhaps the same can be said for In the Night Sea at Fosse, Crosscurrent, and Just Beyond Fyksesund. There is a slow, powerful, and irreversible change that occurs in the fabrics, an oscillation between nurture and neglect. Leaving the materials out for weeks—to take them back—cleaning, drying, straightening, stitching, and waxing; there is an element of healing.

The fabric holds a type of presence. It takes on the essence of the place, the memory of the water. The history is held in its delicate silk fibers—the erosion serves as a channel for embodiment. I find satisfaction, even redemption, in their display.

Sund, 2024, video and sound installation including video Sea at Songerfjord, Norway (Bateman), with Sound recording Underwater by biologist Dr. Heike Vester, Vestfjorden, Norway, including noise pollution affecting whales’ communication, navigation, and feeding. Image courtesy of Form+Content gallery.

I find a similar satisfaction in Sund. In the video and sound installation, Sund shows an upside-down 80-second loop of the sea at Sognefjord. Its sound, an underwater recording by biologist Dr. Heike Vester in Vesterfjorden, features the water’s noise pollution. Composed of textiles, found objects, and now, time-based media, Sund (Notes from the Sea) positions itself in the zeitgeist of contemporary art, a show of new mixed media.

The noise pollution, boat engines, and seismic airgun explosions hugely affect whales' communication, navigation, and feeding. Much like Seadrift 1, there is an element of perspective. What would it feel like to exist in this water? What would it be like to see through the water?

Detail on Left: Foss 1, 2024 (left), organic peace silk, flat silk thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 8 x 13 inches. Right: Foss 7, 2024, organic peace silk, flat silk thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months, 13 x 17 inches. Images courtesy of Jeff Cords.

The show ends much like it began. Foss 1-7, the final piece in the gallery, is made up of a group of small organic peace silk samples, much like the fragments of Seadrift 1-3. This work is delicate. The scale is intimate. Foss 1-7 shows diligence, confidence, and careful restraint.

Detail: Foss 7, 2024, organic peace silk, flat silk thread, wax, fermented mineral mud dye, natural deterioration occurring over six months,13 x 17 inches. Image courtesy of Jeff Cords.

The stitches are microscopic, carefully formed from the back of the piece. Looking at Foss 7, I see the most tiny, almost unnoticeable stitches. Just as with Fjord, In the Night Sea at Fosse, Crosscurrent, and Just Beyond Fyksesund, there is a healing element within Foss 1-7—even more so with its intimate scale. The cleaning, drying, and stitching are all facets of healing; they point back to the history of textiles, and moreover, the history of women. Women, the ones who largely occupied this practice of textiles, quilting, embroidery, and weaving, are natural healers.

Moira Bateman is more than a textile artist; she is an environmentalist, an environmental artist, and a healer.

Sund (Notes from the Sea) makes manifest the moments we forget in our history. Through the soaking of organic peace silk, Fjord, In the Night Sea at Fosse, Crosscurrent, Just Beyond Fyksesund, and Foss 1-7 provide language and shape to the delicate, wild phenomenon that is our earth and ecosystem. This work is embodiment: being in the world and being an object in the world. Bateman’s work contextualizes history. Ultimately, Sund is a witness.

The environmental forces shaping our waters demand our attention, reflection, and action. When I look at contemporary art in 2025, I see a platform ripe for good. The United Nations has developed a set of 17 goals to improve economic, social, and environmental conditions by 2030. Looking at the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, I see Bateman and the show Sund (Notes from the Sea) fulfilling seven.

Quality Education (4) Clean Water and Sanitation (6) Decent work and economic growth, including sustainable economic growth (8) Industry, Innovation, and Infrastructure, including sustainable industrialization (9) Responsible Consumption and Production (12) Climate Action (13) Life Below Water (14) Partnerships for the Goals (17).

We like to think of Earth as invincible or impenetrable. But really, Earth and its ecosystems are as fragile and delicate as our very own lives. The ecosystem, the climate—it is a tender, coordinated dance. The earth is gentle; we must be gentle with her. Earth is more than our home—Earth is who we are; we don’t simply occupy the world—our fibers, our DNA, our being comes out of places of earth and water, and ultimately… goes back in. Why are we not cultivating, nurturing, and protecting the very environment, the very being, that nurtures us? Sund (Notes from the Sea) bears witness to this truth.

Moira Bateman in Hardangerfjord, 2024. This picture was taken during her residency at Kunstnarhuset Messen (Arthouse Messen) in Ålvik, Norway. Image courtesy of the artist.

Laura Laptsevitch is an art educator and art historian based in the greater Minneapolis area. She holds a Master’s degree in Art History and Visual Culture from Lindenwood University and a Bachelor of Science in Art Education from the University of Wisconsin-Stout. With experience spanning K-12 classrooms, community arts programming, and museum education, Laptsevitch has led public art initiatives and contributed to community-based projects throughout the twin-cities.

ecoartspace member spotlight l Ashton Phillips

Tue, 11 Feb 2025 00:41:16 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 10, 2025

This month we recognize Ashton Phillips in an interview with Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein.

Life and Agency in a Polluted World: Ashton Phillip’s choreographies in Material, Body, and Interspecies Systems

Ashton Phillips exists and creates work at intersections that blossom into expansive universes of possibility often left out and attacked by cultural norms and laws. Integrating polluted earth with decontaminating species, refuse with refuge, and experiential choreographies integrating the viewer, his work expands past materiality and into life. In our interview, Ashton discusses the power of experience as embodied through interactions between the body, earth, and cultural consciousness to empower and heal in the face of destructive forces and toxic consequences.

Ashton, you have been on such an impactful journey through your work. For example, you grew up in “Chemical Valley” West Virginia and now focus on pollution in material, identity, and land. How has your experience of the polluted environment guided your mission as an artist?

I have always felt like I was living inside of a contaminated, impure, or injured body/world. And I have always felt a certain sadness in the face of that. The other slogan for the place I grew up, besides Chemical Valley, was “Wild and Wonderful.” And it was true. That place was simultaneously wild, vibrant, lush, watery, and chemical, toxic, desiccated, dying. Just like all of us.

There was a very palpable tension to being alive—or being a living body—inside that polluted ecosystem. Something like dysphoria. My practice emerged from this dysphoric/euphoric tension. Can we see this pollution and the fear it brings—the disgust, the grief—as teachers or even friends of our own precariousness, adaptability, and interdependence? Holding it close like a hungry baby bird with a broken wing?

I do not fear the pollution anymore. I fear the people who do not see it or pretend it is not there.

Wow, that hits home… What a powerful statement about the consequences of embedded hypocracy. You also have a background in law advocacy as well as being a professional artist. How do these contrasting professions inform your empowerment practice?

I no longer practice law, but my relationship to my art practice is very much informed by my training and experience as a lawyer. Lawyers think facts “argue” better than rhetoric or moral appeals. And that the only facts that count are those that can be admitted into evidence.

My socially-engaged, research-based, public art practice is not that different in method, but my audience is no longer a judge or jury. I am not trying to convince the public that I am “right” about anything or “slap them on the wrist” through the law. Instead, I want people to feel something, to be confused, to make intuitive connections across time and space, to find a glimmer of desire or hope in the pits of despair, to forget the cis-hetero-normative power structures and systems of language that dominate their everyday headspace and tune in to the patterns of relation that connect us to the ground, the insect, the waste Styrofoam floating in the surf, and the bird that carries it away.

When you describe it this way, it sounds like your work is about adapting culture through various methods including sound, performance, participatory installation, and direct environmental response. What factors guide your choice of medium and approach to a work?

A big change came in grad school, when I was challenged to think critically about my “viewer” and what kind of experience I wanted for them. Was my work the “finished” art object that resulted from my experience of connection with materials and place? Or was it the experience itself? Did I want to share that experience with my “viewer” and, if so, what is the most impactful way to do that? Is my work a story about my own life and growth or is it an offering to others to engage with the world differently based on my own experience?

It worked. My first semester in grad school was liberating and cathartic. I tried every material and medium/technology that held my curiosity. I gathered materials, like words - yards of used rubber roofing, chiffon mixed with steel, clay with silicone, and concrete casts with feathers, wool, house paint, and latex tubing inside. I stacked, lashed, cast, balanced, and sewed these materials together on the floor, hanging them from the ceiling, stapling them to the wall. I avoided permanent adhesives and attachments as a kind of creative death. I wanted everything to be mobile and unfixed - to keep the parts moving, unstable, and ready to be broken down and reworked.

Instead of making separate stable works with individual titles and dates, these were improvisational choreographies of material and flow - a performance of material itself and an activation of space that included the body of the viewer in the dance. My art practice began and continues to tune out of the world of argument, bullying, screaming, moralizing, shame, and tuning into to the immediacy, pleasure - and sometimes wonder - of materials, color, the ground beneath me and the interspecies systems of life and agency all around me.

You are engaging such complex systems through your work’s materiality, interactions, and site-specificity. What does your sourcing process look like? And what considerations do you make in choosing materials that will interact with each other?

My work is relational—a way of thinking/feeling/being with a place, a creature, an unfolding ecosystem of contamination, trauma, and the possibility of metamorphosis and repair—and inviting others into that experience. I choose materials that interact with each other according to their own animacies, so that the work can include agencies, marks, and sounds reflecting these larger systems of interrelated power and subjectivity.

For example, I started working with plastic-metabolizing mealworms and Styrofoam plastic because I was fascinated by the fact that these creatures could biodegrade plastic in their bodies without any harm to themselves, and I wanted to understand more about how this worked. This power changed so much of my thinking about the world.

An essay I wrote about my interspecies art practice was published in a special issue on Trans* Ecologies by Trans Studies Quarterly. The essay articulates my thoughts about how structuring spaces to the sensory preferences of plastic-metabolizing insects can also produce a sort of speculative refuge for trans people and others who are otherwise subject to the punishing cis/white gaze in public space.

The connections you are creating between Trans*& Queer Ecologies and interspecies collaborations sit at a really important intersection between empowerment and awareness. It makes me wonder how your mission has changed over time, and in response to how the US culture has/is developed/ing?

The more recent rise of anti-trans panic-baiting and the wholesale removal of legal protections for trans people at the State and Federal levels has also impacted my relationship to my “viewer” and my sense of purpose. I feel a responsibility to speak to the world as a trans person now and to make the trans-ness of my work more explicit. I will not be bullied into silence by these fear mongers in chief. And I hope my voice and practice can empower others to keep making, speaking, and connecting in defiance of these disturbing efforts to silence and erase us from public life.

This week, another trans artist asked me what I am doing as a teacher to hold space for trans, queer, and BIPOC students in the face of this disturbing onslaught coming from the new Presidential Administration. I told her:

I am trying to turn myself and my students toward the queerness and trans-ness of the nonhuman world, which does not give a sh*t about our laws or taxonomies.
Because the future is trans.

Ashton S. Phillips is a socially and ecologically-engaged artist and writer working with dirt, water, pollution, plasticity, and interspecies agents of (dis)repair as primary materials, collaborators, and teachers. He brings an ecological, trauma-informed approach to his teaching, prioritizing collaboration, play, speculative (un)making, and embodied research over top-down modalities. He holds an MFA in Studio Art from the Maryland Institute College of Art; a JD from the George Washington University Law School; and a BA from the University of Maryland, where he served as the first openly trans president of the university’s LGBT student caucus. His creative and critical writing have been published by Antennae: The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture, Art and Cake, Cambridge University Press, and Trans Studies Quarterly. Phillips is a resident artist at Angels Gate Cultural Center in San Pedro, California, where he maintains a living colony of polystyrene-metabolizing mealworm/beetles and a plastic-fertilized garden as trans ecological praxis. When he is not making, writing, teaching, and caring for metamorphosing creatures, he serves as a creative consultant and trauma-informed art teacher for survivors of adverse-childhood experiences at the SHARK Clinic at Rancho Los Amigos Rehabilitation Hospital and curates exhibitions and performances at Monte Vista Projects in Los Angeles, California. ashtonsphillips.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Ashton Phillips, "“3 - Feast & Famine,” installation still, mealworms in larval, pupae, and beetle forms, partially consumed styrofoam, offertory flowers and found feather, 2021-2023; “Install 5 – Feast & Famine,” 2021-2023; “Worm Hole -A Portal for Plastic Bodies," 2024, Photo by Gemma Lopez; “Installation 6 – Feast & Famine”, 2021-2023; "Womb/Tomb/BooM – A Refuge for Plastic Bodies," 2023, live mealworms, live darkling beetles, partially consumed styrofoam, egg tempera, handsewn mosquito netting, pine, faux leather, aluminum flashing, sound equipment, synthetic fur, plywood, violet vinyl and acrylic sheet, stereo cable, contaminated dirt, carrots, and flowering weeds, 15 x 18 x 20 feet;portrait of the artist by Jill Fannon in Bmore Art Magazine (below).

Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio Online Course - starts March 15

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 19:36:49 GMT

Online Course for Members

NEW DATES March 15, 2025 - June 7, 2025

DEADLINE March 1, 2025

This is our sixth iteration designed exclusively for our ecoartspace members!

The Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio course prepares artists and art educators to develop ways of thinking about sustainability in their practice, both conceptually and physically. Participants will learn how to wildcraft art materials, a practice that requires one to deepen their relationship with land, creativity, and self. We will also think critically about how one's community and ecosystem are vital allies in a time of socio-ecological destabilization.

The first half of the course includes lectures, guest artist talks, resource offerings, and group discussions, as we explore the implications of a bioregional perspective and investigate the function of art today. In the second half of the course, each student will work on their own project, informed by course content. They will receive feedback from Anna and the class before a final class presentation, open to the public.

Course content includes: sustainability as a stand alone concept, the historical background and function of art, review of artists and concepts including practical strategies and resources, exposure to a range of natural art processes and mediums, circular systems, interbeing, establishing sustainable development needs and goals, developing alliances and an action plan to generate one’s own project throughout the course.

All classes will be held on Saturdays. The first three sessions will be held in March from 2-4pm EST. The fourth session in May and fifth session in June from 2-5pm EST. Participants will create a project during the course and make presentations.

This online course is taught by Anna Chapman with guest presenters (below).

Course Schedule

I - Intro to Art and Sustainability - 2 - 4pm ET,Saturday, March 15

- Visiting artist from ecoartspace(((JohannaTörnqvist)))

- Sustainability as a standalone concept

- Historical background and the function of art

- The local and the global

- Circular systems

- Bioregionalism / Place-Based Education

- Cultural Sustainability

II - Art Processes and Sustainability - 2 - 4pm ET,Saturday, March 22

- Painting processes: paints, inks, & watercolors

- Charcoal

- Natural dyes

- Papermaking

- Found & recycled materials

III - Objectives, Relationships and Alliances - 2 - 4pm ET,Saturday, March 29

- Visiting artist from ecoartspace(((Lucia Monge)))

- Establishing needs

- Establishing your own sustainability goals

- Interbeing

- Local relationships and alliances

- Developing ideas around sustainability

- Action plan (students define their research project)

VI - Progress Presentations- 2 - 5 pm ET,Saturday, May 3

- Participants share the research and progress of their projects and receive feedback from class and instructor

V - Presentations - 2 - 5pm ET,Saturday, June 7

- Participants present and debrief about their projects.

Anna Chapman is passionate about the intersection of art, education, ecology and healing. Believing that interdisciplinary approaches to art and education are necessary to meaning-making in the context of the Anthropocene, her work is inspired by post-colonial, post-human, early European, and indigenous perspectives. Through her practice, Anna aims to mobilize reconciliatory relationships to place, community, materiality, and voice, to awaken one’s innate capacity for care and creative life force. She received a BFA in Painting at the Rhode Island School of Design in 2012, a Masters of Arts in Art Education at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2022, and is currently pursuing a Masters of Fine Arts at UMass Amherst. Anna currently teaches through the Center for Art Education and Sustainability, the Continuing Education department of the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and at Umass Amherst. @owl_and_apple annachapmaneducation.com

Cost is $375 per member, membership fee can be waved if needed. Approximately 12 participants max.

Email info@ecoartspace.org to participate

Below is the recording from the Fall 2024 course participants presentations

February 2025 newsletter for non-members and subscribers

Sat, 01 Feb 2025 15:56:19 GMT

February 2025 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member SPOTLIGHT: Leslie Labowitz Starus

Mon, 06 Jan 2025 18:41:45 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 6, 2025

This month we recognize Leslie Labowitz Starus and her decades-long practice exploring the intersections of ecofeminism, art, and community engagement through her 40+ years project Sproutime, integrating personal history, ecological sustainability, and feminist activism.

"Labowitz Starus'art/life practice and eco-feminist project SPROUTIME (1980 -2024) has spanned four decades. Integrating personal and global survival into performances and installations, she started Sproutime by growing organic sprouts and greens, creating a micro-urban farm in her yard in Venice, California. This was followed by a series of ecologically motivated performances and installations produced in galleries across the United States. As an outgrowth of these art installations, she started her business enterprise (also called Sproutime) in 1980, growing and distributing organic food throughout the US until 2011, and maintains her sprout stand in the Santa Monica Farmers Market as her ongoing legacy. The nurturing and healing aspects of SPROUTIME counteract Labowitz Starus’s experience growing up with intergenerational trauma as a child of a holocaust survivor."

click images for more info

Farmers Market, 1980

"Perhaps one of the more durational and robust works in Sproutime, Labowitz opened a stall at the Farmers Market in Santa Monica, an art/life performance that has been ongoing for 40 years. As an urban farmer at the beginning of the organic movement in the US, farmers markets were the only vehicle to sell the products of urban and small farmers in California. The Market was a meeting place for restaurants, produce distributors, and retail markets, all of whom then became Sproutime customers. Labowitz was one of a few women farmers and continues to appear each week, where she sells sprouts, products, and holds wheatgrass toasts. Many artists worked at the Sproutime stand over the years, including artists Dark Bob and Heidi Zin. It was the best “gig” in town."above

The Secret Garden, 1981

"This performance in Labowitz’s backyard in Venice, California, introduced the Sproutime business as a metaphor for her own healing after burnout from past public performance work on violence against women. Reading aloud a passage from the children’s book “The Secret Garden” spoke to the darkness of the soul that can be transformed in a garden; she related it to her own childhood in a family of European Holocaust survivors. The audience walked through a dark garage where Labowitz grew her sprouts and then entered the light of the garden where they were served sprout salads. Sprouts are the voice of life in a world intent on its own destruction."above

Roots, 1994

"At 18th St Arts Center, Santa Monica Leslie installed a work made up of “root mats” from sprouted greens already cut and sold. After greens are cut, the plant matter in the trays is used for compost at the growing site. In the gallery she exposed the root growth and built a sculptural form by stacking the mats on top of each other. Workers from the greenhouse brought more root mats each week. As the stack started to decompose, heat and smoke rose out of the decaying plant material. Stacks collapsed on themselves. At the end of the exhibition, the broken-down soil was taken back to finish composting."above

Sproutime is Now, 2023

"Her 20' long installation was a call out to join a movement that cherishes the earth and all life. Labowitz’s intention was to create a bridge for the students at Cal Arts between art, activism and public life. This was the largest of her installs with “root mats” from cut trays of greens. The signs took the form of yard signs and were placed among the root mats. The installation was a meditation on life and the dying process. For over two weeks, the plant material broke down, began to smell, and attracted flies and insects. At the end of the exhibition, the decomposing plant material was picked up by Metabolic Studio to add to their compost pile. Leslie was also a co-producer of the Eco-Expo team of the Earth Edition project at Cal Arts."below

Women Reclaim The Earth, 2024

Small, sunny fields of wheatgrass sprouting from growing trays alongside hand-held protest signs were included as part of the exhibition “Life on Earth: Art & Ecofeminism,” featured at The Brick in East Hollywood, California. The repurposed anti-war protest signs, handwritten by the artist, allude to a “Peace Economy,” or “movement towards peaceable policies and actions, to become aware of the environmental effects of war on our food supply and health." The buckets, seeds, trays, and wheatgrass are the actual materials the artist uses to grow organic sprouts and greens. She also led a kids superfoods workshop during Life on Earth, part of Getty'sPST ART—ART & SCIENCE COLLIDE. below

Leslie Labowitz Starus, born in Uniontown, Pennsylvania, outside Pittsburgh, in 1946, relocated to California with her family and has resided in Los Angeles since 1958. She did her first early feminist performances while attending Otis Art Institute in Los Angeles and received her MFA in 1972. After graduating, that same year Labowitz Starus was awarded a Fulbright scholarship to travel to Germany to attend the Kunstakademie in Düsseldorf, where Joseph Beuys was a mentor. At this time, Labowitz Starus also co-founded a women’s video group with artist Ulrike Rosenbach. When she lived in Europe, she also taught performance at Bonn University 1973-75 and art at the University of Maryland campuses in Rota, Spain 1975-76 and Nuremberg, Germany 1976-77. When Labowitz returned to the United States in 1977, she started her collaborations with Suzanne Lacy. During this time, they collaborated on Three Weeks in May (1977) and other public events on violence against women, including In Mourning and In Rage (1977), an internationally known performance during the serial rape and murders of 11 women in Los Angeles by Hillside Strangler. Labowitz Starus and Lacy then formed Ariadne: A Social Art Network (1977-1982), an umbrella for public performances on violence against women that included people in media, politics, and the art community who participated in these large-scale events. Today, she continues to mine her artistic and family archives, integrating the personal and the political in her ongoing environmental social practice. https://leslielabowitz.com www.againstviolence.art

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Leslie Labowitz Starus, Women Reclaim The Earth, 1979, poster; Farmers Market, 1980-ongoing, Santa Monica, California; The Secret Garden, 1981, backyard performance, Venice, California, photo by Suzanne Lacy; Roots - 1994, installation, 18th St Arts Center, Santa Monica, California; Sproutime Is Now, 2023, installation, Cal Arts, Visions2030, Earth Edition; Women Reclaim The Earth , 1979/2024, installation including photo montage on canvas, 66 x 48 inches, at The Brick, Los Angeles; portrait of the artist (below).

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Abundance and Destruction Find Cultural Impact: Aurora Robson’s Collaborative Approach to Intersecting the Plastic Waste Stream

Sun, 01 Dec 2024 15:00:00 GMT

Learning Curves, 2021, welded plastic debris (high density polyethylene), 7’6" x 8’2" x 10’7" feet/inches

Abundance and Destruction Find Cultural Impact: Aurora Robson’s Collaborative Approach to Intersecting the Plastic Waste Stream
By Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Aurora Robson’s work acts as a meditative interception into the plastic waste stream, natural forms, and their relationships to her recurring childhood nightmares. Repurposing plastics from a wide range of sources, she tunes into an otherwise destructive, wasteful and abundant material resource. To build community and collective purpose, she founded Project Vortex in 2009. Project Vortex is an artist collective innovating with plastic debris, “as an effort to help broaden creative stewardship initiatives in art and academic settings” with artists, designers and architects internationally. Their collaborative exhibition, “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers,” is on view at the School of Visual Arts in New York City through December 15, and presents a “rethinking and reinvention of plastic debris."

The Great Indoors, 2008, plastic debris, paint, solar powered LEDs and hardware, 44 x 44 x 18 feet

Aurora, you have described your work surrounding the intersection between your subconscious and environmental destruction as “about subjugating negativity and shifting trajectories.” Where does the personal and the political intersect for you and through your work?

To me, the personal is political—there is no separation. As a woman, a mother and an artist, and especially in the political climate in the USA right now, every choice we make is not only vital but a gift.

Plastic pollution has an overwhelming, all encompassing, suffocating effect on all living organisms. My childhood nightmares shared these qualities.

We have been spilling a perfectly good art supply into places it has no business being. This is no different from many other self destructive products and personal choices humans have made throughout history (lead paint or cigarettes are other examples). Plastic is a petroleum-based material, a by-product of the fossil fuel industry. It is a laughable enterprise if you think about working with plastic debris for sculpture in terms of sequestering it to keep it from doing harm, but art does not need to have a literal or direct impact to be effective. Art is the basis for the development of cultural and societal norms, therefore its ultimate impact can not be measured by ordinary units of measure or on a finite timeline.

And to make this cultural impact, you have integrated junk mail, tubing, and a variety of plastic refuse to create “plastic waste interceptions.” What do your aesthetic choices intend to relay about intervening in the plastic waste stream?

Overall, I am working to reveal various false perceptions of value that have been wreaking havoc on all life forms. I like to think of my aesthetic choices as an exercise in anti-discrimination, with matter as a metaphor. There is an interplay between recognizing that matter matters, which it does to me in that I prefer to work with material that has been discarded, disregarded and discriminated against. I avoid virgin materials. In a sense, this approach makes the material immaterial. I am illustrating that it is about the “doing” and not so much the “thing,” or that value and scarcity don’t really have anything in common.

Be Like Water, 2010, 80,000 plastic bottle caps and 9000 discarded plastic (PET) bottles collected by students at 7 public and private schools in Philadelphia, 25 x 120 x 14 feet. Funded by the City of Philadelphia Dept. of Cultural Affairs, Skybox, Curator Eileen Tognini and other private donors.

I imagine that this “doing” is also reflected in your gathering practices and process. What does this process look like?

The collecting of materials is the easiest part, it is increasingly everywhere and plastic objects are constantly morphing due to their “plasticity.”

I have many sources and approaches for collecting materials—and they are constantly proliferating. People want to sequester plastic debris because it is one of the most problematic wide spread toxic waste issues. People send me plastic debris from their homes, (bottle caps, bread tags, and all manner of objects). This really moves me as there is a thoughtful energy, which is very powerful because it transforms debris into a gift at the onset. I try to honor that act by perpetuating the motion. I also work with clean up organizations who conduct clean ups of rivers, shores, parks, road sides, etc… and use material they have collected. I have also partnered with schools, transfer stations, corporations, and recycling centers.

When possible, I love to work in urban environments with people who are collecting bottles out of the trash and gutters to take them to redemption centers for money. When I do, I facilitate a pay increase for them while making their journeys less arduous and lengthy by arranging pick up locations closer to them.

Wow, you have such a range of sources and an (unfortunate) abundance! Do the collection sources and context affect your work process?

I always try to respond to the environment I am working in and honor it. I like to integrate local materials and ethos to add layers of relevance to the community that the work is intended to serve. Canada has very little pollution and litter compared to the US. It is always an interesting contrast to go between these countries—but often just because you can’t see the problem, doesn't mean it isn’t there. The majority of plastic, when submerged in water for any length of time, will sink. This is part of the issue that I think makes it most appropriate for artists. I think our job is to make something that is not visible, visible and to use our visionary skills to envision a sustainable and habitable world that supports life.

Through Project Vortex, you’ve extended this work process to create collective impact as well. What inspired you to begin this collective? And what has the collective work process allowed you to do?

Initially, I started Project Vortex because I was feeling increasingly hopeless about plastic pollution and about whether it would ever be utilized as an art material outside of my studio. I felt like I was alone, insane and quite small. I was worried that emotionally, I wouldn’t be able to sustain this “sustainable practice”. It was depressing to see more and more shifts towards plastic packaging and more and more artists buying new plastic objects to use in their work to talk about this, but so indirectly, with such lack of self reflection or accountability.

I needed to find other people who were working with this material without biases. People who were focused on it in order to add to the volume, richness, efficacy and diversity in the dialogue and action that all need amplification and expansion. I found that the more I looked for other artists the more I found them. It became more and more inspiring and valuable as a resource for me and for educators and the other members of the collective. Plus, through the development of this collective, more resources and opportunities could be shared and distributed within the collective, making us stronger as individuals and as a group.

Poster for “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices With Polymers," through December 15, 2024, featuring Project Vortex Artists, includes works by ecoartspace members Ellen Driscoll, Natalya Khorover, Pam Longobardi and Bryan Northup).

With your current group exhibition, “Plasticulture: The Rise of Sustainable Practices with Polymers” at The School of Visual Arts Gallery in Manhattan, you showcase the fruits of this collective strength. What do you hope to inspire in both students and visitors alike in your approaches to sustainability and earth health?

Plasticulture highlights brilliant approaches to working with plastic debris with the goal being that students and visitors find inspiration, joy and hope, at a time when that is particularly important in a country with such a divided population. It is an invitation. My hope is that it is the first exhibition of its kind. It has a message that is clear, to the point, inclusive, and without a doubt, of service to life itself.

Each of the works featured embodies a different story or aspect to the plastic pollution issue that is relevant to every living creature on the planet, not just the 1% of us who enjoy the joke of a duct taped banana selling for $6.2 million. Though the exhibition only includes about a dozen of the amazing artists from Project Vortex, it is the antithesis to irreverent art that is merely about art. Despite the abysmal nature of the material that is at its focus it is powerful and uplifting. Plasticulture is about a burden that weighs on all life on earth right now. It is about what humans are doing to the ecosystem and what we can do about it.

Thank you, Aurora, for reminding us of both our responsibility to the planet and each other through the impact of our work.

Vibrant Repercussions Resonate Around the World: Diane Burko

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 17:11:38 GMT

World Map Series, 2019, Mixed media on canvas, dimensions variable

Vibrant Repercussions Resonate Around the World: Diane Burko Paints the Changing Environment in Brilliant Color from the Amazon and Beyond

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Diane Burko creates vibrant paintings and photographs that tell the harrowing story of our landscapes and people as the climate shifts and destructs. Based on maps, time lapse photographs, and on-site field work, she does her due-diligence to honor and truly understand the landscapes and people that are her subject. Though her focus is mainly in the Amazon, her message for collaborative activism, decolonialism, and environmental protection ring true for people throughout the world. Diane’s work truly exemplifies the intersection and power of art to speak to the spirit and foster attitudes toward change. She is currently exhibiting work in Madrid, Spain alongside other artists in the “The Greatest Emergency is the Absence of Emergency” show curated by Santiago Zabala until January 12, 2025.

Deforestation 1, 2021, mixed media on canvas, 42 x 42 inches

Diane, your work is location specific, but speaks to issues people are facing around the world. What is your approach on and off site? And how does it inform your artwork?

"Bearing witness” is an integral part of my practice - a totally crucial component. Physically experiencing & investigating a site of climate degradation, speaking with scientists and people who are from the land, experiencing these changes first-hand, is incredibly important to me. It is this practice that informs my work and provides it with authenticity & imbues it with a level of emotional intensity that I think can move people and allow them to connect with the factual as well as the aesthetic. I think this is what makes my work truly effective.

I visit places of climate degradation, take photos, notes, sketches, and most importantly, I take in the experience, really absorb it, and speak with people who study the landscape, conduct research, and live/work there. Then, I take those experiences home with me to my studio in Philadelphia, I let them marinate, and I make work. I paint, collage, manipulate organic material, and in that process, I let the canvas soak up everything I have absorbed.

Grinnell Mt. Gould #1, #2, #3, #4, 2009, oil on canvas, 88 x 200 inches overall, from Grinnell Mt. Gould series, painting of the glacier as it appeared four times in archival/USGS photographs from 1938 and 2006

Your description makes me think of the vibrancy and movement of your pre-and post-devastation landscapes, especially in your recent Amazon and Balbina series. How does time play out in your work?

I think that the motif of “pre-” and “post-” devastation in my work is a tool that brings a sober reality to many viewers. Some of these devastations happen so slowly that it is impossible to notice–summers get hotter, climate disasters more devastating, glaciers shrink–and it’s hard to grasp because we simply get used to it. I think that presenting these sites in both forms at one space and time can show viewers just what is happening, and how drastic the changes have been.

For example, I first worked within the tradition of “repeat photography” in the late 2000s, in a body of work that I showed in 2010 titled “Politics of Snow.” These works utilized glacial research and archival photographs. I focused on painting glaciers, and mountains as they’ve changed over time by contrasting them between the years. In those paintings, you see drastic changes–a disappearing landscape.

This kind of practice still informs my current work, but now I use more abstract representations of landscape and change–fields of color contrasted with borders, collaged headlines, articles, graphs, and images of devastation.

Amazon 25, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

Your landscapes bridge multiple-dimensions and activism. Even using mapping to emphasize contrasts in the beauty and the destruction you describe. Do you consider mapping a political act? And how does it marry with art making?

Mapping is most certainly a political act! Maps play a crucial role in shaping the ways that we see the world - the colors, borders, symbols, what maps do and do not show – all that information is intentional. While they accurately display the world we live in, I want them to also imply the urgency of the climate crisis, the shrinking glaciers and rainforests, the disappearing reefs, as well as other issues. Their urgency, and their reality is important, and the use of maps in my work, especially in my World Map Series comes with the implication that we are all in this together.

Still from Diane Burko: World Map Series: From Glaciers to Reefs On Vimeo, 2019

That “we are all in this together” really resonates with the increasing call for art to be an activistic space integral to the effectiveness of climate policy and an informed public. Have you experienced public and policy shifts through art? And what seemed most effective in creating lasting change?

I certainly have, I think that, like I just mentioned, art has the capacity to empower the public, and I think many artists who are working now, and in the past have made it their goal to really reach out to the public and make empowering, informative work.

This makes me think about our efforts with FOCUS: featuring women artists in Philadelphia in 1974. And (re)FOCUS) this year, featuring black, brown, and indigenous women & gender non-conforming folks. Judy Brodsky and I, and many other talented individuals have been dedicated to these efforts, building these communities, and featuring stories that have been historically left out.

It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what is most effective, but it’s the sheer effort, the community building that I’ve seen and engaged in that has been most impactful in my experience. The networks of people working together, sharing their experiences with each other, and dedicating themselves to that practice of building and sharing and teaching each other is incredibly inspiring, and has compounded generationally.

Manaus/Meeting of the Waters, triptych, 2024, mixed media on canvas, 42 x 156 inches

What a fantastic reminder of how important community is while we navigate these times. And many of the conversations in these communities revolve around the repercussions of colonization and land exploitation that continue to today. What are your thoughts on the decolonial conversation in art?

Yes, my recent work is focused on the emergencies in the Amazon that have affected, and continue to affect, the landscape, and the indigenous populations of those regions, with widening ramifications for the whole planet. The grid that is featured in this current group exhibition in Madrid deals with these issues of environmental degradation in the Amazon caused by the politics, greed, and extraction that are enacted world-wide. My goal is to continue the climate emergency conversation that impacts us all in the near future by featuring this work on an international level

These conversations about the dangers of deforestation and colonialism are at once local and global. So, traveling these works about the Amazon Rainforest to Spain (a former colonial power) is significant. It’s important that we look at these issues through multiple lenses. What happens in one space is a specific issue that has the capacity to affect the global climate. And it’s also part of a much larger pattern of colonialism and greed that affects us all, no matter where you are in the world. The destruction in the Amazon of both the landscape and the indigenous communities who steward the land represent this well. Chances are, something similar– some kind of local disruption to a natural landscape or indigenous population--is happening right under your nose.

Sharing these works and the decolonial conversation in art far and wide, is very important, especially in places that have complicated histories, and complex publics'.

Amazon Grid, Grid of 20 x 20 inch paintings on the Amazon; 2022-2024, mixed media on canvas, 60 x 120 inches

The exhibition you are referencing is in Spain and speaks of emergency prevention through artists who “rescue us in our greatest emergencies” before they become “emergencies”. What are your thoughts about your role as an artist in preventing these global climate-related emergencies?

I think that art has an incredible capacity to help “rescue us into our greatest emergencies” as Santiago Zabala has said in curating this exhibition. With all the media nowadays, it can feel impossible to keep up. Scientific data can become garbled, reports of non-stop disasters can be painful, and it can all become overwhelming to most. Many folks choose to look away in all of that overwhelm, and, well, it’s understandable.

I think art has a unique capacity to blend these emergencies with a more emotional experience, allowing viewers to open themselves to the emergency, really absorb that it is happening, and feel hope. I think that the beauty of art, its hopefulness is the perfect catalyst for change and empowerment, and empowerment is really what brings about change. The despair that I think most folks feel when watching a regular news report is not going to do that.

My work was actually featured in a research study that was then featured in this Hyperallergic article. My 2020 painting Summer Heat, was used in a study that demonstrated the way that the emotional components of art, the awe and the beauty, the visual communication can reach a broader public, and deepen their understanding of these issues in ways that classic avenues don’t.

Thank you, Diane, for your powerful work. The world needs these messages more than ever.

November 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Fri, 01 Nov 2024 12:33:18 GMT

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Metaphors and Murder, Substack by Aviva Rahmani

Fri, 04 Oct 2024 16:13:19 GMT

Image: Bed of Nets Aviva Rahmani 1992

Metaphors and Murder

How Do We Come to a Dead Forest?

Aviva Rahmani, October 1, 2024 Substack

Ecocide is murder, whether you consider a forest sentient or calculate how many people die because their habitat is destroyed, it is a crime against humanity that ends in death. Halfway through the new aria to be performed by the soprano Alison Cheeseman at the Anita Rogers Gallery October 30, the wife of the fossil fuel executive accused of ecocide sings, "I was standing alone, naked in a dead forest." How did she end there? As she laments her cold marriage and the Earth her husband has scorched, her alter ego, played by the dancer Rishauna Zomberg, wrestles with a large blue-painted branch from the dead forest, the reality she had been oblivious to see.

I saw the wife's nakedness as a metaphor. The metaphor tells a story about a psychological stripping down. All the wife's defenses against grief, facing just how destructive the man she loves has been, come down even as a part of her struggles with the barren real world his destructiveness has left her to inhabit alone. It is a turning point, a time to face reality. She is just one figure among many facing the realities of climate change. The whole world has clear choices now: face the effects of climate change created by fossil fuel use or live in a forest of death. Begin to hold people responsible for war crimes and crimes against humanity or let them walk away with impunity.

Metaphor and storytelling narratives create worlds. The central metaphor in the entire Blued Trees project is blue on live and dead wood: a blue sine wave on designated sentinel trees in the forest, dead, broken blue painted branches in galleries: the threat of death and death itself made beautiful, even, as in The Blued Trees Symphony, threat and death was made into music. The world I am shaping now is the dystopic world we may leave ourselves if we cannot establish firm boundaries: naked in a dead forest. That will all take place in a gallery, the venue for an informal mock trial, in which all will be judged.

A color can be a metaphor. The blue I use evokes the calm pleasure of blue skies and waters. The blue on the trees and branches I use is Ultramarine, a non-toxic, now synthetic pigment, once ground from Lapiz Lazuli and very costly. It was reserved for special images, such as the Madonna's robes, surely something the real Madonna could never have aspired to wear. With a touch of black, it became Yves Klein’s color. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/International_Klein_Blue#:~:text=International%20Klein%20Blue%20(IKB)%20is%20a%20deep%20blue%20hue%20first

Lakoff and Johnson explored the political implications of using metaphor to change a world. More systematic studies have since been conducted on the effects of metaphorical framing. Metaphors can embody the gist of a culture's values even if the world depicted is delusional, whether an image of an idealized blond Madonna, dressed in expensive garments cradling a precocious Jesus or a Richard Prince revision of the photograph that became the Marlboro man.

In the case of the Madonna, the cultural enshrinement of falsity is remarkable: a middle eastern blonde dressed like a European noblewoman exemplifying a putative relationship between religion and aristocrats to justify the oppressions of European monarchies. Prince did something, similar, reifying a mythical paradox: that a healthy outdoor life was compatible with smoking cigarettes but then he did something different, by then taking the low art of advertising into a high art venue. Prince was part of the appropriation movement of the seventies, which began dabbling in culture-jamming, turning tropes on their heads to make socio-political points, as in B Barbara Kruger's appropriation of advertising design to make challenging cultural statements. These artists and the works of others, whose appropriations tested the limits and boundaries of copyright law were challenging the notion of who owns what and why. Since then, copyright law is again being tested and is now, a hot legal topic in the promotion of AI.

It was in the seventies that I first became fascinated by copyright law and took my first law class. At the time, an idealistic goal of the appropriation movement was to make all cultural artifacts free to all, as a matter of common rights. Eventually, that morphed into a series systems to gain reasonable access but still protect intellectual property.

What initially drew me into studying copyright law was outrage over how the appropriation movement was used by some to excuse cultural theft from the less powerful: younger artists and researchers, Indigenous Peoples and partners, generally, wives and girlfriends at the time. I became committed to the idea that appropriation without attribution was both outright theft and an historical impoverishment, rubbing us of an historical understanding of how ideas develop.

Since the seventies, a number of politicians and pundits have grasped the power of metaphor and noted the creation of mythical stories to promote policy, as Heather Cox Richardson has pointed out in how Ronald Reagan launched and leveraged the trope of the independent cowboy to promote ultra conservative values .

Reagan's campaign, like church's promotion of a wealthy, blond Madonna en familia, untethered metaphor and regulatory logic and yet it successfully sold a conservative agenda. Extractive policies were primarily sold by relentlessly leveraging the emotional triggering that evoked 1950's movies about a delusional world of valiant white cowboys, conquering malignant Indians on an open range. In truth, the real cowboys were often people of color. The Indians were brutally persecuted in ignominious ways and the range was only open because of genocide and ecocide. As the costly blue of the blond Madonna's robes, this was the selling of a lie. It was the opposite of truth. And yet, these tropes were remarkably successful in trading on lies to effect oppression.

In an actual court of law, which might lead to actual policy with some idea of justice, any plaintiff’s pleas must be backed by standing. Standing is a plaintiff's right to be heard because there is an ownership relationship, recognized in the community. Theoretically, simple publishing creates copyright. In court, one way to establish standing for any ownership is evidence of community credibility. So, for example, the standing of Blued Trees in the 2018 Mock Trial was established on the basis of expert art testimony about its art historical significance.

I have always been mindful of the stories metaphors can tell and sought verisimilitude in the corollaries. In 1992, as I was beginning Ghost Nets (1990-2000), I assembled a number of drift nets I had collected at the local town dump, and placed them on an iron bed, that had been painted gloss white. I called it the, "Bed of Nets," and said it was a metaphor for all our familiar habits and routines that like the lost drift nets in the sea, become internal ghost nets, indiscriminately trapping and killing life, drifting indestructibly through the oceans of our lives for many, many years. Ghostnets https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ghost_net were a central metaphor for the entire project and have returned to my mind, almost twenty-five years later, in Blued Trees.

My idea in the Bed of Nets, was that we get in bed with what is familiar, literally and figuratively and it may kill us. It was such a powerful idea for me, that what drove the entire Ghost Nets project for me, was to experiment with doing what was unfamiliar for me towards restoring the former dump site into flourishing wetlands. That theme, of braving what was unfamiliar and scared me culminated fifteen years later with gaining my PhD with a hard science cross over for, "Trigger Point Theory as Aesthetic Activism."

Eventually, I took the experiment further, doing what scared me, I began working on an opera based on the mock trial for The Blued Trees Symphony, and most recently, performed the wife's new aria a Capela for it

That aria will be the raw material for the event Oct. 30 at the Anita Rogers Gallery. The aria is about a relationship between a fossil fuel executive, his wife and the Earth he has despoiled but the deeper content for me is the question of what we get in bed with? What are the tolerances we accept as the Earth burns and drowns? What are the limits of our liabilities? Holding powerful people accountable for murder does not come easily for most of us.

Eventually, I took my experimentation into my personal life in a difficult relationship, I learned to let the concrete facade of my defenses fall off me as intimacy grew, exposing new raw skin to air and light, living what the wife in my aria clung to and knowing how finally, reality will tear away her last defenses. My personal courage translates back to greater boldness in my wor.

In the aria under production for October 30, the wife has been in bed with a world destroyer who is her love. She has not yet connected to the disconnect between her memories of love and the dead world he left her that she sees in her dreams and carries on her back. The context of the production will be an audience who will be tasked with judging accountability for each of them: the executive and the wife. Was her disconnect deliberate? Is her disconnect the same as denial and did her denial enable her husband to live long and flourish in his crimes against humanity with impunity? Was she blinded by an idea of her husband, a narcisistic delusion? Will she be left with anything but the dead forest? Those are some of the questions I intend to find answers to from my audience October 30, in a chain of questions that lead to a dead forest, a dead planet.

Mining for Fossils and a Better Future: Kathryn Maguire’s Geological Sculptures Voice People and The Land

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 17:00:58 GMT

Mineral Mountains & Azimuth. Cast pigmented jesmonite with gold, shungite and iron oxide on wooden plinths. The Mountains are inspired by geodata forms of Iron Mountain, with additional minerals imbued with healing pure pigments. Azimuth - gunter chain on pigmented wall.

Mining for Fossils and a Better Future: Kathryn Maguire’s Geological Sculptures Voice People and The Land
By: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Kathryn Maguire gives form to location-specific minerals and, by doing so, creates gentle conversations about environmental activism and difficult histories. Through a highly collaborative and research-based approach, her pieces speak both to stories and aesthetics embedded in materiality and the land. In her recent solo show, To the Mountain, and throughout her career, Kathryn solidifies connections between the experiential landscape and what lies beneath its surface.

To the Mountain, 2024. Leitrim Limestone carved with a trig point symbol by Seamus Dunbar.

Kathryn, I want to start with your current and first solo show, “To the Mountain.” What has this exhibition experience brought to your practice?

The gallery space is a test site and space for expanding and dreaming, it’s a great supported exhibition residency. I was fully immersed in the works and the space. I could spread my wings as it were. I could dream the space into being and be embedded in the work. Overall, the opportunity to create a solo show helped focus and define my practice and making. It allowed me to hone my ideas and complete conversations.

Underground Potential, 2022/2024, sculpture made in Jesmonite and pigments inspired by the form of Mir Mine in Russia, the deepest mine in the world, the Treasure Leitrim used the Mir Mine as an image on their posters.

Locality is deeply embedded in the spaces and conversations you integrate in your work. What do you hope artistic expression can uniquely achieve for your awareness work?

The exhibition To the Mountain had real tools of measurement used in surveyance and mapping. I wanted to make this visible. The mapping of Ireland occurred in the 1800’s when Ireland was ruled by the British Empire. Ireland was the first country to be entirely mapped in the World. The technology involved was extraordinary.

The local history of Leitrim is in a critical position as there is a risk of Gold and Silver Mining. Regional organizations have worked tirelessly to object to the mining, as it will risk the landscape, water and people within a large area of Leitrim.

Many geologists have said we have extracted all the metals we need; all those metals need to be reused and recycled; this would involve the circular economy model. In Ireland, there is an incentive for everyone to recycle and repurpose and it’s advertised on the radio and TV. The vision for the Programme, which is led by the EPA, is an Ireland where the circular economy ensures that everyone uses less resources and prevents waste to achieve sustainable economic growth.

Brake Dust, 2020, Jesmonite casts explore the idea of what Air Pollution might look like if it were imagined as a sculptural object. This is the first in a series of works using crystallography to imagine the unimaginable and indecipherable. The individual casts are scaled-up models of the crystal magnetite, which is an iron ore.

This is such important information given the contentious history that played out not far from your show and residency location at Leitrim Sculpture Center. What considerations have come up while exploring the local landscape?

The border is no longer a charged political zone, although there are levies and taxes charged on goods since Brexit. As a result, it has become more expensive to make artwork in the South, due to shipping fees and VAT increases.

I was very conscious of the new extractive industries that have attempted to open up Gold mining in Leitrim, they have managed to secure prospecting licenses, but have not been able to mine due to the orders being blocked or delayed. The local Save Dough Mountain group, Stop Mining Leitrim and Treasure Leitrim groups have done incredibly extensive research on the devastating damage it will cause to wildlife, the local water and people and the mountains.

While on site, I was very aware of the groups and the tension in the area due to the threat. In 2023, the “Leitrim Under Attack,” a two-day event saw local environmental activists host “water protectors” involved in the Standing Rock protest against the Dakota Access oil pipeline in the United States. “We are here in solidarity and support of the folks in Leitrim who want to keep gold mining out of their county,” said Chas Jewett, a Lakota activist who was involved in the Standing Rock protest. “There are other ways for us to be living. We should be thinking about the seventh generation, seven generations from now and about their access to water rather than our access to gold.”

I feel the way I positioned the artworks in the gallery was a gentle conversation about over-mining and extraction. The Underground Potential artwork is a sculpture made in Jesmonite and pigments, in the form of the Mir Mine in Russia, the deepest mine in the world, the Treasure Leitrim used the Mir Mine as an image on their posters.

Rock - A Library of Materials, 2022-ongoing, is an extensive examination of materials. An ancient piece of Quartz sourced from Ubley Waren, from the ‘rake’ of a Roman Lead Mine, was then moulded in silicon rubber. The mould became the form to test and cast multiple materials.

These gentle conversations play out in many of your works through material as well (like the Jesmonite and pigments). What factors do you take into consideration when developing your work?

I would never prise a rock from its location, as that is wrong. As I am a member of many geological organizations (like the Irish Geological Association and the Geological Association in the UK), we go on field trips and share information. I have also extensively researched vast areas and analysed the materials that are often waste specimens left over after quarrying or earth movements.

For example, I collaborated with the wonderful Dr. Diana Clements, who wrote Geology of London. She brought me on many field visits and gifted me plenty of microfossils. Another time, I was loaned an iron nodule and a piece of another mountain from a local stone mason and hillwalker.

In regards to the form, sometimes I will make a mould from the rock and then make multiple new rocks; like my Rock - A Library of Materials. The large work To the Mountain, was carved specifically to enhance the amazing fossils in the stone. That stone was waste surplus from a quarry used for road material.

The stones used in Mapping Mountains had to be from the specific mountains I was 3D printing. I felt it was really important for the stone to be from the exact location. Also, the weight of the stone was similar to the weight and density of the mountain. The limestone used in To the Mountain was from a local quarry and the rock we chose was full of fossils. It felt important to celebrate the fossils and make them visible in the materials.

The Possibility of an Impossibility, 2014. Solid Silver cast Plane seeds taken from Gezi Park in 2013 in Istanbul amid the Gezi Riots and protests. Black vinyl disc.

You've focused on location and history throughout your career from museums to environment and their relationships to political struggle. How has your practice developed over time to center around environmental topics?

My love of stone and mountains has always been there as a hobby that split over into my art practice. The work Brake Dust was the beginning of a conversation about how our environment is us, and how we are geological bodies. This is an ongoing exploration of air pollution and its causes.

In 2014, I visited Istanbul and listened to the stories of the Occupy Gezi movement and heard how Gezi Park was possibly going to be torn up for a shopping mall, and the Trees were going to be pulled down. I immediately felt a need to cast the seeds of the threatened Plane Tree seeds in silver and capture the Occupy Movement in a precious material titled The Possibility of an Impossibility. The work was inspired by David Graeber and his theory on Occupy Movements. In Istanbul, I sought information on building materials and where the rocks came from, and I was bowled over by the generosity and kinship in the geophilia and love of stone.

Thank you, Kathryn! This is such an exciting and insightful body of work.

October 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Tue, 01 Oct 2024 15:37:30 GMT

October 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Time As A River by Rosalyn Driscoll, TT Journal September 2024

Wed, 04 Sep 2024 14:28:32 GMT

TT Journal, ISSUE 7, September 2024

by Rosalyn Driscoll

Twenty artists set out to explore together the nature of water and rivers. They ended up also reflecting on the perennial metaphor of time as river. The artists are members of Think About Water, a collective of artists and activists who interpret, celebrate and protect water. They wanted to make something together but also to honor each artist’s distinctive vision. They chose the format of a game played by the Surrealists called exquisite corpse: one artist drew a head, then folded the paper so their drawing could not be seen, and handed it to another artist; that artist drew the next part of the body, folded the paper, and so on through several artists and foldings. The paper was then unfolded and the whole, surreal figure appeared.

In that spirit, the Think About Water artists created an exquisite corpse—not a human body, but the body of a river. Each artist made a section of river in their own studio in their own medium, style, vision and time, without seeing each other’s work. The artworks were then hung together in an art gallery. The assembled sequence of images snaked across the walls, suggesting a river of multiple forms and meanings.

The Exquisite River project also reveals several aspects of time. Each artist’s process of image-making took time. Each artist drew from their individual and cultural histories to create a unique image and tell a personal story. The artworks embody the depths of time and experience each artist has woven into them. In many of these artworks, time is integral to their reference to the disruptions and degradation humans have wrought on the Earth. We are now experiencing different kinds of time in our collective awareness. Gradual changes over the centuries are now accelerating very fast. Changes are visible within our lifetimes and even within seasons. Time in the urgent need to slow climate change as quickly as possible. Time in the projections by scientists of climate effects into the near and far future. Time in the time it takes to regenerate a natural domain devastated by human abuse. We are being forced to grasp different kinds of time, accustomed as we have been to seeing, thinking and behaving in short-term ways, oblivious to the longer-term impacts of our actions. We are living in a time that makes us simultaneously aware of geological time, evolutionary time, biological time, oceanic time, the timing of seasons, the timing of a monsoon, and the impacts of humans in our time on Earth. Using the metaphor of exquisite corpse calls into question the finite life and even the mortality of our beloved rivers. Will we help them regenerate and renew or will they diminish and die, as some already have?

The first exhibition of Exquisite River took place at Ely Center for Contemporary Art in New Haven, Connecticut, USA, April 14 – June 2, 2024. The project is available to travel to other venues.In the gallery, the artworks were hung separately to create a flow. In the digital version they were linked into one long river. The following selection from among the twenty artworks provides different visions of rivers and of time.

Rosalyn Driscoll, Cinefoil, 2023, aluminum foil, 25 x 34 x 2 inches

Continue reading full article here

September 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Sun, 01 Sep 2024 14:37:26 GMT

September 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is Here

The Soil Factory: Lasting Change Starts Just Below Our Feet, interview with Johannes Lehmann

Sat, 24 Aug 2024 15:49:51 GMT

Portrait of Johannes Lehmann from “Research and Restore: How Cornell Scientists are Conserving Earth’s Resources” in Cornell University's Medium, image by Jason Koski, UREL

Lasting Change Starts Just Below Our Feet: Johannes Lehmann offers rich soil to grow our planet’s thriving future through study, creativity, and implementation

By Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Johannes Lehmann’s depth of research into soil’s unique contributions to climate change, and it's potentials for circular economy and sustainability expands from microbiology, to carbon sequestration, and, now, into collaborations with creative minds. He runs the Lehmann Lab at Cornell University, which specializes in implementations and applications related to soil health in both “managed and natural ecosystems” scenarios. Applying this work at the “Soil Factory” in Ithaca, NY, everyone from farmers to scientists to artists and entrepreneurs, are welcome to fertile ground for collaboration and novel solution building.

For those interested in getting involved, here 's the website:
https://www.thesoilfactory.org

The Soil Factory building at Cornell University via organization's website

Johannes, your research reveals how interwoven soil remediation and related climate policy are and how creativity can act as an avenue for scientific understanding. How do these topics interact most effectively?

Generating or creating questions is an extremely important step in science, and a tremendously understudied and undervalued aspect. We need to look at new policies supporting climate change mitigation and adaptation, with new questions. Soil remediation and climate change mitigation are obviously related, as more organic carbon resides in soils than in all global vegetation and the atmosphere combined.

It sounds like soil health has many implications for the future thriving of our planet! Your work as a soil scientist addresses some of this by expanding beyond microbial and geoecological analysis and entering the world of climate action plans and policy. What changes are necessary for the future of soil and ourselves?

Recognition of the potential role of soils in climate change mitigation have increased steadily since 2015. This is good news. The way forward now comes in forms of a healthy and honest carbon market that rewards practices that promote soil health, and technology and regulation that allow cost-effective and environmentally-friendly carbon and nutrient recycling. Soil as a public good has to be discussed.

Cover art for Johannes Lehmann’s et Al book on Biochar for Environmental Management, Science and Technology, And: Johannes Lehmann’s Interview with Diego Footer for the podcast “In Search of Soil” July, 2021

Recycling, environmentally-friendly, regulation, mitigation... Sounds like sustainable practices! How does your research inform your sustainability mission for overall planet health?

Yes, and any sustainability approach (shying away from the word ‘solution’) has to adopt a systems view,- recognizing tradeoffs and human decision making ; soil as a complex system means that non-linear responses have to be captured in our decision support systems. This also means that we have to co-create innovative soil practices and circular economy platforms at scale of implementation,- with farmers, with NGOs, with industry.

Event documentation from The Soil Factory's multi-disciplinary meeting on Pyrosis, August 2021

A collaborative approach! As a passionate circular economy advocate, myself, this is wonderful to hear. I would love to hear more about how a thriving future without waste may begin with our soils and soil practices.

Yes, I do think a circular economy view is key, what that means in detail is to be examined carefully, beyond a buzzword. Nature-based solutions have to play and can play a part, but not on their own. That does not mean we should not increase our efforts and examine its potential at scale of implementation.

Image from the Soil Factory website

And, the potential for that implementation is dependent on those policy shifts, right? As an international spokesperson previously based in Germany and now in the US, you have worked in two culturally opposed climate cultures: one where sustainability is a fully integrated and widespread national goal and another that is in many places still skeptical of climate change and sustainability. How has your experience been working in both cultural climates? What have been some challenges? Rewards?

Soil and any environmental health aspects have been supported to a greater extent by governments and by the broad public in Europe than in the US, for a variety of reasons. And yet, the entrepreneurial and innovative spirit of many farmers in the US are paving the way for sound soil management nonetheless.

Image from the Soil Factory website

That's great news and you are already contributing to this effort! You have founded a space for collaboration called “The Soil Factory” to incubate new solutions through art, science, and sustainability. What have been some highlights in this project and what do you hope for its future?

Always a work in process, and requiring the buy-in of everyone. In-person collaboration, joint ideation, and just trying things out together. Much of the experimentation was only possible after we left the university, with intriguing lessons to be learned about undisciplining the university.

Thank you so much for taking the time, Johannes! You have offered important insights and allowed new perspectives on this complex earth beneath our feet.

August 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Thu, 01 Aug 2024 14:03:07 GMT

August 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Sustain(ability) & the Art Studio course with Anna Chapman - Fall 2024

Tue, 09 Jul 2024 01:15:17 GMT

Online Course for Members

October 19, 2024 - January 4, 2025

DEADLINE to register August 15, 2024

This is our fifth course designed exclusively for ecoartspace members that will prepare artists to develop ways of thinking about sustainability in their practice, both conceptually and physically. Participants will learn how to wildcraft art materials, a practice that requires one to deepen their relationship with land, creativity, and self. Artists will also be invited to think critically about their relationship to place, materiality and voice in a time of socio-ecological destabilization. Through lectures, discussions, creation, and sharing, implications of a bioregional perspectives alongside the function of art to inform will be considered, and what a grounded and meaningful art practice can entail today.

All classes will be held on Saturdays. The first three sessions will be held October and November from 2-4pm EST, the fourth session in December with artists presentations, and the final session in January with roundtable discussions. Participants will create a project during the course.

This online course is taught by Anna Chapman with guest presenters (below).

Course Schedule

I - Intro to Art and Sustainability - 2 - 4pm ET, Saturday, October 19th

- Sustainability as a standalone concept

- Historical background and the function of art

- The local and the global

- Sustainability: an issue of materials

- Circular systems

- Sustainable art in the city

- Sustainable art in under-resourced contexts

II - Art Processes and Sustainability - 2 - 4pm ET, Saturday, October 26th

- Visiting artist from ecoartspace (((TBD)))

- Painting processes: paints, inks, & watercolors

- Charcoal

- Natural dyes

- Papermaking

- Found & recycled materials

III - Objectives, Relationships and Alliances - 2 - 4pm ET, Saturday, November 2nd

- Visiting artist from ecoartspace (((Leah Mata Fragua, Northern Chumash)))

- Establishing needs

- Establishing our own SDGs

- Interbeing

- Local relationships and alliances

- Developing ideas around sustainability

- Action plan (students develop a project from a choice board)

VI - Progress Presentations- 2 - 5 pm ET, Saturday, December 7th

- Participants share the research and progress of their projects and receive feedback from class and instructor

V - Presentations - 2 - 5pm ET, Saturday, January 11th

- Participants present and debrief about their projects.

Cost is $375 per member, membership fee can be waved if needed, three scholarships are available at 50% off. Approximately 12 participants max.

Email info@ecoartspace.org to participate

July 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Mon, 01 Jul 2024 13:55:48 GMT

July 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Bridging Divides to Grow Resilience: Interview with Leonardo Martinez-Diaz

Sun, 30 Jun 2024 16:03:01 GMT

Left: Leonardo Martinez-Diaz at The Crow’s Nest by Vivian Doering via BMore Art

Bridging Divides to Grow Resilience Through Expression: Leonardo Martinez-Diaz’s vision for artist’s crucial role in environmental and climate policies and politics at The Crow’s Nest, Baltimore, MD

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Leonardo Martinez-Diaz’s accomplishments in politics are inspiring, as is his dedication and deep belief in the influential power of art to create lasting impacts and change. Standing between the worlds of policy and fostering creative visionaries, Leonardo is an exemplary agent for change both on the ground and in the boardroom. Opening this fall: The Crow’s Nest in the Bromo Arts District of Baltimore, Maryland, fosters cross-disciplinary collaboration to activate the power of creativity to make the difference in environmental and community resilience. Working with ecoartspace for the opening exhibition this fall (apply here), topics of social ecology will welcome a new force in the downtown district; one that will shed important light on the power of bridging disciplinary divides to build resilience to best confront the challenges this new century brings.

I want to start by thanking you, Leonardo, for taking the time to share with us at ecoartspace. It is inspiring to see such an influential expert and politician practicing what they preach. I wonder: how does your position allow you to act as a bridge in order to make a lasting impact both through policy and on the ground? Do these elements of your work cross-pollinate?

My work in government has enabled me to understand what policy and politics can do to tackle global environmental challenges — and what they can’t. For policy to become more ambitious and match the urgency the crisis requires, we need an educated citizenry that demands change. Without that push, good policy ideas stay on shelves collecting dust, or they become laws that are never implemented effectively.

Art is a way of engaging everyone in a larger, more inclusive, and more intelligible conversation, one that can produce the informed and motivated citizens who demand better policies from government and business leaders.

It is heartwarming to hear this stated so clearly and I share this perspective as many artists do. What role do you think artists in particular are able to play in developing new policy, especially when related to environmental and sustainability topics?

Artists and their work have a crucial role to play in environmental and climate policy and politics. Art can help people grasp the nature and scale of these vast challenges. Art can enable us to come to terms emotionally with them and to channel anger and frustration in productive ways. Also, art can help build support around particular policy approaches or proposals, and it can enable us to envision new worlds, to visualize alternate realities that exist beyond the narrow confines of what is politically possible at any one time.

You will soon open The Crow’s Nest in Baltimore, Maryland, which will foster cross-disciplinary projects between artists, scientists, policy makers, planners, activists, etc. In a recent interview you described your aspiration for the space to create “a diverse creative community whose members can inspire one another, collaborate, experiment, and cross-pollinate ideas.” What is your vision for the kinds of projects and ideas that cross-disciplinary collaboration uniquely achieves?

I don’t have any preconceived notions of what those working at the Crow's Nest will produce or of what will come out of this experiment in creativity. What I hope is that the creative output will push boundaries and challenge and inspire us. The goal of the Crow’s Nest is to provide a space where creators feel free to explore and experiment and share ideas, producing original work that helps us view the world in a different way.

Your open mindedness to creativity is very freeing. What inspired you to advocate for this creative and diverse vision?

After many years of working in government and nonprofits, I am convinced that we also need culture and the arts to help our country tackle the twin challenges of climate change and environmental injustice. Charts and graphs and political discourse are not enough to educate and convince people in our polarized society. We also need to engage people’s imagination, their fears, hopes, dreams, and aspirations. The arts are a powerful way to do that.

Does the Baltimore location and the Bromo district’s residents present especially fertile ground for this kind of inspiration and boundary pushing?

Baltimore was a natural choice, because it is close to the center of policy and politics, but it also has a vibrant arts community and world-class cultural institutions, like the Peabody Conservatory, the Maryland Institute College of Art, and the Baltimore Museum of Art. The city also supports the arts and its arts districts. Baltimore remains a place where experimentation and risk-taking is still possible.

Considering potential risks, how does the changing climate and related environmental risks contribute to your considerations investing in this location? And specifically, in the resilience of the Baltimore creative community?

Baltimore is actually a lower-risk location than other metropolitical areas, including New York, Philadelphia, and Los Angeles. The top threats here are heat waves, high winds, and tornados. Heat waves are what concerns me most, as they can kill more people than any other peril, and they hit the elderly and low-income communities hardest. Heat islands overlap with poor and historically-marginalized communities, which often have little green space, which lowers temperatures. I hope the art produced or exhibited at the Crow’s Nest will engage not only the global dimension of environmental challenges, but also with local aspects and their solutions.

Lastly, you are planning an exciting upcoming exhibition called "the ecology of freedom" in collaboration with ecoartspace on Murray Bookchin’s free nature ideas. What are your hopes for this exhibition to support and activate this goal of nature's and human's self-determination to the goals of environmental and community resilience?

My hope is that the exhibit will allow artists and those who experience the art to explore some of Murray Bookchin’s revolutionary ideas. I hope the artworks will make some of these concepts, such as free nature and hierarchy, come alive for the viewer and enable them to relate these ideas to the struggles, challenges and solutions they see daily in their communities.

Apply For the Upcoming Exhibition

Thinking and Moving with Trees by Rainey Straus

Sat, 29 Jun 2024 13:36:08 GMT

Rainey Straus, Blown Away, 5 x 10 feet, acrylic and watercolor on Yupo paper, 2022

The following pieces were developed for a public event in conjunction with the Old Growth Project, shown at Marin MOCA over the spring/summer of 2024. The gathering combined an artist talk by Rainey Straus with movement exploration led by Aline Wachsmuth to explore the creative process behind the painting series and somatically experience the life cycle of a Redwood tree.

Thinking with the Trees

Rainey Straus, June 17, 2024

The Old Growth Project

The Old Growth Project started with a walk in the woods, specifically in Prairie Creek and Redwood National Parks up north in Humbolt County. But truthfully, this project started more than 30 years ago when I moved to California. Although I’ve spent many years here enjoying the great outdoors — I’ve never become “of this place,” I’ve stayed on the beautiful surface. So core to this investigation is my desire to grow more intimate with my home — to inhabit this specific place, especially as the climate changes before my eyes.

The paintings in this show are essentially artifacts of a relationship-building practice. They may appear “tree-like,” but they also hold all the stories, experiences, and learnings that emerged over the past two years of research and making. These paintings carry multiple questions, grief, loss, and tremendous awe and wonder.

At the end of the day, as Robin Wall Kimmer speaks to so beautifully in Braiding Sweetgrass, this project is an effort to become kin to the beings I share space with.

The Importance of Stories

This notion of narrative or story is very important to me in framing this work. The thinking of so many writers has nourished the Old Growth Project. Still, related to story, I look to the work of Jeremy Lent (The Patterning Instinct), Amitav Ghosh (The Nutmeg’s Curse), Indigenous scientist/scholars Robin Wall-Kimmerer (Braiding Sweetgrass), and Tyson Yunkaporta (Sand Talk, Right Story/Wrong Story) to guide my thinking.

From this research, I take away three critical concepts:

The First:
Stories are the foundation of culture; they hold the values that drive our actions and behaviors. Stories can be held in the land.

Second:
We are entrenched in the “wrong story,” a story of separation, extraction, monoculture, and human dominance.

I think we all know the outcomes of this story, so I won’t go deeply into what is not news to any of you.

Third:
We need to live from different stories, diverse stories, new stories that incorporate the wise use of modern technologies, ancient stories that model the right relationship with the more-than-human world, and stories that reflect care and reciprocity.

Continue reading here

100th IUSS Soil Congress and Il Conventino Pop-up

Tue, 25 Jun 2024 18:29:13 GMT

100th IUSS Soil Congress and Il Conventino Pop-up, A Report from Florence, Italy by Patricia Watts

This trip to Italy was three years in the making, meeting monthly for our Soil Dialogues Zoom sessions. With over 100 ecoartspace members who are interested in soils, during the last year and a half, twenty-seven of them decided to take an active role in responding to a provocation to bury textiles in soil as an aesthetic and scientific inquiry. Our in-house soil scientist and artist, Rhonda Janke, shared this textile burial method with our Dialogues and offered to do DNA testing for some of the burial sites. Alexandra Toland, co-editor of Field to Palette: Dialogues on Soil and Art in the Anthropocene (2018) and curator of Gaia Glossary, included in We Are Compost / Composting the We at Centre for Contemporary Arts in Glasgow (2022), suggested that participants could present their findings at the celebration of the International Union of Soil Sciences (IUSS) 100th Soil Congress, in Florence, Italy (May 2024).

Over last summer and fall, ten of our members prepared papers to present at this special 100th Soil Congress, they buried their textiles, then transported them to Italy for a pop-up exhibition at Il Conventino. The former monastery, which Jo Pearl from London, found for us through a friend, was perfect for our needs. By January 2024, we were scheduling flights and finding hostels, hotels and Airbnbs for our week in Firenze. Some arrived early to go to Venice for the Biennale, others waited until after the conference to check out “the Olympics of the art world,” this year titled Foreigners Everywhere. The congress began Sunday, May 19, for three consecutive days, kicking-off with 1,400 attendees from around the world. For several of us, it was about a 25-minute walk one way to the Palazzo Dei Congressi near the train station. Luckily, there were gelaterias along the way to keep us cool.

The three-day congress was jam-packed with incredible opportunities to attend sessions where you could learn everything from black soils to soil regeneration, soil health indicators, and more. There was a soil literacy session where communication and community engagement were discussed. Author and presenter Nikola Patzel, who wrote the book “Cultural Understanding of Soils,” presented a “soil vision” by Hildegard of Bingen, painted in the 12th century. The vision was included in Bingen’s manuscript “Liber Divinorum Operum,” completed in 1174, which conveyed her ideas about the universe and is preserved in the State Library of Lucca in Italy. There was a session on mulching that addressed prototyping alternatives to plastic films used in vegetable production to reduce tillage and suppress weeds. These films are made with biopolymers rather than fossil fuels and can also serve to release fertilizers, though they are not yet commercially available. There was a session on anthropogenic soils and information on a mass worm death in India due to increasing temperatures. Other member favorites included a session on the soil microbiome gut-fecal connection, and understanding how climate change is affecting soil conditions for growing food. And, there was an experiment presented where warmer climate inside a biosphere was monitored to see how it would affect peat fields.

The majority of the humanities sessions were scheduled for Tuesday, the last day of the congress, and most of our participants presented in the final time slot. A few of us set up the Soil Dialogues pop-up exhibition in the morning, installing over fifty works by thirty artists in three hours. We were situated in a ceramics studio, where we used drying racks to hang textiles from, invented hanging devices from the tops of temporary walls and over window shutters, and laid several works on a long turquoise table placed on squares of Kraft paper with corresponding numbers on dots that matched printed checklists in both English and Italian.

At noon, at the Palazzo dei Congressi, the soil work of Italian artist Samantha Passanti was presented by contemporary art critic and curator Davide Silvioli who discussed her work immersing fabrics in a rich ochre pigment found in soils at a former Sienna quarry in Bagnoli, which operated from the late 1700s to the 1800s. His talk, titled "Oltreterra Art Project: Artistic, cultural, environmental and cross-disciplinary project on Raw Sienna,” was included in the session titled “Soil, soul and society: transformative pathways in soil care practices.”

Alexandra Toland presented on three panels on Tuesday, including “The Sky Inside the Soil,” which is a multi-phase, co-authored, research-creation project developed by Toland and Caroline Ektander that explores the rhizosphere as a place of trans-mediation in an environment of extreme toxicity. Toland also presented for the “Epistemologies and Ontologies of Soil: Towards New Politics of Soil Knowledge” panel, her paper titled “Soil Personhood, on the possibility of ped-ontological protection of soil beings and livelihoods,” and for the “Soil, Soul and Society: Transformative Pathways in Soil Care Practices” panel, she presented a new publication project in the making, the “Language of Soil” with Anna Krzywoszynska.

Rhonda Janke, Deanna Pindell, Jwan Ibbini and Patricia Watts convened and moderated a session titled “Soil Health from Multiple Perspectives,” which was presented in two separate panels in the rooftop Belvedere room with an incredible view of Florence. The first panel included Janke’s introduction to “A brief history of the buried cotton cloth assay use in science and art and current comparisons of diverse sites using metagenomic indicators.” She also unfurled a long data set on the DNA soil testing sampled from the participants located between Oman, Europe and the U.S. Pindell presented “Burial Shroud: a multispecies and ecofeminist perspective on human/microbial relationships in soil fertility and decomposition, as expressed through art.” She also presented Allie Horick’s Soil Quilt, made of soils from fourteen of her families’ ancestral cemeteries and patterned after her great-grandmother’s quilts.

This was followed by Ibbini’s talk titled “Buried Cloth Technique: Soil Microbial Art as a Teaching Tool for Laboratories.” With her students they conducted experiments by adding toxic substances, and sugar to the fabric before burial, which accelerated decomposition and affected resulting colors. The concluding panel was “Two Painters’ Collaboration with Soil, A Search for Understanding,” presented by Andrea Bersaglieri who shared watercolors on paper by Pamela Casper, featuring colorful underground worlds with circular insets of buried fabric on which she embroidered microbial life. The works mimic a microscopic view and channel generations of women’s work, typically undervalued—analogous to the way soil life has been undervalued. Bersaglieri also presented her paintings and drawings of clumps of soil on the soiled textiles, incorporating inks made from organic matter found within the soil buried in the artists’ backyard garden, in Los Angeles, California.

For the second session on “Soil Health from Multiple Perspectives,” I gave a brief history titled “Ecological artists engaging soils as both medium and non-human collaborator,” including Italian Arte Povera artists Peno Pascali and Giovanni Anselmo and post-war painter and farmer Gianfranco Baruchello, as well as several early American artists working with soils, and the buried textiles of ecoartspace member participants unable to attend, participants of the Soil Dialogues. Anne Yoncha presented the sound work of Kim V. Goldsmith and her own sound work in a talk titled “Sound of Soils: Two approaches to a multisensory understanding of soil.” She outlined how they each used different processes to explore their respective soil microbiome communities and shared the resulting sounds. Next was Jo Pearl, who presented Cindy Stockton Moore’s experimental short video Refuge in dialog with her own film Unearthed for the panel titled “Animating Soil Health: Breathing Life into Soil, Campaigning through Stopmotion Film.” She highlighted the origins and meaning of the practice of animation, defending its dynamic ability for bringing the hidden soil biome to life.

Three scientific posters were also presented, displayed around the perimeter of the main lecture hall for the duration of the congress (a strategy more ecoartists should be participating in at science conferences). Saskia Jorda illustrated her buried cloth experiment at two locations in Arizona, and included shoes or slippers with attached “mycelial roots'' sprouting from the bottoms, which she made from the textiles buried near her home. Her slippers and the poster titled “Rooted: soil health and memory of place,” were displayed at Il Coventino following the congress. Another collaborative poster by Anne Yoncha titled “Suon Laulu (Song of the Swamp): Soil Data Sonification of Post-Human Landscapes,” presented data from a graphic score, choral performance, and programmed video visualization that sonified 160 years of soil data from post-extracted peatlands in Finland. And, Ibbini’s daughter, Nada Hatamleh, from Oman, summarizing both historic and contemporary use of soil for design and construction in her poster titled “Harbony beneath our structure: bridging sustainable architecture and soil science in a changing world.”

During the same time, in another area of the Palazzo dei Congressi, Maru Garcia presented her talk, “Under the Concrete: Explorations of Soil Biodiversity through Art and Science in the Los Angeles River,” a multi-year large-scale project led by Lauren Bon + Metabolic Studio in California. Garcia has been a Metabolic Studio Fellow for the last two years, and presented this project in the session titled “Soil sciences entering into transdisciplinary research.” Bon sent six microscopic images of microbial soil organisms found in the river, printed on colorful textiles, which were hung on cordage up high diagonally across the ceramics room at Il Conventino. Garcia also displayed postcards from her project Prospering Backyards, which has provided free soil testing for lead to residents of Los Angeles County.

After the presentations, and after passing out flyers in both English and Italian at the Palazzo Dei Congressi for our Soil Dialogues pop-up exhibition, we rushed back to Il Conventino to welcome the soil scientists. For three hours, we had a full house of rotating guests. We were lucky that the venue had a cafe adjacent to the ceramics studio, where visitors could also get dinner. There was also a large courtyard where visitors continued conversing on the power of art to create an aesthetic context for discussion on soils.

Other artists in the pop-up included: from Australia, printed images of burials and exhumation of soiled textiles by Annette Nykiel, Renata Buziak and a quilted banner by Cassandra Tytler. From the US, unaltered buried textiles by Ashton Phillips along the Los Angeles River, and by Ruth Wallen four textiles from two different sites to measure soil health post-fire restoration in California, and a piece of buried Birch tree bark composed into an artwork by Stephanie Garon; remaining threads from a vermicomposted America flag by Christopher Lin; a painted textile by Priscilla Stadler mapping the area near Newtown Creek, in New York City where she buried her fabric; a degraded soiled embroidered textile with a nematode, juxtaposed with a printed before picture by Valerie Constantino; a monograph of bio-char on paper by Erin Wiersma; and from Canada, raw soiled fabric buried by Grace Grothaus; and a soya ink on cotton with the word soil on a dinner napkin that had been buried in roadside by Jill Price; and, from London, a recently exhumed textile with paintings of plastic forms buried in a community garden by Susana Soares Pinto; several raw soiled textiles buried in two locations by Kim Norton, and two tied canvas pieces buried with food waste or compost by Helen Elizabeth.

There was also a table with take-aways including brochures, postcards, business cards, and books for sale including Clive Adams and Daro Montag's book Soil Culture: Bring the Arts Down to Earth, Samantha Passaniti's Oltreterra Art Project, and Kim V. Goldsmith's Good For Nothing Dirt & Subterranean Sernade.

Exhausted from the Congress and reception (not to mention the time change), we went back to Il Conventino the next morning at 11am to welcome local artists. And, in the afternoon, we held another reception for the participants of the Art & Soil Tour, led by the IUSS Soil Congress. Many attending scientists left Florence right after the Congress, and others went on tours in other parts of Italy. We did, however, find a few scientists who stayed longer and came to our post-congress events, including on Thursday morning, where we talked with two soil scientists about the differences between artists and scientists and their processes of observation and visualization, which we concluded were not that different.

Jo Pearl wrapped up the three-day pop-up with a clay workshop in the afternoon where we formed soil microbes based on illustrations and our imaginations to collaboratively make a sculptural 3D bacterial biome. The participants were all ecoartspace members, so we used this time to share what we had learned from the soil congress and our interactions with scientists. We discussed future plans for a book documenting this journey—our working title is “Burial Shroud: a multispecies and ecofeminist perspective on human/microbial relationships in soil fertility and decomposition, as expressed through art.” And we considered additional possibilities to do pop-ups at upcoming conferences. This led us to consider how we could execute a collaborative work–an exquisite corpse style assembly of textiles. We have already started laying out a schedule to accomplish this over the next year.

The Soil Dialogues will continue through 2024 and beyond and we are looking forward to publishing the ecoartspace annual book titled Soils Turn in 2025, a directory for curators and scientists to locate artists for exhibitions and collaborations. Soils Turn will be co-edited by myself and Dr. Alexandra Regan Toland, Professor of Art and Research at Bauhaus University, Weimar, Germany.

Of course, we will follow up on our contacts made during this time in Italy and look forward to more opportunities for creating new ways of seeing and engaging with soils.

Sketching Soundscapes with Zoë Sadokierski

Thu, 06 Jun 2024 04:05:54 GMT

Image: Listening Party, Zoë Sadokierski, 2024

Sketching Soundscapes

Wednesday 5 June, 12:30 – 1:30 pm
Waraburra Nura, Indigenous Plant Garden
L6 (balcony), Building 1, UTS

In this free workshop, Zoë Sadokierski led participants through a guided listening experience, followed by a simple soundscape sketching exercise. The activity encouraged people to slow down, listen and reflect on ways to engage with the natural world, even in a hectic urban environment.

Read full blog post with images here

Nature was quiet on World Environment Day, Kim V. Goldsmith

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 16:32:40 GMT

Nature was quiet on World Environment Day: The Stories Behind the Silence

published June 5, 2024 by Kim V. Goldsmith

Outdoor events involving technical equipment are always a gamble. Winter announced her presence early this year in the Central West of New South Wales, cloaked in cold southerly winds, showers, and overcast days with plunging temperatures in the week leading up to World Environment Day 2024 on 5 June. Of course, I had planned an outdoor listening event for the occasion.

I was part of a program of place-based interventions across the country by members of the ecoartspace Australian Dialogues, each of us marking World Environment Day by creating hopeful actions to address the issues impacting the environments where we live and work. This is the first of a series of events we're planning over the next 12 to 18 months.

An urban setting was chosen for my Lunchtime Listening Lab event—not an environment I usually work in, or my personal preference. However, I believe an intervention requires one to go where the people are rather than expecting them to come to me. My event location was on the lawns at the front of the Western Plains Cultural Centre in the regional city of Dubbo—facing a busy street and close to the path leading into the gallery museum complex’s popular café.

To read the full post go to the artists' blog here

A Listening Ritual with Clarice Yuen

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 15:54:07 GMT

A Listening Ritual with Clarice Yuen, 10am AWST

@clariceyuen

#worldenvironmentday2024

This simple recording is for all earthlings to use at their leisure for reading, drawing, or meditation. This event explores the ritual of listening, moving beyond human language to embrace the subtle interactions within our everyday surroundings. For instance, garden peas communicate with their environment through nonverbal networks. Beyond our languages, we also engage in communication through smell, touch, and other sensory experiences. I will remain still in my garden, recording its soundscapes. Perhaps you can share your sound recording so I can enjoy a different corner in the earth. This event was part of an ongoing program through the ecoartspace Australian Dialogues.

#easAUSDialogue#worldenvironmentday2024#世界環境日

Dungog Listening Station by Jane Richens

Wed, 05 Jun 2024 14:32:59 GMT

World Environment Day 2024 – Wed 5 June

Sound Works by Jane Richens

Thanks to all who took some time to tune into sounds of nature at the Dungog Listening Station. It was my listening action for Ecoartspace’s Australian Dialogues event ‘Place-based interventions in three time zones’ – one of 17 events across the country.

11, + Leon the dog, stopped by the Listening Station for an extended period of time – listening to and watching multiple audio and video works created in local forests. It led to many conversations about sound, nature, equipment, consequences of human interactions and how aware we are of human noise pollution. Particularly of interest were the two different passive acoustic recording devices – how they worked and what could be done with the recordings.

Read full report here

June 2024 Newsletter for subscribers / non-members

Sat, 01 Jun 2024 11:18:58 GMT

June 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

May 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Wed, 01 May 2024 15:40:15 GMT

May 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Transmissions in Austin, Texas: ecoartspace eclipse pop-up event

Wed, 01 May 2024 14:38:00 GMT

Transmissions in Austin, Texas: ecoartspace eclipse pop-up event

Report by Patricia Watts

For our ecoartspace 2024 annual show, I worked with over twenty-five artists from across the State of Texas to create a pop-up exhibition on the weekend of the solar eclipse in early April, in the path of totality in Austin.

We’ve only had a handful of members in Texas since 2020, and since this unique celestial event was to happen there, it was an excellent opportunity to explore the work of artists making ecological work in the number one state for energy production (primarily oil) in the US. I wondered: could there be progressive Texas artists who want to make a difference? Well, the answer is definitely yes.

Jamal Hussain, a new media artist from near Austin, was in Santa Fe for the CURRENTS Festival in June 2023 and reached out for a meeting. He mentioned that he would like to gather an eco focused show. At that moment, the seed was sewn. By August, I started rounding up our then-current Texas members via Zoom. Hussain located the perfect venue for us, Canopy Austin. By the end of last year there were several new Texas members ready to contribute to the Transmissions event.

By mid-February this year, we had multiple submissions of works by 27 artists, all from Texas, except two who would travel from New York and Boston for the eclipse. Long established artists/members and Houston photographers Krista Leigh Steinke and Erika Blumenfeld were invited to select the show. At least half of the works were lens-based, along with some sculpture, painting, illustration, drawing, sound, installation and video works. With an exciting selection of moving image works, Steinke, Blumenfeld and Hussain proposed to turn the back room into the Cosmos Cinema, a darkened space with seating where visitors could watch a loop of six works under 45 minutes in length.

The Cinema featured video works by Steinke, Blumenfeld and Hussain, also included Alyce Santoro, Virginia Lee Montgomery, and Abinati Meza. Houston photographer Jake Eshelman, who contributed two incredible “Luciforms” pigment prints of bioluminescent glow worms for the show, was invited to moderate a panel with the video artists (all except Santoro, former Texas artist now living in New Mexico), where they discussed their featured works. Eshelman stated after the show:

It was a pleasure to moderate the Cosmos Cinema panel discussion. I thoroughly enjoyed the diversity of the works at the center of our conversation, especially how the featured artists bring such different and complementary perspectives to create fascinating dialogues around our relationships to, with, and within our cosmos. In addition, I was particularly inspired by the generosity of the conversation, as panelists specifically welcomed members of the audience to weigh in with their own ideas and experiences. The atmosphere we collectively created in the room felt very in-step with the spirit during the eclipse, as millions of people in (and beyond) the path of totality took a moment to be together and consider the awe, wonder, and beauty of our world.

Margaux Crump, Houston artist who contributed two small ethereal pigment prints, also did eclipse tarot readings in the afternoon for a couple hours. When I asked if there was a reoccurring theme in her readings, Crump stated:

Unfortunately I can't speak to a theme from the readings because my readings are confidential. I can say that eclipses offer opportunities to expand our perspectives and become more conscious of our possible paths forward. Tarot is reflective: as we engage the deck, it mirrors back into us. Like the cards, we are living ecosystems whose inner worlds can be explored through image, symbol, and story. During the eclipse readings, hope spoke louder than grief.

Outdoors were hanging textile solar works by Samantha Melvin, a sound piece by Andrew Weathers, and an interactive performative solar printmaking activity led by Lubbock artist Carol Flueckiger.

The pop-up took place during Canopy’s First Saturday monthly event, which meant the place was filled with visitors. Flueckiger took advantage of the attendance and created a collaborative cyanotype in celebration of the upcoming solar eclipse. When I asked her about her expectations and the general interest of participants, Flueckiger stated:

Expectations for this interactive cyanotype demonstration were to have a shared group celebration of the eclipse by staging a mock sun/moon dynamic. The sunlight created a blue “sunburn” on a large light sensitive fabric (96 x 102 inches). Local collected rocks operated as moons, which blocked the sun from reaching the light sensitive fabric. The effect created a cosmic pattern. Toy bicycles were also added to block the sunlight. The effect was an imaginary bicycle ride through the cosmos. This narrative is a cosmic version of my mixed media bicycle prints about local daily weather forecasts. The results were as surprising and perfectly imperfect as a devised theatre production. The rocks did not disappoint in created a cosmic print. The sun, was shy in its appearance causing us to overexpose the print and lose some of the toy bicycle details. Note for future: sunlight is incredibly powerful on cloudy days. We also learned that the janitor sink at Canopy is a great place to rinse the print to fix the image. And the windy warm day dried the print as it hung on the breezeway railing.

About a dozen Participants joined in assembling or watching the rocks and bicycles. Together we watched the magical process of cyanotype chemical changing color from yellow to grey during sun exposure. We had fun celebrating the sun and moon dynamic. Our motto during the workshop was: Add Sun, Rocks, water, cyanotype and bicycles to get a cosmic bicycle path of totality. We felt connected to the sun, the moon, the sky and each other as we planned and assembled and exposed this extra-large cyanotype print. It was a great vibe.

Indoors for four thirty-minute sessions throughout the day, led by Boston artist Faith Johnson, was a somatic meditation work, Arc of Infinity: a meditation on darkness and light. Recalling the event after returning to the east coast, Johnson stated:

The first meditation and interactive installation was focused on sitting with darkness as mystery and infinite possibilities - a sort of cosmic widening of the lens of consciousness. The second floor installation and meditation was focused on light and calling in what we desire for the future - visioning with hope - from this place of possibility. This is a sort of re-focusing of the lens - the way light brings form into being from the darkness.

Both Darkness and Light meditations were beautifully attended. Each participant explored personal and collective connection and meaning to the guided meditations. During the darkness meditation one participant saw herself covered with stars, another connected with long gone relatives, and others felt contained as if in amniotic fluid. All seem to feel a gentleness to the guided visualizations. During the light meditation one participant was surprised that she felt more at peace and expansive during the darkness meditation and more anxiety around calling in the future for humanity and the earth, while another participant felt a strong, creative, and hopeful feminine energy. Each individual journey added to the richness of the group and perhaps sparked a new connection to the mystery of change as it arcs through deep time.

In the early afternoon, we welcomed Cymene Howe, Professor of Anthropology at Rice University in Houston, who is co-editor of the recent publication Solarities. Howe generously gave a passionate reading and following a book signing. You can download a copy of her book, which holds a compilation of intriguing essays about the sun, for free here.

My own contribution for the event was moon spell cookies and moon milk (made with oat or almond milk with lavender simple syrup) and sun tea (made with the sun and elderberry syrup with spices). Both drinks were garnished with culinary lavender and Santa Fe bee pollen. The cookies, which were handmade (spelt and almond flour) by myself and photo-based artist DM Witman and "revealing the invisible" artist Heather L Johnson, had crushed purple basil on them, a spell for protection.

It was a full day of inspiration and conversations among eco artists who arrived from areas around Dallas, Houston, Lubbock, McAllen and Austin to participate. I kept hearing members say they felt like it was a conference of sorts. And, of course, this was Saturday, so we took down the show that night and the next morning, then everyone situated themselves around the "hill country" west of Austin to view the total solar eclipse through the cloudy skies on Monday, April 8. It is always spectacular to lose full sunlight in the middle of the day. And I know many of our members in the Midwest and Northeast were able to connect with the light and dark of the cosmos that day.

I would like to acknowledge and thank Austin photographer Elizabeth Chiles, who opened her home to everyone the night before for pizza. And to say that, I hope all of our members, in areas far and wide, feel encouraged and connected to each other for support in developing their practices to address the ecological issues at hand. I think our Texas cohort is already off and running.

To view the entire Transmissions exhibition online, including 88 of our members, go here

Transmissions from Lisa B. Woods on Vimeo.

Member Spotlight l Bia Gayotto

Mon, 29 Apr 2024 16:44:18 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 29, 2024

This week we recognize Bia Gayotto, and the evolution of her twenty plus year “place-based” practice examining ideas of interconnectedness between individuals and their environment.

"The Towers Apartments, 2003 (above) was the first collaborative project I made with members of my community. For seven days, residents of a Pasadena apartment building were invited to create window patterns by turning their lights on (yes) and off (no) based on their answers to a confidential survey, revealing their personal tastes, beliefs and feelings. The light patterns reflect on the relationships between the parts and the whole, and on the importance of individual contribution to collective identity."

click images for more info

The Sea Is Not Blue / O Mar Não é Azul, 2009 (above) was shot in Terceira Island in the Azores, which played an important role on the colonization of the “New World”, including Gayotto's birthplace in Southern Brazil. The 3-screen video installation alternates views of the ocean in differing weather conditions from different points around the island, with a series of a hand flicks through photographic images that reveal my process in making the video. The audio juxtaposes sounds of the ocean with voice-over and English captions, expressing the islanders’ relationship to the sea. The work reveals the ocean as a space of interconnected-ness reflecting on issues of migration, identity and place.

O Grito/The Shout, 2019 (above) was a collaborative project inspired by Maria Felipa de Oliveira, a pioneer black women who fought against the Portuguese colonizer for Brazil’s independence in Itaparica Island, Bahia in 1823. Through multiple perspectives the video shows a group of women performing at the Convento Beach where Maria Felipa lived and fought. These resilient women belong to non-profit organizations that actively work to preserve her memory. The sequences interweave staged and improvised corporeal movements, with selected sites and natural elements used by Maria Felipa and other women to fight against the Portuguese invaders, including fire, wind, coconut fibers and native plants. In this group performance the women play real and fictional roles, paying homage to a black heroine who was at the forefront of the feminist and #BlackLivesMatter movements in Brazil. "The Shout" celebrates these women's spirit of resistance.

Forest Whisper, April 8, 2022 - present (above) is a public sound sculpture designed to amplify the rich but often unnoticed sounds of the redwood forest. The idea for this project came after learning that trees emit sounds at very low frequencies, which instilled a desire to listen and learn from them. Inspired by Erika Rothenberg’s 1984 megaphone sculpture that explores freedom of expression, Gayotto decided to make an interactive “mega-scope” that serves both as a megaphone and a naked-eye telescope, to amplify the sounds of the forest and frame its the surrounding beauty. Visitors to Gualala Arts Global Harmony Sculpture Garden in California are invited to place their ear next to the mega-scope’s small opening, close their eyes and pause for a few moments to listen to the forest. By actively listening and interpreting the forest sounds, audiences may feel a sense of peacefulness, and at the same time, reflect on their physical and spiritual connections with trees.

More than One, 2024 (below) is an experimental video installation features a group of women mushroom foragers living on the Sonoma Coast, who embody the invisible mycelia network below our feet. “More than one” means mycelium in Latin Greek, and refers to the vegetative part of a fungus, consisting of a mass of branching root-like structure. Although invisible, mycelium plays a vital role in decomposing plant material, resisting pathogens, and absorbing water and nutrient. They also help forests absorb carbon pollution, delaying the effects of global warming, and protecting our planet. Like the fungi, women are primary caregivers, helping to care for the well-being of our communities. With an open form— including montage, animation, performance, and a readers choir— the work stimulates sensory and contemplative responses, evoking the relations between wilderness and ecofeminism, activism and desire, above and below.

Bia Gayotto is a contemporary multimedia artist, curator and educator who lives/works in The Sea Ranch and Los Angeles, California. Her interdisciplinary practice includes photography, video installations, and books, and combines elements of documentation, fieldwork, performance and collaboration. Gayotto earned an MFA from the University of California, Los Angeles in 1996 and her work has been featured in many exhibitions nationally and internationally including Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA); Pasadena Museum of California Art; Orange County Museum of Art (OCMA); Fellows of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles; The Breeder Project, Athens, and Museum of Image and Sound, São Paulo, Brazil. She has been the recipient of several awards such as the City of Los Angeles (C.O.L.A) Fellowship, Investing in Artists Grant from Center for Cultural Innovation, Artists' Resource for Completion grants, and Individual Artist Grant from the Pasadena Cultural Affairs. She has participated in artistic residencies worldwide including the Banff Centre, Canada; “Threewalls” in Chicago; AIR Taipei, Taiwan; Lucas Artist Fellow at Montalvo Arts Center, Saratoga and the Sacatar Institute, Bahia, Brazil. To further her investigations Gayotto has curated several projects, including exhibitions including her most recent “Bahia Reverb: Artists & Place” co-organized by the California African American Museum and Art + Practice in Los Angeles. Gayotto has taught at California State University, Los Angeles, Art Center College of Design, Pasadena, and University of Southern California, Los Angeles.www.biagayotto.com

Image captions (top to bottom): ©Bia Gayotto, The Tower Apartments #4: Do you vote?, 2003, archival pigment photographs, set of seven, 17 3/4 x 40 inches each, made possible in part by the Pasadena Arts & Culture Commission and the City of Pasadena Cultural Affairs Division; The Sea Is Not Blue / O Mar Não é Azul, 2009, 3-channel video installation with sound, TRT 25 min., made with the City of Los Angeles 2008-2009 COLA Individual Artist Fellowship; O Grito/The Shout, 2019, video installation with sound, TRT: 11:30 minute, made possible in part by a support from the Sacatar Foundation; Forest Whisper, 2022 , redwood, 77 x 25 x 23 inches, Gualala Arts Global Harmony Sculpture Garden, California, April 8, 2022 - present; More than One, 2024, video Installation with sound, TRT 11 minites, made with the support of Investing in Artists Grant from the Center for Cultural Innovation; Portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Margaret LeJeune

Mon, 22 Apr 2024 16:03:16 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 22, 2024

This week we recognize Margaret LeJeune, and her decade plus photo-based art practice focused on climate.

The Female Mariners Project, 2013-2018 (above) investigates the lives of women who live and work on the water. Fueled by research into alternative living situations and environmentally conscious housing, this project started as an exploration of live-aboard sailors but has grown into a multidimensional conversation on gendered space, environmental concerns, and cultural tradition. These images of female captains, crew, watermen, and shipwrights challenge gendered maritime tropes such as the doting and passive mermaid and the dangerous siren.

click images for more info

Dart, 2018 (above) is a collaborative video work created with South African artist Hanien Conradie. This film documents a ritual that involves writing poetry on the surface of a river. Exploring notions of communal and ancestral pain as well as the power of the landscape to transform and heal, this work weaves together drone footage with Afrikaans and English audio recordings. This work was exhibited as part of #IAMWATER, an ecoartspace billboard exhibition in New York City in 2021. Dart was created as part of The Ephemeral River - Global Nomadic Art Project sponsored by the Center for Contemporary Art and The Natural World (CCANW), Science Walden / UNIST, YATOO, and the Korean Cultural Centre UK.

The images in LeJeune's Shifting Halo series, 2019 (above) document how climate change and logging practices are impacting the Boreal Forest. This woodland biome, also known as the Emerald Halo, circles the northern portion of the globe. The photographic works draw attention to the damage caused by clearcutting, including the release of carbon stored in the soil and trees, and the destruction of resident bird habitat. Sound waves of Boreal Chickadee calls punctuate several images in this series to silently echo the depleting number of avian species in this shifting landscape. Shifting Halo was created as part of an artist residency at the University of Notre Dame’s Environmental Research Center (UNDERC).

LeJeune's durational work, Thoreau’s Sink, 2022 (above) consists of sixty-six lumen prints arranged in a grid pattern. Made over the course of a week-long artist residency at Trout Lake Research Station, this piece documents the species present at Crystal Bog on unfixed photographic paper. These pastel, ephemeral illustrations of mosses, plants, and trees will fade over time. This time-based work is a quiet plea for the protection, conservation, and restoration of one of our most precious landscapes.

Thirteen Hours to Fall, 2018 - present (below) examines the climate crisis through investigations of contemporary and future littoral zones. This multi-media work includes collage, salted paper prints, video, and sculptural photographic objects. These works ask the viewer to bear witness to the complex history of the mid-Atlantic coast, a landscape dramatically altered by the timber industry, plantation farming practices, and climate change. This interdisciplinary and intersectional project draws from environmental history, geography, and maritime traditions including mapping and way-finding in an effort to define our relationship to this rapidly changing landscape.

Margaret LeJeune is an image-maker, educator, and curator originally from Rochester, New York (USA). She was named the 2023 Woman Science Photographer of the Year by the Royal Photographic Society. Anchored in photography, her creative practice marries art, science, and environmental studies. Her work has been exhibited internationally including exhibitions at The Griffin Museum of Photography (USA), Rhode Island Center for Photographic Arts (USA), The Center for Fine Art Photography (USA), ARC Gallery (USA), Circe Gallery Cape Town (South Africa), Science Cabin (South Korea), and Umbrella Arts (USA) and is in several collections including the Center for Art+Environment at the Nevada Museum of Art. LeJeune has been invited to participate in several residency programs which foster collaboration between the arts and sciences including the Global Nomadic Art Project, University of Notre Dame Environmental Research Center, Trout Lake Research Station, Huron Mountain Wildlife Foundation - Ives Lake Field Station, and the 2023 Changing Climate Residency at Santa Fe Art Institute. Her work has been published in numerous publications including Lenscratch, Slate, and Culture, Community, and Climate: conversations and emergent praxis from art.earth press. She is a founding member of the Women's Environmental Photography Collective and the Vice-Chair of the Society of Photographic Education (SPE). www.margaretlejeune.com

Member Spotlight l Rachel Frank

Mon, 15 Apr 2024 16:14:15 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 15, 2024

This week we recognize Rachel Frank, and her practice combining sculpture, video, and performance to explore our relationships and shifting perspectives towards non-human life forms.

Sleep of Reason (above) was a series of performances (2010, 2011, 2015) borrowing narratives in Francisco Goya’s Los Caprichos to examine the theatrical/performance implications of abuse as depicted in the Abu Ghraib photographs. Evoking both living sculpture and cinematic picture, staged tableaux vivants featuring beaded masks and sculptural forms are illuminated briefly between almost film-like cuts or void periods of silhouetted blackness, allegorically suggesting the recurrent darkness and repressed animality that underlies the rational and enlightened society of today.

click images for more info

In Frank's video, Vapors, 2017 (above) performers wear woolly rhinoceros and woolly mammoth masks appearing in the forests, former mining caves, and ruins of our contemporary landscape, carrying out a philosophical dialogue that connects the figure of the ruin to environmental issues and, more broadly, man’s relationship with nature. The woolly mammoth and woolly rhinoceros are two animals from the last wave of extinctions of Megafauna at the end of the Ice Age, who serve both as mirrors into the past and reminders of the crisis facing related species today. Through a split-screen, the creatures uncannily mirror each other in out of synch movements, sharing both their displacement from their proper epoch and their isolation as the last of their kind.

For two weeks in June and July of 2016, Frank was artist-in-the wilderness at The Innoko National Wildlife Refuge in Western Alaska. The Alaska Park Service offers unique stewardship-based artist residencies that work with parks and wildlife refuges and grant access to remote and protected areas, which most people do not get to see firsthand. The Refuge was significant to her projects with Rewilding because of the 2015 reintroduction of a population of Wood Bison into the Innoko region, which marked the first time in over a century this species has lived in the United States.

Sentinel Offering Kernos: Woodcock, Oysters, Lichen, 2021 (above) is a large-scale ceramic interpretation of an ancient Greek ringed offering vessel, whose cups held offerings of grain. In Frank's interpretation, the kernos’ cups are envisioned in the forms of three local indicator species, whose health or absence offer early signals of environmental change. When filled with grain or water, birds and insects can find nourishment here. The kernos offers a haven, encouraging new ceremonies of ritual and community, inclusive of the local Greek community in Astoria, whose ancestors originated the kernos form.

Sentinel Lekythos: Ibis (Unraveling Installation), 2023 (below) is also an offering vessel, a ceramic interpretation of the lekythos, which is a narrow ancient Eurasian vessel associated with funeral rites and loss. This piece considers several sentinel or indicator species, whose health or absence offer an early indication of environmental changes to an ecosystem such as pollution or climate change. Ibis migrate annually through New York City. As a sentinel species, they are susceptible to climate changes to their habitats and the accumulation of pollutants due to their feeding habits in coastal sediments. Straddling both the land and the sea, mangroves protect against erosion and storm surges while providing a protective ecosystem for fish and crustaceans. Ceramic oyster shells sculpted to resemble talismans of climate protection are included in this piece. Oyster beds which are actively being rebuilt in NYC are an important filter species which clean water and can protect coastlines during extreme weather events. Surrounding the offering vessel are hand-designed and printed fabric, hand-cast glass and bronze depicting parts of birds, plants, and cast body parts.

Rachel Frank's practice combines sculpture, video, and performance to explore our relationships and shifting perspectives towards non-human life forms, investigating how past species, rituals, and objects can shape our environmental future. Her current work explores liminality in nature: air and land, ocean and shoreline, the migratory movements of tidal and pelagic species. The transformative malleability of materials such as bronze, glass, and clay, all of which undergo a process of heating, melting, and liquefying before reaching their final states, serve to reinforce in the viewer the changes in nature and state. Through use of these mediums, her practice explores the radical restoration of species and landscapes through “Rewilding” and more broadly, both the resiliency of ecosystems and their fragility. Frank lives and works in Brooklyn, NY. She is the recipient of grants from The Pollock-Krasner Foundation, The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, The Puffin Foundation, and Franklin Furnace Archive. Her performance pieces have been shown at HERE, Socrates Sculpture Park, The Select Fair, and The Bushwick Starr in NYC, The Marran Theater at Lesley University, Franconia Sculpture Park (MN), and at The Watermill Center in collaboration with Robert Wilson. Recent solo and two-person exhibitions include MOCA Tucson (AZ), the SPRING/BREAK Art Show (NYC), Thomas Hunter Projects at Hunter College (NYC), Standard Space (Sharon, CT), and Geary Contemporary (NYC). She works as a licensed wildlife rehabilitator at the Wild Bird Fund in Manhattan. https://rachelfrank.com

Featured images (top to bottom): © Rachel Frank, Sleep of Reason, 2010 2011, 2015, Performances, Written and Directed by Rachel Frank, Sets and Costumes by Rachel Frank;Vapors, 2017, Single-channel HD video, 8 minutes, 27 seconds, Written and Directed by Rachel Frank, Performed by Rachel Frank, Ben Lee, and Stephen Tateishi; Rewilding Residency, Innoko National Wildlife Refuge, Alaska; Sentinel Offering Kernos: Woodcock, Oysters, Lichen, 2021, stoneware ceramic, glazes, steel, epoxy, and spray paint with native plant species, 50 x 43 x 44 inches, Socrates Sculpture Park, Long Island City, NY, October 2, 2021 – March 20, 2022;Sentinel Lekythos: Ibis (Unraveling Installation), 2023, stoneware ceramic and glazes, fabric, rope, zip-ties, acrylic rod, bronze, and glass, size variable, approximately 27 x 48 x 32 inches; portrait of the artist.

April 2024 Newsletter for subscribers

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 16:21:53 GMT

April 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Breathing Air that Breathes Back: Lucia Monge at Hampshire College, Amherst

Mon, 01 Apr 2024 14:00:13 GMT

Breathing Air that Breathes Back: Visiting Lucia Monge’s “Mientras Una Hoja Respira/ While a Leaf Breathes”
at Hampshire College, Amherst, MA

Review by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Exiting the city to arrive on a peaceful green campus, scattered with students, feels like an entrance into a completely different world. Having been used to stimulation on every corner, I suddenly experienced my body quieting and listening more deeply. It is as if I am tuning into the whispers of leaves fluttering above and the grass pushed towards the earth by my feet. I land in brief conversations with students asking about Lucia Monge’s exhibition on campus. My walk to the gallery is much like a trickling stream finding its way through a rock-studded decline in search of a body of water to join.

And when I do arrive in this brutalist building and make my way down the stairs, I am struck by the contrast in the linear concrete framing of the gallery compared to the soft, natural structures of Lucia’s sculptures and their accompanying palm trees. Unlike the concrete that surrounds the work, Lucia has created a completely decomposing set of material reflections on stomata. On the wall in writing, the deep relationship between Lucia’s multi-national life as a Peruvian-U.S. American is paired with reflections on vulnerability and the interrelatedness of all beings. This concrete enclosure begins to feel more like a cocoon or the outer walls of a plant cell that protects the complex and delicate structures beneath it. On the wall, it reads:

“Stomata- the pores through which the plants breathe – exchange air with their environment…The plant risks losing life-giving water when opening … for me, stomata have become portals between life and death.” – Lucia Monge

Before me, an egg-like structure built with macramé, natural twine, rice paper dyed with turmeric, and straw reeds sits expectantly. Behind a family of palm trees, I am almost voyeuristic in my expedition into the gallery rooms, where I am confronted with larger-than-life representations of a proportionately microscopic subject. The feathery leaves hug my vantage point as the light streams from above. I venture toward the structure, sitting on the ground. Realizing only after changing my perspective that it is both I and the eye that awaits me that are observers of each other. Sands at its base disperse my thoughts as the textured living core lined with turkeytail mushrooms observes my presence as I do this object. I am reminded of my daily exchanges and the vulnerability that Lucia describes: how, when entering the world each day, I also enter into an exchange of give and take, a bartering of water for carbon, that is essential to both living and community. The eye acts as a quiet reminder that what I think I know is only a perspective.

Turning around, I encounter a dancing river of figures made from bioplastics, turmeric, and logwood-dyed cotton, and recycled paper flying over a delicate island of what I believe is white limestone. They sway in conversation, revealing soft and structured textures based on Lucia’s careful observations of plant cell patterns. Shimmering and welcoming me into the remaining space, I dance around the work, mimicking how the objects dance around each other, revealing new relationships between them. Colors and forms balance and glide as if these static forms were moving. I am met with a calm and playful tone and am surprised to discover an object hidden at the end of this twirling iridescent river.

As if exiting a forest enclosure, a family of palm trees shelters a plush object laying on the ground before it. A closed stomata is guarded, yet perhaps the most vulnerable object portrayed. Surrounding the piece are macramé dream-weavers capturing my thoughts and impressions. I stop short and allow an aching in my heart to reveal itself, knowing the irony of a soft outer shell that acts as limited armor in guarded times. It is feminine and kind, although closed and protective, so different from the first object, which was open, guarded, but “vulnerable” in a literal sense. Peaceful, like a corpse laid to rest, I remember that all of its materials will reintegrate into the earth and replenish the life-giving soils that nourish us in return.

Exiting this meditation on co-existence, I reenter the chilly landscape sprinkled with the beginnings of spring. I am greeted on my way back by a large sign on the wall of a neighboring building that echoes Lucia’s mystical portrayal of the invisible: “To Know is Not Enough.” Sent into the remaining day, I think about the stomata that lives within each of us and the importance of breathing through it all.

Member Spotlight l Madelaine Corbin

Mon, 04 Mar 2024 14:37:14 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 4, 2024

This week we recognize Madelaine Corbin, and a decade of her multi-disciplinary works in drawing, fiber arts, installation, sculpture, and writing/prose.

Artist statement:

"A fleck of ash, drop of blue, grain of salt, speck of dust, and particle of soil—a constellation of meaning is composed from these elements. My practice earnestly endeavors to listen to, translate, and contextualize the conversation between the vibrancy of matter sensed by our fingertips and the expansive questions cultivated by the equally vast universe around. Spaces that invite wonder and interdisciplinary research coalesce to question the quotidian materials accepted as normal, when few things are actually so. Dirt, salt, and dust are not so simple. Interminable investigations into subterranean histories, values, politics, sciences, fictions, and natural phenomena re-evaluate the inherent meanings embedded in matter[1]. Using my own relationship to ecology[2] rooted in a valley town in Oregon as a starting point, I articulate the complexity and range of relationships to the land beneath our feet, that which once was, and that which will never be."

click images for more info

"My practice is an archaeological[3] journey to unearth, question, and mend the space between home and land, human and non-human, “wild” and “managed” landscapes, and the connection to one another through geographic distance. In a recent series, text, soil, and weeds[4] re-contextualize and de-/re-construct the context of natural materials to better understand notions of home, land, and belonging through the lenses of native, invasive, poisonous, and medicinal characterizations of plants. Metaphors transmit meaning between humans and plants through the il/legality of growing here versus there, there versus here. Text is reversed to decentralize a singular vantage point into many and for many. The desire for a fixed object to exist in perpetuity is both accomplished and evaded as the work realigns with geologic, cyclical, and seasonal time and asks to be tended and maintained while it learns to exist in its own rhythms. The work evolves. The work requires care. At once, the work is both ephemeral and a window into a possible forever."

"With eco-tragedies already defining the 21st century—the swelling seas losing their blue to acidification, the tone-deaf colonization of terrain beyond repair, the decapitation of mountains for minerals and other resources[5]—how can we rehabilitate communal imagination with urgency? With the information embedded in matter and history, can we speculate about possible futures? If dirt is the common denominator of our shared experience[6], how can it be made not only audible but made mentor[7]? These questions, and the pursuit of their answers, define the trajectory of my practice. It is my sincere hope that together we can learn to read the earth, establish a nonviolent ecological order, and share a vision of the future."

Notes

[1] When listened to, substance dictates significance.

[2] The etymological root of “ecology” combines house, dwelling, or habitation with the study of (and, specifically, the study of the relationship between living things and their environments). It is through the graying of this space between home and environment that my practice is catalyzed.

[3] Archaeology in the sense that it is the opposite of industrial construction—as time read backwards. This is a concept articulated best by JB Jackson, writer and sketch artist in landscape design. Lucy Lippard adds contextual notes on this in her book, Undermining: A Wild Ride through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West.

[4] At least, plants currently considered “weeds” until they prove useful to humans or are reclassified as endangered.

[5] Lucy Lippard writes of these eco-tragedies in Undermining: A Wild Ride through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West.

[6] As it has been since long before we listened to it. Rebecca Solnit explains dirt in this way in her collection of essays, As Eve Said to the Serpent.

[7] “The microcosm as mentor to the macrocosm” is a concept written about by Wendell Berry.

"The phenomena of everyday magic—things that seem simple—are anything but. Dirt, salt, dust, and blue are immensely complex worlds. My work unfolds these complexities, examines them, and then conceptually stitches them back together. My work exists at the interstice of science, fiber craft, and writing. My goal is to gently mend empathic relationships between the climate crisis and ourselves. Instead of alarmism, softness. Instead of disembodied statistics about the rise of seas and temperature, embodied understanding—putting hands in soil, watching color change in the sun, listening to a cave’s echo. The approach is urgent. It reinstates sensitivity over numbness, listening over being told, hope over apathy."

Madelaine Corbin is a multidisciplinary artist based primarily in Oregon in the United States. Corbin received an MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art in Fiber and BFA from Oregon State University. Her research-based practice moves fluidly between drawing, writing, sculpture, textiles, and natural dyeing. Corbin’s work is informed by her participation in the New York Arts Practicum, immersive study in Greece, and as an artist-in-residence and research assistant in a chemistry lab where she helped to synthesize and characterize a new blue. Corbin recently authored The Stuff of Everyday Magic, a book about her research adventures into the color blue. Her work has been supported in the form of residencies at the Oak Spring Garden Foundation, The Bloedel Reserve Creative Residency in Research, Prairie Ronde Artist Residency, Pine Meadow Artist Residency, and The League of Stars. Corbin’s work has been recognized by awards including a fellowship to attend Haystack Mountain School of Crafts in 2019, the 2020 Mercedes-Benz Emerging Artist Award bestowed by Cranbrook Academy of Art, Honorable Mention for the 2020 Dorothy Waxman International Textile Design Award, and the 2020 Redmond Design Prize. In 2022-2023, Corbin was awarded a Fulbright Fellowship to pursue a research and arts project about textile traditions and contemporary craft in Greece. www.madelainecorbin.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Madelaine Corbin, Colony Collapse Disorder, 2014-2015; Mobile Color Laboratory, 2016-2017; From Above, For Below (we share a center), 2018; Did They Not Tell You That You Are A Protector, 2019; A Moon In A Meadow, In A Moon, 2023; portrait of the artist.

March 2024 newsletter for subscribers

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 17:06:12 GMT

March 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Bright Horizons from Celestial Views, interview with Krista Leigh Steinke and Erika Blumenfeld

Fri, 01 Mar 2024 16:11:44 GMT

Krista Leigh Steinke, Still-frame (00:01:26) from Sun Notations, 2018 (excerpt),10 min. theatre version | 16 min. installation loop

Bright Horizons from Celestial Views

Krista Leigh Steinke and Erika Blumenfeld on the upcoming Transmissions event in Austin Texas and the eclipse on April 8th

interviews by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Krista Leigh Steinke and Erika Blumenfeld elaborate on their individual relationships as artists to the sun and the moon, the cosmos. Whether the sun itself becomes the manifestation of time and spatial dimensions as it does in Krista’s work, or a larger expression of deep inquiry and interrelatedness across the atmospheric expanse as in Erika’s work, both artists share an intricate understanding of the “somatic point of departure” that the events will capture. Both working with photographic imaging and documentation, their reflections interplay the illuminating shared space that the events will foster with deep contemplation.

Krista and Erika were invited by ecoartspace to review artworks submitted by Texas artists and other members coming to Texas for the eclipse, for inclusion in Transmissions. Their own work will also be on display.

Transmissions is a one-day event that will take place on Saturday, April 6th from 11am to 8pm, at Canopy Austin, at 916 Springdale Road, in Austin, Texas.

For more information GO HERE

Krista Leigh Steinke, Sunspots and Slides, 2017-ongoing, archival pigment prints or sub-dye aluminum prints, sizes vary

What are you most looking forward to during the upcoming Transmissions events?

Krista: It will be interesting to observe the nuanced interplay among the diverse artworks showcased in the Transmissions exhibition, which will definitely inspire various conversations throughout the day. Mostly, I’m excited to be part of a community of artists, academics, enthusiasts, and the general Texas audience, all united in their shared interest in engaging in a meaningful dialogue centered around the sun and solar/lunar phenomena.

Erika: What I’m most looking forward to is seeing all the selected artworks together and in communication with each other in the Transmissions exhibition, especially as a meditation on and celebration of the total solar eclipse that will occur over Austin skies two days after the ecoartspace pop-up event.

The artworks, in a way, share individual methods of having received a transmission. In thinking of light transmission specifically, and the conveyance of how light acts during an eclipse event, we, in essence, become the medium through which the light passes. In this way, the artworks together also become a conceptual act of transmitting a response back to the sun.

Krista Leigh Steinke, from: Time Scraps From the Universe, 2020 - in-progress

Quite a transmission in itself! Krista, your pinhole photographs also reflect on being a transmissions medium between our planet and the sun. For example, in your work Sun Notations and Sun Mapping you track the movements of the planet around the sun to reveal interconnectedness across space. How do you relate to this moment of transition at the eclipse?

Krista: The mystery of light and the passage of time is a thread that runs through much of my work. My video “Sun Notations” for example, that will be featured in the exhibition, took over five years to create. The experimental video animates over 50 pinhole solar-graphs that capture the pathway of the sun rising and setting over time, with exposures that lasted one hour up to an entire year. My homemade cameras, which sometimes contain multiple pinholes, are rotated throughout the exposure, so the rhythm of the sun’s movement becomes like a mark-making system, similar to the routine of crossing days off a calendar. Some of the exposures were taken in Texas and some in New York State. So, in this work, temporal and spatial dimensions literally expand, merge, and overlap. Incidentally, one of the animations in this piece was created during the 2017 eclipse.

Undoubtedly, the 2024 eclipse symbolizes a unique juncture in the continuum of time. In April, the actual eclipse of the sun will unfold over just a few minutes and these few minutes will not occur again for another twenty years here in North America. I love thinking about how on this day, people will be pausing from their daily routine to focus on the sun. The event, for me, is a gentle reminder that we all share the same star at the center of our solar system. The sun is a thread that ties our past to our present and an important reminder that we are part of something much larger.

Erika Blumenfeld, Light Leaks Variation No. 13 (meditation on evolution), 1999, 56 4×5-inch Type 59 Polaroid film, 72 clear pushpins, 31.25″ x 34.25″, Installation view: Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, Portland, Oregon, Solo Exhibition, 2001, Collection: The Polaroid Collection

That is beautiful. In fact, this common thread is a theme in both of your work, though your documentation approaches differ. Erika, you take a research-based documentary approach to examining natural phenomena such as this eclipse. What natural spaces are you taking inspiration from at this time? And how are you approaching them?

Erika: Our ability to empathize with our ecological spaces is only as deep as we are willing to be fully present within them. To listen, to feel, and to sense them. While the idea of ecological archiving may at first sound like a scientific pursuit, humans physiologically evolved in relationship to these natural ecologies, and our interrelatedness is activated through our senses and embodied experiences. For me, this connectedness has material, experiential, and spiritual grounding. Archiving the ecological requires that one is part of that ecology with all our senses as witness.

My work draws inspiration from the endless variations of natural phenomena that we can encounter in our natural world, and this curiosity and wonder extends first to our Earth and then to everything our planet is connected to across the cosmos.

Erika Blumenfeld, Detail of Plate No. A12855 (Large Magellanic Cloud), From the portfolio Tracing Luminaries, 2022, Paper: 14 3/4 x 17 inches, Plate: 11 ¼ x 9 inches, Edition of 8

My current projects are investigating these topics in multiple ways and through diverse mediums. My primary focus currently is with my Earthlight project, in which I am building a custom imaging system to send to the International Space Station to image the light of Earth from space and create a holistic portrait of Earth as light. With the Earthlight project, my goal is to tell a story of our world written in the language of light. Every planet has its own light signature, called albedo.

Albedo is the direct relationship between the planet’s material composition and its home star. Earth’s luminosity holds the literal and poetic imprint of everything our Sun’s incoming rays have interacted with—everything that makes up our dynamic, interconnected biosphere that we are a part of. The project is an art, science, technology, and space activities collaboration that will produce albedo image data to benefit climate science and to create visualization artworks for the public. I am also working on new Light Recordings works documenting the upcoming total solar eclipse as well as the aurora borealis in the Arctic. Finally, I’ve been supporting NASA’s OSIRIS-REx Sample Return Mission by leading the high-resolution archival documentation imaging of the remarkable rocks from the asteroid Bennu that have recently been returned to Earth.

Erika Blumenfeld, Astromaterials 3D project, a virtual library for exploration and research of NASA’s space rock collections (Credit: NASA/Astromaterials 3D)

Wow, I had no idea about this! That is very exciting. It also includes topics of both light and time that play important roles in your practice as well, Krista. How will you interpret the events?

Krista: This relates closely to my choice to work in lens- based media. The word “Photography” means to draw with light, a recurring concept in my work. I am interested in how the sun and photo media are both conduits for light and time. Still photography can capture a single moment while moving images have the ability to document or record an experience. As mentioned above with “Sun Notations”, I feel like exciting results can happen when these qualities merge.

On the day of the eclipse, I am planning on setting up 4-5 cameras that will be tasked to take timelapse videos, pinhole exposures, and sequenced still images of the eclipse. Most likely, the results will end up somehow combined into one project. Looking forward to seeing all the magnificent images from around the globe that will be captured that day.

Thank you both for a mind-expanding interview! I look forward to following the upcoming event and different interpretations that are inspired by them.

Member Spotlight l Ann Rosenthal

Mon, 26 Feb 2024 15:27:31 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 26, 2024

This week we recognize Ann Rosenthal and her projects which represent milestones in a 40-year career in activist, community-centered, and environmentally engaged art practice.

Infinity City, 1991-2002 (above) consisted of three installations including ANNIVERSARY, SHADOW, and 2001, exploring life in the atomic age and its legacy of nuclear waste. In 1991, Rosenthal's partner Stephen Moore took a job on the island of Guam, a U.S. island territory in Micronesia. While visiting him, they traveled to Tinian Island where the first atomic bombs were launched and dropped on Japan. This somber place and its ghosts spoke to them and compelled them to embark on a 10-year nuclear pilgrimage, taking Rosenthal and her partner to Japan and key historic nuclear sites in the western U.S. Over ten years, the project was exhibited in 12 venues across the U.S. An extensive website documented their travels, provided a chronology of humankind's relationship to the natural world (40,000 B.C. - 170,000 A.D.), and engaged communities impacted by Hanford Nuclear Reservation.

click images for more info

River Vernacular, 2003-04 (above) was a collaboration with Rosenthal and Steffi Domike. Inspired by the Hudson River Museum’s historic postcard collection, each of eight oversized postcards interpreted the social and natural histories of Yonkers, NY in relation to the Saw Mill and Hudson Rivers. The artists soaked cotton cloth in the river adjacent to where each photograph was taken, mapping the health of the Saw Mill as it flows from its source, through Yonkers, and into the Hudson. This work was included in the exhibition Imaging the River, curated by Amy Lipton for the Hudson River Museum.

Moving Targets, 2013-15 (above) was an exhibition that marked the 2014 centenary of the extinction of the passenger pigeon, the most abundant bird in North America that was hunted to extinction within a period of 40 years. Moving Targets paralleled the plight of the passenger pigeon with the coerced migrations of Rosenthal's and Domike's mothers' families to North America in the wake of the pogroms in the Ukraine. While the ships, trains and telegraphs made it possible for millions of Jews to escape persecution, they also made possible the tracking and plunder of the passenger pigeon. The project linked both the artists’ families and the birds to ask why some groups——whether human or animal——are reduced to targets for extinction, whether intended or as a consequence of ignorance and greed. Works in the installation include collage, painting, maps and photos to tell the story of migration, loss, and survival. The project became part of a larger, citywide effort to commemorate the centenary, which included many cultural events and programs. Dr. Ruth Fauman-Fichman researched the artists’ family histories.

LUNA (Learning Urban Nature through Art), 2016-2023 (above) was an ecoliteracy and visual arts program initiated and directed by Ann Rosenthal. It was designed to foster an appreciation for urban nature through hands-on art making for children, youth, adults, and families. LUNA was an outgrowth of a partnership Rosenthal developed with the Steel Valley Trail Council (SVTC), to educate youth about their riverfronts and trails, resulting in hand-painted banners that went up along the SVT. In 2016, she launched LUNA and developed an after-school program with the Kingsley Association, based on the earlier SVTC program. LUNA continued as an on-demand program, partnering with environmental and community organizations. In 2022, Rosenthal and collaborator JoAnn Moran were commissioned by the Bloomfield Development Corporation to design and execute two asphalt art murals, reflecting the natural features of the adjacent Friendship Park in Rosenthal’s neighborhood of Bloomfield in Pittsburgh, PA. Similar to prior LUNA programs, ecoliteracy was a centerpiece of the project, which included bird and tree walks to engage residents with the flora and fauna in their backyards. The community was invited to submit drawings that the artists incorporated into the final mural designs. Over 70 people of all ages helped paint the murals over two weekends.

The Disparaged Sublime: Salt Marsh Nova Scotia #2, 2022 (below) is a work which represents Rosenthal's recent return to her creative roots in painting and printmaking, celebrating her love of color, gesture, and form in nature and art. She is particularly drawn to places where water and land meet——fragile ecosystems that we endanger through ignorance, desire, and greed. Rosenthal strives to make such places visible and valued for their beauty, complexity, and evolutionary brilliance.

Ann Rosenthal is an artist, educator, and writer, who has interrogated the intersections of nature and culture through a range of environmental issues for over four decades. Her recent creative and professional accomplishments include: Artist-in-Residence, HJ Andrews Experimental Forest, Oregon (2018); Co-Curator for “Crafting Conversations: A Call and Response to Our Changing Climate,” Contemporary Craft BNY Mellon Gallery (2019); awarded “Woman of Environmental Art” from PennFuture (2020); one of four editors for Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities (New Village Press, 2022); selected to design and execute two asphalt art murals with collaborator JoAnn Moran for Friendship Park in Pittsburgh (2022-23). Rosenthal received her MFA from Carnegie Mellon University in 1999. She teaches classes and workshops through Osher Lifelong Learning/University of Pittsburgh and Winslow Art Center. locusartstudio.org

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Ann Rosenthal, 2001: PLUTONIUM, MARCH 28, 1941, collaboration with Stephen Moore comprised of digital posters marking nuclear anniversaries in 2001 and distributed via email; River Vernacular, 2003-04 (installation View), collaboration with Steffi Domike including digital prints, stained muslin, and acrylic paint; Moving Targets: An Exhibition of Extinction and Survival, 2013-15 (installation view), collaboration with Steffi Domike including mixed media on cradled wood panels, MDO map sections, wood panels range from 6 x 6 to 9 x 12 inches and maps maximum 48 inches in height; LUNA: Asphalt Art Murals, 2022-23, Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania; The Disparaged Sublime: Salt Marsh Nova Scotia #2, 2022, golden open acrylics on cradled wood panel, 8 x 10 inches; portrait of the artist by Michele McFadden.

Member Spotlight l Judith Selby Lang

Mon, 19 Feb 2024 17:39:12 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 19, 2024

This week we recognize Judith Selby Lang, and her works made since 1999 in collaboration with her partner Richard Lang, working with plastic debris collected along the Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California.

Unaccountable Proclivities, 2001 (above), combines the colors of the ocean plastic that mimics and compliments Fiesta®Ware plates. It was an unaccountable proclivity that moved them to create these arrangements. By carefully collecting and "curating" the bits of plastic, they fashion them into works of art that matter-of-factually show, with minimal artifice, the material as it is. The viewer is often surprised that this colorful stuff is the thermoplastic junk of our throwaway culture. As they deepened their practice they found, like archeologists, that each bit of what they find opens into a pinpoint look at the whole of human culture. Each bit has a story to tell.

click images for more info

Unintended Consequences (above) was a series of photographs presented at the U.S. Art in Embassies, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, September 2010 - June 2012, organized by the US Art in Embassies program and was a collaboration between Ambassador John Bass and Assistant Curator Claire D'Alba.

for here or to go?, 2021 (above) was a large scale installation presented at Lands End, at the former Cliff House, San Francisco, a project of the FOR-SITE Foundation. In the kitchen, the steam tables were filled with white plastic and white ceramic plates were piled with white beach plastic. All of the plastic dished up was found only on 1000 yards of Kehoe Beach in the Point Reyes National Seashore. It wasn’t left by negligent picnickers. Most of it has been at sea a long time before washing ashore. When the common use of plastic found its way into our lives during WWII, plastic was touted as an exciting new material that would revolutionize and indeed, it has provided new hips and knees, allowing for unbelievable medical advances. But we’ve been inundated with “convenience” and a throw-away ethos. In the swirl of debris, from food shopping to consumer goods, plastic is the unseen background of daily living. Besides the blight of plastic itself, a mad scientist's brew of toxic chemicals is leaching into our bodies. We have learned that every human being has traces of plastic polymers in their bloodstream. That’s the bad news we live with these days. There really is no choice when asked "for here or to go?"

Ride-On, 2024 (above) featuring all-black plastic and a toy ATV, was exhibited recently in the exhibition “Far away is NOW” at 120710 gallery in Berkeley. "It is a complex reminder of our actions and their consequences on our environment,” says Francis Baker, the exhibit’s curator. “Another revelation occurs when one realizes that this is just the all-black plastic. The artists are using this to symbolize oil. It also amazes me to think about how much plastic there is that washes up, that they collect, for them to have a pile this big of fully black pieces. This makes me realize what we as a society are doing to our environment.”

all of it (well, alot of it anyway), 2023 (below) was presented by FOR-SITE’s The Guardhouse project at Fort Mason, San Francisco, California, summer 2023. After nearly a quarter century of collaboration the Lang's excavated their two-ton collection of beach-found plastic objects to showcase a sampling of “all of it” so they might see our consumer choices reflected in their materials. This assorted thermoplastic junk-treasure dating back to as early as 1948 washed in from the Pacific Ocean onto one beach, a .6-mile stretch of the Point Reyes National Seashore, 50 miles north of San Francisco. The installation confronted the artists with evidence of this material continuing to amass not just in coastal deposits, but inside our bodies, and in the geological record of our time on planet earth. "all of it" was presented in partnership with Fort Mason Center for Arts & Culture.

Judith Selby Lang, along with her partner Richard Lang, have rambled 1000 meters of tide line on Kehoe Beach, Point Reyes National Seashore in Northern California, to gather plastic debris washing out of the Pacific Ocean and have collected over two tons of material. Their artwork has been featured in over seventy exhibitions in galleries and museums; educational and science centers including the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art Artist Windows, the United Nations World Environment Day, the Cummings Gallery at Stanford University, and the University of San Francisco. Exhibition venues include the California Academy of Sciences, Sausalito's Marine Mammal Center, The Oakland Museum, Hong Kong's Ocean Film Festival. They were cited as co-authors in a report from the University of Tokyo about concentrations of pollutants in plastic pellets published in the 2009 Marine Pollution Bulletin. TV segments have included appearances on the PBS Newshour, The Travel Channel, Wowow Tokyo and The Today Show. In talks about the project they have appeared at the Newseum in Washington, DC, The Dallas Art Museum, California Academy of Sciences in San Francisco, Oakland Museum, Oxbow School in Napa, CA, and California College of the Arts in SF. Their projects have been supported by the Feigenbaum Nii Foundation, the Arts and Healing Network and the Open Circle Foundation. Plastic Forever- Finding Meaning in the Mess is the working title for their forthcoming book about their art and plastic adventures. www.beachplastic.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Judith Selby Lang with Richard Lang, Unaccountable Proclivities, 2001; Unintended Consequences, photography exhibition at the U.S. Art in Embassies, Tbilisi, Republic of Georgia, September 2010 - June 2012; or here or to go? at Lands End at the former Cliff House, San Francisco, California, a FOR-SITE Foundation project, 11/07/21- 3/27/22; Ride-On, 2024, at 120710 gallery, Berkeley, California, January 2024; “all of it (well, alot of it anyway)” for FOR-SITE’s The Guardhouse project at Fort Mason, San Francisco, June 24 - August 31, 2023; portrait of the artists.

Member Spotlight l Kay Westhues

Mon, 05 Feb 2024 22:00:18 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 5, 2024

This week we recognize Kay Westhues, and her ongoing photography work documenting the changing landscapes of rural life in the Midwest.

“Fourteen Places to Eat, 2004-2010 (above) was inspired by my memories of growing up on a farm in Walkerton, Indiana, and observing first hand the shifting cultural identity that has occurred over time and through changing economic development. When I moved back to Walkerton as an adult in 2001, one of my biggest complaints was that there were practically no places to eat out. So I was happy when news arrived that a new restaurant was opening there. Imagine my surprise when I read a letter to the editor in the local paper that stated we already had enough places to eat. The writer counted a total of fourteen places to eat, which included four restaurants, three gas stations, four bars, a truck stop, a convenience mart, and a bowling alley. This letter was published during the beginning of my project portraying small-town life, and it gave the series its name.”

click images for more info

Westhues' Animal Swap Meet series, 2008- (above) documents the people, animals and places where humans buy, sell or trade animals in an open-air, flea-market-style setting. The most commonly sold animals are chickens and other birds, rabbits, pigs, reptiles, and dogs.Westhues is drawn to these places because they reflect the rural practices of small-scale subsistence farming and our complex relationship with the more-than-human species we live with.

For The Portage Path, 2015 (above), was commissioned by the Snite Museum of Art (now the Raclin Murphy Museum of Art) to commemorate the City of South Bend, Indiana's 150th anniversary. Kay focused on a portage path that linked the St. Joseph River to the Kankakee River which had been significant in the lives of people in North America for hundreds of years. This trail was the only overland segment of an ancient water route between the Great Lakes region and the Gulf of Mexico. The course was first established by Native Americans and then used by the French explorers and traders who traveled from Detroit to New Orleans. “I was fascinated by the idea that this area had been the site of cross-country travel and trade for such a long period of time as I am by the trail’s almost total disappearance from our landscape. As there was no actual trail to photograph, I decided to suggest the idea of a pathway in each of the images. They were taken in the approximate area of the original route, and I did not try to conceal the human-made changes that have taken place along it. I want these photographs to remind us that the history of South Bend did not begin in 1865; people were living in this region for hundreds of years previously and their knowledge and use of the land were directly responsible for the location of this city.”

Wabash River Soundmaps, 2019-2020 (above) is a participatory audio project about The Wabash River, the major drainage system in Indiana, amassing its water from streams and rivers from the northeast to the southwest corner of the state. “Thanks to two IAC Arts in the Parks grants, I visited three state parks along the river: Ouabache State Park and Mississinewa Lake and Salamonie Lake State Recreation Areas. As an artist in residence in 2019 and 2020, I made field recordings in the parks and in their surrounding communities and ecosystems. I also held workshops where participants recorded the seasonal sounds of the park, using digital recording equipment. All the sounds we recorded were added to the project soundmap. This activity is made possible with support by the Indiana Arts Commission, the Indiana Department of Natural Resources, and Sweetwater Sound Inc.”

Well Stories, 2011 (below), and The Specialness of Springs, 2021 are long-term explorations of roadside springs in the Midwest that are used as public water sources. This project is made possible, in part, with support from the Indiana Arts Commission and the National Endowment for the Arts. “This work examines roadside springs in and near my home state of Indiana. Traditionally, these water sources functioned as part of the public commons, freely accessed by travelers or those in need before municipal water systems were available. Some springs have been flowing for over a century and have played a central role in colonialization and Western expansion. The state once contained hundreds of springs in the public commons; today only a few dozen provide a safe water supply. These are still visited by individuals who collect the water out of preference or necessity. They are sites where geography, history, public policy, and public health intersect.”

Kay Westhues is an artist, photographer and folklorist interested in documenting the ways in which rural tradition and history are interpreted and transformed in the present day. Her work encompasses the fields of photography, videography, audio and ethnology. Through her work she aims to describe the vitality and complexity of places and people whose lives are often overlooked and unexamined. Westhues creative projects have been widely exhibited in the Midwest, including the South Bend Museum of Art, South Bend, Indiana; Snite Museum of Art, Notre Dame, Indiana; Midwest Museum of Art. Elkhart, Indiana; Noyes Cultural Arts Center, Evanston, Illinois; 2739 Gallery, Hamtramck, Michigan; and Pictura Gallery, Bloomington, Indiana. Her video Water Catchers was included as part of “Surface Tension: The Future of Water,” an international traveling exhibition organized by the Science Gallery at Trinity College, Dublin, Ireland. She has received support for art and curatorial projects through the Indiana Arts Commission and Puffin Foundation West. Westhues has a M.A. degree in Folk Studies (2017) from Western Kentucky University, a M.S. in Instructional Systems Technology (1998) from Indiana University, Bloomington, and a B.S. degree in Photography and Ethnocentrism from the Individualized Major Program at Indiana University, Bloomington (1994). www.kaywesthues.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Kay Westhues, Velma’s Diner, Shoals, Indiana, 2010, from the series Fourteen Places to Eat, 2004-2010, archival ink jet print; Rooster and Hen, Animal Swap Meet and Flea Market, Starke County, Indiana, from the Animal Swap Meets, 2008- , archival ink jet print; Grapevine Creek, 2015, from the series The Portage Path; Wabash River Soundmaps, 2019-2020, archival ink jet print; Well Stories: Water Catchers, 2011,single channel video (10:59); portrait of the artist by James Korn.

SunFlowers, An Electric Garden by Mags Harries and Lajos Héder

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 15:23:11 GMT

SunFlowers, An Electric Garden, a public artwork wanting to generate solar energy

an interview with Mags Harries and Lajos Héder by Patricia Watts

"The sun sustains all of our lives…. All of our energy is originally solar energy, (and) it has created our world and fuels all our activities. Coal and oil are stored solar energy, but they are running out, and obtaining and processing them causes problems. For our future, it is a question of how we capture and use solar energy, so that it keeps us going without environmental catastrophe. The sun and its light are the medium of most art.” Mags Harries and Lajos Héder

Mags Harries and Lajos Héder are a wife and husband artist/architect duo who have worked collaboratively to create public art works across the United States from their studio in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Since 1990, they have completed over thirty public art projects with budgets up to $6 million. With the upcoming total solar eclipse in the path of totality in Austin, Texas, where Harries and Héder created a solar-powered work titled SunFlowers and where ecoartspace will hold a pop-up event nearby on April 6 at Canopy, we feature an interview with the collaborative team discussing the trials and tribulations of creating a large-scale work in the public sphere addressing energy resilience.

Q. In 2006, SunFlowers was chosen out of 37 proposals for a signature art installation at Mueller, a LEED-certified planned community with eco-conscious mixed-use development, including single-family homes, apartment complexes, as well as retail offices and restaurants. Your solar artwork was selected by the community and was the most popular as well as innovative at the time. I can imagine you were super excited to create a work that was both aesthetically interesting, practical, and self-sustaining. Almost twenty years ago, what were the challenges of creating such an innovative public artwork?

A. Each proposal and or commission we do is always particular to the place. It is important that we observe and see what are the elements that make this place unique. What was unique about the project in Austin, Texas was that the 711 acre former Mueller airport had been transformed as an ecological community development. Of the 37 RFQ applicants, 4 finalists were asked to create a proposal to mask the Big Box companies that had been built on the edge of this development along the major Interstate Highway I-35, a six-lane expressway. This seemed like an impossible task. Rather than mask development, we decided to reinforce what was important about this site, its environmental goals to create a livable community. I-35 runs north-south, perfect to capture solar energy. The site, which is 1000 x 30 feet long, has a substantial easement from the highway that is maintained by state mowing crews. We are not artists that think of making iconic stand alone work but the site was huge and the fast-moving traffic was our audience. We would create an impact that was strong enough to detract from seeing the large box retail. We had a choice. We could create multiple elements that would face in one direction, or the other choice to have one unit that would track the sun that would not have the same visual impact.

We knew nothing about solar technology so we had to find a company that could help us design the system. We had to find someone that could build our solar panels and a glass company that could cut and drill glass. As these pieces would also be experienced from below, it was important that we sandwiched gels in the glass to create a feeling of stained glass when looking up at them. Each of these elements had to be researched and tested. As these were not standard modules they had to be electrically certified. We made ¼ scale models out of foam board to develop the form and then had an engineer to calculate whether the forms were strong enough to resist 100mph winds. As with all our projects we employed local companies to build and paint the forms and engineer the project.

Q. I understand there was a delay in launching SunFlowers, as the flowers did not glow as intended due to complications with the solar panels? Is this something that today would not represent such a problem? with technological advances in the solar industry?

A. There was a lot of research that had to go into this project. I think we would go with the same process at this time, unless we used standard sizes that were already certified. We had many people contact us after the work was officially launched, even a representative of the Chinese government who inquired about making more. Though, this might not have been economically feasible. There are more solar companies and expertise now that might make it easier, and tax incentives that did not exist then. We pushed the boundaries by making a non standard shape. Because the public could walk under the panels, the glass had to be laminated. The colored gels were also special. It was important that the underside of the panel would be beautiful.

We never repeat a project elsewhere, so we would have had to redesign a different form, perhaps with a different shape of solar. Would it have been more economical? Probably not, but we did have command of the process and technology changes all the time. The LED lighting was also specially designed to be brighter.

Q. The Powerdash online monitoring site is currently not working. Is this something you feel strongly should be relaunched? How long was it tracking the energy generation? And, what is the current generation, kilowatt-hours each year?

A. The Powerdash online monitoring system was funded after the project was up by another grant so that schoolchildren could monitor how much energy it was creating. It was measuring 1800 KW hours per year. Anne Graham, who worked with the city was responsible to get that grant. From an article she found, over a nine year period SunFlowers had generated 386,006 kWh, the equivalent of 565,000 miles of carbon emissions from a car.

Q. The 15 Sunflowers are considered one of the largest public art works in the City of Austin and had a budget over $600,000, fifteen years ago. Do you think it would cost the same today?

A. I am not sure what it would cost today as these were all specially cut and designed. There are more solar companies today, though are all using standard fixtures. Perhaps it would be harder to find collaborators as there is more demand as people are installing more and more solar units on their homes. This project was done at a time that solar was not as popular and certainly not experienced as an art project.

Q. Has the project received any awards? It seems like the Public Art Network should have recognized this work.

A. I think the only award was the Livable City Vision Award in 2010 (Austin, Texas). Because this was administered by the city public art program, they never recognized it as theirs. And, the city did not submit SunFlowers to the Americans for the Arts, Public Art Network Conference.

Q. The selection process was coordinated through the city’s Art in Public Places program, but the development is private, owned by Catellus Development Group. How common is this arrangement? I know most of your public art projects have been coordinated through city programs. Was working with a private developer easier or more complicated?

A. We have one other project similar to this in Philadelphia titled Light Play (2016), also administered by the city public art program for a private developer on a building in the arts district. I do not know how many cities demand such a partnership. As the public art field is hard and there is high turnover in administration, maintenance records, which we always provide can get lost. On this project our same point person is still with the company. We have direct contact with him. Oftentimes city agencies do not have a maintenance budget, or someone employed by the city to maintain public art pieces. Perhaps a private company has more incentive to maintain a public artwork.

Q. From your artist statement for SunFlowers you state that the sun and its light are the medium of most art, can you expand on this concept?

A. Projects that came after SunFlowers include Light Gate (2015), Light Play (2016), and Xixi Umbrellas (2012), which are also all directly related to the sun and light. Engaging the sun allows there to be a daily change of perception. In a city like Austin, it was amazing how few people were installing solar power. It seemed we were selected because the city saw itself as forward looking, all the other artists proposed Texas stereotypes. I am sure we were also aware that it was a good move to demonstrate that Catellus had created a new environmentally friendly development from an old airfield.

Q. There are organizations that focus on technology based artworks to offer inspiration and practical applications for energy generation, such as the platform called Land Art Generator, directed by Robert Ferry and Elizabeth Monoian. I was a panelist for their Freshkills Park (Staten Island, NY) awards in 2013, and wrote an essay for their Powering Places (Santa Monica, CA) initiative in 2016. Something that concerns me with technology-based art is that it can often be a way to entertain more than a real world impact, by reducing our need for fossil fuels. For you, what percentage of this type of work should be art or entertainment and how much supporting ecological systems? What would be the best balance?

A. Rarely do we do work on this scale. But we were dealing with a huge highway, it had to have scale to be significant. It was important to us that it actually harvested energy and that one of the seven panels of each illuminated the flowers at night. It had to be iconic. Power dash was a way that children could monitor it so in that way it was a teaching tool, not entertainment. Change is important to this piece to see it during the day, then at night. The other thing we extended our site to include the large mowed grass embankment. We planted seeds from the Ladybird Johnson Foundation so that this “no man’s land” would burst with wildflowers. We also negotiated with the State Highway crews to only mow after the flowering season. This piece is not only experienced from the highway but it also has an inter-twining walking path between the SunFlowers. And, the path connects two open spaces parks within the development. Do these actions create change? I am not sure, but it is important to embrace something that one believes in.

Having had a recent conversation with Leo Lopez at Catellus who told us that the inverters had been stolen, which at a minimum would cost $100,000 to replace, it is sad that Sunflowers can no longer harness energy. They will, however, be sure that the flowers will be lit at night, though from an electric source and not by its own energy. So perhaps now fourteen years later they exist as a symbol rather than generating their own energy. This does not make us happy, but hopefully they will still be an important landmark for Austin. The sad part of public art it is that it is out there in the elements and so many of our projects have little budgets to restore and maintain them. What is important is that Catallus cares to maintain them. In that way the SunFlowers are successful.

Mags and Lajos, thank you for sharing about your experience with this inspiring solar work.

NOTE: As of today, led by California, rooftop solar installations fell by 12 percent nationally in 2023. It’s the first decline since 2017. It is estimated that California, which accounts for the bulk of the United States market, will see a 41 percent drop in 2024. Over 100 solar companies filed bankruptcy in 2023. (Article published January 26, 2024, Grist)

February 2024 newsletter for subscribers

Thu, 01 Feb 2024 13:19:10 GMT

February 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member Spotlight l Millicent Young

Mon, 15 Jan 2024 15:35:56 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 15, 2024

This week we recognize Millicent YoungMillicent Young, and her ongoing work made with natural materials including sculpture and installations.

"In 1997, I saw the film Calling the Ghosts: A Story About Rape, War and Women, a documentary about building the ultimately successful case before The Hague court to classify rape as a war crime. If I Speak... (above) tackles the complexities of testifying: of re-inhabiting the wound that the telling of one's story of violation and survival requires. As importantly, it asks "If I speak who is listening?" In the work, the testimony of Bosnian rape camp survivors is printed on both sides of the seven suspended ceramic folios. Printed in reverse on the verso, the excerpts are readable in the reflections in the wall mounted mirror alongside marks of violence that the thin clay bears. Simultaneously, the viewer sees their own face reflected in the mirror as they become part of the story unfolding in real time. If I Speak... dismantles separations we make and interrogates the moveable boundaries between witness, survivor, and perpetrator, between observed and observer, between there and here, then and now."

click images for more info

Sweet Chariot, 2011 (above) is from Young's series titled Vehicles, which explores hybridity of animal, plant, and wheel. At times playful, at times menacing, the forms invite reflection on the wheel, an invention that altered the evolution of human civilization and a symbol that possesses such archetypal power.

When There Were Birds (i), 2019 (above) began as a sculptural installation for an exhibition at 11 Jane Street in Saugerties, New York. Six months later, it developed into a collaborative performance with three musicians, including Iva Bittova, Steve Gorn, and Timothy Hill. The initial installation and sonic explorations were captured with video (click image). The collaboration ultimately wove the trio's improvisational music, Young's choreography, and several poems by Jane Hirshfield and Eileen Myles spoken by the artist with the 13 suspended forms into When There Were Birds (ii), a single live, sold-out performance at Broken Wing Barn also in Saugerties. The natural late afternoon November light that shafted in through the clerestory and skylights was used as the start of the piece. The feeling of the 280-year-old barn and the farm-to-table meal that followed brought an intimacy to the project.

Ceasefire (Gathering the Bones of the Beloved), 2023 (above) does not make a distinction between the slaughter of ecocide and genocide. Nor between historical periods and forms of lamentation. The ceasefire of the title is also a sonnet of the same name by contemporary Irish poet Michael Longley, referring not only to the sectarian violence in Northern Ireland but also to the Trojan War and the sacrifice peace requires.

"Entering Millicent Young’s site-specific retrospective Alter Altar: 20 Years, 2023 (below) in the two newly refurbished barns is like entering a concise representation of human history. Themes of loss, reverence, extinction, as well as shared humanity and the longing for connection, permeate Young’s detached and poetic presentation. Her use of locally found materials pays homage to the Hudson River valley and the stillness to be found here; indeed, the viewer feels as though she has entered a sanctuary, a place to sit still and let the natural process of appreciation unfold. Attention, like Ariadne’s thread (referenced in one piece), travels from one thoughtful work to the next, leaving rashness behind. One senses that Young has taken the time to hone her technical skills, to tend to her ideas, to let her metaphorical offerings ripen." click image below to continue reading review in Sculpture magazine by Nina MDivani

Millicent Young studied visual art, craft, music, and poetry at The Dalton School and in the museums and streets of New York City, which formed the foundation of her broad art education. Cross-cultural childhood experiences and encounters with profound poverty, the diversity of her family background, and her immersion in rural lifeways and wilderness were formative influences on the artist's social conscience and citizenship. Young went on to study at Wesleyan University, the University of Virginia (BA 1984), the University of Denver, and James Madison University (MFA 1997). Young was an art educator from 1986–2003, teaching studio art and art appreciation at the secondary and college levels and hybrid forms of movement practices in a community dance studio. Since 1993, she has worked as a freelance master gardener and landscape designer, focusing on permaculture and healing. Young has received two Professional Artist Fellowships from the Virginia Museum of Fine Arts; four grants from the Foundation for Contemporary Arts (NYC); and two individual artist grants from the New York State Council on the Arts/Arts Mid Hudson. Her work is included in the National Museum of Women in the Arts collection. Young's work was featured on the cover of Sculpture Magazine (March/April 2020). In 2022, she received the Distinguished Alumni Award from the School of Art, Design, and Art History at James Madison University. Young currently resides in the Hudson Valley, New York, having relocated from rural Piedmont, Virginia, in 2017. She designed and built her current live/work space in the foothills of the Shawangunks. Her intimacy with place and all who inhabit it shapes Young's practices daily. www.millicentyoung.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Millicent Young, If I Speak…, 1998, ceramic, steel, mirror, testimony from a survivor of the rape camps excerpted from War Crimes in Bosnia-Hercegovina vol.II. 82 x 91 x 10 inches; Vehicles, 2009-2012, Sweet Chariot, 2011, hickory, grapevine, adobe, twine, hair, 39 x 106 x 42inches; When There Were Birds (i), 2019, grapevine, hair; Ceasefire (Gathering the Bones of the Beloved), 2023, cedar, cherry, oak, steel shackles, barbed wire; 45 x 25 x 53 inches; ALTER ALTAR: 20 Years (2023); Portrait of the artist in her studio. All images courtesy of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Nancy Winship Milliken

Mon, 08 Jan 2024 22:59:50 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 8, 2024

This week we recognize Nancy Winship Milliken Nancy Winship Milliken, and her place-based environmental art practice since 2008.

Tika Whare, 2013 (above) is a site-specific installation in Turangi, New Zealand on the Te Hapua farm owned by the Truebridge family. In Maori, Tika Whare (pronounced Teaka Phorae) means true home. "The home is made of materials all found on the farm: bamboo, silage netting, and the wool from the thousands of sheep that surrounded me while I worked out in the paddocks. The flexible structure “breathed” and shifted in the wind as if it was alive, but was stationary among the flock. The sun traveling through the day provided unique lighting through the wool, reminding one of light filtering through the lacy leaves of the forest nearby and the delicate design of Polynesian and Maori art. Subsequently, the transitional sculpture has shifted with the winter winds on the exposed hillside and currently resembles a structural carcass decomposing into the ground. Process is an important part of my art and every morning as I worked in the field with sheep surrounding me I was informed by their interaction with the landscape."

click images for more info

"I pick plants from the fields surrounding the studio and cast them into limestone and sand, materials from our Vermont soils. This act of memorializing the fields (or even a season, if one could do that), of trying to keep the plant’s natural form, then set the field on a pedestal (much like the horses and war heroes in most town and city centers), becomes an act of resistance from the studio. Even the resulting sculpture becomes a carbon sequestering monument, as limestone is part of the carbon cycle-in contrast to the environmentally detrimental hardscape of an urban center (cement and asphalt have a negative impact for the earth). The installation of the indigenous plants of a region will be like having a year round textural stone field, or woodland, in all of its natural abstraction of form. These white limestone memorials/monuments placed in the public sphere, in neighborhoods for example, that once were fields, will reference the long history of humanistic public memorials and monuments of war and community heroes, and honor the landscape that was lost due to human encroachment. It will put nature on a pedestal in an abstract, un-curated form, much like what we see in nature’s natural state. The context of the memorial/monument in a city hardscape melds culture and nature together in a site specific installation."

How to turn the charred beams of an historic barn into art? This was the question that Milliken and her collaborator poet laureate Chard deNiord posed to each other as they met near the site of a fire that destroyed an hundred year old dairy barn at Shelburne Farms in Shelburne, Vermont. After several minutes of staring at the beams that had been dragged out of the collapsed barn, Milliken and deNiord settled on the idea of creating an evocative epitaph for the barn— something that both memorialized and elegized the destroyed landmark. deNiord suggested that he and Milliken think about the biblical phrase, "Let the dead bury the dead" as a starting point, acknowledging the futility and even irreverence of trying to create something transformative out of incinerated rafters. Milliken and deNiord then went their separate ways for several weeks in their mutual efforts to find respectful expressions that deferred to the barn's remains speaking for themselves as ruined yet iconic objects. Milliken took the first initiative by removing her hand from her memorial by allowing one of the beams, a synecdoche for the entire barn, to speak for itself as a drag mark on a linen shroud laid out on the field near the site of the former barn. deNiord followed by writing a poem that attempted to do justice to the mark it left.

Printing is mark making with pressure, the use of a matrix to impress information on a substrate. Environmentally and socially themed bricks were made collaboratively with farmers, poets, artisans, interns, and the community of Deerfield Academy (above). The process was one of discovery, setting up situations to happen without knowing the outcome. What words would the Deerfield community submit in response to the question “What do you pledge to the earth?” This open method of a sense of wonder is an important approach to be treated with the utmost care and respect in the studio.

Nancy Winship Milliken maintains a place-based environmental art studio committed to building community through collaborative expressions of reverence for the land, humans, and animals. The artist creates sculpture, installations, prints and photographic enactments concerning the health of the land and surrounding communities, aiding in the desired change for the (socio) environmental course of our society. The practice of her studio is as much about process as it is about object. From finding and harvesting bioregional materials, to molding, weaving, burning into form, our hands and senses “know” the material intimately. The different smells, textures, and raw sensation of making the form is all a part of informing the outcome of the work. For the outside work, once the sculptures are installed, there is a letting go, a handing off of the process to the environmental influences the landscape. The sculptures record the sun, rain, heat and cold, even air pollution in their materials creating a living journal of the elements of the environment. A history of wind. A visualization of time. Her studio is committed to using an artistic platform as an expression of environmental, climate and social change through engagement in community, collaborations, and mentoring creative environmental leaders. This is an open studio inviting artisans, poets, environmentalists, builders, students and farmers, to work together in response to the landscape, people and animals surrounding us. The studio strives to use sustainable and re-claimed materials, often re-using cast off materials from cultural usage or past installations. Milliken received her Masters of Fine Arts from the Massachusetts College of Arts and Design in 2008, and her Bachelors of Science at University of Vermont in 1984. nancywinshipmillikenstudio.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Nancy Winship Milliken, Tika Whare (True Home), 2013, bamboo, silage netting, raw wool, 14 x 9 x 8.5 feet, collaborators Truebridge Family, Turangi, New Zealand; Limestone Field Series, 2021-present, StoneField, 2022, 4 x 4 feet, feld plants, limestone, steel; Ribbon, Epitaph for a Barn, 2018, raw canvas, charcoal, 20 x 5 feet, collaborator Chard deNiord, Shelburne Farms, Vermont; Earth Press Project, Pledge, 2019,earth, steel, 7 x 7 x 5 feet, Von Auersperg Gallery, Deerfield Academy, Massachusetts, collaborators Reflex Letterpress, Terra Collaborative, Chard deNiord; Pasture Song, 2018-2022, post and beam charred timber, netting and horse hair (re-claimed cello bow hair), 15 x 17 x 1.5 feet, DeCordova Museum, Lincoln, Massachusetts; Portrait of the artist walking in her studio field in Vermont. All images courtesy of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Leah Mata Fragua

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 16:18:03 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 1, 2024

This week we recognize Leah Mata Fragua, Leah Mata Fragua, a yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini Chumash artist/scholar working in place based art, exploring the intersections of environment and social justice.

"My artistic evolution has led me to explore the ephemeral, where the intent of my work is not meant to last forever but rather exists in transient moments and challenges our own perception of time and mortality. As a placed-based artist, I am deeply rooted in the ancestral lands of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini (Northern Chumash) tribe along the California Central Coast. My mission is to create ephemeral works that honor my community’s values around sustainability practices while shedding light on pressing environmental issues. I believe that my work can serve as a platform for protecting cultural resources by bringing greater awareness to the environment where I collect my materials. In this respect, my work also provides a narrative about the importance of tribes in exercising our sovereign gathering rights."

click images for more info

"Historically, my primary medium was abalone, chosen for its intrinsic link to specific landscapes. However, the climate emergency and subsequent regulatory restrictions have necessitated a shift in my material palette. This challenge led me to explore the art of papermaking. Integrating handmade paper into my practice not only allowed me to maintain a strong geographical connection in my work but also opened new avenues for artistic expression. The process of papermaking, from pulp preparation to the final pressing, has become a metaphor for regeneration and sustainability in the face of environmental challenges. It represents a new chapter in my artistic journey, one that blends with my environmental ethos."

"In terms of subject matter, my pieces often depict landscapes on the brink of change, capturing the fleeting moments of natural beauty and cultural significance. Through my art, I work to transport viewers to these places, making the distant and abstract tangibly immediate. The integration of place-based details is meticulous, creating an immersive experience that not only showcases the beauty of these landscapes but also serves as a clarion call for their protection."

"In my recent research, I explore the intersections of art, environmental science, and community engagement, using papermaking as a tool to delve into themes of sustainability, cultural identity, and ecological consciousness. This exploration is more than an artistic endeavor; it's a commitment to deepening our collective understanding of our relationship with the natural world and inspiring action towards its stewardship."

Leah Mata Fragua is an artist, educator, and member of the yak tityu tityu yak tiłhini (Northern Chumash) tribe located on the Central California Coast. As a place-based artist, Leah’s kincentric approach seamlessly blends shared iconography with personal imagery, highlighting the impact each has on the other. She uses a diverse range of materials, from synthetic to organic, placed based to modern, to explore the interconnectedness and dependence between land, kinships, and self. She understands that her art is a reflection of the way she prioritizes the protection of traditional materials and the continuation of art forms that are important to her community, which intersect with her individual practice. Fragua is an adjunct professor in the Indigenous Liberal Studies department at the Institute of American Indian Arts. She travels between New Mexico and California, maintaining close ties to her tribal community and ancestral homelands. Her award-winning work is included in many public and private collections internationally. She was also honored with a Smithsonian Artist Research Fellowship in 2011. She was selected as a Master Artist recipient for the Alliance of California Traditional Arts (ACTA) in 2013 and, most recently, the 2020 Barbra Dobkin Fellowship at the School of Advanced Research. Her education includes a B.A. in Anthropology and an M.A. in Cultural Sustainability from Goucher College, and she is currently completing her MFA at the Institute of American Indian Arts. www.leahmata.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Leah Mate Fragua, New Cultural Resources (Detail), Northern Chumash, 2017, elk hide, oil, strows, plastic bags, pop lids, 5 feet, 5 inches; California poppies, 2023, handmade with abica plup, chamisa and madder root; Dentalium and Abalone Choker Necklace; Lepo Lepo, 2023, cottonwood bark, willow bark, and cotton, included in The Iridescence of Knowing at Oxy Arts; Traditional Northern Chumash dress with contemporary twist embellished with 50 meticulously cut abalone shells, each shaped like a water droplet; Self-portrait of the artist in her studio.

January 2024 newsletter for subscribers

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 16:02:51 GMT

January 2024 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Hearing Held and Nurtured Nature: Kim Goldsmith's Multi-Media Work

Mon, 01 Jan 2024 15:09:03 GMT

Mosses and Marshes, artist while recording audio, photograph, 2020

Hearing Held and Nurtured Nature: Kim Goldsmith's Multi-Media Work

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Bringing nature bathing to new heights, Kim V. Goldsmith constructs video, soundscape and written work that integrate the natural world through contemplative, socially-engaged media. Research and process driven, Kim’s work sits at the meeting point of natural beauty and human intervention. Between technological assets and the wildest landscapes, Kim expands on her work below. She is also the founder of eco-pulse art.

Exploring Places That Vibrate, digital audio-video (click image)

What strikes me about your multimedia pieces is the way that you present stable objects in motion. What parallels do you place between motion and the land?

In my opinion: nothing is stable. Everything is in motion regardless of whether we feel it, see it or hear it. Our rapidly changing climate has sped up that motion in many ways, and whether it’s the dramatic changes that come with floods, droughts, and fire—or just the progression of time—lands and bodies of water, and everything they sustain, is constantly changing.

It seems like you celebrate in this works such as “Pulse of the Wetland” and “Mosses and Marshes.” These collaborations explore the interconnectivity between the changing climate, surrounding community, and ecological resilience. How were you able to bridge narratives across communicative methods through collaboration?

The broader ‘Mosses and Marshes’ project, of which ‘Pulse of the Wetland’ was my part of the project, was an international collaboration with UK artist, Andrew Howe between 2019-2022, exploring the future of Ramsar-listed wetlands in our respective countries. Our process on this project emerged as the project developed but was defined by asking a lot of questions about the issues facing these landscapes and the communities that are shaped by them—including challenging our own biases and assumptions; creating relationships with a wide range of knowledge specialists—from scientists and land managers to traditional owners; then applying our artform preferences to exploring and presenting the information, largely as provocations. The public programming around our work was a really important component of the work that brought ‘outsiders’ into the conversation to consider the issues raised from different perspectives, which showed us that while UK and Australian inland wetlands are vastly different, they also face many common issues. To do this we guided soundwalks, held an international panel event, gathered audio stories, and published a book.

Mosses and Marshes, video soundscape, 2021 (click image)

What an incredible process to engage the public and realize common struggles. What can audio work achieve uniquely in your goals of “capturing deep connections and hidden layers?

Humans tend to hear but not really listen. We’re often reactive rather than reflective, switching off once we’re familiar with something. By bringing subsurface sounds to the surface, I can make the familiar, unfamiliar. This often breaks that reactive listening cycle long enough to have a conversation about active and deep listening that create those deep connections. When practiced, those connections deepen even further, and you can start to tap into those hidden layers without the need for technological assistance.

‘Inhalare/ breathe upon’ was a project that was very much about our restricted movement during COVID lockdowns and getting to know local environments better during this time, but it’s also centered on the idea of making the natural world more accessible to everyone. Through taking a written, sound, and visual approach to celebrating these places, we were able to give multiple connection points to the six environments chosen by the artists. In my case, it was the pine forest on my property. They’re also often underappreciated and overlooked places that many don’t take the time to explore and understand. Celebrating the signature sounds of the pine forest brought them into focus in a way most will not have taken the time to notice.

Inhalare/Breathe Upon, time lapse video with contact mic recordings, 2020-21 (click image)

Celebrating the signature sounds of the natural world with “Inhalare” reminds me of acoustic-ecology. As a person who is deeply connected to the environmental landscape and many rural communities, what are your experiences related to man-made noise?

Loud, man-made noise drives me nuts! I live in a peri-urban area a few kilometres outside a major regional city, where people believe it’s their right to make as much noise as they want. Dirt bikes, chainsaws, revving cars, lawn mowers and the pumped-up bass on sound systems are all features of the after work/ weekend soundscape—often drowning out beautiful native bird song, frog song, and wind in the trees. I also live within kilometres of a major inland rail line and regional airport, so those feature in my local soundscape too. All this said, it doesn’t mean that man-made noise is all bad—the sound of our footsteps on fallen leaves or dry grass isn’t going to dramatically alter other elements of that soundscape. We are, after all, part of the environments we live in. It’s just about moderation.

There’s growing awareness of the health impacts of constant ‘noise’ and I believe urban sound design will become increasingly important as our cities continue to grow. The need to house more people in medium and high-density spaces will require the use of sound impedance measures and green spaces to dampen sound. Allowing communities in these areas to have a say about what soundscapes they want to live within and engage with should be a key consideration in the planning of cities now and in future.

Sonic Byte-Wingham Brush Boardwalk, narrative audio walk, NSW Regional Futures project residency, 2022 (click image)

The connection between designed spaces and your work is very clear! I am thinking especially about the work you created in Skye. Reading your passages, I feel like I am on a journey with you. What do you consider while choosing how to share your contemplative journey so vividly with a reader, such as myself?

The writing I did during my residency on the Isle of Skye in August/September was about creating a more experiential and immersive experience of being in the natural world, that’s accessible to everyone. For some, access is about not being able to hear soundscapes, to see landscapes, or to be mobile enough to move freely through a territory. This project is called ‘The Sonic Language of (Lost) Landscapes' and it came off the back of trying to make sound more accessible to d/Deaf people or those who are hard of hearing, should they wish to engage with it. I have people with hearing loss in my own family, who can’t enjoy some of the soundscape compositions I’ve created over the years, as some of the frequencies are out of their range. I also have this fear of losing my hearing as I age. I’ve noticed that many of the best nature writers, some of whom I greatly admire, often don’t describe sound well or they use descriptions that only those who can or were once able to hear could relate to. While sound doesn’t always have to be centre stage, it makes writing about the natural world so much richer, particularly when you start to explore sub-surface worlds.

View From My Window, photograph, (Arts) Territory Exchange, 2017-19

And you are opening this journey by exploring agroecology artist residency options. What have you discovered so far?

Yes, I’ve been doing a feasibility study for the ‘SOIL+AiR: creative future landscapes project’. It’s a multidisciplinary, artist-on-farms residency program. Held as a co-led, on-farm creative exploration of land management and agroecology issues impacting the future of secure food and fibre production, and the need for cultural adaptation for us to adapt, survive and thrive in changing environments. It’s designed to be an active partnership between the creative and the farmer, as well as engaging local communities and consumers to better understand the environment in which foods and fibres are produced. I’m wanting it to be more than just awareness raising though, but bring new voices to the conversation, offer different perspectives, immersive experiences, potential solutions, and provide a way for people to act.

Following many conversations here in Australia, and in the UK while I was there recently, a small pilot residency project is now being developed, with the hope they'll be more artists and farmers involved in future. Eventually we’ll bring all the participants together to share the outcomes on an international stage. For me, it’s exciting to see my interests and experience in rural industry, natural resource management and the arts all coming together in a way that engages others and offers hope for the future.

Thank you, Kim! I think it may be time for a walk in the forest after such an inspiring interview.

Member Spotlight l NILS-UDO

Mon, 25 Dec 2023 16:04:52 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 25, 2023

This week we recognize Art-in-Nature artist NILS-UDO NILS-UDO and his decades-long practice creating site works with natural materials, as well as his current painting practice.

A passage by the artist to describe "THE NEST," 1978 (above), including rocks, birch trees, and grasses, made in Germany:

"I smelled the earth, the stones, the freshly struck wood. I built the nest walls high and twisted the soil of the nest. From the height of the edge of the nest I looked down on the forest soil, up into the branch work of the trees and into the sky. I heard the singing of the birds and felt the breath of the wind. In the dawn I began to freeze. The nest was not finished yet. I thought, high above on the edge of the nest squatting: I build myself a house, it sinks silently past the tops of the trees on the forest soil, openly to the cold night sky and nevertheless warmly and softly, deeply into the dark earth dug."

click images for more info

In 1998, NILS-UDO was invited to create an outdoor site installation in the Santa Monica Mountains, in Topanga Canyon (Los Angeles County, California), off Old Topanga Canyon Road in Red Rock Canyon Park. The artist chose a cave where he assembled one of his signature nests for this iteration, made with Arundo donax, a lesser bamboo that grows along Topanga Creek. Considered an invasive species, great care was taken to remove the work after several days. Visitors to the cave were taken by surprise, then learned about his site works made around the world and became protectors of the work until it was removed. Some local residents even made a daily pilgrimage. The off-site work was included in the exhibition Art & Nature, curated by Patricia Watts for Julie Rico Gallery, Santa Monica.

"Nature becomes a platform on which the artist layers a discourse of human intervention in relation to the scale and dimensionality of landscape as well as the life forms therein. A sense of the ephemerality of life is inscribed onto the landscape in these ever-changing artworks. We see his work in documents, photos, and catalogues more often than we will see them in reality, and their ephemerality is an omnipresent theme—nature plays the central role, with the artist as intervenor, someone who sensitizes viewers to their links to nature." John Grande

NILS-UDO began as a painter in the 1960s before creating his site-specific works in nature. He continued to paint until 1980, then focused exclusively on his nature installations until 2004, when he returned to painting as well. For the last twenty years, he has made dozens of paintings from memory and photographs. And, though most of his work has been made in and with nature, the artist considers his photographs as the primary artwork. He learned photography out of necessity to document his site work.

HABITATS is an installation created in 2022 (below) in the heart of Champagne, France, at Taissy Vineyards. As part of the countdown to the Vineyard's 300th anniversary in 2029, they commissioned the artist to create a work that would highlight the links between humans and nature, and to promote biodiversity. The installation sculptures, or nests, are made with vines and branches extracted from the vineyard to give them a bocage appearance (hedged fields). Oak trunks found in the surrounding area during forest maintenance operations form the bases of the sculptures, and young pines from regeneration work carried out in the neighboring Montbré forest are used for the branches. The artist’s ultimate dream? That birds nest there. That the bees take their place in the small holes dug in the trunk to make room for them... "Let the squirrels, caterpillars, butterflies, ladybugs... follow."

NILS-UDO (born 1937) is a German artist from Bavaria who has been creating environmental art since the 1960s, when he moved away from painting and the studio and began to work with and in nature. He began in the 1960s as a painter on traditional surfaces in Paris, but moved to his home country of Bavaria and started to plant creations, putting them in Nature's hands to develop and eventually disappear. As his work became more ephemeral, the artist introduced photography as part of his art to document and share it. Perhaps the best-known example of his work for the general public is the cover design for Peter Gabriel's OVO. The artist seeks to offer a mutualist vision wherein nature as environment is an omnipresent backdrop. In revealing the diversity in a specific environment, he establishes links between human and natural history, between nature and humanity that are always there yet seldom recognized. NILS-UDO uses natural materials, such as sticks, petals, and branches, to create site-specific installations. www.nils-udo.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©NILS-UDO, THE NEST, 1978, rocks, Birch trees, grasses, made in Germany, photo documentation; Red Rock Nest, site-specific installation in Topanga Canyon, California, off-site work included in exhibition Art & Nature at Julie Rico Gallery, Santa Monica, California, January-February 1998, photo documentation; Small Lakeearth, 2000, water, Hazel stakes, Butterly Orchids, old leaves, made in France, photo documentation; Painting 1058, 2015, oil on canvas; Habitats, 2022, oak trees, pine trees, grapevines, at Taissy Vineyard, Campaigne, France, photo documentation; Portrait of the artist at Taissy Vineyard.

Member Spotlight l John Roloff

Mon, 11 Dec 2023 18:32:13 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 11, 2023

This week we recognize artist John Roloff John Roloff and his decades-long investigation of geologic time, sites, and other natural phenomena that began in the late 1960’s, combining poetics and site-specific relationships between material, concept and performance in the domains of ecology, architecture, ceramics, industry, metabolic systems and history.

Fired and Glazed Earth Piece, 1979 (above) is the first larger environmental performance/ kiln work after a series of smaller experimental kilns and firing projects. This work had two stages, the first of purely firing the existing earth in-situ. The second state, is after a second firing and the layered placement of all powdered glaze materials available at the Notre Dame ceramic facility were fused in-situ. In both cases the burner was placed in one end of the kiln, and left to reach a unknown temperature, the purpose being to let the kiln dynamics and natural forces (to the extent possible) determine the state of fusion of the materials, not a pre-determined formula or goal.The work also related to the earthworks projects done by artists of the 1960's and 1970's. Echoing volcanic processes, such as contact metamorphism where a heat source (plutonic intrusion, lava flow, etc) would come into contact with the surrounding native rock and create an altered zone of materials, potential metamorphic facies change in minerology as well as color and texture. The illumination of the ceramic fiber blanket by the heat of the firing, sustaining the kilns ship form at night, became important in developing the spectacle/kiln image dynamic of later projects.

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Fragment: The Hidden Sea (Island of Refuge), 1993 (above) is a 35 foot long "artificial" sectioned rock outcrop whose polished front facade is activated by intermittent and distributed seepages of water. An illusion of the art work is that the water is flowing "uphill." The main structure is set into a series of wave-like grass berms, the berms and structure provide sitting and relaxing space for the students of the surrounding housing complex.

"Fragment..." An assemblage of geologic materials and concepts adrift as if broken from a larger system floating in what is a geologically complex and fragmented terrain as in the Franciscan and Great Valley rock sequences that make up much of Western California. These ‘suspect terrains,’ are geologic progressions of ancient sea floor deposited against the original North American continent by accretion processes generated by plate tectonics and oceanic sea-floor spreading over millions of years.

"...(Island of Refuge)" An interactive topography: an ‘outcrop’ sited in a communal terrain, berms for relaxing and reading, the back slope for viewing activities on the adjacent grass expanse, the slow drip of the front facade inviting investigation of its origin and secrets.

"...The Hidden Sea..." A sea that resides in the memory of all sediments deposited in marine and estuarine environments. A sea that once lapped shorelines, that can now only be imagined. A sea that exists within the vast expanses of stratified material making up sedimentary landscapes, its currents and subtle subcurrents persisting in the orientation and gradients of minute lithified particles that drifted and settled to the bottom of the deep oceans. The variable seepage of water from the front facade of Fragment: The Hidden Sea (Island of Refuge) provides a living reminder of these themes, dampening the fossil-like inclusions and waveform strata.

Stratigraphic Column I, 2002 (above) is composed of alternating images taken of Cambrian and Ordovician Era carbonate marine sediments from the Panamint Mountains in Death Valley, California and contemporary buildings (Holocene era) in the process of being deconstructed or having undergone conflagration in northern California. The images have been digitally stretched to form strata-like structures that recompose the column into a sequence of non-conformities and displacement in geologic time and distance. This meta-order examines an intermingling of Holocene and Paleozoic structures over 300 million years and 500 miles (800 kilometers) apart. The geographic displacement from Death Valley to Oakland is on the scale of plate tectonics or large strike/slip or transform fault systems such as the San Andreas Fault in western California. The practice of architecture often brings together materials from even greater distances and time frames for aesthetic, design or structural reasons.

Protogaea Civica II (Franciscan Formation/San Francisco, CA), 2005 (above) is the second and largest of three variations of the Geology Flag Project, a system of symbolic demarcation of site-specific geologic structures and materials using flags. This version uses 19 flag poles at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza. The flags emblematically identify the Civic Center’s site in relationship to the Franciscan Formation, the bedrock beneath the larger Bay Area, east of the San Andreas Fault. The Civic Center, in geologic terms, rests unconformably (a time gap in deposition) on part of the Franciscan called the Alcatraz Terrane, near its western edge. The complete set of flags are envisioned as a comprehensive system of geo-taxonomy, an indexing and revealing of the geologic materials and structures beneath any given site, and, as flags flying above civic sites, such as the San Francisco Civic Center, staking a claim for the “nationhood” of nature and natural systems. The flags are political, national and regional history flags.

The Sea Within the Land, 1980-2019 (below) are images from Roloff's retrospective exhibition at Anglim Gilbert Gallery in San Francisco, presenting selected kiln documentation, photographic installations, and recent ceramic ships. Utilizing a cross-disciplinary approach to ceramics and performance, his work incorporates the earth and life sciences with architectural and historical elements. The exhibition incorporated a view of the landscape where, in the context of geologic time, the land and sea are mutable, interdependent and may be construed as forms of each other. The processes of erosion and deposition being cyclical inversions of each other, a continuum of land and sea interaction through which new land is constantly being formed. In this fundamental way, land/seascapes are constructed of previous land/seascapes each carrying the blueprint of their ancestor.

John Roloff is a visual artist who works conceptually with site, process and natural systems. He is known for his ceramic works and outdoor kiln/furnace projects done from the 1970’s into the 1990’s, as well as other large-scale environmental projects, gallery installations and objects investigating geologic and natural phenomena. Based on an extensive background and ongoing research in the earth sciences, he works from geochemical and global metabolic perspectives. The ship is a central image of his work, metaphorically evoking psychological and transformative processes of the sea and land in geologic and contemporary time. He studied geology at UC Davis, Davis, CA with Professor Eldridge Moores and others during the formative days of plate tectonics in the late-1960’s. He studied with Louis Marak and received a master’s degree in art in 1973 from CSU Humboldt. In addition to numerous environmental, site-specific installations in the US, Canada and Europe, his work has been included in exhibitions at the Whitney Museum of American Art, UC Berkeley Museum, San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, Smithsonian Institution, Photoscene Cologne and the Venice Architectural and Art Biennales, The Snow Show in Kemi, Finland and Artlantic: wonder, Atlantic City, New Jersey. Art works in the public realm that explore geologic and related concepts can be found at sites such as: Yerba Buena Gardens, San Francisco, CA, University of Minnesota, Minneapolis, MN, I-5 Colonnade Park, Seattle, WA and Stanford University, Palo Alto, CA. He has received three artist’s visual arts fellowships from the NEA, a Guggenheim Foundation fellowship, a California Arts Council grant for visual artists and a Bernard Osher Fellowship at the Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA. He is Professor Emeritus of Sculpture/Ceramics at the San Francisco Art Institute. www.johnroloff.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©John Roloff, Fired and Glazed Earth Piece, University of Notre Dame, South Bend, IN / 1979, images: Pre-fireing, 12 ft long, fire brick, ceramic fiber blanket, metal tubing, burner, propane, earth and 12 ft long, fire brick, fused and glazed earth beneath kiln / second firing of kiln; Fragment: The Hidden Sea (Island of Refuge) is a35 ft. long, cement, artificial stone, timed water-seepage system, roses, landscaping, Stanford University, Stanford, CA, 1993;Stratigraphic Column I, 2002, an extension of Roloff's Landscape Projection (for an Unknown Window) series, 1998-2001;Protogaea Civica II (Franciscan Formation/San Francisco, CA) 2005, 19 flag poles at the San Francisco Civic Center Plaza as part of the 2005, part of the exhibition, High Five, presented in conjunction with the opening of the new DeYoung Art Museum in Golden Gate Park;The Sea Within the Land 1980-2019; Portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Felicia Young

Mon, 04 Dec 2023 19:58:54 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 4, 2023

This week we recognize artist Felicia Young, and her collaborative community-based projects to address environmental challenges through the arts, as the founder of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization established in 1991.

Young created the Trash Monster for Earth Day in 1990 (above), a 50-foot long dragon covered in soda cans, plastics bottles, and a tail of discarded New York Times papers. Volunteers from throughout the city collected cans for the monster and helped in its creation over several weeks. It was also featured in the Earth Day Parade at One World Trade Center 1992-1995. Volunteers operated the dragon by walking under the heaps of trash, their heads popping out like vertebrae. At the end of the parade the volunteers emerged and slayed the dragon, cutting off the cans, plastic bottles and paper tail. It was then separated in the ritual of recycling and offered to the We Can Recycling Center for recycling.

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The Rites of Spring, Procession to Save Our Gardens, 1991-2005 (above) was a collaborative art and environmental action project directed by Young, to build a community effort to preserve the gardens on the Lower East Side that were threatened with destruction by proposed development plans.Over many months local residents participated in workshops to create visual art, giant puppets, and performances of music, dance, theater and poetry, presented in a culminating day-long procession to Save Our Gardens, visiting the network of over 50 community gardens. The procession grew into an ongoing program with the founding of Earth Celebrations, dedicated to engaging communities to generate ecological change through the arts. The project continued for fifteen years with annual pageants, community art-making workshops and a grassroots coalition effort that led to the preservation of hundreds community gardens throughout New York City.

Earth Celebrations’ Hudson River Restoration Project & Pageant, 2009-2012 (above) engaged residents, youth, students, schools and local river, environmental, cultural and community organizations in a collaborative arts and action project on restoration efforts of the Hudson River Estuary and impacts of climate on the waterfront in Lower Manhattan. Months of workshops engaged residents, youth, schools, community centers and organizations to collaborate with Earth Celebrations’ artists-in-residence and environmental experts exploring the waterfront sites and their related environmental programs and climate mitigation initiatives. Workshops culminated in a co-created theatrical pageant, featuring a 5 hour procession of visual art, giant puppets and costumes with 13 site performances celebrating the restoration initiatives along the downtown section of the Hudson River Park. Oyster planting, marine labs, native river grass, species of plants and animals, and boating programs were celebrated while addressing sea level rise, flooding and climate challenges impacting the waterfront.

The Vaigai River Restoration Pageant & Project, 2014-2016 (above) was a social action art initiative and an international collaborative effort to restore the Vaigai River in Madurai, South India. The River was in a severe environmental crisis due to pollution, waste dumping, and the drying effects of extreme climate. The project applied the arts to mobilize community action and build partnerships among diverse groups and people throughout the city, working together to develop and implement solutions. Young activated cultural strategies and methodology to engage diverse sectors throughout the City, to work collaboratively, exploring how pollution and climate are impacting the river. Over 50 partners throughout the city including local organizations worked on critical environmental and health programs, rural and urban neighborhood associations, religious centers, women’s empowerment groups, academic and cultural institutions, government officials, farmers and people living in poverty along the riverbank. Research and data were then interpreted by community participants into visual art and performances for a culminating public Vaigai River Restoration Pageant on May 12, 2015. A procession of giant mobile sculptures, spectacular costumes, and musical bands with performances at significant sites along the route followed the river bank. The project catalyzed on-going engagement and actions with river clean ups, and the Vaigai River Restoration Trust was established along with an official panel appointed by the Mayor of Madurai. In 2018, Madurai was identified by the Smart Cities Council of India to receive 1 billion rupees for the Vaigai River Restoration implementation.

Earth Celebrations’ Ecological City - Art & Climate Solutions Action Project, 2017 - present (below) applies the arts to build community, collaboration and action on climate solution initiatives to mitigate climate change including impacts of flooding, carbon pollution and the consequences of sea-level rise throughout the network of community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront on the Lower East Side of New York City. Gardeners, artists, residents, youth and over 50 community partner organizations collaborate through 9 months of creative engagement, partnership building, and Art & Climate Solutions Workshops, to develop visual art and performances exploring local sustainability sites and their climate solution initiatives. The community presents their inspiring sustainable urban ecosystem and artistic works created through the workshops in the culminating Ecological City: Procession for Climate Solutions. The co-created theatrical pageant features a spectacular procession of visual art with 21 site performances of dance, theater, music and poetry, celebrating local climate solutions embedded throughout the neighborhood. Ecological City provides an inspiring creative, collaborative and public platform to amplify and build action on local environmental challenges and solutions.

Felicia Young is an artist and the Founder and Executive Director of Earth Celebrations, a non-profit organization since 1991, engaging communities to generate ecological and social change through the arts. For the past 32 years she has applied the arts to build community, collaboration and action on climate change, water quality, river restoration, waste management, and the preservation of species, habitats, nature, gardens, parks, and a healthy urban environment. Her collaborative arts projects build partnerships with organizations, academic institutions, government agencies, and residents to work together to achieve common goals and ecological policy and social change. As a native 3rd generation New Yorker, Young has deep roots in the City of New York, as well as much inspiration from the festivals, ceremonies, and mythic dramas from her mother’s native land of India. Young has also developed a course "Art, Ecology and Community," for Princeton University. She shares these cultural strategies as a guest speaker on urban sustainability and artistic activism at numerous schools and colleges including New York University, Columbia University, School of Visual Arts, New School/Parsons and Hunter College. Young has BA in Art History from Skidmore College and a MA degree in Performance Studies from New York University. earthcelebrations.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Felicia Young, Trash Monster: Create, Parade & Recycle, 1990-1995, also performed Earth Day New York & World Trade Trade Center, LMCC, 1992-1995; Hudson River Restoration Pageant, 2008-2012, downtown section of the Hudson River Park, Lower Manhattan, World Financial Center to Gansevoort Street; Vaigai River Restoration Pageant & Project (2014-2016), Madurai, South India; Ecological City, Art & Climate Solutions Action Project, 2018-Present, Lower East Side, New York City, Gardens to Waterfront; portrait of the artist.

Geo Crumbs: Making the Invisible Visible  / Artivist: Natalya Khorover

Sat, 02 Dec 2023 03:18:22 GMT

Geo Crumbs: Making the Invisible Visible 

by Michelle Sirois Silver

Artivist: Natalya Khorover

“What does one year of collecting trash look like?”

Geo Crumbs: Making the Invisible Visible (2023) is Natalya Khorover’s most personal installation to date. Bits and pieces of trash were collected over a year of walking along a favorite footpath in a forest. These geo crumbs of trash are cast in resin and installed in a small, abandoned building steps away from the footpath for people to see just how many crumbs they may have left behind on their walks.

An interactive component is a QR code created by the artist. Encased in resin, it hangs on one of the walls. When scanned a description of the concept for the installation pops up. Followed by a series of questions: Do you know about climate change? Do you know what plalking is and do you do it? Can you tell me something about the history of the forest you are hiking through? They can then sign a virtual guest book and leave a message for the artist.

This well-traveled footpath is where Natalya walks her dog and where she collects trash crumbs discarded by walkers, hikers, and cyclists. She describes it as her little patch of forest, “Obviously it’s not mine but it’s where I walk my dog almost every day. It’s a beautiful patch of nature with mature maple and oak trees. A stream runs through it. When I find trash on the ground it breaks my heart. I want to clean it up.”

Calls to action come in many ways. Natalya comments that when one person picks up one piece of trash and puts it into the trash receptacle it saves that piece from being washed by the rain into the water way and flowing out into the ocean where eventually a fish will eat it. “It’s one small act that all of us can do,” she says.

The concept for Geo Crumbs came about organically so to speak. From September 2022 until September 2023, Natalya picked up pieces of plastic, glass, bits of metal, batteries, charging cables, lights from bicycles, condom wrappers, and lace underwear. As well as tennis balls, dog balls, golf balls, and tees.

The concept for the installation is an intuitive process. “In September 2022 when I first began picking up the trash along the footpath, instead of putting it into the trash receptacle I felt compelled to collect it. I would bring it home, wash, sort, and catalog it. I didn’t throw anything out. At the time I wasn’t sure why.”

Creating spaces for conversations about single use plastic is an underpinning for the artivism that Natalya engages with. The walks in the forest offered her the opportunity for contemplation and creative problem solving. It was during her dog walks that she routinely walked by an abandoned building. And, it was here she saw the opportunity to create an installation that would draw attention to the trash that she had collected along the path.

To prepare the trash for the installation it is cast in resin to prevent further harm. The resin casting is a transformative process turning the bits of trash into precious shiny objects. Installed in the secret gallery, the transformed geo crumbs have the potential to draw attention and generate conversations about the responsibilities we have for objects and the things we may unknowingly leave behind.

Our conversation broadens as we discuss her decision to work with resin. Intrigued by resin she also worried about it because it’s a fossil fuel product. We talked about why her work requires a bonding element. Whether it’s polyester thread or acrylic paint. As far as she is concerned, they all have their detriment to the Anthropocene epoch. She concludes, “These are choices I must make.”

Some of the work is suspended with wires. Other pieces are placed on the floor and create an unexpected mosaic effect. When the exhibition ends everything will be removed. It’s Natalya’s intention to cause no harm to the site. Everything will be taken away and exhibited again or reused to create new works.

“I want visitors to initially be attracted to the beauty of the installation but as they get closer, I want them to realize that it’s trash. I want them to be surprised. And I want them to think about how they may have contributed to the installation by leaving a geo crumb behind.”

Geo Crumbs: Making the Invisible Visible. The year of collecting trash is currently on display in the secret gallery somewhere in New York state (November 2023 – Winter 2024).

Installation: 40.96593° N, 73.74636° W

Natalya Khorover is an artivist based in New York state. She describes the work she makes as environmental art that uses the discarded materials she finds within those environments. “Everything I make is made with repurposed materials. Specifically single use plastics. This is the core of my art practice.” Community participation in the form of workshops is a key underpinning for her installations with the intention to empower participants to engage in activism in actionable ways. “I’m compelled to draw people’s attention to single use plastics. And, the way I know how is to use the plastic in my art in ways that make it unrecognizable. When someone first sees my work, they are drawn to the imagery, color, and texture. When they lean in, they pause and ask, ‘What’s that made from?’ This is where the conversation about single use plastic often begins.” Khorover is the founder of the Repurposer Collective. A community for creatives concerned about the environment and passionate about exploring repurposed materials in art. In 2023 Natalya was the teaching artist in residence at the Hudson River Museum. She earned her BFA from Pratt Institute in Brooklyn, NY, and is a member of Studio Art Quilt Associates (SAQA), Surface Design Association (SDA), the Katonah Museum Artist Association (KMAA), and the Silvermine Guild of Artists. In 2022, she created a site-specific installation from single-use plastic waste for The Social Fabric, an exhibition at ArtsWestchester in White Plains, NY. Her work has also been exhibited at the Dairy Barn’s biennial Quilt National (2021, 2017, 2013), the Visions Museum of Textile Art in San Diego, CA, The Other Art Fair in Brooklyn, NY, and the Philadelphia Museum of Art Craft Show.

Photographs by Ana Szilagyi

December 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Fri, 01 Dec 2023 16:39:22 GMT

December 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Deep Horizons - Recently launched book with free open access download

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 15:47:07 GMT

Deep Horizons: A Multisensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects

The specifics of ecological destruction often take a cruel turn, affecting those who can least resist its impacts and who are least responsible for it. Deep Horizons: A Multisensory Archive of Ecological Affects and Prospects gathers contributions from multiple disciplines to investigate intersectional questions of how the changing planet affects specific peoples, communities, wildlife species, and ecosystems in varying and inequitable ways. A multisensory, artistic-archival supplement to the University of Colorado Boulder’s 2020-2022 Mellon Sawyer Environmental Futures Project, the volume enriches current conversations by bridging the environmental humanities and affect theory with insights from Native and Indigenous philosophies. It highlights artistic practices that make legible the long-term durational effects of ecological catastrophe, inviting readers and viewers to consider the emotional resonance of poems, nonfiction texts, sound-texts, photographs, and other artworks that grapple with the less visible loss and prospects of environmental transformation.

Learn more about the book, which includes work by Erika Osborne, here

Entanglement and the Inner Feminine as Artistic Practice: Hillary Irene Johnson - MAHB

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 01:39:15 GMT

Entanglement and the Inner Feminine as Artistic Practice

Hillary Irene Johnson | October 19, 2023 on MAHB

Now that I am deep into the final year of my MFA in Photography at Columbia College Chicago, I find I’m reflecting on the problematic nature, the constraining potential of what the rational, well-ordered, intellectual, academic, rectilinear, traditionally masculine modes of thinking, doing and making. I am also researching models of success both out in the world and from an interior perspective. I wonder how I (and others if they like) might reframe experience and path from these masculine modes and views of success to those more feminine in nature, more internal processes, heroine’s journeys of transformation for the good of myself, for the good of all beings.

I’m thinking a lot about entanglement, of our collective dilemmas and how we might move forward, borrowing Donna Harroway’s notion of a new period we have the potential to enter into, what she calls the Chthulucene. In her book, Staying with the Trouble (1), she writes:

“Chthulucene is a simple word. It is a compound of two Greek roots (khthôn and kainos) that together name a kind of timeplace for learning to stay with the trouble of living and dying in response-ability on a damaged earth. Kainos means now, a time of beginnings, a time for ongoing, for freshness. Nothing in kainos must mean conventional pasts, presents, or futures. There is nothing in times of beginnings that insists on wiping out what has come before, or, indeed, wiping out what comes after. Kainos can be full of inheritances, of remembering, and full of comings, of nurturing what might still be. I hear kainos in the sense of thick, ongoing presence, with hyphae infusing all sorts of temporalities and materialities.”

Continue reading on MAHB here

The UN/making Network: Jill Price - MAHB

Thu, 16 Nov 2023 01:35:00 GMT

The UN/making Network: An Interdisciplinary Artist-run Platform that Celebrates the UN/making of Harm

Jill Price | September 28, 2023

Arising out of personal observations about how the art world contributes to the Anthropocene, which Dr. Natalie Loveless from the University of Alberta defines as a colonial, industrial capitalist, patriarchal and petrol phenomenon that I would add is made exponential by the globalization of Western thought that privileges economic growth and individual wealth over ecological justice and social equity, the UN/making Network is an assemblage of online platforms that support and promote interdisciplinary art forms that push beyond the production of objects for commodification and consumption and uptake methods of performativity to assist in the care and repair of ecological sites and spaces that support human and more-than-human well-being.

Formulated as a research-creation Ph.D. project in which I was interested in discovering and developing ways in which to unmake myself from systems of harm as a consumer and a maker, as well as transition my personal practice away from the narrative towards that which could be considered performative, preventative or reparative, the UN/making Network is Inspired by other artivist or cultural websites that work to share eco-ethical mandates, resources, and outcomes, and build a community of like-minded thinkers and doers. Temporarily housed under www.jillpricestudios.ca, the UN/making Network currently exists as a series of web pages that:

Continue reading on MAHB here

Lucia Monge Collaborates With Living Organisms - Hyperallergic

Thu, 09 Nov 2023 01:20:56 GMT

Lucia Monge Collaborates With Living Organisms for While a Leaf Breathes (Mientras una Hoja Respira)

The ArtYard exhibition explores plant respiration as a metaphor for life and vulnerability. On view through January 28 in Frenchtown, New Jersey.

ArtYard November 8, 2023

To create works for While a Leaf Breathes (Mientras una Hoja Respira), artist Lucia Monge turned to plants, mushrooms, bacteria, and other living organisms as collaborators.

“The materials in my works are prepared, fermented, cooked, and cultivated,” Monge says. “It is hard and also beautiful to adapt to another species’ temporality. It is important for me to not only talk about interspecies relationships but to try to meet another species halfway and to have my practice be guided through their cycles, time, and urgencies.”

The exhibition explores stomata — the pores through which plants breathe. Exchanging air with the environment is key to the photosynthetic process of plants. However, every time these pores open to breathe, the plant risks losing water. There is vulnerability in opening up, and loss and nourishment must be balanced in order to stay alive.

Continue reading at Hyperallergic here

November 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 16:22:43 GMT

November 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Living the Interconnected Connectivity of All Things: Interview with Carol Padberg

Wed, 01 Nov 2023 14:15:01 GMT

Photo: A Oyster Mushroom fruits through one of Carol Padberg’s handwoven wearable sculptures.

Carol Padberg's fully integrated art and educational practice

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Carol Padberg lives her practice. Through a combination of material work creation and a back-to-the-land, spiritually integrated lifestyle, the artist/educator is fully entrenched in her mission. Padberg was the founder of the low residency Nomad MFA program through the Hartford Art School at University of Hartford (2015) and along with Mary Mattingly, appling the Nomad curricular model also recently founded the Confluence MFA concentration (2022) at the University of New Mexico in Albuquerque. This unique regenerative culture program integrates multiple sites in the Americas with a focus on both ecology and community. View her TED talk here for more information: Radical: Art, Education and Ecology | Carol Padberg | TEDxUniversityofHartford

Interview

Carol, a word that comes to mind when exploring your work is: connection. Whether the connection is between fiber and living organisms and/or people and the planet, the weavings you present seem to be both literal and abstract manifestations of this interconnectedness. What drives the dedication to develop and promote these connections?

We are living in a time that has been devastated by the myth of separability. Yet we are all connected. My efforts in raising sheep and weaving, my commitment to work with mycelia and indigo, all of it is driven by the need to return to non-extractive economies, ancestral practices, and a direct, interspecies connection to the web of life. So, yes, ‘connection’ is a key concept for me. It is essential to understand this word within the ecological, political and cultural context of this destructive myth of separability. Another way the idea of connection shows up in my work is that the mycelial sculptures I make decompose back into the soil of the dye gardens. This way the life cycle of the art is directly connected to the life cycles of the planet.

Photo: A slug eats one of Carol Padberg’s decomposing mycelial sculptures, accelerating the release of nutrients and mycelia back to the soil (2018).

A huge aspect of challenging separability and a necessity in connection is intimacy. In “Meeting Mycelia” (2019) and the “Mycelial Muse Kit” (2022) you explore deep emotional and nurturing relationships with natural growth and cycles. How does the relationship between human and earth develop through these processes?

A human being is an interspecies being. We have more non-human DNA in our bodies than human DNA. This is thanks to the bacterial and fungal communities that keep us healthy in our gut, on our skin and in ways we have not yet scientifically named. So, interspecies intimacy is “built-in” to mammals like us. When you consider this deep interspecies reality, it can be surprising that we need to pause to remember this. Yet here we are, with our idea of individuality, which is a biological fallacy. I want to trouble this idea of ‘appreciating nature’ by completely breaking down the human/nature binary. We must undo this idea that we are separate from nature. Art that creates a direct experience of our skin’s mycelial community to the mycelial community of the forest floor is not only poetic, but useful. This art has the ability to remind us to listen with our cells, loosen our grasp on individual selfhood and build new neural pathways that may foster better ways of knowing.

Photo: Carol Padberg's spun wool from her sheep, created on a 17th century walking wheel.

And you practice what you preach: your regenerative practice has expanded beyond artistic production and has become a way of life for you at the Nook Farm House. What role does place hold in your socially-engaged environmental art practice?

In the past sixteen months I moved from Nook Farm House on the east coast of Turtle Island to Tewa land in the Southwestern region, to bring the Confluence curriculum to the University of New Mexico. All last year I felt bereft leaving Nook Farm House in Hartford, and yet it continues in new forms. Now I live on a farm in Northern New Mexico where I have a workshare arrangement in exchange for lodging. I raise wool sheep here and they graze on the grasses of this apple orchard. I also grow indigo to contribute to the local fibershed. I am fortunate to live in an area with abundant textile traditions: from the Pueblo peoples, the Diné, and the descendants of Hispanic settlers. I am a student of this place: observing, listening and growing as I adapt. And I am being shaped by the tenacious and fragile high desert. In my mycelial practices I have begun working with the Oyster Mushrooms I meet in the Jemez Mountains. And I am also beginning a project that considers the Questa Mine Superfund site and questions conventional ideas about remediation. As most of the materials I use as an artist come from the place where I live, a change in location brings new possibilities and requires adding new skills. So I am in a time of adaptation, and this is invigorating.

Photo: A participant in a Meeting Mycelia workshop feeling the mycelia of fruiting Oyster Mushrooms through his eyelids (2020)

In the spirit of creating this bridge, you have been incorporating new growth (mycelia) into textiles in recent years. How do these living woven cloths relate meaning to this inseparability?

This is an ontological question, and by that I mean it relates to how we know what is. Let’s get mystical for a moment… One of the ways I walk in the world is as an animist who participates in old ways that have been carried down from my deepest human ancestors. I am from descendants of settler colonists on both sides of my family. But before we were colonized and trained into colonialism, we were living in Northern Europe and practicing a belief system in which weaving was world making. The three fates wove past, present and future. By collaborating with Oyster mushroom mycelia, who create by metabolizing rotting wood, I am considering how to process my family history and the trauma we have created in the world. How do we digest this? I practice spinning and weaving on ancestral wheels and looms as a way to reconnect with my heritage and then I work with mycelia because they are the best teachers of metabolization. How do we weave a future from this time period we have been born into? I believe textiles and mycelia hold clues.

Photo: Sheep grazing near Carol Padberg’s Ger (Yurt) on the Northern New Mexico apple orchard where she lives, October 2023.

Photo: A selection from the book Otra Visión: Mujeres Que Tejen, created by students in the Confluence MFA in collaboration with the Mujeres Que Tejen Weaving Collective in Valle de Teotitlán, Oaxaca, México, 2023.

Your work is both in practice and in education. The MFA programs you have developed have been called “the MFA of the future”. What inspired you to develop these novel models?

I deeply believe in the power of education to change lives and shape our world for the better. A democracy requires relevant, varied, and thoughtful educational institutions. In terms of the Confluence MFA, we are proud to be part of a state university that serves a majority POC student body. The leadership at the University of New Mexico is forward thinking, and adaptive to the changing conditions we are living in. Are we the MFA of the future? I think when people tell us that, what they are noticing is that we are purpose-driven, holistic, and that we have a low-residency format that is practical for working adults. An MFA dedicated to regenerative culture is a niche MFA. It serves a very specific need. There is no one MFA for the future, thank goodness. As the program will soon be ten years old, I would say it is going well. We are continuing to evolve a curriculum that gives students an expanded toolkit with which to address the world’s most complex issues. We attempt to do this in a way that is trauma-informed, liberatory and engaged. Is it easy work? No. Is it meaningful? Absolutely!

Confluence MFA Online Openhouse, info here.

Photo: MFA students with teaching artists Mark Dion and Christy Gast in the Everglades, Florida, 2018.

Thank you, Carol, for expanding our horizons with your ideas and practice!

The Artist Working to Reclaim the LA River’s Water - Hyperallergic

Mon, 16 Oct 2023 23:43:36 GMT

Lauren Bon on site at Bending The River, 2023 (photo courtesy Metabolic Studio)

The Artist Working to Reclaim the LA River’s Water

Through adaptive reuse, environmental artist Lauren Bon is diverting water from the river and distributing it to the Los Angeles State Historic Park.

Matt Stromberg September 12, 2023

LOS ANGELES — Since 1960, nearly all of the 51-mile Los Angeles River has flowed within a concretized channel. It begins in the San Fernando Valley at the intersection of Bell Creek and Arroyo Calabasas, then moves east through Studio City, curves around Griffith Park, and heads south past Glendale, Downtown LA, and the Gateway Cities of Vernon, Bell, and Maywood before emptying into the San Pedro Bay in Long Beach. Its stark, industrial shores have served as a backdrop for Hollywood films (Grease, Point Blank, Drive) and a fishing spot for intrepid urban hunters. What the river does not provide Angelenos is water, which its concrete shell ensures is channeled directly into the Pacific: 207 million gallons per day, according to the City of LA.

Through an ambitious project titled “Bending the River” (2012–ongoing), environmental artist Lauren Bon and her Metabolic Studio are working to reclaim at least a small portion of that water.

“This is the first adaptive re-use of LA River infrastructure,” Bon told Hyperallergic. “This work acts as a case study. My hope is to set a precedent and path forward for creative and innovative thinking about how we can better use our infrastructure and re-evaluate our commons of soil, seed, water, and community process.”

Continue reading on Hyperallergic here

Groundswell: Women of Land Art Sue Spaid - AEQAI

Fri, 13 Oct 2023 14:53:24 GMT

Patricia Johanson (American, born 1940) Fair Park Lagoon, 1981–86, Gunite, native plants, and animal species, Dimensions variable. For the People, the Meadows Foundation, Communities Foundation of Texas, Texas Commission on the Arts and their private and corporate donations. Permanently sited in Fair Park, Dallas. © Patricia Johanson, Courtesy of the artist. Photo: Michael Barera

Groundswell: Women of Land Art

Sue Spaid

Published October 1 for AEQAI

Nasher Sculpture Center, Dallas

On view through January 7, 2024

A couple of years ago, I unearthed a disappointing story. Between 1971 and 1990, as earthworks gave way to eco-art, twelve museums mounted exhibitions focused on eco-art, which featured artworks by a total of 238 men and 25 women, even though women actually built half of the fifty early examples of ecological earthworks. Moreover, dozens of women participated in the Land art movement, yet the very notion of women creating Land art, which typically requires heavy machinery, specialized skills, and expensive materials, still astonishes fifty years later. Thanks to Anna Mendieta’s well-publicized career, more women are known for their ecologically-oriented performance art. Seven first generation eco-artists are among the twelve artists featured in “Groundswell: Women of Land Art.” Since museums have historically ignored women’s vital contribution to this field, an exhibition focused entirely on women artists only seems fair. “Groundswell” offers a historical context for Patricia Johanson’s Fairpark Lagoon, a massive remediation project commissioned by the Dallas Museum of Art in the early 1980s to revitalize the lagoon sited three miles southeast of the Nasher Sculpture Center.

Continue reading on AEQAI here

Member Spotlight l David Cass

Mon, 02 Oct 2023 14:38:58 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 2, 2023

This week we recognize David Cass David Cass, and his painting practice focused on climate change, rising sea levels and waters.

Cass creates three-dimensional paintings and installations using exclusively found materials sourced at flea-markets and antique fairs; though his practice also involves photography, digital media, writing, sculpture and curation. He has made responsible travel a key component of his practice, as well as his exhibition activities.

click images for more info

Rising Horizon is a series of paintings in oil, with each work exploring aspects of our changing Earth: from commentary on rising sea levels, to the importance of re-using and recycling materials. These works, including Slides and Sounds, 2017-2018 (above) have been exhibited during solo shows at The Scottish Gallery in Edinburgh and at Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre in North Uist. They’ve also featured in a range of group events, including Royal Academy and Royal Scottish Academy Open exhibitions. During 2020, these works were presented as part of Scotland’s Year of Coasts & Waters.

"Discovering the opportunities we have within reach for combatting aspects of the climate crisis also lies at the core of Where Once the Waters (above). Here, the aim has been to invite people to reflect, on their own terms, upon the changes happening at places we may feel some connection to. I believe that we have a better chance of engaging with aspects of climate change if we can do this in a personal way. In this vein, in May 2022, I opened a small solo exhibition—principally discussing the topic of rising sea levels—at the 59th edition of the Venice Biennale. The exhibition comprised two installation artworks formed of many small parts. One group of Letters (typed antique papers addressed to people around the world) offered readers insights into our changing coastlines; while a group of miniature seascapes spoke of sustainability and the need to care for our resources. Over the course of its display, Where Once the Waters was well received by visitors and media, with regular exhibition tours and discussions." You can also take part

"So far over 600 Letters have been typed onto an assortment of found papers, addressed to people around the world, each offering a sea-level “reading.” These letters aren’t sent (at least not in their physical form), they’re added to a growing collection. A Letter to Rhea, 2022 (below) was enlarged and presented in billboard format in Brooklyn, New York, thanks to the I AM WATER campaign (ecoartspace/our humanity matters); a Letter to Mesi was digitally screened during COP27 in Egypt thanks to IkonoTV. This is a different way to present the information the letters contain, specifically addressed to locals. If we know what is happening locally, we stand a better chance of meeting that issue. Climate change shouldn’t feel “far off” and issues such as sea-level rise could impact us all, regardless of where we live. We need to be discussing this more."

“I started a series of seascapes (below) in the summer of 2022, after having spent the three previous years working almost exclusively on a small scale. Here, I’ve gradually applied expressive layers of oil in abstract shapes onto vintage industrial canvases and large format nautical maps pasted to board. Like the telling and re-telling of a story, I’ve traced and re-traced loops and curves, following familiar channels to build thick swells of paint. These paintings see my mark-making style inverted, with more emphasis placed on the negative space. Suggestive of sustainable practices, the titles of these paintings possess a meditative quality, much like the layering process of their creation.”

David Cass is an artist and occasional curator working between the UK and Europe. He has exhibited his multidisciplinary artwork in a range of venues and festivals including group showings at Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, MAXXI Museum in Rome, The Royal Academy (London) and Royal Scottish Academy (Edinburgh), and solo presentations at The Scottish Gallery, British Institute of Florence and Venice Biennale. Upon graduation from Edinburgh College of Art's School of Drawing & Painting, Cass received a Royal Scottish Academy scholarship to Italy. This event had great influence on his practice and his current projects still make reference to the country. He has participated in projects worldwide, and has artworks in numerous collections, both public and private. These activities have had an increasing focus on sustainability and the environment, with recent projects centered around on the issue of rising sea levels. Among other awards, Cass has received Winsor & Newton’s top award for his projects in watercolour and the Royal Scottish Academy’s Benno Schotz prize. He’s provided illustrations for books by Mark Haddon (2019) and Claudia Roden (2021) and worked collaboratively on the curatorial project A La Luz, which he co-founded with artist Gonzaga Gómez-Cortázar Romero. In 2024, he will present his tenth solo exhibition.

Featured images (top to bottom): ©David Cass, So Many Endings, 2011–2013, objects + offcuts, gouache, 66 x 76 x 14cm; Sounds or Slides, 2017–2018, 35mm slides, oil, 5 x 5cm; Where Once the Waters, Series I + II, Venice, 2022; Letter to Rhea, I AM WATER billboard, Sunset Park, Brooklyn, 39th Street & 4th Avenue, photography by Juan Cuartas Rueda; Recount, 2022–2023, mixed media on bus blind, 130 x 80cm; portrait of the artist.

October 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 15:17:10 GMT

October 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Land Rights and Human Agency Hold Together like a Finished Puzzle

Sun, 01 Oct 2023 14:25:36 GMT

Aerial image of land containing mineral assets

Eliza Evan’s work fighting fossil fuel industry infringement on land and creating the largest land art piece in existence.

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Originally a printmaker, Eliza Evans now focuses on the existing imprints (both actual and abstract) and politics of the land. Transitioning from physical objects planted in the landscape, her work increasingly focuses on activism especially in land rights and mineral asset ownership. She has created opportunities for mineral rights ownership as a group to form solidarity projects to provide land rights from fracking exploitation and fossil fuel company extortion. Eliza explains the details of her project, her motivations and her aesthetic decisions to further promote and advocate for cooperation, interdependence, and shared governance of resources in the face of large oppressive forces.

“All the Way to Hell: Disrupt Fracking, Own Minerals” project poster

Considering the progression your work has made from sculptural objects in the land to the junction of grassroots organizing and activism, what role does social art have in your work? What is your approach?

I am a researcher and observer by inclination. My earlier works were distillations of the social and economic systems generating catastrophic loss. I've reached a point where mourning, however necessary, feels like capitulation. Whatever I put into the world is committed to resisting the systems that undermine us and contributing to conditions from which a just future can emerge.

I am a reluctant practitioner of socially engaged work. First, I'm an introvert. If I have charisma, it's a crusty one. I've said from the beginning that if I could make work anonymously, I would. But invisibility is a luxury, and these times call for something else. Second, I think there is a lot of irresponsible social practice out there. In the 1990s, I completed a PhD that required conducting fieldwork in impoverished rural areas in South Asia. The project was overseen by two chairs, a committee, the university's human subjects review board, and local researchers to protect interviewees from potential abuse. The process is imperfect, but at least there is one. I am unaware of any shared ethical standard or notion of informed consent in social practice--an art form that too often instrumentalizes the attention and labor of others.

That said, I've developed an art project, “All the Way to Hell”, that invites participants to instrumentalize themselves. By committing their name to a deed, participants are not only contributing to the creation of a collective artwork, they are registering their protest. The record of this act will be maintained for as long as property records exist. I call it the 100-year sit-in. Compared to the risks associated with other forms of climate protest and direct action, the risks are low but not zero. I try to make that clear. That this risk is shared among thousands creates its own bond or community. That's at least my hope.

Exhibited core sample taken from mineral-rich land, “All the Way to Hell”

“But invisibility is a luxury, and these times call for something else.”

I share your concerns regarding the safety and respect in social art practices and admire your dedication to agency in your projects. In "All The Way to Hell" you create a structure for land-owner solidarity in the fight to mitigate climate change. With this decentralized structure and the agency participants have, what are the inherent responsibilities related to contemporary resource ownership? And have the participants built upon the structure you have created?

There are very few resources for landowners and mineral rights owners who either have to contend with or want to resist fracking. Surprisingly, there are few mechanisms for mineral rights owners who are pro-fracking to join forces. That's how the fossil fuel industry wants it, as atomized and ignorant mineral rights owners are easier to manipulate. To say no to frackers, you have to have a lot of mineral rights (more than 600 acres). The fracker is obliged to attempt to negotiate with you, but after having spent the time and money to do so, you can be forced if other mineral rights owners sign a lease. The process is not eminent domain, but it is an analogous process.

All the Way to Hell draft mineral deed: All the Way to Hell 350+ participants to date. Last names and street addresses redacted.

I am beginning to reach out to other mineral rights owners. One is in the process of giving her mineral rights to a nearby Native nation. Another owner is a Diné woman who inherited fracked mineral rights from which she receives modest royalties. She provides much-needed basic supplies for the unsheltered on the reservation and creates opportunities for Dine youth to learn and practice traditional land stewardship. Others grapple with the conflicted legacy of mineral rights but are overwhelmed by the legal and regulatory hurdles that doing anything but saying yes to frackers poses. Who feels equipped to say no to the likes of Exxon?

As intimidating as Exxon is, there are more significant issues. As the landback movement has helped us realize, everyone in the U.S. lives on stolen land. Mineral rights are a tool of colonization. In the early days of colonial settlement, ownership of mineral rights was unclear. Those rights inhere either with the state or with the property owner at different times. Ultimately, the Homestead Act resolved mineral rights in the continental U.S. by granting ownership of mineral rights to property owners to incentivize the migration of settlers away from the eastern seaboard into the interior.

I am asking mineral rights owners to reconsider their orientation to these legacies. Most individual mineral rights owners inherited the property; it may connect them to a particular place and history. But extraction from these properties is creating an entirely new planet. I'm asking mineral rights owners to do the hard thing of examining their property's history and future and be accountable for it. There is no easy solution. There is no washing of hands. It requires diligence, vigilance, and cooperation.

Eliza Evans registering Land deeds for “All the Way to Hell”

These are such important insights and corrections that I hope the larger public will be receptive to. Still, let’s transition to form: in exhibiting works related to "All The Way to Hell" you combine graphic media with infographics and physical documentation and well core samples for display. What effect has this combination of media allowed you to achieve?

I'm interested in exploration, adaptation, and giving material, nonfiction form to unhinged notions of the possible. One of my tasks as an artist is to create new ways of knowing and understanding a complex thing. The first viewer I have in mind is myself. I'm a researcher by temperament and training, so digging in will always be my first impulse. The studio work is stripping away all that is unnecessary from the accumulated data, objects, stories, etc. I'm a minimalist, so I'm looking for incisiveness, efficiency, and elegance. Sometimes I hit the mark.

Mineral rights are miles underground and inaccessible to most of us. Apart from whatever efficacy fractionalizing mineral rights into thousands of properties may have as a protest, the transfer of formal ownership via a deed creates a tangible connection between participant and mineral, experiencer and art. In theory, mineral rights extend to the center of the earth. A participant's mineral right may measure only a few square feet as represented on a cadastral map but extends three dimensionally downward for 4,000 miles. I love thinking about this sculptural space. It's outrageously grandiose. All the Way to Hell is the largest land art project in the world, yet it exists on sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper.

“All the Way to Hell” is the largest land art project in the world, yet it exists on sheets of 8 ½ x 11 paper.

The well-core samples are extracted from the earth by fossil fuel companies at great expense. Most are kept in secure storage facilities because the data they contain is considered highly proprietary. Exhibiting the well-core samples daylights corporate secrets and grounds the spectral methane and carbon dioxide in their very material, rocky origins. I encourage viewers to touch the art when installed in less formal settings.

The values your works like "Kill Plot Home Goods", "All the Way to Hell" and "Acre" (2018) hold are reflective of an idea called the "commons". "Commons" thinking in academic writing refers to the redistribution of land and reparations to promote both equity and empowerment in planning and beyond. How do you hope these topics can be implemented further? What inspired you to take this approach to your work and assets?

Everyone I know is talking about intentional communities, land trusts, cooperatives, and solidarity economies. It's an exciting time, and there are so many experiments unfolding. Last year, I received a grant from Meta Open Arts (of all things) to research creating a crypto-enabled cooperative (called a decentralized autonomous organization - in the impossible jargon of the crypto crowd) to help manage and steward mineral rights collectively. Cooperation is hard. We need tools. That includes legal tools that recognize new organizational forms. There is so much history of people working successfully to manage resources collaboratively and justly. We need to articulate these models with the legal, economic, and social systems in which we are embedded. Where systems collide, there is usually a lot of great art.

Thank you, Eliza, this has been very inspiring and is expanding what art can do to create effective real change.

Note: this interview took place via email while Evans was artist-in-residence in the Adirondacks in September, with no internet and a 12 mile drive to the hardware store to connect.

All the Way to Hell is included in Unsettling Matter/Gaining Ground, on exhibit at the Carnegie Museum of Art through Jan. 7 in Pittsburgh. Two days are programming are scheduled for Oct 5 and 6, and admission is free on those days. Registration here

What is This? Artwork for Ants? - Catherine Chalmers / Hyperallergic

Sat, 30 Sep 2023 23:59:37 GMT

Catherine Chalmers, Antworks in Progress (2012), taken during the production of Antworks (all images courtesy the artist)

What is This? Artwork for Ants?

“Our culture is far richer with the inclusion of other life forms,” says Catherine Chalmers, an artist who collaborates with a collective of wild ants to create tiny, Abstract Expressionist “Antworks.”

Rhea Nayyar September 27, 2023 on Hyperallergic

While most people do everything they can to keep their homes free of pests like mice, roaches, and ants, artist Catherine Chalmers welcomes them as collaborators in her art practice. Chalmers works with these disliked but ecologically essential organisms in an effort to broaden the horizons of our anthropocentric existence. In her research-based, multidisciplinary project Antworks, Chalmers worked with Leafcutter ants in the Costa Rican rainforest, investigating their aesthetic sensibilities through the plants they choose to trim and take back to their underground colonies in order to cultivate their food source — fungus.

With nearly a decade of onsite research into Costa Rican ant colonies under her belt, Chalmers told Hyperallergic in an interview that she has “always had a sensitivity to the non-human world.” She said shegravitated toward entomology because insects are critical to the ecosystem, and their behaviors are very non-mammalian and unfamiliar to us. “They eat their lovers, they’re born in a fig and never leave, they just do all these weird things that are so beyond our perspective,” she continued. “And because we hate them.”

Read the full article on Hyperallergic here

A conversation with eco-artist Marina ‘Heron’ Tsaplina about Soils and Spirit - Orion Magazine

Wed, 20 Sep 2023 02:13:40 GMT

To Remember Amid Dismemberment

A conversation with eco-artist Marina ‘Heron’ Tsaplina about Soils and Spirit

for Orion Magazine by Petra Kuppers

In this interview, we are getting exciting glimpses into the development of a long-term creative environmental project—Orion’s Winter 2021 cover artist Marina ‘Heron’ Tsaplina’s Soils and Spirit, which will premiere in NYC in Fall 2026 and tour to multiple locations in forests across the Eastern Seaboard. Tsaplina is part of a cohort of contemporary eco-artists who pay close attention to intersectional aspects of their work: her experiences of disability, immigration, and settler status deeply inform the ethics of her encounter with place.

Indigenous artist moira williams (left) and Marina (right) improvising with the “soil phrases” prototypes on a NYC green-roof as part of the Kingsland Wildflower Festival, July 2023. ©Marina Tsaplina

Petra Kuppers: In Dream Puppet, you had a very specific place – an ancient forest in the Yaak Valley threatened by a logging project—that the piece was in conversation with. How does “place” function in Soils and Spirit?

Marina Tsaplina: First, I’m thrilled to be able to say that the “Black Ram” logging project was ruled as violating multiple environmental laws, and was recently halted! In Rick Bass’ words, “Dream Puppet planted a seed that germinated [and] helped create momentum” in the effort by so many to successfully protect that ancient place.

In Soils and Spirit, “place” is acknowledged as being fractured, moving, shifting, unstable. I am feeling into the fractured forests (both urban and rural) of the northeast, choosing locations that, together, tell a multidimensional story of some of what has happened to a portion of the “Eastern Deciduous Forest”. This means places where Soils and Spirit occurs will be where a community is working to return the land to Indigenous stewardship and working to build momentum around conservation. One place may be within a remaining sliver of an ancient forest that perhaps slipped through the chainsaws only due to a property dispute between two logging companies. One place will be where a deep history of incarceration of racialized and disabled people occurred. The final place will be on or near the U.S.-Canada colonial border, invoking the treaty histories between the U.S. Federal government and Native Nations that divided this land into two countries and through which land dispossession was enacted, while honoring the ecological continuity of the bioregion, and imagining what our future human-land relations may be.

The project is grappling with some of the ways ‘land’ is imagined and organized in the U.S. How strange it is that many of us have to drive for an hour or more to get to a forest, or how cities can obscure the earth from which they grow. I’ve begun imagining that each NYC tree holds a dream of the forest that once was here. The “civilization” vs. “wilderness” binary has haunted the Western world for some 4,500 years. The “wilderness” designation creates “no touch” zones, but it can also create Indigenous erasure. My question is, how do we culturally learn to touch the land without violation? This medley of locations for Soils and Spirit is a challenge to perceive the forests, soils, waters, and cities across the region as being both fragmented yet interconnected—to form an integrated ecological thinking through the locations that the project will engage. Forests, waters, soils, histories, people.

PK: Have specific forests been identified?

MT: Two locations have already been identified, but until all resources and logistics (permits, insurance, rigging safety, etc.) are in place, I can’t publicly share them. Locations will be released before the premier of the work in 2026 in Lenapehoking (NYC). During the installation of Dream Puppet—which was only a 24-hour installation with no performance or audience component— we interfaced with authorities and border patrol, even though theoretically it was on public land, and “the public” has access. Some locations may be logistically easier—for example, a 20-acre preserved forest on “private” land. One of the most important components for deciding locations is whether there’s a community around the forest with whom Soils and Spirit is value-aligned, and does this community want to have the experience of Soils and Spirit to build momentum and deepen ecological intimacy? That’s where the magic happens.

I’ve begun imagining that each NYC tree holds a dream of the forest that once was here.

Continue reading interview at Orion Magazine, here

Member Spotlight l Nancy Macko

Mon, 18 Sep 2023 13:54:34 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 18, 2023

This week we recognize Nancy Macko Nancy Macko, and her thirty plus year photography practice focused on bees and nature's cycle of life/death/rebirth.

"For many years, I have been fascinated, almost obsessed, with the desire to understand what happened in our world to cause the almost complete extinction of all matriarchal cultures in which women held equal and powerful roles in their societies. Again and again, I have read and researched the time period in which this supposedly occurred. In fact my obsession inspired me to travel to Romania in 1996 on my sabbatical to explore the archeological sites and remaining artifacts of the early (3500 BC) Cucuteni culture in hopes that I would be able to find some evidence that revealed more about these cultures and that could help me understand why they disappeared or were subsumed into the patriarchal society in which we now live."

click images for more info

"My early work with bee imagery revealed the features of a female monarchy within the hive and its apparent similarities to contemporary hierarchies. But further investigations also revealed the nature of the relationships among the worker bees themselves. They are responsible for all aspects of the hive from economics to politics to manufacturing. Although all workers, their relationships are egalitarian and interdependent. Different texts informed my thought-process at this time. In particular Savina Teubal’s Hagar, The Egyptian: The Story of the Desert Matriarch because she refers to priestesses and holy women. By shifting my perspective of the female monarchy and the worker bees, I re-created a scenario that more resembled the Goddess and her priestesses. This shift also affected the emphasis in my work from that of using bees as the metaphor for nature and exploring the relationships between nature, art, technology and science to focusing more intently on the notion of a bee priestess and creating a mythology that imagined her culture and her world by interpreting the rituals, customs and traditions that Western women still practice today."

"In 2009, my focus shifted to examining the flora the bees draw nourishment from and so carefully attend through the process of pollination. Working directly with the camera and a macro lens, I created a body of work I call Intimate Spaces. This purely photographic work takes the viewer into a space of light, air and abstracted textures. The images are sensuous and seductive, poignant and tender, sometimes abject and unsettling--challenging the viewer to experience an image that is not easily defined by familiar landmarks or visual cues. In this work I am looking at beauty, aging, intimacy and fragility--characteristics that are expressed by subjects in nature. This work led to documenting the life cycle of the vegetables I raised in my garden, the honeybees that pollinated them and bee-attracting flora using a macro lens in order to reveal the less apparent, less obvious features concealed within these beautiful specimens. Capturing them from bud to bloom to seed—the manifestations of their life cycles. Hopefully my efforts assist in the recognition of natural beauty and the need to preserve the lives of the bees, which are so important to our ecology and food supply."

For The Fragile Bee, 2015 - ongoing (below), Macko combines painting, printmaking, digital media, photography, video, and installation elements to create a unique visual language. This combination of media allows her to examine and respond to issues related to eco-feminism and nature, as well as to explore her interest in mathematics, and prime numbers, in which she attempts to make the implicit connections between nature and technology explicit. The series also explores the artist’s love of plants, and her images investigate the botany world as seen through the honeybee’s eyes. She photographs botanical specimens that the honeybee pollinates and visually records nature's exquisite beauty, fragility, and often, cruelty. The recent decline in the honeybee population and, more broadly, the idea of life and death in nature are prevalent themes in her work. Macko is deeply concerned with the disappearance of honeybees and through her art seeks to raise awareness regarding the vulnerability of their ecosystem.

"Decompositions, 2021 (below), is a realization and a concrescence of all that has come before. Previous explorations also addressed issues of memory loss, dementia and cognitive decline–changes I witnessed as they affected my aging mother’s mental health. My interest in 'end of life' has clearly informed my photography. The work presents death and decomposition not as a hard stop, but as a change of state. Decompositions is the process by which vegetable matter breaks down to make its nutrients available for other life forms. The compost in these photographs is both metaphor and reality, representing change and transformation in ways that are both beautiful and surprising."

"The photographs in Nancy Macko’s "Decompositions" series present amorphous forms floating in a watery ether. Light streaks through the compositions, muted slightly by a translucent film that gives the whole composition the soft patina of an old master painting... hovering between abstraction and representation. Momentarily arresting this process with her camera, Macko presents a vision of time and life that is cyclical and fluid...presenting compositions that exist in a delicious state of indeterminacy." --Eleanor Heartney, 2021.

Nancy Macko draws upon images of the honeybee society to explore the relationships between art, science, technology and ancient matriarchal cultures. She combines elements of printmaking, digital media, photography, video, and installation to create a unique visual language that allows her to examine and respond to issues related to eco-feminism, nature, and the importance of ancient matriarchal cultures. For ten years, Macko documented the life cycle of the vegetables she raised in her garden, the honeybees that pollinated them and bee-attracting flora using a macro lens in order to reveal the less apparent, less obvious features concealed within these beautiful specimens. She captured them from bud to bloom to seed--all manifestations of the life cycle. This work resulted in The Fragile Bee, first exhibited at the Museum of Art and History in Southern California in 2015 and which has been traveling since 2018 through 2023 to over 18 venues nationally. Originally from New York, Macko received her undergraduate degree from the University of Wisconsin and her graduate degrees from the University of California, Berkeley with a concentration in painting and printmaking. Her work is in numerous public collections including the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, UCLA Hammer Museum, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, New York Public Library, North Dakota Museum of Art, Portland Art Museum and the RISD Museum of Art. www.nancymackophotography.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Nancy Macko, Hexagons, 1991-1994; Lore of the Bee Priestess, 2004, digital video, 13:43 mins; Intimate Spaces,IS05: Decammys (DECAM 13), 2011, archival digital print, 17 x 26 inches (Edition 5); Blanket Flower (Gaillardia aristata), 2018, archival digital print mounted on white sintra and faced with Plexiglas® 40.5 x 40.5 inches; Decompositions, Odalisque, 2020, archival digital print, 42 X 65 inches ;portrait of the artist by Mary MacNaughton, 2021.

Member Spotlight l Patricia Olynyk

Mon, 11 Sep 2023 15:15:05 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 11, 2023

This week we recognize Patricia Olynyk, and her thirty-plus year practice at the intersections of art, science, architecture and technology.

KleptoGenic Chamber, 2022 - work in progress (above) is a multi-sensory installation that perceptually steals the viewer’s understanding of the natural world and reflective reality. This chamber prompts the viewer to question reality and how we live and dwell in this world. In the KleptoGenic Chamber, the worlds of biology, art and architecture converge to become a room that redefines scale, materiality and gravity.

click images for more info

Sensing Terrains, 2012 (above) is a multi-media, site-specific installation based on cenesthesia, or the relationship between consciousness and bodily sensation. In response to a technology-mediated world increasingly desensitized to physical sensation, viewers are called upon to expand their awareness of the worlds they inhabit, whether those worlds are their own bodies or the spaces that surround them. Scanning electron micrographs of histological samples combine a variety of specimens – human and non-human, transgenic and otherwise – with photographs of images from special Japanese gardens that have been composed and constructed to "tickle the senses." The images impose a reorientation of our own sense of scale as the viewer navigates a new gargantuan landscape through the abstract projection of their own body into an alien space.

Dark Skies, 2012 (above) is a multi-media, multi-sensory installation, which translates un-see-able phenomena into perceptible range, using mesmerizing visuals and sound to make tangible the penetrating effects of nightfall across multiple scales of being. It is a work that questions the future of the deep integration of life, light, and darkness which has developed over millennia. Growing out of my concern with light pollution and the recognition that night skies are becoming fatally obscured, Dark Skies captures the tension of a key cinematic moment: sundown. It reveals two distinct time frames on the 24-hour clock simultaneously, a situation that can only exist by way of technology. Dark Skies consists of a two-channel video projection on a large-scale dimensional wall: one side reveals a crepuscular sky and the other, a dark sky with smoky trails. The installation also features a soundscape, drawn primarily from field recordings of vespertine creatures, captured at twilight in the Rocky Mountains during high summer. The sound design in Dark Skies serves two functions: the first sonically articulates the ambiguous space between micro and macro environments, echoing those depicted in video elements, and the second adds an interactive/immersive quality to the work. The sound elements are projected directionally into the exhibition space, allowing viewers to migrate between these two soundtracks, essentially moving between macro and micro realms.

The Mutable Archive, 2014 (above) is a multi-layered series of photographs and performance videos that speak to renewed nationalistic obsessions with Othering and difference. A unique artistic strategy of this project involves the interrogation of the mechanics of storytelling and who speaks for those who are lost, particularly in the absence of verifiable archival material. Each photograph from the 19th century collection of Viennese anatomist, Josef Hyrtl portrays a single specimen and post-mortem skull tattoo with an accompanying archive card, which details only partial information about each subject. Collaborators representing a diverse array of disciplinary fields—artists, historians, a medical ethicist, a philosopher, an opera singer, a hip-hop artist, and a spiritual medium—are invited to write and then perform speculative narratives about subjects of their choosing from the collection. Each script and recorded monologue, a 4K cinematic video, reveals a myriad set of issues related to race, ethnicity, gender, and class, while demonstrating the fictitious foundations of the human taxonomy itself.

OCULUS, 2020 (below) is a complex digital sculpture depicting a colossal abstracted drosophila eye—replete with distorted compound faceted surfaces—inspired in part by a series of scanning electron micrographs produced in a transgenic lab several years ago. The title recalls the circular opening at the apex of a cupola while the form alludes to a surveillance device, or drone hovering in mid-air. Oculus invites the viewer to ponder the impact of the gargantuan and the miniature on our perception of bodily scale. This work explores those sensory modalities that play a dominant role in spatial perception, which spark the affect of scale on several fronts. Consequently, Oculus strategically triggers an affective encounter with the colossally represented miniscule, offering a fantastic voyage that navigates spatial, temporal, and phenomenal worlds.

Patricia Olynyk works in photography, print, video, and installation while investigating science and technology-related themes and the ways in which social systems and institutional structures shape our understanding of our place in the world. Working across disciplines to develop “third culture” projects, she often collaborates with scientists, humanists, programmers, and engineers. Her multimedia environments frequently call upon the viewer to expand their awareness of the worlds they inhabit—whether those worlds are their own bodies or the spaces that surround them. Olynyk was appointed inaugural director of the unified Graduate School of Art and Florence and Frank Bush Professor of Art in the Sam Fox School of Design & Visual Arts at Washington University in 2007. She currently holds a courtesy appointment in the University’s School of Medicine and fellowships in The Institute for Public Health and Living Earth Collaborative, both interdisciplinary hubs that facilitate research across a wide range of fields. She was also appointed in Medical Humanities, Women, Gender & Sexuality Studies, and Performing Arts. Olynyk co-chairs the Leonardo/ISAST NY LASER Talks program in New York, which promotes cross-disciplinary exchange between artists, scientists, humanists, and scholars. She received her MFA with Distinction from the California College of the Arts and spent four years as a Monbusho Scholar and a Tokyu Foundation Research Scholar in Japan at the Osaka University of Foreign Studies and Kyoto Seika University. Recent exhibitions include Cyfest 15: Vulnerability, HayArt Cultural Center, Yerevan, Armenia; and Douro Biennial, Côa Museum, Vila Nova de Roz, Portugal. patriciaolynyk.com

Images: ©Patricia Olynyk, Kleptogenic Chamber, 2023- in progress, model by Sung Ho Kim, Axi:Ome; Sensing Terrains, 2012, multimedia installation and sound collaboration with Kathryn Stine and Jukka Nurmela, and solo exhibition at the National Academy of Sciences, Washington, D.C.; Dark Skies, 2012, solo exhibition, Sci Center Gallery, UCLA, design modeling by Sung Ho Kim, Axi:Ome, with sound engineering by Christopher Ottinger; The Mutable Archive, 2014, series of nineteen digital pigment prints on archival paper, 80 x 120 inches and 4K video; Oculus, 2020, digital modeling by Nathaniel Elberfeld and Alex Waller, Metron Designworks, and Sung Ho Kim, Axi:Ome; Portrait of Olynyk by Stan Strembecki.

Recovering the Walkabout by Kim Tanser for MAHB

Mon, 04 Sep 2023 17:10:51 GMT

Recovering the Walkabout

Kim Tanzer | August 31, 2023for MAHB

“By singing the world into existence, [Arkady] said, the Ancestors had been poets in the original sense of poesis, meaning ‘creation’. No Aboriginal could conceive that the created world was in any way imperfect. His religious life had a single aim: to keep the land the way it was and should be. The man who went ‘Walkabout’ was making a ritual journey. He trod in the footprints of his Ancestor. He sang the Ancestors’ stanzas without changing a word or note—and so recreated the Creation.”
∼ Bruce Chatwin, The Songlines

One thread running through much of my work is the intention to sing a preferred world into being through the act of walking. I have always loved walking: It keeps me physically and emotionally healthy, allows my mind to wander, and reduces my CO2 production when I walk rather than drive. It allows me to see the world at the pace prescribed by our human evolution over hundreds of thousands of years. It slows the world down. It engages my attention.

It is no wonder walking is integral to my art. While I am inspired by the canonical walkers—Tony Smith, Robert Smithson, Hamish Fulton, Richard Long, and others—I seek to replace objectivity, procedural neutrality, even aesthetic cynicism, with awe and inspiration. I walk to absorb beauty through my senses, to retrace it with my feet, to share it through works I produce. In so doing, I fortify myself, praise our Earth, and hope to inspire others.

These are a few examples of my walking practices.

Found drawing after #Duchamp, iPhone photo, created April 14, 2022 at 11:01 AM; posted October 15, 2022

Continue reading full article here

September 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 15:26:02 GMT

September 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Streams of Water, Songs of Honor: Tom Hansell's collaborative film process turns refuse into beauty

Fri, 01 Sep 2023 14:05:42 GMT

Plastic Confluence series from Trash Trout Picture Show exhibit at the Blowing Rock Art and History Museum in 2022. Photo by Lauren Armbrust, courtesy of BRAHM.

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Tom Hansell uses a collaborative process within rural communities to create work that supports both natural and local cultures in North Carolina, and soon, Utah. Through the medium of experimental film and live performance or soundscapes, Tom shines light on the implications of plastic waste in the regions. His work impacts, honors, integrates and advocates his surroundings directly.

 Participants at a workshop sponsored by the New River Conservancy, 2022

You have such an impressive body of work, but for today, I'd like to focus on your more recent projects. Let's start with "The Ancient New," which is a collaboration between yourself, other artists, community members and organizations within the New River Valley. Even the title contrasts current and historic impacts on this riverway environment and on local communities. What has the collaborative nature of this work taught you and what have the resulting conversations brought to fruition?

“What you do to the land, you do to the people” is a saying I have often heard while working in rural Appalachian communities. "The Ancient New" is designed to gather people together to better understand our connections to the land and water that sustain us. Over the past decade of working on this project, I’ve learned about impacts of agriculture, industrial development, and tourism. I’ve learned that the New River feeds the Ohio River, which provides drinking water to more than five million people and demonstrated how water connects us. I’ve also met an inspiring number of people who are working on innovative ways to sustain their home place.

Plastic Confluence #3, plastic shopping bags and barrel hoop savaged from the New River, 2022

You seem to be building these connections in your process as well by collecting plastic refuse directly in the landscape. How does your collection process influence how you approach the creation of your work?

I have always collected trash while hiking, paddling, and fishing. The idea for "The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show" came after participating in organized river clean ups and having conversations with other volunteers about how many people choose not to see the plastic and other refuse that ends up in creeks and rivers. My films such as "The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show," "Benthic Salvage," and "Does Water Die?" are all attempts to put a spotlight on the waste that is generated from society’s increasing appetite for consumption.

These films are part of a long-term project title "The Ancient New." For the next phase of this project, I am collaborating with grassroots organizations to produce a series of community festivals that use moving images and live performances to bring folks together, bridge cultural or political divisions, and celebrate the water that connects us to each other.

In order to bring all of these topics together you are using some new stylistic choices for this piece. Previously, you used a documentary style approach (ex. “After Coal” from 2016 that compares mining communities in Kentucky, USA and Wales, UK), but your more recent approach to riverway plastic materials, on the other hand, embraces an experimental filmmaking approach. What have you noticed comparing both processes? And what has the difference in impact been using each approach?

I moved toward experimental filmmaking after realizing how heavily my documentaries relied on the spoken word to create meaning. I wanted to strengthen my visual storytelling skills by making films that did not require language to communicate meaning. The challenge is that experimental films are more difficult to distribute, which can decrease the impact of the work. However, the participatory process I use for films such as the "The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show" offers an opportunity to deepen the experience of local people who are part of the project. For example, the town of Boone, North Carolina, the Watauga Riverkeeper and New River Conservancy helped coordinate the cleanup efforts and workshops that created the film. More than 50 volunteers taped trash to film strips to create the visual elements of "The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show" and directly experienced the impacts of plastic pollution.

Participants at workshop at the Appalachian Mountain Brewery, March 22, 2022

Let's talk more about your work “The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show.” It integrates experimental film composition using plastic with nature sounds and Appalachian music and dance performances by taping found plastics onto film, you are able to replicate water texture and flow. What inspired you to pair this music and audio with your visual work? What does sound choice contribute to your films in the form of metaphor?

"The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show" uses the power of music, dance, and film to reveal human connections to fresh water. I collaborated with traditional Appalachian musician Trevor McKenzie and musician / dancer Julie Shepherd–Powell to create a soundtrack that reflects the landscape and the cultures of the New River.

Trevor McKenzie relied on his deep knowledge of historic musicians who lived and worked in communities along the river to arrange a medley of traditional songs including "Waterbound," "New River Train," and "The East River Mountain Blues." The musical selections follow the river’s flow, starting with songs from from western North Carolina before moving to southwestern Virginia and on to West Virginia. These regions are where the New becomes the Kanawha and empties into the Ohio River.

Julie Shepherd–Powell brought her experience performing the Appalachian flatfoot dance style that is a vibrant part of mountain communities. She explains that dance is a “multi-generational and welcoming practice that encourages participation from young and old, accomplished and amateur, and local and visiting dancers alike.” The percussive elements of the dance mesh with the sound of the 16mm film projector, fiddle, and banjo to provide multiple paths for the audience to understand their personal connection to the river.

Trash Trout Boonerang Sample from Tom Hansell on Vimeo.

“Trash Trout Motion Picture Show”, live performance with Trevor McKenzie and Julie Shephard-Powell, activated experimental film installation, Boonerang Festival, June 17, 2022

And, just like the river, these multiple paths lead to a common junction. Especially in “Does Water Die?,” the local landscape seems to be a primary theme. What are your foremost concerns related to waste on your local North Carolina environment? And what is filmmaking’s unique impact in this advocacy?

Many people consider North Carolina’s Blue Ridge Mountains, where I live, to be a pristine environment. However, while making "The Trash Trout Motion Picture Show," I learned that microplastics have been found in every surface water sample from our region. The mountains in my home county are the headwaters of three major river systems that feed the Ohio and Mississippi Rivers as well as the Atlantic Ocean. Protecting water quality in headwaters communities will help millions of people downstream.

Locally, my goal is to support my project partners who are advocating for a plastic bag ban. Plastic bags have been banned in many parts of the US, Canada, and Europe, but not in North Carolina. Emerging research shows that microplastics have been found in human blood and can potentially impact public health. I hope my films can raise questions, start conversations, and energize people to seek solutions. My ultimate goal is to help create positive feedback loops between geographic place, human cultures, and natural systems.

Three Channel Installation for the 2022 New River Symposium at Bechtel Summit Reserve’s Sustainability Treehouse, Glen Jean, West Virginia

And the work is expanding to other locations to create those feedback loops! In fact, you spent the month at the Moab Arts Reuse Residency in Utah projecting experimental films onto upcycled materials. What parallels did you notice between harmful pollutants and the natural environment through material use? What are your goals in this new environment?

The Moab Arts Reuse Residency provided me the opportunity to collaborate with community members to make a series of short, crowd sourced films about the waste stream in this part of Utah. Uranium mining has left a lasting legacy on the local landscape, and the explosion of tourism in recent years has created new issues with waste disposal. During my residency, we focused on three aspects of Moab’s waste stream: I partnered with the Canyonlands Solid Waste Authority to create a short film about municipal waste and recycling, worked with Moab’s Sustainability Department to create a film about composting food waste, and collaborated with local residents to make a piece about the federal government’s efforts to remediate radioactive waste from an old uranium mine.

I also salvaged broken flat screen televisions and stitched the screens together to create a 12 foot by 7 foot screen to show the films to the community. My goal for this residency was to amplify conversations about how to make Moab’s waste stream more sustainable. I concluded the residency by screening the short film series, titled "Moab Waste Stream," to the community on August 30 of this year.

I am excited to see how this continues to develop. Thank you, Tom!

Does Water Die? from Tom Hansell on Vimeo.

“Does Water Die?” Tom Hansell & Joshua White, experimental film made with plastic waste from New River. 2019

Member Spotlight l Eve Andrée Laramée

Mon, 28 Aug 2023 14:58:39 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 28, 2023

This week we recognize Eve Andrée Laramée, and her forty-five year practice engaging the alchemical, as a nuclear arms activist and agit-prop eco-art instigator.

River of Stone, 1989 (above) made of copper, water, salt, glass, and mica, was included in "Revered Earth" in 1991, a traveling exhibition initiated by the Center for Contemporary Art in Santa Fe, New Mexico. The piece is a later work from Laramée's evaporation pool series, officially starting with "Venusian Lagoons," shown at the Albuquerque Museum in a solo exhibition with catalogue, in 1983. Comprised of several large evaporation ponds containing salt, water, copper and iron, her lagoons were inspired by early experiments she made while living in the San Francisco Bay Area during graduate school at SFAI in 1978-1980. The conceptual basis for this time-based series was alchemical processes, as well as being influenced by travertine deposits that form in mineral-rich hot springs, highlighting natural and geological/mineralogical phenomena.

Parks on Trucks: Project for the City of Aachen, Germany, 1999 (above) consisted of a series of parks on a fleet of three large, commercial, flat-bed trucks which circulated through the city and were parked in different places on a weekly basis. Parks represent some of the most "natural" elements in our landscapes, yet they are designed and cultivated, controlled and aestheticized using methods that are clearly "unnatural" and sometimes extremely so. Cultures tend to see parks as "sacred spaces," luxurious romanticization and fetishizations of nature that are only possible because modern industrial economies buffer us from the worst of nature's hazards and discomforts. This security and comfort, however, frequently imposes high environmental costs that make it necessary to "rescue" nature from culture by designating and producing parks. Placing parks on trucks brings these seeming contradictions together for mutual consideration in a simultaneously humorous, sardonic, radical, and reverential gesture. One truck was cultivated with plants with medicinal and poisonous properties, a play on the phrase, "The Gift of Nature" as the word "gift" in German means poison. A second truck (above), the “Carbon Balance” truck was planted with a topiary garden representing transformed nature, it was driven only as far as it polluted the air and cleaned it at the same rate per research by a biogeographer. A third was planted with the staple crop, corn.

Sugar Mud (Hudson River Project), 2003 (above) was installed in the drawing room of a Gilded Age mansion in Riverdale, New York, Wave Hill, and consisted of a room-sized mound of golden-colored sugar that referenced two local issues. One was the golden hue associated with the historic Hudson River School of painters and the accumulated toxic sediment from the sugar factory sludge located on the shore of the Hudson River. Collaborating with environmental scientists, Laramée created Sediment Profile Imagery using benthic disturbance mapping of the river bottom documenting the channels where 80,000 tons of sludge were dredged and relocated to the ocean floor.

Halfway to Invisible (2009) was an installation commissioned by Emory University, an affiliate of the Center for Disease Control, focused on epidemiological and genetic issues in relation to uranium mining. More than 225,000,000 tons of uranium ore was mined by Native American laborers, including the Laguna, Navajo, Zuni, Southern Ute, Ute Mountain, Hopi, and Acoma cultures. These workers were poorly paid, and seldom informed of the dangers of working with uranium or given appropriate protective gear. Epidemiologic studies of the workers and their families show increased incidents of radiation-induced cancers, miscarriages, and birth defects. Field trips to the Jackpile Uranium Mine at Laguna Pueblo, meetings with retired uranium miners, hydro-geologists and remediation engineers informed the questions raised by the work: Is our atomic legacy producing genotoxic effects in indigenous human populations? If so, what is the extent of DNA damage, and how might this affect these populations in the future?

NukeNOtes, 2013-ongoing (below) is a social sculpture project bringing environmental art and research to non-art audiences in the form of “alternative fact sheets,” or National Park brochures, as a vehicle to expand understanding, change perception and support engagement around public lands and adjacent nuclear legacy sites. The brochures draw attention to the use, misuse and commodification of our public lands by activities that produce serious environmental and health impacts such as uranium mining and milling, research, development and production of nuclear weapons, project engages this legacy. 108 of these sites exist in 38 states, several adjoining National Parks and public lands. They are former mining, milling, manufacturing and testing sites for the U.S. nuclear weapons production operations during WWII and the Cold War. As climate change occurs and vulnerability spectrum's shift these sites and the people surrounding them, including many indigenous populations are at increased risk. Sites include Atlas Uranium Mill/Arches National Park, Yucca Mountain/Death Valley National Park, among others.

Eve Andrée Laramée is an interdisciplinary artist and researcher working at the confluence of art and science. She is a Professor of the Department of Art at Pace University. and the Director of the Dyson Center for the Arts, Society & Ecology. She received her MFA from the San Francisco Art Institute. Her artwork has been exhibited throughout the United States, Europe, Asia and the Middle East. Exhibitions include at the Venice Biennale, Mass MOCA, Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago; the New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York; the High Museum of Art, Atlanta; the Contemporary Arts Museum, Houston; among other institutions. Her work is included in the collections of the MacArthur Foundation, the Museum of Modern Art, New York, the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago, The Fogg Art Museum of Harvard University, Massachusetts Institute of Technology, the UCLA Armand Hammer Museum, and in numerous other public and private collections. Laramée has received two grants from the Pollock-Krasner Foundation, an Andy Warhol Foundation Grant, two fellowships from the New York Foundation for Arts and grants from the Mid-Atlantic States Arts Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts, and the Guggenheim Museum Sculptor-in-Residence Program. Her work has been written about by art historians and art critics in in numerous books and journals including Artforum, Art in America, ArtNews, the New York Times, CAA Art Journal, among others. Laramée also writes about art and environmental issues.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eve_Andree_Laramee

Images: ©Eve Andrée Laramée, River of Stone, 1989, copper, water, salt, glass, and mica, first exhibited at the New Museum in 1989, for the exhibition Strange Attractors: Signs of Chaos, and included inRevered Earth, a traveling exhibition curated by Dominique Mazeaud, with additional text and insights by Suzi Gablik, shown at Contemporary Arts Museum (TX), The Pratt Institute (NY), Atlanta College of Art with Nexus Contemporary Art Center (GA), University of Arizona Museum of Art, Blue Star Art Space (TX) The Mint Museum (NC), and concluded at the Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe (NM), 1990-1991, catalogue; Parks on Trucks: Carbon Balance Truck Project for the City of Aachen, Germany, 1999, truck, topiary, soil, and gravel, commissioned by the Ludwig Forum Museum, included in the exhibition Natural Reality: Artistic Positions between Nature and Culture, curated by Heike Strelow; Sugar Mud (Hudson River Project), 2003, crystalized yellow sugar, wood, digital photographs, lighting gels, 16.5 x 35 x 6.5 feet, exhibited at Wavehill, Riverdale, Bronx, New York, curated by Jennifer McGregor; Halfway to Invisible, 2009, kinetic sculpture, video, video projection, 60 lightboxes with transparencies, Cold War artifacts, archive of documents, photographs, ambient soundscape; Atlas Uranium Mill, from NukeNotes series, 2013-ongoing, activist National Parks brochures; below, portrait of the artist.

Sensitive Territories: Creating resilience with performance art in Brazilian fishing communities

Mon, 21 Aug 2023 17:06:18 GMT

source: Library of Creative Sustainability, Creative Carbon, Scotland

Inspiring examples of sustainability outcomes achieved through artistic collaboration. Read introduction here

Case Study, published 8/21/2023 (written by Maja Rimer)

Every second, Guanabara Bay receives 18 thousand litres of untreated domestic sewage and 90 tons of floating waste daily, as well as unaccounted amounts of chemical sewage and petroleum and oil released by industries. Oil and gas production spills that come from over 6000 naval, chemical and petroleum industrial facilities have contributed to the slow death of the territory of Guanabara Bay. The increased temperature of the oceans with climate change and noise pollution generated by the ships, are other important factors for the loss of marine life.

The environmental degradation of Guanabara Bay affects the local population living in the area, especially the fishing communities whose lives depend on the waters, and so these conditions impose a necessity to change the life of the communities that can no longer survive on fishing. Together with the communities, Sensitive Territories discover possibilities for the reuse of waste, asking what we can learn from these ruins and how we can imagine new futures for them.

‘Sensitive Territories invites us to think about what kind of relationship we can create with territories in ruins’ says Walmeri Ribeiro. ‘In the relationship of art, fishing and life, we found a way together to initiate dreams and to connect our bodies with the territory that we inhabit.’

Guanabara Bay encompasses 16 districts and is home to 8.6 million people. Environmental destruction forces them to find a new relationship with the territory and build resilience. Covering an area of 412 square kilometres and listed as a UN World Heritage site since 2012, the area is important not only for the local communities but for the entire ecosystem in Brazil.

Created as a research platform in 2014 by Brazilian artist Walmeri Ribeiro, Sensitive Territories investigates the impact of climate change and industrial pollution on traditional communities that live on the shores of Guanabara Bay in Rio de Janeiro. Throughout the project, artists, scientists and local communities immersed themselves in the environment of water and mangroves to investigate possible solutions to water pollution. Sensitive Territories aims to rethink the creation of artistic practices, exploring ethical, political and aesthetic modes of producing art to address environmental challenges. Believing in the political dimension as much as the sensory experience of art practices, the project encourages ways of imagining a new coexistence among humans and non-humans.

Territórios Sensíveis| Baía de Guanabara from Walmeri Ribeiro on Vimeo.

Continue reading full feature on Creative Carbon Scotland, including summarized sustainability issues and outcomes, lessons, tips and advice here

Member Spotlight l Mary Edwards

Mon, 14 Aug 2023 13:29:42 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 14, 2023

This week we recognize Mary Edwards Mary Edwards, and a ten year span of her public art and sonic installations.

Per/Serverance, 2013 (above) is an interpretive soundscape that implies both a tenacity and a detachment evidenced by the predicament of the 2.7 mile-long Quequechan River. Once the centerpiece of the 19th Century Fall River, Massachusetts textile industry, it has since been buried under the city to accommodate the expansion of Interstate 195, and partially obscured by the mills built in that era that echo tragedies and initiatives occurring throughout the 20th and early 21st Centuries. Its memory and "voice" are represented by a collection of subtle sounds: fluid origins ranging from a purely ecological juncture of its most natural state prior to industrialization, to a human-altered waterscape; distant contrapuntal Siren-inspired choruses alternating between alluring resonance and foreboding dissonance; and faint reverberations that hearken to the height and decline of the mills and the vision to "daylight" the falls once again. Edwards came to Fall River several times to study the river, to understand its relationship to the city, and to find the remaining places where it can still be seen, and heard. Her sound installation is evocative of the memories that the water still carries,and the conversation it would have if someone were there to listen.

click images for more info and sound

Edwards' spatial sound work When the Ocean Meets the Sky, 2019 (above) pays tribute to the astronauts and aquanauts from the 1960s to present, who've prepared for deep space explorations by venturing to the bottom of the sea. As part of the REFUGE exhibition at Beatnik Gallery/Joshua Tree Cultural Preservation Center, Joshua Tree National Park, California, this installation invites the listener to engage in the reverie of the sonorous habitats of sea and space where immersive sonics range from expansive to infinitesimal.

For Something to (Be)Hold, 2021 (above) was installed at locations around the Grimshaw-Gudewicz Art Gallery in Massachusetts. The stations served as portals and were the impetus for possibility. The work questions what we subconsciously navigate in our everyday patterns that can be transformative to our encounter and expectations if we pace ourselves and listen. What does “place” sound like when it, upon first impression, seems so familiar that one may bypass their imagination for the ordinary? There is no actual silence or stillness afterwards. Through engagement, eventually you find music in nature, and beauty in between the complexities and unanswered spaces. Does the place itself repopulate with resounding motions other than our own? The soundtracks heard draw from the material form, and are an extension of Edwards’ relationship to the natural world.

In CONSERVATION/CONVERSATION, 2022 (below) while Artist-In-Residence at ACA Soundscape Field Station at Canaveral National Seashore, Edwards explored the distinctive habitats and soundscape ecology of Apollo Beach. An audio companion to a poetic essay and a free verse narrative account documented the collaboration of visitors to the ocean and park, participants in her interactive and real-time exhibition.Questions arose such as: What are the parallels between a gentle rainstorm and a NASA rocket launch in the distance? A whisper in your ear and the crashing of ocean waves, or the beating of a drum and your own heartbeat when all else appears silent? What do we know what to listen for, and how do we describe these sounds to others? How does the practice of deeper listening raise our awareness to soundscape ecology, our compassion, or stewardship and healing of each other and the wellness of the environment?

Drawing partly on sound as a vibrational phenomenon and space analogues, Everywhere We Are is the Farthest Place, 2023 (below) is an ode, rather than an elegy, to the transforming Arctic landscape, climate vulnerability, elemental sensuality and terrestrial/space connectivity. It comprises a score and text performed synchronically (and sometimes improvisational) with an immersive soundscape of cinematic audio and ambient field recordings of ice, water and wildlife sounds gathered from landings around Svalbard, Norway while on a sailing expedition on a research vessel above the 78th parallel. The work documents sound properties of glacial geology and oceanographic data, through sonification by “de-centering the centered and un-othering the others.” Edwards began inviting audiences to interact with the hydrophones, contact mics, keyboards, Waterphone, bows and mallets, used to record and respond to the fjords and glaciers, and incorporate their own "layer of experience."

Mary Edwards is a composer and sound artist. Themes of temporality, impermanence, nostalgia and the natural world recur throughout her work. She is interested in the invisible architecture and the emotive, historic, cinematic and spatial properties of sound. Listening is an inherent and integral part of her process in conveying how all sounds have the potential to be habitable and transformative once you get inside them, as they are simultaneously intimate and immense. Edwards has recorded and exhibited widely, and her works have received support from residencies and fellowships including ACA Soundscape Field Station at Canaveral National Seashore, Headlands Center for the Arts and The Arctic Circle. Her writing has been published by Oxford American, Invert/Extant (U.K.), The Mentor that Matters, The Santa Barbara Literary Journal and the anthology, Joy Has a Sound: Black Sonic Visions. She holds an Interdisciplinary MFA in Sound and Architecture from Goddard College. http://maryedwardsmusic.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Mary Edwards, Per/Serverance, 2013, sound installation at Grimshaw Gudewicz Art Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts; When the Ocean Meets the Sky, 2019, included in REFUGE at Beatnik Gallery, Joshua Tree Cultural Preservation Center, California; Something to (Be)Hold, 2021, installation at Grimshaw-Gudewica Gallery, Fall River, Massachusetts; CONSERVATION / CONVERSATION, 2022, including book and sound soundscape on Bandcamp, Fall 2023; Everywhere We Are is the Farthest Place, 2023, sound installation and performance at The Spitsbergen Artists Center, Longyarbyen, Svalbard, Norway; Portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Margaret Cogswell

Mon, 07 Aug 2023 15:58:34 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 7, 2023

This week we recognize Margaret Cogswell, and her ongoing series of RIVER FUGUES that began twenty years ago.

River Fugues are unique projects exploring the interdependency of people, industry and rivers. Each entail regional research, recording images and narratives with audio/video that are later edited into fugues and integrated into sculptural installations. The reason for using the fugue is because of its flexibility as a conceptual framework, which can be applied to any set of components one is trying to integrate, be they sounds, voices, narratives or images.

A precursor that influenced the River Fugue series, Thirst (above, a proposal drawing), installations exhibited in1999 & 2001, explored the idea of immortality being found in the waters of a particular place and/or through particular rituals involving water, including the Japanese tea ceremony, as well as the art of dowsing for water using divining rods. In both installations, dripping water turned to steam as it hit heated steel discs so that, just as with the fountain of youth, the waters are never accessible for drinking, and immortality remains elusive.

click images for more info

Lured by fire, water and the imposing presence of volcanic steel mills, during a residency at SPACES Gallery in Cleveland, Ohio, at the mouth of the Cuyahoga River, Cogswell’s site-specific response became Cuyahoga Fugues, 2003 (above), a mixed-media installation inspired by and incorporating generations of stories reflecting the life and dreams embodied by the Cuyahoga River. Struck by the interdependence of the life of the river, people and industry to each other, and the realization that her installation would include multiple audio and video components, Cogswell turned to the musical structure of the fugue as a guide for editing the video and audio. Narratives recorded from people living and working along the river, video from along the Cuyahoga River and the steel mill industry were woven together as “fugues” to become Cuyahoga Fugues. Videos and narratives were rear-projected from inside steel and plexi-pipes, as well as from vents in walls, a re-purposed radio and TV. This installation was also included in River Fuges (2007-2008), as part of Melting Ice / A Hot Topic, a traveling exhibition organized by Art Works for Change.

Mississippi River Fugues, 2008 (above) was a solo exhibition at the Art Museum of the University of Memphis in Tennessee. Entering the museum’s lobby, the viewer is surrounded by voices of cotton farmers, river guides, levee supervisors and others telling their stories which are emerging from hurricane lanterns. An 18th century French drawing of a "machine dredger" powered by men in squirrel wheel cages inspires the main installation. Entering the darkened gallery, the viewer is dwarfed by 2 giant squirrel wheels and 5 buoys. Inside the giant wheels (standing 15 and 20 ft. high) are video projections (10 ft. and 6 ft. diameter) of a man running endlessly, seemingly powering the dredger’s wheels. Each of the five buoys (6 to 14 ft. high) houses an oscillating motor and video projector in the top section. Oscillating 90 degrees, video images move across the surrounding walls and form a visual fugue exploring the haunting history, poignant beauty and delicate balance found in the interdependence of the lives of people in the Delta, the cotton industry and Mississippi River.

Wyoming River Fugues, 2012 (above) explores the complex relationship between Wyoming's natural, cultural, historic, engineered and industrial landscapes. Of particular interest are water rights and issues related to river water usage including irrigation and mining. This mixed-media installation is comprised of video projected from three surveyor’s transits, and onto the floor of a stock tank. A “bucket of light” moves slowly 50 feet diagonally across the museum’s gallery space. Surveyor’s transits, normally determining division of land and access to water, serve as a vehicle for exploring the historical and cultural landscape of Wyoming through video projections moving across the surrounding walls. Narrative fugues were created from interviews with Arapaho and Shoshone elders, botanists, composers, archaeologists, ecologists, hydrologists, philosophers, ranchers, historians, environmentalists, poets, and scientists with the extraction industries.

Moving the Water(s): Ashokan Fugues, 2014 (below) is a research-based mixed-media installation that explores the New York City water supply and its relationship to the Catskill Watershed. It was an elegy to the people of the Catskills who lost their land and homes through eminent domain for the building of the Ashokan Reservoir, which supplies drinking water for New York City through its aqueduct system. Using the musical structure of a fugue, the piece is “composed” to be played by a trio of videos projected inside the two water towers and from the one surveyor’s transit. A green ball animates the water currents and becomes the visual thread linking the movement of water from the Catskills down to NYC. The work was installed for a solo exhibition at Cue Art Foundation in New York City.

Moving the Waters: Croton Fugues, 2017 (below) was inspired by the 2017 centennial anniversary of New York City’s aqueduct system, and the location of the Mid-Manhattan Library across the street from the site of the former Croton Distribution Reservoir, the first reservoir in New York City. When that reservoir became inadequate, the City looked north to the Catskills for its water. The Croton Distribution Reservoir was then destroyed and the current New York City Public Library was built over the site. Layers of this history were reflected in the windows of the Mid-Manhattan Library across the street. This project seeks to entice the viewer into imagining and investigating the history of NYC’s water supply system through the accumulated layering of the experience of exploring these windows. Focusing on the Croton Reservoir, photographs and video stills from onsite research and documentation were layered with archival images from the NYPL digital files to form the window installations of panels of archival digital prints on canvas. Inspired by the structure of India’s 16th century Deccan Court paintings, each window installation is created with sections of narrative images, abstractions and repetitive patterns.

Margaret Cogswell is a mixed-media installation artist residing in New York and a recipient of numerous awards including the John Simon Guggenheim Fellowship (2009), Pollock-Krasner Foundation (2017, 1991 & 1987), New York Foundation for the Arts (2007, 1993); and Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant (2014). Cogswell was born in Memphis, Tennessee, and raised in Japan where she lived until she was 13 years old. She received her Bachelor of Arts in English Literature from Rhodes College in Memphis, Tennessee. In 1982, she received a Master in Fine Arts in Sculpture from Mason Gross School of the Arts at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, New Jersey. Since 2003, the main focus of Cogswell's work is an ongoing series of RIVER FUGUES projects that explore the increasingly politicized role of water. RIVER FUGUES began in Cleveland, Ohio in 2002 with Cuyahoga Fugues, a mixed-media installation inspired by and incorporating generations of stories reflecting the life and dreams embodied by the Cuyahoga River. https://margaretcogswell.net

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Margaret Cogswell, Thirst, 1998, proposal drawing, watercolor, color pencil, chalk on paper, 20 x 30 inches; Cuyahoga Fugues, 2003, steel pipes, multiple video and audio components, 14 x 40 x 40 feet, Spaces Gallery, Cleveland, Ohio; Mississippi River Fugues, 2008, steel structures, multiple audio and oscillating video projections, 20 x 66 x 33 feet, Art Museum, University of Memphis, Tennessee; Wyoming River Fugues, 2012, steel and wood “surveyor’s transits,” steel stock tanks with video projections, 1 moving polyurethane “bucket of light”, multiple audio and oscillating video components, 16 X 64 X 37 feet, Art Museum, University of Wyoming, Laramie; Moving the Water(s): Ashokan Fugues, 2014, 2 steel & plexi “water-towers” with video and audio, 1 steel and wood surveyor’s transit and wall video projection, 15 x 13 x 15 feet, CUE Art Foundation, New York City; Moving the Water(s): Croton Fugues, 2017, window installations of archival prints on canvas, window dimensions 10 x 6 feet, Mid-Manhattan Library, New York City; self-portrait of the artist in Wyoming.

August 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 20:30:16 GMT

July 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Mapping a Hopeful Future: Wendy Brawer's Green Map System

Tue, 01 Aug 2023 19:22:05 GMT

Wendy Brawer with young neighbors at Siempre Verde Community Garden, NYC

Mapping a Hopeful Future: Wendy Brawer's work bridging art and policy through her non-profit Green Map System.

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Wendy Brawer goes beyond the confines of a art-denoted space and onto the streets, in government offices and directly to communities to fight for climate related justice. Her role as a "social sculptor" creates paths for collaboration and community empowerment. By holding both idealism and pragmatic change, her non-profit Green Map System® allows organized agency as well as a connected community that honor efforts towards a greener future for all.

A collage of locally published Green Maps reflects diversity of place, style and considerations

Hi Wendy, I am especially interested in how your “Green Maps” work bridges a divide between artistry and planning. How do collaborative art and visual formats allow people to create practical change? Where does the art begin and the organizing end?

Green Map making blends and enhances many skills that artists have around observation, interpretation, and changing perspectives. Maps have an ancient power that communicates the complexities of place—in this case, your home place. Organizing people, processes and places yields significant data alongside the visual expression. This medium builds capacity for our common future and helps us notice change (or the lack thereof) while activating and informing people who use or make each Green Map.

Artists, changemakers, educators and groups can use Green Map System’s open source mapping platform for free—it’s easy and it’s designed to engage diverse voices in the process. Or you can make a printed Green Map, a mural, video, performance or experience. Share your viewpoint on local climate challenges and solutions by highlighting and linking exemplary places and projects on your Green Map.

I’m a ‘social sculptor’ who blends art and organizing. Wikipedia says: As a work of art, a social sculpture includes human activity that strives to structure and shape society or the environment. The central idea of a social sculptor is an artist who creates structures in society using language, thoughts, actions, and objects.

The ongoing Green Map project at University of Victoria BC Canada often hosts international students, like this group from China, 2015

Social sculptor, what an incredible term! It really bridges this artmaker-organizer divide. Beginning as a personal project, your work has grown to become an award-winning non-profit organization with work in 65 countries. What have been some of the more rewarding and frustrating moments of being a founder and expanding internationally?

Like most people whose heart decides where creative energy is directed, I was an artist long before I shifted towards ecodesign and experienced the excitement of solo shows, commissioned work and the competitive art world, mainly in Seattle. Even then, I preferred to work collaboratively, and often used found and recycled objects in my mixed media work. My partner and I were on the adventure path and headed west to live in Tokyo, drifting to NYC’s Lower East Side a couple of years later.

A pivotal moment and an honor above all came to me from an entrapped Orangutan who threw me a stone. I caught it and turned green—that was 1989 and the start of my work for our common future.

I blurred the art and design boundary and became an eco encouragement agent. This led to my being appointed Designer in Residence at the Smithsonian Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum (1997), Honorary Citizen of Japan (2004), Climate S’hero (2013), LES Neighborhood Hero (2016), TED Resident (2017) and most recently to the board of a favorite place, the Trust for Governors Island (2023).

The cycles of sustainable development seem to have square wheels and the crawl toward climate stability is a key frustration—what can we do to take down barriers to action? At Green Map, this reality led our nonprofit to go open source in 2018, providing tools and support free, on a share-alike basis. Thus, climate urgency opened the door to new collaboration, innovation and inspiration, attracting partners like the GIS Collective and the POP shop to the Green Map Platform team.

A living lexicon, Green Map’s shared set of icons have evolved since 1995 and were recently linked to the United Nations 17 Global Goals (the SDGs)

And the list of collaborators goes on. You have even integrated the United Nations “17 Global Goals” through the “Green Map Icons” that help denote specific points of international interest. How has the integration of these icons changed the way you are able to work with these maps? Or collaborate between communities?

The SDGs are a profound framework, but generally invisible in NYC, despite the UN being anchored in midtown. Could our tools and methods help people connect with the intersections they illuminate? Sadly, not so much! We even created an event to bring local and UN folks together, hoping to spark some synergy, and followed the trail in places like Copenhagen, Geneva and Japan’s Azabu University where local Green Mapmakers were germinating and inspiring new integrations (see slides). The tiny wave we were generating was disrupted in 2020, for which we created Recovery Icons, which are now morphing into a set of social service icons that touch on some of the SDG themes.

A notable update: Scotland’s Coalfields Regeneration Trust is mapping with several rundown communities, turning the Green Map into a Local Place Plan, a national program created in 2019 which contains a new right for communities to produce their own plans. This year, our icons and ethos are meshed with the SDGs and the Earth Charter by the Coalfields Regeneration Trust. Our mission-aligned tools unlock creativity and expression, so important to the uptake of this programme.

Lower East Ride was created in Chinese, Spanish and English to support bicycling as an everyday climate change countermeasure on the Lower East Side of NYC in 2013

It's like a structure for people to bounce off of and express their individual needs. In a way, your maps provide an open platform for individual self-regulation among communities who are interested in the environmental infrastructure. Have the maps had lasting influence in planning and policy making in these spaces? Have grassroots organizers and local educators used these tools to support their concerns?

Last month, I was excited to see a social post from Jahu Brasil. Their print Green Map, made twenty years ago, became the basis of the master plan— now they are ready to create a new one! There are other places which have used our adaptable tools to frame a vision of what is possible and to set new policies.

From Jakarta, architect-planner Marco Kusumawijaya announced his three-volume masterwork this season. In response to my asking, he replied, “Yes the book is the first to compile so much information on Indonesian cities (also from personal direct experiences). And yes, some are from the Green Map experiences that led me to investigate further.” Marco’s 2002 Jakarta Green Map was the first requested by a President for her cabinet. Peta Hijau workshops yielded a dozen local projects across the archipelago, including Yogyakarta, where the Orangutan encounter that slapped sense into my palm was mapped. Marco’s Banda Aceh ‘memory map’, co created with survivors of the 2004 tsunami, became a blueprint for redevelopment that won the Dubai Prize, and sparked other crisis Green Map.

We also see projects like Red de Mapa Verde, which has impacted communities all across Cuba as a great example of grassroots organizing and educators manifesting change. We love how Mapa Verde is used as a diagnostic tool there and how the project leaders at Centro Felix Varela have shared their approach in several books and at conferences since 2000. Liana Cisneros Bidart and colleagues have contributed greatly to our understanding of what a Green Map project can do.

Young participant at the Santiago Mapa Verde launch in Chile

It is so inspiring to hear the lasting effects of this project and its practical applications. The agency that Green Map System allows for communities to self-determine both content and presentation of their maps has created such variety in responses. What did you factor in when creating a framework that would both set up reasonable structures and rules to follow while allowing enough freedom to promote creativity and individuality?

I had already published two NYC Green Maps and was invited to the UN Social Summit of 1995 to present on the Greening of NYC—and happily this catalyzed a meeting of the emerging O2 Global network of ecodesigners. We all threw ideas on the table and mine was to co-create a set of sustainability icons to be used to help identify, promote and link disparate Green Map made locally, and to create a movement that would share mapmaking experiences. A modem was tossed into the mix and voila, developing Green Map System became our first internet collaboration—there’s a story here.

We had a whole new medium—how could we use the web democratically to discover local green living resources and the nature, cultural and social justice realities of home? O2’s influence remains strong.

I wrote this article The Web as a Metaphor as I co-created the system, its first website and interactions. We have always tried to be open and inclusive. 125 interns have pitched in, and one of the first, David Campbell, suggested turning the icons into a font that would work with any computer application, thus leveling the Green Map playing field in 1996. I was influenced by the gift economy of indigenous people—I had learned about potlatches in the Pacific Northwest long before I heard of open source development and how to work together fluidly. I also want to credit community gardeners and how they work autonomously and together. We even named our first content managed website ‘the Greenhouse’ as it nurtured diverse and verdant ‘gardens’ around the world.

On the topic of diversity, autonomy and togetherness, I want to point our the term “glocal” that your website uses. It's a personal favorite term and has really shifted my perspective as a practitioner. What does “glocal'' mean to you and to your mission? What is it that the combination of local and global promotes especially well?

Think global, map local. Observe through this lens and share your perspective. My guiding principle since 1995! Encapsulating it all, glocal considers impacts on both your home place and planet.

Glocal is an activating, inclusionary term. The benefits of going local are a given now, and part of the reason I keep working on NYC projects, ranging from the Dutch Kills Loop, a proposed land regeneration and infrastructure reuse project in Long Island City to the return of the Stanton Parkhouse to community use on the Lower East Side. I show up for causes and pitch in around air quality, open streets, street trees, community gardens and more.

Our world needs glocal—the free flow of capabilities, knowledge and networks from place to place, so we can seed a world where dignity and sufficiency for all forever can be imagined and co-created.

Thank you for sharing your story, and of course, ecoartspace readers are welcome to become Green Mapmakers, too—see GreenMap.org

Green Map is on the planning team at the Dutch Kills Loop, a land regeneration and infrastructure reuse project in Long Island City

Member Spotlight l Christine Cassano

Mon, 31 Jul 2023 16:58:39 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 31, 2023

This week we recognize Christine Cassano and her work, which is a synthesis of scientific research and metaphysics.

“Permeable Facades and Internal Alterations,” 2015 (above) was a walk-in art installation of alternating, suspended panels of industrial and organic materials. The space in between materials expose variations of external facade and internal experience. Inside becomes intimately engulfed in a circular sea of translucent blood-red, 150+ hand-formed porcelain bones and countless mirrors which cascade moments of intense visual movement and self-reflection. Sentences subtly wood-burned into suspended pieces of Saguaro cactus ribs can only be viewed from the interior. They are hand-carved written connections provided by friends and family recalling a singular moment that changed their life.”

click images for more info

Cassano's practice is rooted in the visual expression of dynamic systems, exploring ways to bring complex, overlapping ideas into a shared environment through the convergence of resonance, pattern, time, and space. “Tethered Tensions,” 2017 (above) is an installation presented at the Phoenix Art Museum, composed of 500 feet of the artist’s own spun hair and held together by hundreds of small mirrors is tethered to six futuristic concrete sculptures in a 15 x 17 foot room. The work offers the audience an immersive space to consider ominous reflections, tensions and the fragile counterbalance between humanness and ecology.

“Sequence and Conjunction,” 2020 (above) a lobby installation in the Wexford Biomedical Campus / Innovation Center: A collective of two intricate groupings – both composed of 116 strands and suspended from a black ceiling. Exploring DNA genomic sequencing of the Saguaro cactus became the way to engage the relationship of interchanging materials, colors and moving alignments that merge and connect with the movement of the sun, air and one’s physical movement throughout the space – each conjunction enabling new formations to appear. Many architectural elements of this new biomedical building were inspired by the Saguaro cactus. I met with Dr. Wojciechowski, an evolutionary biologist at ASU and member of the Saguaro Genome Project, to learn more about genetic sequencing of the Saguaro for this project. Anchored by Arizona State University, Wexford’s PBC Innovation Center is a 226,000 square-foot research and office building designed to expand ASU’s research footprint in downtown Phoenix and facilitate growth of the private sector in bioscience and health technologies.”

“Degrees of Granularity,” 2021 (above) is a sound sculpture installation and collaboration between Cassano and Shomit Barua. 500+ hand-formed pieces of paper-thin, translucent porcelain are delicately stacked on top of a black mirror. The motion reactive audio is derived from the friction of these bone-like pieces.The individual shape, weight and texture causes their edges to catch; their arrangement requires balance, and then they rest with precarious density. The noise they make when they shift is both corrosive and harmonic—sometimes their edges crack, crumble and deteriorate, other times they resonate and ring. While this sculpture exists for the moment in a delicate stasis, the inevitable rearrangement over time will grind the porcelain into dust.”

“Quadrivium,” 2023 (below) is an installation created to be touched and engaged from above, from below and 360º as it is here on display at Form & Concept Gallery in Santa Fe, NM. This suspended installation includes 49 bronze noēma and by activating with a gentle push, the viewer assists with composition of sound and arrangement while engaging with mediation of rhythmic movement within a three-dimensional context. This creates a space where matter, energy and vibration connect and a place to be completely present. “Quadrivium” is the Latin word meaning “where four roads meet – a crossroads” and references a curriculum established during the Renaissance consisting of four subjects: Arithmetic, Geometry, Harmonics & Astronomy.”

Cassano also makes paintings including, Universal Algorithms, 2021 (below). "I use signal / sound waves created by our natural world to create paintings. These include seismic, gravitational wave signals and various electromagnetic frequencies recorded on earth and in outer space. Using sound equipment, these signals are converted into a vibratory source and applied to the panel surface. I then take the organic noēma forms I create and dip them into paint. The forms are placed on the panel and the vibrations carry them across the surface. What emerges are visible patterns created by resonance. Once dry, paint patterns serve as point pivot guides for pencil and other drawing instruments as I interconnect their patterns to create larger formations."

Christine Cassano is an interdisciplinary artist whose work is informed by research in science and metaphysics and made accessible to audiences through objects, sound, and environments. She holds a fine arts degree from Virginia Commonwealth University and Old Dominion University. She is a recipient of the 2018 Artist Research Grant from the Arizona Commission on the Arts, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Arts. In 2016, she was awarded a Contemporary Forum Artist Grant with exhibition from the Phoenix Art Museum, supported in part by the Nathan Cummings Foundation Endowment. In 2015, she was awarded a residency at the University of West Georgia which included an interactive, community-based installation project that is now part of the college’s permanent collection. That year she was also a recipient of the Phoenix Institute of Contemporary Art Grant, resulting in a published artist catalog of her work. Her work was recently reviewed by Hyperallergic. christinecassano.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Christine Cassano, Permeable Facades and Internal Alterations, 2015, exhibited at Tempe Center for the Arts; Tethered Tensions, 2017, mirrors, concrete, hair, exhibited at Phoenix Art Museum; Sequence & Conjunction, 2020, ceiling lobby installation at Wexford Biomedical & Innovation Campus - Public Art; Degrees of Granularity, 2021, porcelain noema stacked on mirror, sonic sensors, technology hardware + software components (internal), 36 x 96 x 16 inches, exhibited at form&concept gallery; Quadrivium, 2023, spun hair and bronze, 252 x 72 x 72 inches, exhibited at form&concept gallery; Universal Algorithms, 2021, acrylic paint, colored pencil, sound / signal vibration, 48 x 96 inches, in collaboration with sound artist, Jimmy Peggie;Portrait of artist in her studio in Santa Fe, New Mexico.

Member Spotlight l Hollis Hammonds

Mon, 24 Jul 2023 14:35:29 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 24, 2023

This week we recognize Hollis Hammonds Hollis Hammonds, and her multimedia body of work that reminisces on past experiences and explores disaster, both environmental and man-made.

"My House: The Storm," 2014 (above) was a wall installation of assembled drawings included in the exhibition titled “Drawn In / Drawn Out,” at the Grace Museum in Abilene, Texas. The exhibition was made up of works by contemporary artists who challenge traditional concepts of drawing. Over the last decade drawing has become recognized as a stand-alone medium and like other art media, in this age of cultural and technological flux and innovation, the definition of drawing has expanded to include 3-D and conceptual forms. The works explored new drawing strategies that include site-specific installations, wall drawings, multilayered compositions and atypical approaches to the art of drawing."

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“Wasteland/Wonderland,” 2016 (above) was a solo exhibition at the Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, Texas, made up of installation and video projection. In this exhibit, Hammonds asked spectators to reconsider the objects we amass after they are transformed by disaster. Something she was forced to consider after her childhood home burned down, she addresses this disaster in a number of her works. With a strong interest in narrative and storytelling, the video projection in this exhibition was meant to engage the viewer to feel the turmoil and drama of the burning house. While the sculptural piece was meant to engage the view through tactile interaction.”

“Homecoming,” 2019 (above) is a collection of objects that directly reflect Hammonds childhood, including the forest behind her home filled with detritus and junk. Her Depression era parents’ had a tendency to collect trinkets (ceramic poodles, dolls, figurines, etc.) and save anything of value (including plastic bottles, rusty nails, old cars, wood, metal, and so on). In this work, Hammonds again addresses the emotion surrounding a fire that burned her family home to the ground when she was just 15 years old.“

Awake in the Dark, 2021 (above) is a multimedia exhibition resulting from a collaboration between visual artist Hollis Hammonds and poet Sasha West, aka Hammonds + West. The pieces begin what Timothy Morton calls “grief work,” articulating the experience of living in the midst of a fragile, changing ecosystem. Through self-interrogations, the artists question both individual and societal contributions to the environmental crisis. Viewers dwell in wreckage, suspended between flood and fire, stasis and loss. Objects lose their meaning as markers for a normal existence. In these works, the distinction between natural and human-made disasters starts to collapse. Hammonds and West invited viewers to see their own part in making the physical world and, thus, the future.

“The River Entered my Home,” 2022 (below) was a collaborative exhibit shown at CCAD (Columbus College of Art and Design), Columbus, Ohio. Created by Hammonds + West, a team made up of artist Hollis Hammonds and poet Sasha West. This exhibit featured video, light, found objects, and sound. The sound component includes the voice of Sasha West reading her poems "Ode to Fossil Fuel" and "My House Was Beside the River." In their collaborative work Hammonds + West combine sound with sculptural installation, video with drawings, and words with images, both artists offer their personal vantage points on the precipice of a forbidding future. Their work opens liminal spaces where hard boundaries dissolve: past disasters forecast future ones, the crackle of fire becomes the cracking of wreckage in water, what is civilization becomes wilderness.“

Hollis Hammonds is a multimedia artist whose work, built on memory and utilizing evidence from the public collective consciousness, investigates social issues ranging from economic disparity and state violence to environmental degradation and human-made disasters. Her dystopian drawings and found-object installations have been widely exhibited throughout the US, including solo exhibitions at venues such as Women & Their Work in Austin, Texas, Redux Contemporary Art Center in Charleston, SC, Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, Texas, and the Reed Gallery in Cincinnati, OH. She has been an artist in residence at McColl Center for Art + Innovation, University of Wisconsin-Marathon, Indie Grits Film Festival, and Atlantic Center for the Arts. Hammonds is the author of Drawing Structure: Conceptual and Observational Techniques and has had her creative work featured in New American Paintings, Manifest’s International Drawing Annual, FOA, Uppercase, and Art on Paper. She is a Professor of Art and Chair of the Department of Visual Studies at St. Edward’s University in Austin, Texas. www.hollishammonds.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Hollis Hammonds, Drawn In / Drawn Out, 2014, drawing, charcoal, Mylar, rubble, vinyl, furniture; Wasteland / Wonderland, 2016, solo exhibition at the Dishman Art Museum in Beaumont, Texas, drawing, found objects, projections; Homecoming, 2019, found objects, drawing, at the Fine Arts Galleries, School of the Arts at Northern Kentucky University, as part of the 2019 National Council of Arts Administrators (NCAA) conference; Awake in the Dark, 2021, exhibited at Austin Public Library Gallery; The River Entered My Home, 2022, ink on Yupo paper, exhibited at CCAD (Columbus College of Art and Design), Ohio; Portrait of artist by Roberta Cornew.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles on (Re)Imagining Freshkills Park

Thu, 20 Jul 2023 19:02:26 GMT

Mierle Laderman Ukeles on
(Re)Imagining Freshkills Park

See how New York’s largest landfill is
being transformed into an urban oasis.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Paula Vilaplana de Miguel, Evangelos Kotsioris

Jul 14, 2023, MoMA magazine online

In 2001, the design office of James Corner Field Operations won the competition to transform Fresh Kills, New York’s largest landfill, into a park. The project’s first completed segment, which will allow the public access to this vast site, is scheduled to open later this year. Freshkills Park is one of 12 projects featured in the exhibition Architecture Now: New York, New Publics, on view at MoMA through July 29, 2023.

Among the materials included in the Freshkills Park display is a photograph of Mierle Laderman Ukeles’s landmark Social Mirror, an artwork comprising a sanitation truck covered in mirrored panels. Having worked as the artist-in-residence at the Department of Sanitation in New York since 1977, a role she initiated, Ukeles is closely linked to the creation of Freshkills Park. We recently spoke to the artist about her long-standing relationship with this contested site and two of the numerous art projects she has proposed for it since 1989.

—Evangelos Kotsioris and Paula Vilaplana de Miguel

Mierle Laderman Ukeles: I discovered Fresh Kills in the late 1970s, while working on an art project titled Touch Sanitation, which involved visiting every single sanitation district in New York, shaking hands with each of the 8,500 workers, and saying to each, “Thank you for keeping New York City alive.” Between 1979 and ’80, I was going to Staten Island often. I had been to all of the other landfills in the city. But when I went to Fresh Kills for the first time, I was stunned. The all-night unloading operation was remarkable: a continuous flow of garbage.

There were seven operating landfills at the time, and by 1985, the State Department of Environmental Conservation shut all of them down except for one in Queens, which was temporarily left open. After that was closed too, the only landfill that would receive waste—a big decision made by the city, because of its size—was Fresh Kills in Staten Island. Fresh Kills continued to operate until its closure in 2001. Following that, an exception had to be made for it to receive the debris of the World Trade Center. There were 300 people working 24 hours a day at Fresh Kills at that time. It was a very busy workplace with a constant stream of barges unloading waste 24/7, except for Christmas Day—only one day off a year, that’s it!

Continue reading at MOMA magazine here

Eco Exhibitions Won't Save Us: Dear Earth - Art Review

Wed, 19 Jul 2023 17:30:15 GMT

Above: Birds Watching III, 2023 a new commission by Jenny Kendler as part of Dear Earth: Art & Hope in a Time of Crisis for the Hayward Gallery at the Southbank Centre in London — Jul 21–Sept 3, 2023

Eco Exhibitions Won't Save Us

Marv Recinto Opinion

18 July 2023 artreview.com

Artists and institutions seem content to merely ‘address’, ‘engage with’ or ‘respond to’ the climate crisis. It’s time for a concerted shift towards action

Exhibitions of art about ecology have been sprouting up everywhere, usually operating under some premise of ‘raising awareness’ for the climate crisis. The Hayward Gallery – with their ongoing exhibition, Dear Earth: Art and Hope in a Time of Crisis – is just one recent example of many institutions, in London alone, that have rushed to stage ecocritical shows over the last few years: the Serpentine has an ongoing programme called General Ecology via which they stage related exhibitions like Back to Earth (2022); the Barbican Art Gallery’s Our Time on Earth (2022); various exhibitions at Tate, among them A Clearing in the Forest (2022); The Photographers’ Gallery’s When I image the earth, I imagine another (2021); Somerset House’s We Are History (2021); or the Royal Academy’s Eco-Visionaries (2019). Countless others have been staged around the world: a random sampling might include Simbiología: Prácticas Artísticas en un Planeta en Emergencia (Centro Cultural Kirchner, Buenos Aires, 2021); Adaptation: A Reconnected Earth (MCAD Manila, 2023); and Our Ecology (Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, autumn 2023). And that really is to name just a few. While these exhibitions do doubtlessly have the potential to inform ideological narratives surrounding the ecological crisis, they can so often feel futile in the face of real environmental devastation.

Art wields immense possibilities in its potential to visualise ideas, but its role throughout history and in various cultures has continuously changed: it can function for its own sake, envision radical possibilities and, in more recent years, it has acted as a research medium; through all of this, it has generally continued to act as an art object that invites speculation. Art institutions have also treated art as such, taking their cues from the art and artists they exhibit. What feels different, however, about ecocritical art is that the very topic it engages with proposes widespread ruin and demands that action be immediately taken to counteract such an apocalypse.

Read full ecocritical review here

Dear Earth includes outdoor installation (above) by member Jenny Kendler.

Member Spotlight I Colin Lyons

Mon, 17 Jul 2023 14:25:24 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 17, 2023

This week we recognize Colin LyonsColin Lyons, and his fifteen year practice focused on geoengineering, extraction, alchemy, historical preservation and brownfield rehabilitation.

"Boom Town," 2007-2009 (above) is modeled after former industrial buildings along Montreal’s Lachine Canal, and is an installation of print-based sculptures that considers the possibilities after industrial obsolescence. Meticulously rendered from source photographs, these etching plates are first printed as blueprints, and later cut and folded to make small-scale paper architectures. Finally, the end of the edition is marked by soldering the plates together, thwarting the process of mass production, while giving the plates a new purpose. Piled on top of one another, these sculptures can be read as a mass burial site, monument, or heap of scrap metal. The incongruity of these industrial structures built delicately out of paper reminds us of the one-time assumption of invincibility within these industries."

click images for more info

"The Conservator, 2013 (above) is a site-specific sculpture designed for The Soap Factory. This restoration machine was powered by a sprawling battery, where hundreds of cells were created from discarded zinc and copper etching plates, and fueled by a ferric chloride etching solution. Designed to polish a rusted I-beam within the gallery space, this process revealed a small space of gentrification within this post-industrial ruin. Through the process, the battery simultaneously erodes the plates, allowing it to hold a charge for just a few minutes. In the reclaiming of industrial complexes, the impulse to polish the architecture has become almost habitual, cleansing the space of its industrial heritage, and marking its new existence. This installation reverses that practice, where the act of polishing brings a sharpened awareness of the labour that was once performed within the space."

"During Lyons first visit to Dawson City, in January 2010, he was brought to look out at the vast intestinal tailing piles left by decades of dredging in the area. This vista became the lasting image of his trip to the Yukon. In revisiting Dawson, Lyon began with a quintessentially Klondike activity – a kind of treasure hunting. Over the course of several weeks, he walked along the dredge tailings near Bonanza Creek, using a metal detector to excavate industrial cast-offs. With this collection in tow, he brought it to the Midnight Dome, where he installed my "Time Machine for abandoned futures" 2015 (above); a strange off-the-grid laboratory which became my home for over a week. This shelter adopts design strategies common in earthship architecture (rain-water collection, south facing greenhouse windows, rammed earth, etc.), but rather than environmental sustainability as its guiding principle, this bubbling chemical structure comes closer to the absurd inefficiency of many of our modern industrial pursuits. Powering this machine is a massive, roof-top battery, in which etching plates and etching acid power an electrolytic cleaning process to remove the rust from my scavenged artifacts. Once cleaned, Lyon meticulously etches the markings left by decades of rust and erosion, forming a kind of topographical map. The result is a glistening surface that memorializes the artifact’s entire lifespan. Overlooking the dredge tailings, this machine presents a kind of prototype for the preservation of degradation."

"We will find salvation in strategic chemical spills," 2022 (above) considers recent climate-engineering proposals through the lens of alchemy. The prints borrow cloudscapes from 16th Century engraver/alchemist Hendrick Goltzius’ Metamorphoses, which depict atmosphere as solid and material, rather than a non-space; a vital concept in an age of rapidly rising atmospheric carbon levels. But here, the gods are replaced by geoengineering schemes - proposals to wash away the sins of the Anthropocene. Silkscreened over these etchings are materials such as crude oil, sulfuric acid, iron sulfate, olivine, sea salt, silica, and pyrite, which might play a role in future geoengineering technologies. Over the coming years, these images depicting congressional documents and volcanic eruptions will become increasingly visible, as the urgency to deploy these radical climate “solutions” intensifies. Etched into their plexiglass frames, and casting shadows onto the wall are descriptive technical texts written in Esperanto, pointing to the need for a new global governance structure for the coming era of global climate modification, when the key question might center on who has the right to experiment with the environment, when the burden of responsibility and the burden of impact are asymmetrical."

In 1942, British inventor Geoffrey Pyke proposed an ambitious plan to develop a massive, ice-based aircraft carrier code-named Operation Habbakuk (aka ‘Bergship’). Soon after, a team of Canadian conscientious objectors were sent to Jasper National Park to develop a 1000-ton prototype that would utilize a new material called Pykrete - a mixture of wood pulp and ice, which was believed to be easily repairable and nearly unsinkable. However, the project was eventually abandoned, and its remains now rest at the bottom of Patricia Lake. "At its core "Operation Habbakuk," 2022 (below) explores the science of geo-engineering attempts to mimic, accelerate, or amplify natural processes of carbon reduction using highly invasive means. These strategies form a dystopian contingency plan which, employed alongside mitigation efforts, strive to preserve a close approximation of our present ecosystem. Geo-engineering stands as a kind of messianic figure for the planet, proposing to wash away the sins of the Anthropocene. However, instead of practical geoengineering prototypes, Lyons techno-solutions offer little more than time capsules, laying bare the folly of our desire to find salvation in the fine balance of strategic chemical spills, and proposing rituals which blend the sacred and scientific to question what kind of nature we hope to approximate within a techno-solutionist future."

Colin Lyons grew up in the birthplace of the North American oil industry, Petrolia, Ontario in Canada, an experience that has fueled his interests in industrial ruins and sacrificial landscapes. His most recent site-based installations have been located in mine tailing piles, decommissioned landfills, historic flood infrastructure, urban brownfields, and remote islands. In recent years, Lyons has participated in fellowships and residencies including MacDowell in New Hampshire, The Arctic Circle Residency in Svalbard, and ÖRES on the island in Finland. His work has been shown widely in recent solo and group exhibitions internationally, and his projects have been supported by the Canada Council for the Arts, New York Foundation for the Arts, Conseil des Arts et des Lettres du Quebec, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, The Santo Foundation, The Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation, and The National Trust for Historic Preservation. He received his BFA from Mount Allison University (2007) and MFA in printmaking from University of Alberta (2012). Lyons currently lives in Binghamton, New York, where he is an assistant professor at Binghamton University (SUNY). www.colinlyons.ca

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Colin Lyons, Boom Town 2007-2009, etching on paper, wood, zinc etching plates; The Conservator, 2022, (battery: zinc plates, copper plates, glass, wire, ferric chloride), photo by Sarah Nienaber; Time Machine for Abandoned Futures, 2015, Plexiglas, aluminum, copper sulfate, soda ash, copper plates, zinc plates, wires, artifacts; We will find salvation in strategic chemical spills, 2022, iron Fertilization, etching, silkscreen (printed with iron sulfate, ferric chloride, olivine and rust from gold-rush artifacts), laser engraving, 22 x 15 inches; Operation Habbakuk, 2022, video still from Operation Habbakuk (2:45), produced at MacDowell and ÖRES through the generous support of the Canada Council for the Arts; Portrait of artist by Evan Rensch.

Member Spotlight I WhiteFeather Hunter

Mon, 10 Jul 2023 13:49:20 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 10, 2023

This week we recognize WhiteFeather Hunter, and her transdisciplinary body of work focused on bioart.

“Alma,” 2009 - ongoing (above) became an internet sensation in 2012, going viral with over 5 million hits in three days, via reddit front page. She went viral again in 2015, also via reddit front page. "Hoof Hand" is Alma's internet pseudonym/avatar, appointed organically, and spontaneously performed by the reddit community. Rogue taxidermy sculpture of human hair, found wig, recycled Persian lamb coat, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink fur, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy putty, found vintage mannequin. Alma explores the simultaneous worship, demonizing and mythologizing of female autonomy, hybridity and sexuality.”

click images for more info

“Alchematrix” 2013 (above) a self-portrait performance with gold leaf on skin, rendered as .gif animations. This performance was originally done as embodied research into the Russian folkloric witch character, Baba Yaga. Closely related to the ancient Scythian sun goddess, Tibiti, Baba Yaga sometimes has a gold leg. Here the artist's entire body is covered in gold leaf and gestures are enacted that reference both madness and seduction, qualities every witch is understood to possess. The .gif format was used for its endless repetitive nature, referencing obsessive acts and the inability to ever complete them. Alchematrix was displayed in miniature on an iPhone 4 within the upper floor of the separate work. One of the Alchematrix series was also published as a photo in Perle magazine as part of the Montreal Erotic Art exhibition (2013).”

Whitefeather, as a collaborator, co-designed and developed a key part of the project “Wastelands,” 2018 (above) with Tagny Duff. Her co-invention of a new bioplastic, with art conservator Courtney Books, provided the basis for the biomaterial development used to construct the carrier bags for the project. WhiteFeather solely produced the new biomaterial, and adapted design sketches provided by Tagny Duff, to create carrier bags used to house biogas generators conceived by Duff for the project. The work was first shown at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University in 2018. Wastelands received an honorable mention at Ars Electronica 2019, and was nominated for the STARTS Prize. WhiteFeather's work on the project contributed significantly to its overall aesthetic, functionality and conceptual framework.

“The Witch in the Lab Coat,” 2019-present (above) is a PhD research-creation and scientific research project (in progress) that explores the intersection of feminist witchcraft and tissue engineering through the development of a body-and-performance-based laboratory practice. This is a work in progress conducted at SymbioticA International Centre of Excellence in Biological Art in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Western Australia. Additional laboratory facilities have included at the University of Montreal, University of Ottawa and the DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease) at Charité Berlin. The Witch in the Lab Coat includes the sub-project, Mooncalf, an original research by WhiteFeather, which is a scientific and cultural exploration of the development of menstrual serum for use in tissue culture, as well as endometrial mesenchymal stem cell (eMSC) isolation from menstrual blood.

3D Bioprinting is a project that is currently in progress 2022-2023, (below) and is generously supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec. The intention with this project is to look at advanced manufacturing methods for constructing tissue forms from WhiteFeather's own taboo body materials. She has written about and presented numerous times over the past years about the composition of menstrual fluid and how it is a non-invasive source of stem cell acquisition. This has been her first opportunity to experiment with bioprinting and to use her stem cells in bio-inks that she was both developing and purchasing.

WhiteFeather Hunter specializes in biomaterials research, used predominantly to develop new critical discourse. She has been professionally engaged in a craft-based (bio)art practice for over 18 years, via an ongoing material investigation of the functional, aesthetic and technological potential of bodily materials. Her works coalesce various media approaches, such as textile methods, biology, storytelling (video, audio and text), performance, public intervention, digital + web-based installations and DIY electronics. WhiteFeather holds a Master of Fine Arts in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. She is currently a SSHRC Doctoral Fellow, Australian Government International RTP Scholar and UWA Postgraduate Scholar, situated between the School of Human Sciences and School of Design at The University of Western Australia. She has collaborated and worked in numerous international laboratory-based artist research residencies. She has lectured, shown and performed work internationally and has been featured in multiple international magazines, journals, art books, blogs, video and television spotlights.

Featured images (top to bottom):©WhiteFeather Hunter, Alma 2009, human hair, Persian lamb, beaver fur, rabbit fur, mink, raffia, goat skin, acrylic paint, gold leaf, beeswax, deer hoof, moose teeth, taxidermy epoxy, found vintage mannequin, 69” x 33” x 24”; Alchematrix, 2013, shown in gif format; Wastelands, 2018, shown at the Eli and Edythe Broad Art Museum at Michigan State University; The Witch in the Lab Coat, 2019, conducted at SymbioticA International Centre of Excellence in Biological Art in the School of Human Sciences at the University of Western Australia, and University of Montreal, University of Ottawa and the DZNE (German Center for Neurodegenerative Disease) at Charité Berlin; 3D Bioprinting 2022-2023, supported by the Canada Council for the Arts and the Conseil des arts et des lettres du Quebec; portrait of artist.

Member Spotlight l Christopher Kennedy

Mon, 03 Jul 2023 16:57:45 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 3, 2023

This week we recognize Christopher KennChristopher Kennedy, and his career as an artist and designer bringing attention to environmental stewardship through civic engagement.

The Field Guide to Mushrooms in New York City (above) was created in 2012, and is an introduction to hunting for wild mushrooms. "Come along with us and explore the latent potential of the fungi kingdom in New York City! HUNT for mushrooms in the city with the help of this guide. This publication was created as part of the Queens Arts Express, an annual spring arts festival is packed with arts exhibitions, festive events, and live performances in public spaces throughout neighborhoods clustered along the 7 train route. The MycoMap project is a collaboration between: Strataspore, the Urban Landscape Lab, Sarah Williams of the Spatial Information Design Lab, Anne Yen Illustrator, Erica Schapiro-Sakashita, and Networked Organisms and their Habitats."

click images for more info

“Chance Ecologies,” 2015 (above) is a framework for artistic gestures and research projects exploring the un-designed landscapes and wilderness found in abandoned spaces, post-industrial sites, and landfills. The main trajectories of the project are to create research and discourse around the value of wild spaces in the urban environment; to document, learn from, and commemorate the naturally occurring ecosystems that are being lost to development; and to articulate contemporary readings of and new forms of relating to (urban) wilderness. Chance Ecologies began investigating its first project site, Hunter’s Point South, Queens, in the summer of 2015, with a group of 20 international artists creating research-based arts projects documenting and mapping this site, working with materials on site, and creating photo & video on site.”

“The Environmental Performance Agency’s Multispecies Care Survey,2017 (above)was a public engagement and data gathering initiative meant to provoke and articulate forms of environmental agency that de-center human supremacy and facilitate the co-generation of embodied, localized plant-human care practices. This work was a continuation of the EPA’s work in response to the dismantling of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency under the 2016-2020 presidential administration. With this project, the collective asked for public input: In a time of pandemic crisis, how do we re-value what care means for all living beings? An online survey and series of protocols, as well as facilitated Multispecies Community Care Circles were presented. The data gathered through this survey is meant to work towards drafting a new piece of policy, The Multispecies Act. This Act aims to offer a set of embodied, actionable principles for centering spontaneous urban plant life as one means (among many) of contending with the failure of our environmental regulatory apparatus to deliver policy that protects and values life both human and non-human.”

“Suit Up: Join the Emergent Plantocene Clean-Up,” 2019 (above) was a project and installation for the exhibition The Department of Human and Natural Services at NURTUREart. EPA Embodied Scientist Training was a call to participate in a multispecies coalition of embodied scientists, activists, and spontaneous plants who are re-imagining federal policy and agency in the face of imminent climate crises and mass extinction. In response to the US Environmental Protection Agency’s unprecedented rollback of 75+ federal environmental rules and regulations the EPA Embodied Scientist Training is a call to intimate action! The installation featured a training video, suggested fieldwork scores, and the needed gear and equipment to hit the streets as an EPA agent and gather first hand experience collecting environmental data and performing an emergent Plantocene clean-up.”

Glyphosate is one of the most common herbicides, first developed by chemist Henry Martin in the 1950s for the company Cilag. It was not widely used until 1974 when Monsanto (acquired by Bayer in 2018) brought it to market under the brand name “Roundup.” At Kennedy’s home in Austin, Texas he is woken up daily by the sounds of lawn mowers and ground crews spraying glyphosate on nearby lawns even though there is little vegetation left to manage in the wake of a multi-year drought. Fed up by the lack of “weedy resistance” in his own neighborhood, he created “No War on Plants,” in 2022, as a simple silkscreen print meant to be wheat-pasted along the streets of Austin. The work is a direct commentary on the complexities of industrial agriculture and the petro-chemical companies that feed their continued growth.

Christopher Kennedy is the associate director at the Urban Systems Lab, The New School and lecturer in the Parsons School of Design. Kennedy’s research focuses on the social-ecological benefits of urban plant communities, and the role of civic engagement in developing new approaches to environmental stewardship and nature-based resilience. As artist-designer Kennedy creates site-specific projects that examine conventional notions of “Nature,” interspecies agency, and biocultural collaboration. Drawing from a background in environmental engineering, Kennedy re-imagines field science techniques and new forms of storytelling to develop embodied research, installations, sculptures, and publications that recontextualize social-ecological systems. Kennedy has worked collaboratively on projects shown at the Philadelphia Academy of Fine Arts, the North Carolina Museum of Art, the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, the Levine Museum of the New South, Hudson Valley Center for Contemporary Art, the Ackland Art Museum and the Queens Museum. He holds a BS in Environmental Engineering from RPI, a MA in Environmental Conservation Education from NYU and a PhD in Cultural Studies from the University of North Carolina. www.christopherkennedy.com

Featured images (top to bottom):©Christopher Kennedy, A Field Guide to Mushrooms in New York City, 2012, published in 2014 on ISSUU; Chance Ecologies, 2015, Hunters Point, South Queens; Multispecies Care Survey, 2017, specimens collected in Central Park; Suit Up: Join the Emergent Plantocene Clean-Up, 2019, included in exhibition titled The Department of Human and Natural Services, curated by Mariel Villeré at NURTUREart; No War on Plants, 2022, silkscreen print (free PDF download), Austin Texas, as pictured in Earthkeepers Handbook, published June 2023; Portrait of Artist.

July 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members/Subscribers

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 21:49:26 GMT

July 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Kate Dodd: Remnants Returned to the Public in Beautified Forms

Fri, 30 Jun 2023 20:19:11 GMT

“Overbooked,” New Jersey, Kate Dodd

Remnants Returned to the Public in Beautified Forms: Kate Dodd's Upcycling Installation Project

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Kate Dodd fights waste with ideas manifested into public installations. Whether the work is discarded paper and books transformed into interactive and dynamic biomimicking structures or additions to natural environments, it is community-oriented. Through subtle metaphor, she challenges her audience to open their perspective on both their surroundings and histories. Her work is currently exhibited at the Bay Ridge public art exhibition in Brooklyn, NYC until the 11th of July.

“Through an Ecological Lens”, Bay Ridge, 73rd Street Public Library, Brooklyn, NYC, Kate Dodd

Kate, I admire your resourcefulness. When I see the materials that you use in your work, I think of the remnants of processed natural materials that are integrated into urban landscapes (books, packaging, etc). What is it about the materials you choose and how people interact with waste materials that influence your practice most?

I have always had a tremendous fascination with materials and making. So when I see materials being disposed of without much thought, whether in the trash stream or as individual bits of litter, I see both treasure and mistreatment, and feel an immediate need to resurrect the neglected and disrespected. These resurrections stand as a metaphor for people as well, but this is much easier to do with discarded materials. I want people to see their surroundings more fully and to sensitize them to their actions and relationships with both humans and materials.

I choose to work with paper based products, as opposed to plastic. This is something I have been learning about the last few years. As indestructible as plastic is, it is highly decay-able, which presents certain problems when using this material outdoors. Paper, on the other hand, is an instant indoor material, and infinitely flexible.

“Through an Ecological Lens,” Bay Ridge, 73rd Street Public Library, Brooklyn, NYC, Kate Dodd

Like the paper installation in Bay Ridge where you integrate the local community into your process of creative development. What has been most rewarding and challenging about working with the community your work is serving?

Diversity of interactions and reactions, getting to understand a community more intimately, breaking down my own cynicism about the possibility of people working together, have been some of the top benefits. When you work with a community, you get to be a part of it, and feeling part of a community is a joyous thing. Working with a specific landscape - in this case, a community of trees - brings similar joy on every level.

As far as challenges go, communicating with a wide array of people is complicated. It can be hard to know who to reach out to, how to motivate people to respond, and accepting interpretations of directions that are different from your own interpretations. These are the same concerns that come with many jobs.

“Through an Ecological Lens,” Bay Ridge, 73rd Street Public Library, Brooklyn, NYC, Kate Dodd

And you seem to account for ideas and perspectives through creative writing as both content and tool. What effect are you able to achieve when using text as a structural visual format?

The text I incorporate is often “factual”, content from reference materials, or former sources of “truth”. I’m interested in how much reference sources reveal about the cultural context of their time, often in striking contrast to contemporary understanding of the same issues. We question how much we value information when the information is revealed to be biased at best.

“Before Brick City,” cut paper installation, 800’ long commercial window space, Kate Dodd

So, you use text-as-structure to serve the purpose of revealing untold stories. One way you do this through the installation in Bay Ridge is by building books for visitors to interact with. What are you mindful of when choosing what to share and how?

I often look for words or phrases that reveal contradictions or open holes between my experience and the experience being presented in the text. Because the text I incorporate is often out of order or missing words, the remaining text allows for innuendo, assumption, and hybrid concepts. The use of text also reflects themes of internal thought and experience that each individual gathers, stores, digests, transforms, and then might put back into the world as a consumer of written content. I like leaving room in the gaps for the reader to fill. Like a mad lib in a way.

“Free Verse,”,10’ x 20’ x 20’, printed vinyl on cut polycarbonate, Redwood City Public Library Children’s Room, Kate Dodd

I used to love mad libs! It is inspiring how you are using these implied metaphors. What struck me in a description of another found-object installation (Boxes & boxes) is your description: “building with these materials adds to my understanding of evolution; many small parts that are propelled by some sort of life force to combine and grow. I think of each installation as a landscape, or an ecosystem, each material with a specific role to play.” What role do ecological themes play in your upcycling process?

I seem to perpetually try to create the illusion of life and movement with inanimate objects. The beauty that is basic to movement is missing in objects. Some part of me always wants to redeem these "dumb", but innocent objects and lift them into a more beautiful and dynamic place.

I also see the illusion of movement as an indicator of the unavoidable presence and future impact of producing so much waste. When I can create these illusions out of disposable products, it’s an attempt to control the uncontrollable, to orchestrate or redirect the impending disaster of accumulated waste that I’m constantly aware of.

“Flotation Device Series,” Seagull Rock, Kate Dodd

And waste is not only an urban problem! Your practice approaches this through public art installations and interventions in more rural natural environments (ex. Flotation device series, Ebb & Flow: Claim it). How does your process change when working creating “landscapes” in urban environments versus exploring the human-hand in natural environments? Does your audience approach your work differently?

Generally speaking, people are more protective and less welcoming of interventions in non-urban settings. While I'm not aware of approaching my audience differently, one of the main things that seems to impact the reception of my work is the audience’s sense of territoriality and familiarity. If the site I’m working with has less visible human interaction, aka what we think of as nature, then I may get a more visceral, and negative reaction. The other inhabitants of that space have a more fixed idea of what a disruption looks like, even though they themselves may be having greater impact on the given site than my artwork does. In some ways, city dwellers are used to having public institutions, such as libraries and parks, host a variety of interventions. And in urban settings, where there is often a tremendous amount going on, viewers might feel more free to ignore you, or see public space as less pure than nature, so new things are absorbed more readily.

"False Spring," 10’ x 16’ x 11’, plastic bottles, plastic netting, Baird Community Center, South Orange, New Jersey, Kate Dodd

Thank you, Kate!

Notes on Art and Spatial Justice by Sarah Kanouse

Tue, 27 Jun 2023 16:25:09 GMT

Moraine/Terminal outdoor classroom for “Over the Levee, Under the Plow,” a mobile seminar co-organized by Nicholas Brown, Ryan Griffis and Sarah Kanouse. Gathering space features banners by Dylan A.T. Miner (Metis) and a desk and library by Jon Lund, 2019.

Notes on Art and Spatial Justice

What does spatial justice look like, affirmatively - not just as the absence of injustice?

by Sarah Kanouse

This question has been ever-present for me in the past year as I’ve been on sabbatical, freed from the daily academic tasks of teaching and service to reflect on past work and plant new creative seeds. I’ve also facilitated a reading group on the concept of spatial justice for faculty across art, architecture, and law whose guiding principle has been this implicit question. It asks for a grounded definition of spatial justice, one rooted in practice as well as theory, in vision as well as critique. It asks for a utopian mode, one that academics are generally disinclined to indulge. Our reading group usually demurred from offering an affirmative vision of justice, preferring to sculpt in relief – chiseling out the injustice – rather than build with clay, shaping the moist, resistant stuff of the world into something between vision, affordance, and capability. I use these sculptural metaphors intentionally: a year’s worth of meetings on spatial justice has convinced me that art has a lot to offer in both envisioning and pursuing spatial justice.

The concept of spatial justice has intellectual roots in a particular academic tradition: Marxism as adopted since the 1960s by mostly British and American academic geographers trying to make sense of the radically “uneven development” (to borrow the title from Neil Smith’s influential book) evident in both the cities of the metropole and between the metropole and its (post-) colonies under conditions of “late” capitalism. A younger generation of Indigenous activist geographers have both used and critiqued this tradition to speak to the settler colonial dimensions of capitalist spatiality, but academic conversations around spatial justice remain boxed in by what anthropologist Elizabeth Povinelli calls “settler liberalism:” the seemingly transparent and rules-based system of settler sovereignty whose asymmetrically violent outcomes can only be critiqued and/or ameliorated, but never in ways that challenge that sovereignty. However, the foundational injustice of the Anglophone settler colonies stems from the unjust occupation and expropriation of land–an occupation underwritten by the presence of non-Native people, including those who may themselves be oppressed, exploited, or historically denied personhood to begin with. True spatial justice–including for those whose very presence sustains the system which exploits us–cannot be achieved without the restoration of governance by enduring Indigenous principles, with the leadership of Indigenous people.

Beyond such general statements, a decolonial vision of spatial justice is hard to articulate and even harder to achieve. Five hundred years of colonization cannot be simply rolled back like a soiled carpet to reveal an intact “Indigenous system of governance” ready for a quick sand-and-polish. Such a unified system never existed – and wanting to implement one “at scale” may be just another way of “seeing like a [settler]” state,” to channel James C. Scott. Moreover, settler colonialism and racial capitalism are world-making and subject-making enterprises: there is no outside, or above, or below. They have done such incalculable and intentional damage to the existence of other ways of feeling, sensing, thinking, and being that many of the concepts available to organize against them are entangled to some degree. But because they are encoded, however ambivalently, in who we understand ourselves to be, the tools by which subjectivity is sculpted and expressed–art, music, literature, ritual–are indispensable to both the articulation and pursuit of spatial justice.

“Beyond Property” prompt cards and artists book by Sarah Kanouse for “Over the Levee, Under the Plow: an experiential curriculum, co-organized by Kanouse and Ryan Griffis, 2019-2021.

Subjectivity in the Western liberal tradition is structured around the various forms of property that arose with the modern era and are entangled with the origins of capitalism. As a primary means of mediating social relations, property divides the world into subjects and objects: subjects who have rights and objects that (largely) do not. Historically, those classified as legal or potential property - enslaved African and Native people–formed the constitutive outside of the liberal subject and, indeed, of humanity itself. The liberal subject’s political rights were initially contingent on holding property in land; later, this proprietary requirement expanded to include “property in oneself” (e.g. not being indentured or enslaved or, for many centuries, female). Enforcing private property regimes on Indigenous territory served both as a mechanism of land seizure and means of assimilation, and adopting individual ownership models (or pretending to) was at various moments a precondition for the limited forms of political recognition extended by the liberal state. Yet even though chattel slavery and Native dispossession are rightly decried by today’s adherents to the liberal political tradition, political and subjectivity is still expressed and often experienced as what C.B. McPherson classically termed “possessive individualism.” The individual artist developing a signature style that both differentiates and unifies their work to appeal to collectors exemplifies the operations of proprietary individualism in the arts. However, the model is capacious enough to include artists (like myself) differentiated as much by the critical insights we offer as the objects we produce. Under settler liberalism, property–in its many and shifting forms–has become the relation that structures all other relations, the primary means of self- and community actualization, the dominant way of relating to self and world.

Holding liberalism to its aspirational values has helped to move ever more entities from the ‘object’ to the ‘subject’ side of the ledger, and increasingly immaterial forms of “proprietary interest” allow newly acknowledged subjects to exercise agency, as the “rights of nature” movement is attempting to do. For an Indigenous tribe to successfully sue for the return of land lost through treaty abrogation, for a Black family dispossessed by urban renewal to receive compensation, for a court to recognize a river’s possessive interest in remaining unpolluted–these are stunning victories for spatial justice within the paradigm of the liberal settler state. And yet they also shore up property and proprietary liberalism as solutions to the problems they created, a colonial tautology that gets us ever further from the vision of the settler state’s eventual replacement with a system of governance based on enduring Indigenous principles, under the leadership of Indigenous people.

Such a vision cannot be crafted only by artists, particularly artists as recognized within settler liberalism. But we are skilled in crafting aesthetic experiences where recognition and, alternatively, disidentification are possible. By making public our efforts to disentangle from proprietary subjectivity–particularly through relational accountability and active engagement with Indigenous leadership–we can contribute to a broader cultural shift. Moreover, my conversations with social-justice academics and movement-based activists over the last year have convinced me that art and artists have something to offer beyond the vague (if essential) work of “imagining otherwise” or “shifting the narrative.” By both training and orientation, we understand that tools shape both process and outcome: they make worlds while meeting goals. This insight is as true for the tools of law, activism, and policy as it is for more conventional creative tools. Thinking both reflexively and improvisationally about methods allows us to respond to the world that our actions are shaping, not just to the one we seek to replace.

Some of the most visionary and effective projects advancing decolonial visions of spatial justice have been developed as community-focused collaborations involving lawyers, activists, artists and culture bearers. Programs, like the Oakland, CA-based Shuumi, ask non-Indigenous people to pay a voluntary “tax” to Indigenous-led organizations as a means of recognizing Native sovereignty and building capacity for land rematriation. Although legible within the settler-colonial framework of property taxes, the contributions also reflect the payment of tribute as a form of sovereign recognition, as practiced by many tribes prior to colonization. At least a half-dozen similar programs have launched across the United States. New community land trusts are forming that return land to Indigenous control while also meeting the needs of diverse communities for food and housing. Recognizing that Indigenous stewardship is the most effective means of environmental protection, property owners are donating land to Native-led land trusts at ever-greater numbers; such transfers are an opportunity to write into the title deed language acknowledging the colonial dimensions of ownership while taking them off the speculative real estate market forever. Other individuals and nonprofits are creatively using the “easements” of settler property law to permanently safeguard Indigenous stewardship and access to culturally significant landscapes. In Washington, a new spirit easement campaign asks property owners to permanently codify a welcome to the spirits of Indigenous Methow ancestors with the Registrar of Deeds. While this particular easement appears largely symbolic, it reflects a broader collective effort to sustain other ways of living in and with the land, incommensurable with Western cosmology. These and other efforts may not “look like” art in the traditional sense (indeed, they might look more like a title search), but they get us involved in the messy, halting, uncertain work of aligning the systems that govern of our lives with a broader, decolonial vision of justice.

“Ecologies of Acknowledgment” letterpress print with text by Nicholas Brown, Sarah Kanouse and Elizabeth Solomon (Massachusetts), printed at Huskiana Press by David Medina, 2019.

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Member Spotlight l Kellie Bornhoft

Mon, 26 Jun 2023 14:36:44 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 26, 2023

This week we recognize Kellie Bornhoft Kellie Bornhoft, and her multimedia work exploring climate change and its effects on the natural environment.

From Here to There as Place (Readings from Alexander Wilson), 2015(above)is a single channel video recorded from the inside of a car driving on the Blue Ridge Parkway between Tennessee and North Carolina. This work layers footage taken from multiple passenger. Some of the clips are reversed and the duration is altered. During the drive the narrator reads sections from Alexander Wilson's book "The Culture of Nature" that reference the controversial construction of the road.

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Burnishings, 2018-ongoing (above) is a series of drawings made with forest fire burned bark as charcoal. The process involves visiting public lands scarred by fire and collecting small bits of charcoal. As Bornhoft travels to any public land thereafter, she identifies native species of trees and rubs the found charcoal across the paper placed up against the tree’s bark. The work is about reciprocity and touch in spaces otherwise driven by narratives of preservation and “leave no trace”. The work seeks intimacy and tangibility with the hopes of fertilizing and caring for native species in these spaces. Dust and bits of charcoal drop to the base of the tree as a sort of good-will offering. As the “public” stewarding these lands, she is curious about individual responsibility within one’s environment and rejecting estranged colonial ideologies.

Shifting Landscapes: Static Bounds (above), published in 2019, is a field guide that brings into question what it means to preserve a landscape for “the enjoyment of future generations,” when climactic forecasts predict that those generations will be fighting just to survive on this melting planet. The two notions cannot coincide in one narrative. Public lands drew Bornhoft in because of the myths imposed on them: myths of preserving an inhuman wilderness, myths of innocence in the histories of their conquering, and myths of their stability amidst a warming planet. The book accumulates field notes, images, and a de-territorialized mapping system to locate the reader within the traversed time and space.

By a Thread, 2023 (above) is a celebration of the Endangered Species Act, the most effective environmental legislation for the past 50 years. Though few animals have been delisted, most species avoided extinction because of the legal protection. This collection of drawn plants and animals depicts every species ever federally listed as endangered under the ESA that resides or resided within a 30-mile radius of my studio on the unceded territory of the Muwekma Ohlone Tribe. Viewers are invited to gently sift through and touch the banners. The accompanying guide can assist in identifying species throughout the installation. The photographs referenced for the illustrations are sourced from the Creative Commons and often taken by citizen scientists. This guide credits the source image photographers with gratitude. The ESA has a history of embracing citizen science by allowing anyone to petition to list a species to the Fish and Wildlife Service. The illustrations were returned to the Creative Commons to increase accessibility and aid further study.

Bornhoft's most recent installation titled Tremors, 2023 (below) presented six speakers buried beneath one ton of sand, which amplifies a live seismic activity. Using an open-source ObsPy code and a Max patcher, the work synthesizes local seismic data into a sound wave that spatially varies between the six speakers. Viewers are invited to traverse the mound to feel the low grumbling vibrations of magnified Earth movements. Small porcelain rocks are mixed into the locally sourced sand. Installed with the work is a two-channel video. As a chance-operation poem, words borrowed from geology texts loop on each monitor at differing speeds to create an endless cycle of combinations. The intention is to bridge one’s understanding of how their presence on this moving-shaking planet is in flux—that the ground we think is static shifts beneath our feet.

Kellie Bornhoft's (she/her) practice seeks tangible and poetic narratives needed in an ever-warming climate. Bornhoft utilizes sculpture, installation and video to delve into the whelms and quotidian experiences of our precarious times. Scientific data and news headlines do plenty to evince the state of our warming planet, but the abject realities of such facts are hard to possess. Through geological and more-than-human lenses, Bornhoft sifts through shallow dichotomies (such as natural/unnatural, here/there, or animate/inanimate.) Bornhoft is currently working in the Bay Area of California. She holds a MFA in Sculpture + Expanded Media from Ohio State University and a BFA from Watkins College of Art and Design. Bornhoft’s work has been exhibited internationally in museums, galleries and film festivals such as the Contemporary Art Museum in Raleigh, North Carolina, Kulturanker in Magdeburg, Germany, and the Athens International Film and Video Festival. Bornhoft’s work has been reviewed in many publications including Frieze Magazine, Burnaway, INDYweek and ArtsATL. www.kelliebornhoft.com

Featured images (top to bottom):©Kellie Bornhoft, From Here to There as Place (Readings from Alexander Wilson), 2015,single channel video, 4 min 31 sec; Burnishings, 2018-Ongoing, charcoal on paper, 200+ 11” x 14” drawings, dimensions variable (about 20’ x 9’ in the depicted installation); Boundless Sediments, 2020-2021, Two-Channel video, 11:53, plaster, TVs, speakers, wood, foam, and pigment; By a Thread, 2023, digital print on voile fabric, wood, 3D printed hardware; Tremors, 2023, speakers, amplifier, monitors, sand, porcelain, Python/ObsPy code, Max patcher, and cables; Portrait or Artist.

Member Spotlight l Anne Krinsky

Mon, 19 Jun 2023 14:50:13 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 19, 2023

This week we recognize Anne Krinsky Anne Krinsky based in London, whose art practice, after twenty-five years turned to investigations of natural and man-made environments in 2017, created from archival and geographical research.

“Tide Line Thames,” 2016 (above) was a two-year project supported by Arts Council England, investigating the shifting riverscape and its architectural structures between high and low tide lines. The Thames in London, contained by high river walls, has a tidal range of up to seven metres. Krinsky exhibited the project's first phase of photographs, paintings, digital scrolls and projections at Thames-Side Studios Gallery, for Totally Thames.”

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“Tropical Thames,” 2017 (above) was an installation of eight large-scale digital prints on Dibond Aluminium panels, and was inspired by Thames architectural structures in southeast London– docks, piers and river walls shaped by centuries of shipping and trade. "Tropical Thames" also responded to the Garden's dramatic roof structure, designed by Foster and Partners, and to its plantings, some of which were species that first entered Britain through Thames docks. Designing the installation involved some time travel, to London’s trading past and to its potential future. In making this work, Krinsky thought about the urgent issue of climate change and the effects of rising temperatures and sea levels on the tidal river.

Krinsky created “The Ephemera Scrolls,” 2019 (above) in St. Augustine’s Tower in the London Borough of Hackney for the show Reading Stones. Artists were invited to make works in response to the history and architecture of Hackney’s oldest building, a 13th century clocktower. Through their respective interests in the land, the body and the cosmos, they explored relationships between time and materiality, on four floors of the Tower. Krinsky incorporated ten photographs she had taken of the River Naab in Bavaria in 2019, during the hottest June on record, part of her project documenting vulnerable wetlands and climate change.

“Anne Krinsky: Wetlands/Shifting Shorelines,” 2021-2022 (above) was an outdoor print exhibition inspired by vulnerable South Coast wetlands she photographed in 2020 and 2021. It was on view for six months at The Seafront Gallery on Worthing’s Promenade. Krinsky worked with projection, photography and digital print to design this series of 16 prints, in a range of river and coastal locations including Lymington, Keyhaven and Chichester, Pagham and Portsmouth harbors. Krinsky stated "It’s heartbreaking to see the overgrowth of algae, from agricultural runoff and dumping of sewage, that is engulfing South Coast wetlands." Information panels about Bird Aware Solent, The Solent Oyster Restoration Project and The Sussex Kelp Restoration Project were presented.

In November and December of 2022, Krinsky was a Visiting Artist-in-Residence at 18th Street Art Center in Santa Monica, where she undertook a period of research investigating the wetlands on the Los Angeles River Corridor and the Southern California Coast. A concrete channel built by the Army Corp of Engineers in 1938, confined the Los Angeles River for flood control, which chuted the water to the Pacific Ocean and wasting it for any ecological or agricultural purpose along the way. The river is flanked by highways, warehouses and railways and the anthrophonic sounds surrounding it are jarring. Krinksy made a series of video clips to document this urban interface with nature.

Anne Krinsky is a London-based artist, born in the United States. In her practice she combines painting, print, photography and projection with archival and geographical research, to investigate overlooked structures in natural and man-made environments. Krinsky is fascinated by the passage of time and the ephemeral nature of the physical world. She exhibited her first project with a UK archive, From Absorb to Zoom: An Alphabet of Actions in the Women’s Art Library, at Goldsmiths University of London in 2015. Since then, she has made mutliple installations in response to archived collections in the United States, United Kingdom and India. Anne Krinsky is the recipient of multiple grants, including an Artists International Development Fund Grant, Arts Council England Developing Your Creative Practice Grant, two Artist Bursaries from a-n The Artists Information Company and two Arts Council England Grants for the Arts. The British Museum, Boston Public Library, American collector Graham Gund and Paintings in Hospitals England, have purchased her works, as have numerous corporate and private collectors on both sides of the Atlantic. www.annekrinsky.com

Featured images (top to bottom):©Anne Krinsky, Tide Line Thames 2016, River Walls, acrylic & collage on aluminum panels, 135 x 100 cm / 53 x 39 inches; Tropical Thames 2017, Sea Change / Seeing Double, Digital Prints on Dibond Aluminium. Tropical Thames in Crossrail Place Roof Garden, Canary Wharf, London; The Ephemera Scrolls 2019, St. Augustine’s Tower Hackney, London, 10 Archival Digital Prints on Platinum Etching Paper. Each scroll: 200 x 60 cm / 79 x 24 inches; Wetlands/ Shifting Shorelines 2021-2022, Worthing Seafront Gallery UK, Sea Kale 1, Digital Print on Dibond Aluminium Panel, 90 x 90 cm / 35.5 x 35.5 inches; Los Angeles Wetlands, video clips taken during Artist in Residence at 18th Street Art Center, Santa Monica, California, fall 2022; Artist Portrait.

Can Art Change Attitudes Toward Climate Change? featuring Diane Burko via Hyperallergic

Tue, 13 Jun 2023 14:29:46 GMT

Can Art Change Attitudes Toward Climate Change?

A study found that people who viewed climate data in the form of an artwork were less likely to lean on their preconceived notions.

Elaine Velie 17 hours ago via Hyperallergic

A new study found that using art to convey environmental data eased political perceptions about climate change. As wildfires rage in Canada and New York City recovers from a week of smoke, the study’s findings could help scientists more effectively communicate their research at a pivotal point in the future of the planet.

Nan Li, Isabel I. Villanueva, Thomas Jilk, and Dominique Brossard of the University of Wisconsinand Brianna Rae Van Matre of the nonprofit EcoAgriculture Partners conducted the research, published May 31 in the journal Communications Earth & Environment. Li conceptualized the project two years ago when she heard artist Diane Burko speak during a webinar; the artist, whose practice centers on climate change, was pondering the real-world impact of her work.

Burko depicts the consequences of Earth’s warming atmosphere, such as melting glaciers and disappearing coral reefs, and often accompanies them with scientific maps and charts. Li and her colleague Dominique Brossard developed a study to answer Burko’s question — how does the artist’s work affect its viewers? The team chose Burko’s 2020 mixed-media work “SUMMER HEAT, I and II.” The graph at the lower left depicts the Keeling Curve, a visualization of the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere since 1958. The blue represents melting glaciers, and the red figure is Europe, which suffered an intense heat wave in 2020 when Burko created the work.

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Member Spotlight l Aline Mare

Mon, 12 Jun 2023 15:46:39 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 12, 2023

This week we recognize Aline Mare, and her early performance art, film, photography and current multimedia works exploring organic interpretations of nature and the human experience.

In the early days of her art practice Mare did a series of performance art pieces, dealing with the psyche of the female body. In these works she used a variety of mediums such as multimedia film, video and slide performances and installations. These works were shown in New York City, San Francisco, and Europe. The image above is of one of these performances titled “I will be,” a solo performance at P space in San Francisco in 1991.

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“S’aline’s Solution” 1991 is a video Mare made many years ago, when she was 40 years old, as a testament to the painful yet powerful right of women to choose. She wanted to find a voice for the pain, an acknowledgment of the courage involved in choosing to have an abortion- a voice she felt had been silenced in our culture. The saline procedure is induced at the end of the first trimester with a local anesthesia of 200 milligrams of hypertonic saline solution. It is a fairly traumatic birthing process which includes dilation, contractions and a chemically induced early labor. It is an especially difficult procedure, an experience which she understood first hand. The video was greeted with much controversy. Many women felt Mare had played into the hands of the Right, appropriating “Back to Life'' imagery and humanizing the embryo. However she believes the piece stands up on its own as an emblematic statement about an issue that remains central and vital in these dangerous times: a woman’s right to choose.

“A series of large fragmented images of young boys (Beautiful Boys 2006-2007, above) on the cusp of manhood, inspired by the fleeting beauty of my own son and his circle of friends in their thirteenth year. They are shot as they float on a bed of water, their spontaneity and vulnerability exposed in a moment of unconscious beauty.”

“Requiem: Aching for Acker” 2018 (below) is a body of work that was directly inspired by Requiem, the last piece of writing by counterculture writer Kathy Acker, a friend of hers – on and off – for decades. It was published as the final part of an opera,Eurydice in the Underworld, by Arcadia Books in London in 1997. A risk-taker and literary outlaw, Acker was a hybrid of punk, postmodernism, feminism, and critical theory in her public identity as well as in her literary works. She died of breast cancer on November 30, 1997 at the age of 53, after a double mastectomy and turning her back on Western medicine. Mare was deeply moved to be a close friend to her in her final days. InRequiem: Aching for Acker, she was looking for a vision to match the feelings: the loss and the power she felt reading her last published book. Something that would remind the world of her power as a creative female force of nature – her self-mythologizing as a form of empowerment and vulnerability. To marry the past and the present in an evocative body of work that speaks to the universality of the path we must all take: the path to the underworld.”

Most recently Mare has created different collections of artworks of which she calls "Psychic Landscapes." In these works she explores a variety of different themes, some of which connect to ideas seen in her earlier works considering the human body. She has also moved into exploring elements of the natural world in a series titled "Cacophony of Change: Extreme Conditions," that deals with storm water basins in the extreme climate conditions in Southern California after record-setting rainfall in the last year. One example is HA (at Hahamongna Watershed), 2023 (below), from her most recent series “Dangerous Landscapes” that synthesizes her own history with natural cycles of the earth.

Aline Mare began her career in the Lower East Side of Manhattan, coming out of a background of theatre, experimental film, and installation art. She was an early member of Collaborative Projects, a collective formed in downtown New York City and performed in a multi-media partnership called Erotic Psyche. She completed undergraduate work at SUNY Buffalo’s Center for Media Studies and an MFA from San Francisco Art Institute, where she produced the film Saline’s Solution, a series of installations and performances that dealt with abortion from a feminist point of view, which garnered support and awards internationally, exhibiting at The Cinematheque in SF, The Whitney Museum and the Museum of Modern Art in NYC. She has received several grants and residencies including Fourwinds in Aureille, France, a 2015 Sino-American art tour in Shanghai, Starry Nights in New Mexico, Headlands Center for the Arts, Kala, Film Arts Foundation, New Langton Arts in SF and a New York State Residency for the Arts. She continues to expand her work, concentrating on mixed media and installation, exploring the body and metaphors of nature and its transformative relationship to the human psyche and the state of our planet. New works have been exhibited locally and internationally. www.alinemare.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Aline Mare, I will be, 1991, solo performance at P Space, San Francisco; S’aline’s Solution, 1991, 9 minutes VHS on DVD; from series Beautiful Boys 2006-2007, video and photo-based images; Requiem: Aching for Acker, 2018, bloody glove mixed media on archival board, presented at Beyond Baroque, Mike Kelly Gallery, Los Angeles, California; HA (at Hahamongna Watershed), 2023, mounted mixed media, with mica and bees wax, 24 x 36 inches; Portrait of artist by husband Gary Brewer.

Member Spotlight l Amy Youngs

Mon, 05 Jun 2023 13:58:09 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 5, 2023

This week we recognize Amy Youngs Amy Youngs, and her expansive body of work at the interstices of technology and the natural world for over twenty years.

Cricket Call (above) from 1998, was a technologically-enhanced nature experience attempts to facilitate communication between crickets and humans. The cricket participants live in a glass-walled, human-like environment which, when a human participant is present, includes a televised human on their own scale. For the human, there is a telephone interface which receives the amplified chirping sounds of the actual crickets and sends voice-activated electronic chirping sounds to the crickets.

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"This living sculpture [Farm Fountain 2007-2013, above] is designed to inspire participation in lowering greenhouse gas emissions through personal, local food production. It is a functional chandelier, water fountain, garden and fish farm—all in one interconnected, constructed ecosystem. Based on the concept of aquaponics, this hanging garden fountain uses a pump, along with gravity to flow the nutrients from fish waste through the plant roots." "This project is an experiment in local, sustainable agriculture and recycling. It utilizes 2-liter plastic soda bottles as planters and continuously recycles the water in the system to create a symbiotic relationship between edible plants, fish and humans. The work creates an indoor healthy environment that also provides oxygen and light to the humans working and moving through the space. The sound of water trickling through the plant containers creates a peaceful, relaxing waterfall. The Koi and Tilapia fish that are part of this project also provide a focus for relaxed viewing.”

Live Feedings, 2015-2017 (above) was a live feed webcam located in Young's office at the Ohio State University and broadcasted the activities of composting worms in action. The meals were made of waste foods that worms like—carrot pulp, asparagus ends, coffee grounds, banana peels—on a bedding of shredded newspaper and coco coir. The worm bin was illuminated with infrared light to protect the worms from visible light, which can harm them. Multiple LIVE Feedings occurred over four months, with the worm bin webcam live streaming 24/7.

Becoming Biodiversity, 2019 (above) is an augmented reality application that encourages participants to explore and experience local, ecological networks present in an urban park site. Cell phones and headphones are used to experience this artwork, which includes mixed-reality animations and storytelling as an overlay to the actual park. The experience is an embodied one, designed to connect humans empathetically with the biodiversity, symbioses, and unseen worlds in public park spaces. Fantastic ecologies exist everywhere on earth and at many scales, many of which are invisible to us. Though we mostly ignore and disrespect the non-humans in these networks, our lives depend upon them. This artwork is a guided tour which will allow us to inhabit the worlds of multiple species along the network, allowing them to become visible and “sense-able” to us.”

Grasping Permeability, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, 2019 (below) was a virtual reality installation that invited viewers to interact with images by grasping them with hand controllers. The images were a spatial simulation made from photographs the artist took at Flushing Meadows Corona Park in New York City. The experience was designed to alter the viewer’s sense of self in relation to the hollow virtual skins—the surface representations of place. A ring of phragmites plants provided a semi-permeable layer that could be touched by real and virtual hands.

Amy Youngs creates biological art, interactive sculptures and digital media works that explore interdependencies between technology, plants and animals. Her practice-based research involves entanglements with the non-human, constructing ecosystems, and seeing through the eyes of machines. She has created installations that amplify the sounds and movements of living worms, indoor ecosystems that grow edible plants, a multi-channel interactive video sculpture for a science museum, and community-based, participatory video, social media and public web cam projects. Youngs has exhibited her works nationally and internationally and she has contributed writing to interdisciplinary publications such as Leonardo and the recent book, Robots and Art. Her work has been profiled in books such as Art in Action, and Nature, Creativity & our Collective Future. Youngs received a BA in Art from San Francisco State University and attended the School of the Art Institute of Chicago on a fellowship where she earned an MFA in 1999. In 2001, she joined the faculty at the Ohio State University where she's currently working as an Associate Professor of Art, leading interdisciplinary grant projects and teaching courses in moving image, eco-art, and art/science. hypernatural.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Amy M. Youngs, Cricket Call, 1998, live crickets, plant, custom electronics, amplifier, telephone, video camera, copper, glass, fabric and wood, exhibited 2003-4 in the exhibition Bug-Eyed: Art, Culture, Insects curated by Patricia Watts at Turtle Bay Exploration Park, Redding, California; Farm Fountain, 2007-2013, exhibited at Te Papa, Tongarewa, Wellington, New Zealand, The National Art Museum of China, Beijing, China, Banvard Gallery, Knowlton School of Architecture, Columbus, Ohio, and Kontejner, Bureau of Contemporary Art Practice, Zagreb, Croatia; Live Feeding, 2015-2017, network webcam, live composting worms, plastic bin, food waste, paper waste, infrared light, video; Becoming Biodiversity 2019, exhibited at the New York Electronic Arts Festival, June 1 - August 11, 2019; Grasping Permeability, Flushing Meadows Corona Park, 2019, installation with Phragmites (common reeds), virtual reality experience + wetland particulates on paper; Self portrait of artist.

June 2023 Newsletter for subscribers (non-members)

Thu, 01 Jun 2023 14:45:40 GMT

The ecoartspace June 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member Spotlight I Tali Weinberg

Mon, 29 May 2023 13:21:18 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 29,2023

This week we recognize Tali Weinberg, Tali Weinberg and her art practice merging climate data with textiles.

"While petrochemical pipelines run through the earth, petrochemical-derived medical tubes are pipelines that run through and around our bodies. As the detritus of our human life on land runs downstream and then circulates back through bodies, watersheds are one window into the interdependence of ecological and human health. In the “Drainage Studies,” 2021 (above) temperature data for each of the 18 major river basins in the continental US is materialized as hand-dyed, color-coded cotton and coiled along bundles of medical tubing that are entwined together."

click images for more info

"I translate climate data from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration into abstracted landscapes and waterscapes, materializing the data with plant-derived fibers and dyes and petrochemical-derived medical tubing and fishing line. These woven datascapes and coiled sculptures merge a practice of record keeping with a practice of grieving, and merge an expression of scientific research with an expression of lived experience. This project started in 2015 as an investigation of the mechanisms through which we come to understand climate crises, from data and journalistic narrative to embodied and affective experience."

Bodies on the Line, 2014 (above) draws text from conversations with women activists from the San Francisco Bay Area, Weinberg's home at the time. The quotes used were originally selected in response to an exhibition space in Patterson, New Jersey, a town built on the manufacturing of silk by a labor force of working-class women who put their bodies on the line at work, and in defense of better work. With silk thread on silk organza, the artist hand-stitched fragments of these conversation in order to intertwine the material and labor history of the place with the struggles of contemporary women. In 2016, Weinberg was invited to evolve the project for the Hangzhou Triennial of Fiber Art in Zhejiang Province, China—another city built on the production of silk.

Water Bodies, 2019 (above) is a series of works that interpret annual average temperatures for oceans and lands, hemp-dyed with plant and insect-derived dyes, and petrochemical-derived fishing line. The strands of dyed hemp warp threads color-code 138 years of temperature for the earth’s surface. This materialization of rising temperatures is held together with petrochemical-derived fishing line to create woven patterns that mimic waves. While the fishing line’s reflective quality evokes the glimmering surface of a body of water, the combination of materials and data also suggests the link between climate crisis, extraction of petrochemicals, and the accumulation of toxic plastics in our bodies and ecosystems.

Memories of Future Fires, 2022 (below) is a series that explores forest fires; smoke inhalation; microplastics in our ecosystems, blood, and lungs; and loss of homes past and future. These hand-woven pieces start with photographs which the artist took in a fire-decimated landscape in the Pacific Northwest. She then re-materializes the trees with petrochemical-derived monofilament. In woven form, the trees also reference hearts and lungs as she looks to the connections between life sustaining circulatory systems inside and outside the human body.

Tali Weinberg interweaves petrochemical and plant-derived materials, data, and landscape imagery to draw attention to the harms of ongoing petrochemical extraction, from rising temperatures and species loss to the buildup of toxic plastics in our bodies and ecosystems. Weinberg’s work is held in public and private collections and is exhibited internationally including at the Griffith Art Museum, 21C Museum, Berkeley Art Museum, University of Colorado Art Museum, Georgia Museum of Art, Center for Craft, and Form & Concept gallery. She has been featured in the New York Times, onEarth Magazine, Surface Design Journal, Fiber Art Now, and Ecotone. Honors include an Illinois Artist Fellowship, a Tulsa Artist Fellowship, Serenbe Fellowship, Windgate Fellowship to Vermont Studio Center, Lia Cook Jacquard Residency, SciArt Bridge Residency for cross-disciplinary collaboration, and a virtual residency at New York’s Museum of Art and Design, among others. She has taught at California College of the Arts and Penland School of Craft. www.taliweinberg.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Tali Weinberg, Drainage Study: Clot, 2021, temperature data for 18 major rivers in the continental US, petrochemical-derived medical tubing, organic cotton dyed with plant and insect derived dyes and mineral mordants, 8 x 15 inches; Gilded Valley, 2015, from the “Field Studies” series: Agricultural landscapes woven from California-grown organic cotton dyed with plant dyes and mineral mordants, 18 x 25 inches; Bodies on the Line, 2016, installation for Hangzhou Triennial Of Fiber Art, Zhejiang Art Museum, Hangzhou, China, 10 panels, each 42 in width x 80 in height; Water Bodies (Ocean), 2019, 138 years of annual average temperature for 71 percent of the Earth’s surface (ocean), hemp dyed with plant- and insect-derived dyes, petrochemical-derived fishing line, 35 x 50 inches (photo by Philip Maisel); Lungs, 2022, from Memories of Future Fires series, 86 x 112 inches (photo by Rebecca Heidenberg); Self-portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight I Barbara Boissevain

Mon, 22 May 2023 12:39:30 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 22,2023

This week we recognize Barbara Boissevain Barbara Boissevain, and her work exploring the impacts of human activity on the environment.

In a series of images titled “Ghost Hangar” (above) Boissevain explored how “As caretakers of our environment we are bound to the missteps of our predecessors. Hangar One is an iconic colossal structure that is also the largest Superfund site in Silicon Valley. Rife with controversy, it was recently found to be leaking toxic chemicals into the San Francisco Bay. These aerial shots depict the resulting biological die-off of the wetlands in close proximity to the hangar. The intent of this work is to cultivate awareness and provoke meaningful discourse about environmental stewardship.” click images for more info

“The trees will outlive us,” 2016 (above) explores abandoned human structures as they decay and transform. Through the process of investigating these sites the artist looks for clues alluding to their pasts and imagined how they would be further altered by the passage of time. In post-production, she layers location specific elements highlighting the tension between the present beauty and the future evolution of these relinquished sites. This series began in 2016 when Boissevain began photographing a family farm located on Montauk Highway in Long Island, New York. The farm, homesteaded by her great-grandfather over a century ago, is no longer a working farm. The structures are being consumed by the forest that was there long before my family set foot on Long Island after arriving from Europe. This is an ongoing project and I will be continuing to seek-out and photograph locations undergoing this process of reclamation and transformation.”

Continuing the series “Les Arbres Nous Survivront (The Trees Will Outlive Us),” 2018-2019 (above) during the summers of 2018 and 2019, as an artist-in-residence in France, Boissevain began photographing structures being consumed by forest and forgotten by their former inhabitants (above). These sites include a decommissioned coal factory, a Château in Normandy that was used as a headquarters for the Nazi’s during World War II and an abandoned abbey most recently used as a convalescent home.

"Allégorie du Jardin,” 2022 (above) came about after Boissevain’s time spent living in France. The daily onslaught of disturbing news regarding our environment, combined with living in a place with so many layers of history all around her caused her to think very deeply about our species’ relationship to nature and how we have historically seen ourselves in relation to our environment. Looking for answers in the incredible gardens and parks in Paris where the history of man’s relationship with nature is visible around every corner. Spending hours In the giant historical archive, the library’s collections requested archival prints (hundreds of years old) of the very same parks and gardens she was photographing. She experimented with bringing together the past and present, by compositing archival prints with contemporary photographs of the same subject matter.

One of Boissevain’s most recent projects is a book titled “Salt of the Earth” 2023 (below), focusing on the environment for more than twenty years and highlighting the changes that she witnessed firsthand taking place in our environment. Boissevain remains driven to show the power art has to educate. Her intention with the book is to remind people that positive change is possible. In February and March of this year a kickstarter campaign ran for the production of the book, which will be a 110-page hardcover photo book with over seventy of her color photographs documenting the restoration of the San Francisco Bay's salt ponds back to natural wetlands. In addition to the images, the book will also feature essays by Laura Noble, a London-based art critic and writer, and John Hart, an award-winning environmental journalist. "Salt of the Earth" will raise awareness about the incredible transformation taking place in the San Francisco Bay.

Barbara Boissevain is a visual artist and photographer whose work focuses on the impact of human activity on the environment. The theme of nature’s ability to regenerate and reclaim human altered landscapes is central to her work. Boissevain first studied painting at Parsons School of Design in New York, before immersing herself in photography, earning a B.F.A. from the San Francisco Art Institute and an M.F.A. from San Jose State University. She has exhibited her work widely, including international solo and group exhibitions in the USA and Europe. Her work has been published in a number of publications including Lenscratch and The American Scholar. In 2021 her work was featured on NPR’s “The Picture Show” (in conjunction with the U.N. Climate Change Summit in Glasgow, Scotland) as well as on the PBS News show “Something Beautiful” in 2022. Her art has been acquired by numerous public and private collections around the world, including the Google corporate collection. For seven years, she was an artist in residence with the City of Palo Alto’s Cubberley Artist Studio Program in Palo Alto, California. In 2018 she was awarded an artist-in-residence in France at Galerie Huit in Arles, France (in conjunction with the internationally renowned Les Rencontres de la Photographie Festival). In July of 2022 she was invited to Atelier 11 for a solo residency through L’AiR Arts international residency program in Paris, France.www.barbaraboissevain.com

Featured images (top to bottom): ©Barbara Boissevain, Ghost Hangar series, images primarily shot in Silicon Valley; The trees will outlive us 2016, Long Island NY; Les Arbres Nous Survivront 2018-2019, France; Allégorie du Jardin 2022, France; Salt of the Earth 2023; Portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Maru Garcia

Mon, 15 May 2023 13:58:24 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 5,2023

This week we recognize Maru Garcia Maru Garcia, and her laboratory and fieldwork practice exploring organic matter.

Ground Dwellers, 2015 (above) is a group of bio-art in Petri dishes that incorporates a collection of microorganisms present in the soil where corn is cultivated. Corn is Mexico’s staple and single, most important nutrition source. The conservation of these micro-ecosystems assures future corn production, innovation in fertilizer creation and biological pest control. The collection of species was obtained by the researchers at CNRG (National Center of Genetic Resources). This is a government institution that is committed to obtaining, characterizing and preserving species important for Mexico’s biodiversity.”

click images for more info

Vivarium, 2018 (above) is a performance piece that “studies the interactions within an ecosystem, from the movement of matter and energy to the community created by the living and nonliving organisms. This network of interactions is captured in the macroscopic and microscopic level over time, as an attempt to scale what it means to be part of a larger ecosystem: the Earth. For Vivarium I, the artist shared a marine ecosystem in the coasts of California in a space of 6 hours, engaging with the environment and living organisms that surrounded her.”

Playground, 2019 (above) “is a multimedia installation that looks in a critical point of view the situation of South East Los Angeles, where massive contamination of lead occurred due to irresponsible practices of a car battery recycling facility. Being lead a dangerous substance, particularly affecting the cognitive development of children, Playground offers the viewer the possibility to play with the soil in a protected environment. The playful interactivity of the piece is captured by a live projection, confronting the experience with the reality of people affected by this problem.”

Speaking on the lead contamination in South East LA, Garcia created Vacuoles: Bioremediating Cultures, 2019 (above) an installation of 29 ceramic pieces that contained lead contaminated soil from south east LA. “This project resulted from research into an environmental and social crisis specific to South East LA, where thousands of families face severe lead contamination in land affected by a company recycling car batteries. As part of the research, soil samples were collected and encapsulated in oval shape ceramic pieces. This artwork responded to some plants’ bioremediating action in their vacuoles, where they absorb the lead and encapsulate it in these cellular organelles. The work is presented as an interactive installation, and the “vacuoles” represent the 29 most contaminated parks, schools, or childcare centers in South East LA. The viewers can walk around these vacuoles and think about themselves as “bioremediating organisms.” Their image is projected on the wall as they move around the space, resembling a Petri dish or a microscopic view. This is an invitation to exercise our possibility to act as remediators instead of exploiters.”

Garcia's most recent and ongoing project is titled Prospering Backyards (below). It “is a project that uses the power of art, science, and community to address the severe case of lead contamination in the soil caused by Exide Technologies in areas of East Los Angeles, Boyle Heights, Vernon, Commerce, Maywood, Huntington Park, and Bell. This is a collaborative scientific research between community scientists from the affected community, artists, activists, and scientists, to develop an alternative method for reducing lead exposure in contaminated backyards while considering the health of the soil and the environment.”

Maru Garcia combines laboratory and fieldwork tools from her background in plant chemistry and the pharmaceutical industry. Her use of media includes research, installations, performance, sculpture, and video, usually with the presence of organic matter to help understand the biological processes occurring in complex systems. She has participated in conferences, solo and group exhibitions in North America, Europe, and Asia. Garcia was an artist in residence in the National Center of Genetic Resources in Mexico and has received awards from the New York Foundation for the Arts ‘Anonymous Was a Woman Environmental Art Grant’, the California Environmental Protection Agency (CalEPA) Environmental Justice Grant, the California Arts Council, Los Angeles Sustainability Collaborative, Clifton Webb Scholarship for the Arts, and Fundación Jumex. She collaborated with the Art-Sci Center and Counterforce Lab at UCLA and was a 2020- 2021 Sci-Art Ambassador for Supercollider. Garcia worked at the Getty Research Institute in the 2019-2020 Scholar program titled “Art and Ecology” and was a 2021-2022 artist in residence at 18th Street Arts Center. Currently, she's a Getty Foundation grant recipient for the exhibition “Sink: places we call home” with Self Help Graphics & Art, to be presented in the Pacific Standard Time Art x Science x LA in 2024. She is an Associate Research Scientist in Mineral Sciences at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County and founder of Biomedia Studio and Prospering Backyards. Garcia holds an MFA in Design & Media Arts from UCLA as well as an MS in Biotechnology and a BS in Chemistry both from Tecnológico de Monterrey, México. www.marugarciastudio.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Maru Garcia, Ground dwellers series 2015, images primarily shot in Mexico, photographer Tania Lara; Vivarium performance video 2018, California; Playground, 2019; Membrane tensions 2021, scoby and bacteria in glass container, Los Angeles Municipal Art Gallery; Prospering backgrounds ongoing, taking place in Boyle Heights, East Los Angeles, South East LA; Portrait of the artist.

Basia Irland: Repositories BOOK LAUNCH

Sat, 13 May 2023 00:04:42 GMT

Over the last year, ecoartspace founder Patricia Watts worked closely with rivers artist Basia Irland to present her Repositories, portable sculptures created during her waterway journeys, as a monograph. Irland's objects reveal rich stories of rivers through her collections of water data, watershed maps, artworks, plants, and seeds. The artist invites you to take this book with you to the river!

Repositories was printed in March 2023 and made available in our store mid-April. It consists of 152 pages, 80 color images, and 11 unique site maps. This is an ecoartspace publication, the first in a compilation of monographs on single series by ecological artists. An edition of 300, the book is hardbound with case binding, smyth sewn signatures and FSC paper. It was design by Graeme Walker in the UK. Preface & main text are by Patricia Watts and the foreword by Sandra Postel, Director of the Global Water Policy Project & 2021 Stockholm Water Prize Laureate.

REPOSITORIES takes us on a series of ecoconscious journeys with an artist who has been intimate with many waterways, and the people, flora and fauna living along them. For over twenty years, Basia Irland has been working with scientists, students, activists and Tribal members along waterways across the US and Canada. With her ongoing art practice to create a deep and meaningful engagement with living bodies of water, the construction of Repositories emerged as a methodology for archiving documentation of research and physical engagements during Irland's riparian journeys.

Irland has journeyed throughout international watersheds and along entire lengths of rivers during her epic durational Gathering of Waters projects. She is an artist, Fulbright Scholar, author, and activist who creates global community-based water projects featured in her books, “Water Library” (UNM Press, 2007) and “Reading the River, The Ecological Activist Art of Basia Irland” (Museum De Domijnen, The Netherlands, 2017). Irland is Professor Emerita, Department of Art, UNM, where she founded the Art & Ecology Program. She has written for National Geographic; had a large retrospective in the Netherlands; been invited to represent the United States in the Bienal de Cuenca, Ecuador; and has been featured in over 70 international publications.

Purchase your copy here

Member Spotlight I Jaanika Peerna

Mon, 01 May 2023 16:32:46 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 1,2023

This week we recognize Jaanika Peerna, and her drawing, installation, and performance practice for over twenty years.

"I create drawings, installations and situations. My elements are line and water; my materials pencils, vellum and time. I am a vessel gathering subtle and rapturous processes in nature, using experiences and impulses to make my work. I capture ice turning into water. I let gravity of the melting ice dissolve drawn lines. I swim through thousands of layers of gray air and mark each one down. Some of my work is born in the solitude of my studio. But often participatory performances, such as my "Glacier Elegies" project, draw me out from the safe silence of my studio and expand my practice with sound, movement, and chance. With these public performances I make a space for people to co-create and then witness collectively the loss of what has just been created—not unlike humankind who is currently witnessing the loss of vast amounts of glacial ice. The question I ask to the audience often is: What would you do if you were handed the last piece of natural ice on Earth?”

click images for more info

"Whether in her large-scale gesture drawings on Mylar that become expansive installations, her smaller sculptural pieces that become receptacles for delicate inscriptions of light, or her videos and performances, at the core of Peerna’s work is a concern for the embodied, sensorially engaged subject in dynamic relation to the spatial and material world. By drawing attention to the evanescent experiential qualities of light, shadow, and movement, Peerna’s work operates with the subtle force of a slowly rising tide – first by awakening the senses, and then, gradually, by delivering insights only a mind deeply in touch with its body is prepared to receive." Taney Roniger, catalog essay, Kentler International Drawing Space, Brooklyn, NY, January 2015

Peerna’s work has always been fueled by the forces of nature but since 2017 the artist has taken on more specific approach to address the climate breakdown we are all surrounded with. Ever since she was a little girl dreaming of becoming an Olympic figure skater, ice has been close and dear to her: its toughness, transparency, beauty as well as fragility. As we are witnessing a massive and furious melting speed of glaciers in polar regions these past decades Peerna has been looking for ways to face the facts, heal the soul as well as act an an artist in order to help slow the destruction down.

Her Glacier Elegy projects (above) consist of exhibition-size installations and live drawing performances where at first a large drawing is made with audience participation and then melted with blocks of ice. The audience is included in a collective experience of creating something only to be literally melted away by the end of the performance. The project has had a strong impact on the participants in diverse communities and locations where Peerna has performed.

Much of Jaanika Peerna's recent work is a lament to glaciers and natural ice. Her ongoing project Glacier Elegy forms the central core of her monograph (below). The book presents an in-depth look at this iconic work, through essays, images of works and performances, and the artist's own words. In doing so, it shows how a contemporary artist in her prime addresses the climate emergency. The book touches on ecological grief and looks at how Peerna and other key contemporary artists have used the subject of ice to highlight the global climate emergency.

Jaanika Peerna is an Estonian-born artist and educator living and working in New York since 1998. Her work encompasses drawing, installation, and performance, often dealing with the theme of transitions in light, air, water and other natural phenomena. For her performances she often involves the audience in participatory reflection on the current climate meltdown. Her art practice stems from the corporeal experience of our existence and reaches towards enhanced awareness of the fragility, interconnectedness and wonder of all life. She has exhibited her work and performed extensively in the entire New York metropolitan area as well as in Berlin, Paris, Tallinn, Barcelona, Venice, Moscow, Dubai, Sydney, Canberra, Montreal, and Cologne. Her work is in numerous private collections in the USA and Europe and is part of the Fonds National d’Art Contemporain, Paris. Her performance Glacier Elegy was recently acquired by the Glyn Vivian Museum in the UK. Her work is represented by JHB Gallery and ARC Fine Art in the US, HAUS Galerii in Estonia and IdeelART globally. She was awarded the FID Grand Prize in 2016 for her work in drawing, and she was a teaching artist at the Dia Art Foundation for many years. Her new monograph Glacier Elegies was published in 2021 by Terra Nova Press and distributed by MIT Press. www.jaanikapeerna.net

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Jaanika Peerna, Sizzlecolor, 2005, digital print, 24 x 24 inches; Light Matter, 2015, solo exhibition at Kentler International Drawing Space, New York, photo by Etienne Rossard; ReRouted Flight, 2020, audience activiated wall installation with instructions, about 6 x 10 fee, at Tallinn Art Hall, Estonia; Glacier Elegy Brooklyn, performance with a block of ice in a public park, October 2020; Glacier Elegies monograph published 2021; portrait of the artist.

Art in a Wild, Isolated Space at the Montello Residency, Nevada

Mon, 01 May 2023 16:31:13 GMT

Mia Mulvey, Old Tjikko, 2018, cyanotype on wall and Pando II, 2018, ceramics on pedestal

Slow Steady Movement Towards Change:
Art in a Wild, Isolated Space

Interview with Stefan Hagen from the Montello Foundation and Kate James from Concord Art Association on the recent “This Earth” exhibition including members Mia Mulvey, Elisabeth Condon, Laurie Lambrecht, and Margaret Cogswell.

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

On view through May 7, 2023, is an exhibition that surveys artists who have visited the Montello Residency in rural Nevada. This wild and stunning desert landscape allows a unique space for contemplation and reflection. Artists choose to create work on site or use the impressions from their stay to create work in their studios. It is a windowed small cabin on a lonely road in the middle of a vast landscape. I speak with Stefan Hagen and Kate James about their intentions and perspectives on the work being shown, the intentions of the residency and the philosophical basis behind their motivations.

Elisabeth Condon, Urban Jungle, 2016

The Montello residency invites artists from all over the world to witness and reflect on the desert wilderness. What is unique to you about the “artist as a witness” when experiencing these spaces rather than a more quantitatively analytical perspective?

SH: A desert landscape is ideal for observing the fragility of nature. Though it seems that every living entity is adapted to a very harsh environment, but it is also obvious that there is a very precise balance necessary for living things to thriver here. Any footstep will stay visible for at least a month. The extremely slow rate that higher forms of plants grow make it clear that our presence has an irreversible effect, globally and locally. For the residents it is a unique opportunity to spend uninterrupted time in an unusual landscape that becomes familiar to them over the duration of the retreat. It becomes so familiar that they can revisit specific places and experience the interconnectedness of nature. This can be a catalyst for a new direction or influence an existing body of work. The resulting works of art have the ability and the power to influence the audience in a way no quantitative approach can. Since our decisions are largely based on irrational and spontaneous impulses, the work becomes especially influential. The numbers are certainly there to back this up.

Laurie Lambrecht, Desert Driftwood, 2018

Laurie Lambrecht, High Desert Tapestry, 2018

The evidence is clear in a recent show at the Concord Art Association of many of these artists titled “This Earth.” It shows an incredible range of disciplines and topics related to the environment. From photographs to color palettes, to smells, to sculptures with water, and performative works, it is a true survey of perspectives. What have been some of the challenges and surprises you have come across while trying to honor each artist in such a diverse group?

KJ: Yes, this show reflects the diversity of artists who have experienced the residency and offers variable entry points to consider our own relationship to the environment, but the themes remain the same throughout and the variety of experiences. These lead to more chances to connect with the viewer. Some of the work was created at the site and some was inspired while contemplating the desert environment and created post residency. An example of a post-residency production is the video where two artists dress as mussels and sing a pleading song to please protect them. Even a puppet show inspired by a rat living under the Montello cabin speaks to the fragility of life. A theme kept in a conceptual sculptural installation about the water crisis using water from Walden Pond. We literally breathe in Thoreau's conservation ideas by means of water vapor.

Fragility, balance, survival, co-dependence, coupled with awe, wonder and inspiration and the implied or inferred urgency to respect nature all coalesce in the show. The fragility of life in the desert is a paradigm for the fragility of life on earth. The desert setting for this residency makes the artist hyper aware of what threatens our existence. It's poignant that the universal question from viewers who have visited the show has been, "would I be able to be alone and unplugged in the desert." This show subtly honors questions about survival.

Margaret Cogswell, Desert Mounds, 2022, lithograph ink bar rubbing of the desert floor, watercolor, colored pencil and collage on Chinese paper, 15 x 44 inches

The theme of the fragility of life has come up in a lot of my recent conversations. Even in my last interview was rewilding and the artist as passive observer rather than interventionist in the environment. In your experience in such a delicate wild space, what is a constructive human interaction with the environment that fosters mutual growth and awareness?

SH: It is always a paradox that a scientist or artist or any observer must travel to these wild spaces and set up a camp, intrude in order to reflect on them. But there is a way to tread lightly and minimize the impact. And of course, artists have the tools to tell the stories of these lands for the rest of us, so we don’t have to all travel to these fragile places.

Margaret Cogswell, Tales from the Desert Floor, 2022, lithograph ink bar rubbing of the desert floor, watercolor, colored pencil on Chinese paper, 15 x 44 inches

Absolutely! And, this is in keeping with some foundational philosophies. In fact, Concord Art Association is based in the founding location of “Transcendentalism”, a nature-oriented Christian philosophy that has been hugely influential in New England. This isolated residency is literally on “Thoreau” Avenue. Bridging across the continental USA, what is it that makes this exhibition relevant to the New England mentality and the contemporary Zeitgeist?

KJ: Thoreau’s experiment in solitude, simplicity and living deliberately at Walden Pond parallels the Montello residency. In fact, the placement of This Earth down the street from Thoreau’s cabin is very intentional. Thoreau and the transcendentalist movement marked a giant change 200 years ago in how we saw ourselves in relation to nature, a shift in thinking that God is not a separate entity but part of Man and a part of uppercase N, Nature. Thoreau also opposed industrialization as he purported it was destroying the environment. He inspired the conservation movement, and, I might add, "the awareness and simplify movements."

The Montello Residency was modeled after Thoreau's experience at Walden. Both Walden and Montello outfitted environments with secluded simple cabins for the observation and reflection of nature without distraction and both reflect the paradigm shifts of their times. Like Thoreau's opposition to industrial growth, current environmental movements in response to the climate crisis are fueling our collective understanding. I believe a philosophical shift like the one created in the 19th century is the key to shifting our fraught relationship with the environment today and who better to activate that shift than artists. A newfound reverence for nature and simple lifestyles and electric cars and plastic bans are some of the tiny signs of change in how we collectively think about the environment. The art of Thoreau like the art created at Montello supports this slow steady movement towards change.

Thank you both so much for speaking with me! This is such an incredible opportunity and an increasingly necessary space for an intimate interaction with the landscape.

May 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers (nonmembers)

Mon, 01 May 2023 16:03:14 GMT

The ecoartspace May 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member Spotlight l Buster Simpson

Mon, 24 Apr 2023 14:08:01 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 24, 2023

This week we recognize Buster Simpson, and his prolific fifty plus year career as a public artist, performing art as pharmaceutical.

Hudson Headwaters Purge, 1991 (color) and Purge Projectile, 1983 (black & white) comprise The Purge Diptych (above), two action performances with common allegories of mender and meddler. Purge Projectile was staged on a construction site in lower Manhattan with the World Trade Center as backdrop. Here, the naked provocateur confronts the citadel of corporate consumption by slinging limestone, with its purging qualities, intending "agitation as antidote." For Hudson Headwaters Purge, numerous 24" diameter by 3" thick limestone disks were submerged at the headwaters of the Hudson River, just downstream from a barren Superfund site. For each, limestone serves as mender by purging acid from bodies of water and as agit prop to meddle with irresponsible consumption, the source of CO2 that results in human-induced climate change. The work has also been called "River Rolaids" or "Tums for Mother Nature by the media;" and to the artist as "Therapist." Pharmaceutically, limestone neutralizes or "sweetens" the pH of acidic waters. The process of adding limestone to acidic rivers is a mitigation practice often deployed by environmental agencies.

click images for more info/credits

Host Analog, 1991 (above) is comprised of eight segments of a Douglas fir tree that lived for 600 years in the wilderness to the west of Wy'east Mountain, now also known as Mount Hood. The tree, felled and bucked, was deemed unsuitable for lumber sometime in the 1960s and was left to decay in the forest. In 1990, it was rediscovered in the Bull Run Watershed (Portland's water source since 1895). Host Analog continues its relationship with the Bull Run as it is misted daily with water brought to the City from its original home. It is an urban nurse log, serving to exemplify a living laboratory of diversity, adaptability and resilience. When the segmented tree was transported to the plaza of the Oregon Convention Center, it was an active nurse log, carrying with it a native ecosystem. Over time, the forest landscape growing on Host Analog has been diversified with urban plants self-seeding and taking root, enabling a unique laboratory and creating an aesthetic that confronts the notion of what is "natural" with the elements of chance and change. This dynamic artwork will never be considered complete, as it will continually evolve.

Beckoning Cistern, 2003 (above) is an aluminum cistern that collects roof watershed from the 81 Vine Street building in Seattle, Washington. Water is directed from the roof via downspout then through the extended index finger of an outstretched hand and into the 10 x 6 feet diameter tank "cuff" before eventually making its way down Vine Street to the Cistern Steps. The gesture of the outreaching finger suggests that of the Creation of Adam by Michelangelo from the Sistine Chapel in Rome.

The Brightwater Art Master Plan for the Brightwater Treatment System, 2003 (below) proposed a philosophical approach, criteria, guiding principles and art opportunities for the wastewater treatment plant and conveyance corridor in King County, Washington and was intended to provide guidance to future artists involved in the project and to inform the general public about the context for art in the system. This is an early example of an artist taking an active role in developing innovative opportunities for ecological artists to do public art projects.

Simpson's most recent public art project Anthropocene Migration Stage, completed in 2022 (below) is in response to the Habitat Beach, built in conjunction with the new Elliott Bay Seawall. Simpson strategically situated two sets of immediately useful as well as forward thinking sculptural placements along the Seattle Waterfront promenade, Anthropomorphic Triapods and SeaBarrier to both furnish a public amenity and a staging area of accessible materials to migrate inland as needed, mitigating future rising sea encroachment. Anthropomorphic Triapods act immediately as seating and interactive play objects, and stand ready to be engaged as shoreline habitat anchors and wave attenuators. This promenade location was once a principle boat landing site for the Duwamish Tribe. SeaBarrier is made up of multiples of six-foot long precast concrete wall segments, with a faux sand bag motif, that utilize a flexible interlocking modular system typical of a Jersey barrier. All port cities are on the edge of rising tides, Simpson has inscribed the names of some of them along the bottom of SeaBarrier in a gesture of commonality.

Buster Simpson has been active as an artist since the late 1960s, working on major infrastructure and planning projects, site specific sculptures, museum installations, and community interventions. Simpson received a MFA in 1969, and later, the Distinguished Alumni Award in Architecture and Design, University of Michigan. He's a recipient of numerous awards, among them, NEA fellowships and the Americans for the Arts Public Art Award in 2009. His work engages social actions and sustainable opportunities often considered "poetic utility." Humor and rich metaphors distinguish his work, with deceptively simple sculptures. In 2013, the Frye Art Museum mounted a major retrospective of Simpson's work. In May of 2015 and 2016, Simpson conducted Rising Waters Confab at the Robert Rauschenberg Foundation on Captiva Island, Florida, which brought together a collaborative team of scientists, artists, land use specialists, and activists to create approaches to resilience and the graceful migration of people and biota. Simpson has exhibited at The New Museum, MoMA PS1, Seattle Art Museum, Frye Art Museum, The Hirshhorn Museum, Capp Street Project, and Museum of Glass. His work is included in numerous public commissions throughout North America. www.bustersimpson.net

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Buster Simpson, The Purge Diptych, Hudson Headwaters Purge, 1991, and Purge Projectile, 1983, both in New York; HOST ANALOG, 1991, Oregon Convention Center, Portland, Oregon, stainless steel irrigation, basalt, old growth (windfall) logs, city water, porcelain enamel signage, 17' x 90' x 30'; Beckoning Cistern, 2003, Growing Vine Street, Seattle, Washington, painted aluminum, stainless steel, 34' x 6' diameter (including downspout); Brightwater Art Master Plan for the Brightwater Treatment System, 2003, King County, Seattle; Anthropocene Migration Stage, 2022, Elliott Bay Seawall, Seattle, Washington; portraits of the artist as Woodman, 1974.

Member Spotlight l Nathalia Favaro

Mon, 10 Apr 2023 17:16:30 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 10,2023

This week we recognize Nathalia Favaro Nathalia Favaro, and her twenty year arts practice based in São Paulo, Brazil.

"This work [Intervalo, above] was developed during the Labverde Artistic Residency in the Amazon Rainforest in Manaus, Brazil, in 2018. In an attempt to experience a space in constant action and transformation, almost unidentifiable as the Amazon Rainforest, the work suggests, from the variation and intensity of light, the discovery of a place that we do not fully understand. In the Amazon Forest, as it is a closed forest, we hardly see the light coming in and consequently we do not perceive the nuances of shadows. The work is a video record of walking through the Adolfo Ducke Reserve, with a blank sheet of paper in my hands, trying to reveal the space in between things, a space that is light and shadow and only exists in this context, over a period of time."

click images for more info

"Nathalia Favaro experiences some forms of the world through the gesture of creation, elaborating, through ceramics, an architecture of existing things articulated in space. It allows the reality of the object to manifest itself from another point of view, at the same time apprehending it from within. Her works highlight the look at what can often be imperceptible or unimportant, such as the dry branches of a tree." above

From satellite images of Google Earth digital platform, the proposal of this work, The Edge Effect, 2019 (above) is to cover 900 km of the BR - 319 highway, which connects Manaus to Porto Velho, in the Amazon Rainforest. Based on drawings generated in the territory due to the removal of the trees, the work looks for the remaining cuts in these spaces: the voids, the remains of parts, the parts of a whole, the fragments. In the context of the forest, “forest fragments” are areas of closed forest that remain intact in the middle of a plantation, a pasture or a deforested area. The trees at the ends of these fragments are exposed to weather, parasites and other biological and chemical factors, becoming less healthy and slowly dying. This process is called the "edge effect."

"The "Daily Life" series includes a series of works that I have done over the years. In each of them I try to record the duration of an experience in a certain period of time and space. The chosen materials refer directly to the daily use of the same and many times the work arises from it. With this series I record my walk through materialities." above

Nathalia Favaro (1981) is a brazilian artist currently based in Berlin, Germany. She graduated in Architecture and Urbanism from Mackenzie University, São Paulo and from Buenos Aires University, in Argentina. Her work moves between sculpture, drawing and video with themes related to the territory, the use and the transformation of the land. Among her exhibitions, the individual O Gesto e o Vazio (São Paulo, 2019) and the collectives: 16 VERBO (Galeria Vermelho, 2022), Abre Alas #16 (A Gentil Carioca, Rio de Janeiro, 2020)and La naturaleza de las cosas - Humboldt idas y venidas (Art Museum of the National University of Colombia, Bogotá, 2019). In 2017, she was an artist in residency at EKWC - European Ceramic Workcentre, in the Netherlands and in 2018 at Gaya Ceramics in Bali, Indonesia and Labverde, Brazil. At the moment she is in an artistic residency at B.L.O. Ateliers, in Berlin, Germany. www.nathaliafavaro.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Nathalia Favaro, Intervalo, 2019, video (4:00 mins), included in Embodied Forest, 2021 online + book, ecoartspace; Untitled, 2017, porcelain and bronze glaze / porcelain and bronze glaze 100 pieces / 100 pieces for the exhibition O Gesto e o Vazio, curated by Elias Muradi, Ely Lutaka, Eduardo Ferrer e Luciana Nemes at Fundação Mokiti Okada, São Paulo, 2019; Edge Effects, 2019 45 ceramic pieces, iron cable and steel cable / 45 ceramic pieces, iron cable and bar 160 x 40 x 10cm, exhibition Massapê Projetos, 2021, curated by Julia Lima; Daily Series #4 Bali, 2018 ceramics/ceramics 31 pieces of 40 x 20cm each; The Horizon Is Within Us, 2019, Finland; portrait of the artist taken by Aline Vilhena Roca.

April 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members

Sat, 01 Apr 2023 01:37:33 GMT

The ecoartspace April 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Passive Resistance: Artists stand back and watch their work grow

Fri, 31 Mar 2023 18:40:16 GMT

“Sculpture to Transform Culture into Nature,” street infrastructure displayed with regrowth, Mark Brest van Kempen

Passive Resistance: Artists stand back and watch their work grow

Reflections on Growth with Jen Urso and Mark Brest van Kempen

An interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Jen Urso and Mark Brest van Kempen parallel each other in topics related to social and personal healing that is deeply connected to their surrounding localities and the natural world. Mark approaches these themes by directly integrating his grassroots organizing and the literal weight and materials of infrastructure and the natural world to display the wounds and growth of human influence. Jen takes a deeply personal perspective, exploring the literal edges of her person and psyche in lines and forms reflecting on locality. Their work is currently showing in the exhibition “Modern Desert Markings: An Homage to Las Vegas Area Land Art” at the Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art at UNLV in Nevada, which is simultaneous to the controversial land-art fair “Desert X” in Southern California.

Jen Urso, “What the Desert Already Has,” 2023, terrarium with native desert growth, included in Modern Desert Markings.

Mark, your contribution to the “Modern Desert Markings” exhibition at UNLV will follow a theme of environmental wounding and healing in conversation with De Maria’s “Las Vegas Piece” (1969). Much of your work has related to bioremediation from industrial and human influences such as “Biolabyrinth” or “Floating Marshes”. Since De Maria made his marks using a bulldozer that had lasting effects on the otherwise untouched landscape at the time: are you planning an intervention of your own through native species landscape rehabilitation? How do these parallels play out in this landscape for you?

MBvK: My approach to working with landscape varies considerably depending on whether I am working with a human-altered site or a “natural” site. In the case of this dialogue with De Maria’s work, I am not only interested in the initial sculptural gesture of De Maria, but I am also interested in the intervening encroachment of the surrounding landscape that is erasing this initial gesture quickly. Within the fifty-odd years since De Maria made the piece, the actions of weather and plant growth have made the piece very hard to find and, in some areas, completely erased it. This rebounding of desert life (without any help from me) is inspiring and speaks to the temporary quality of all human activities no matter how large and aggressive. Therefore, I feel that is enough to point out this ‘healing’, overriding ability of nature without help from me.

It is interesting to visit these earthworks and consider the work of the landscape on the pieces as part of the work. Most people only see photographs of these pieces that were taken when the pieces were first completed with crisp edges. Now just a few years later the pieces have completely disappeared or are quickly eroding. I recently visited Double Negative and I would argue that the erosion is as striking as Heizer’s initial massive gesture. In a few hundred years the piece will be completely gone, while I imagine that the Mona Lisa or Pieta will still be intact.

Mark Brest van Kempen, “Living from Land”, full immersion land project performance

You both certainly have this interest in human-influence and ephemerality in common, though your processes are so different.

Jen, in many of your performative interventions, you display interactions and experiences through drawn media and other forms of line work and relate this to human connection. How does the extraordinary desert landscape influence your practice?

JU: In drawing, I am more interested in capturing movement and change. No matter what you are drawing, it is never the same each time you draw it. This is either because you have changed your experience with it or the thing itself is older, decaying, eroding or moving. Regardless of what climate or environment I’m in, my work is subject to the same forces of time and change. The desert influences my drawing less and influences my sense of tenacity and resilience more. Even in the smallest sidewalk cracks and untreated land, desert plants will find a way to survive and thrive. They have built defenses like hard exteriors, thorns or bulbous water repositories. I see the parallel here with my own survival and ability to thrive despite not being raised with what many others would consider essential. The desert’s biome doesn’t consider itself to be lacking because it is all it has ever known.

Jen Urso, “Measuring Coastline,” drawing using composted remains of the artist’s sister

I am so glad you mentioned resilience, plant life, and the deep psychological connection our “Daseins” (senses of self) have with the landscape.

Jen, you explored this in your “Coastlines” project, no?

JU: Yes, the “Measuring the Coastline” piece uses the term “coastline” to refer to the concept in fractal geometry where the closer you investigate or measure a coastline, the longer it becomes. This is related to the crevices and details of an edge and how, as you look closer, there is always more detail to see. After so many changes from the introspection that came during my sister’s illness and her death, I wanted a way to measure it irrationally. So, I thought of myself as a coastline or a country where someone was trying to map the edges. Each time I looked closer, I imagined my edges would expand. My goal was to have a direct, sensory experience with my sister by using her composted remains to dust around the edges of my body, showing my actual form meeting with what was left of hers.

Mark Brest van Kempen, “Transnational Footprints”

That is so touching and heart-wrenching, Jen.

Mark, you share this interest in the personal becoming political through your interwoven approach to art practice as an extension of your life and activism directly like “Living from the Land” Your work seems to stand at a conjunction between grassroots community organizing and material activation to contend with and often correct human influence in the natural environment. Where does art end and your life begin? Is there a difference? And what is the role of material creation as a result of your activities?

MBvK: To me art should be a verb just like living is a verb. To say that art is an object is like saying that music is a piano.

I think art at its most basic form is a human communicating their perception. Perception is being in a place, and sensing that place with your body. Bodies sensing in space is what we are. When I first let go of traditional art materials like paint and canvas, that’s where I landed. I said to myself “I am a body in this place, so these are the tools and materials I will use to make my art.” “Living From Land” was very related to landscape painting, but instead of standing outside of the picture and representing it with paint, I stood inside the image and represented it by eating it with my body. I think this approach often pushes art and life closer together, but the art is framed in a way that differentiates it from the rest of life.

Jen Urso, “Measuring Coastline,” drawing using composted remains of the artist’s sister

I love a lot of very traditionally produced art and material objects can convey powerful feelings and ideas, but I also think that you don’t necessarily need objects for an art experience.

When I approach a site, I consider everything that I can about it. That includes humans interacting with places. Sometimes humans interact physically with a landscape and sometimes they interact conceptually by creating laws, rules and traditions associated with places. Private property, political borders, laws that apply within one boundary and not in another are all interesting “materials” for me to work with as sculpture. The “Free Speech Monument”, “Leona Quarry Earthwork” and “Benicia Tryptic” are a few examples of projects that have included people and political processes as material.

Soil as a material is rich with cultural and political meaning. We grow our food from soil, laws become embedded in soil, identities are associated with soil and our bodies ultimately become soil. Being so loaded is an amazing material to work with.

Speaking of soil and human influence: Desert X is happening simultaneously to the group exhibition you are in at UNLV. Many of the topics are socially nuanced sculptures amidst the desert landscape in both shows.

Jen, Your work is intimately tied to the people you interact with and in Arizona, where you live, has been a controversial player in migration politics. How are you integrating migration and native rights topics into your own work? How do you see the desert landscape as reflective of social interfaces?

JU: The Phoenix area has a rich history of agriculture and settlements that can be traced back at least 1,500 years. In learning some of the ethnobotany of this place, I have learned how much indigenous knowledge has been squandered and destroyed. Those who moved here believed that controlling the environment was paramount. My process in my life and in my work has been to trust the place I am in to slowly teach me what I need to know. By observing and responding, I am trying to elicit a back-and-forth with my work where I set frameworks while giving up control.

Jen Urso, “What the Desert Already Has,” 2023, terrarium with native desert growth, included in Modern Desert Markings

This absolutely parallels Mark’s current theme of “environmental wounding and healing.”

Mark, what is your reaction to social parallels in the Desert X exhibition? What is your reaction to the physical effects on the environment related to viewership and their transport?

MBvK: I think if the work reveals a deeper appreciation and understanding of the landscape for viewers it is generally a good thing. If it is only an opportunity for a selfie and a post on social media proving that you went to an event, obviously this is an exploitation of the landscape. Desert X, like the rest of the art world, is a mixture of opportunities for great reflection and superficial posturing. More generally about travelling and keeping track of carbon footprints, I think it is important to understand the complex problems associated with being a part of a huge, industrialized society. It is crucial to be looking clearly at how our actions are impacting the world and try to move in a more positive direction. At the same time, we shouldn’t be paralyzed by an impossible desire to be perfect. This usually leads to despair and giving up. I think it is more valuable for us to move imperfectly towards an ideal but continue it for a lifetime.

Mark Brest van Kempen, “Living from Land”

Member Spotlight l Alyce Santoro

Mon, 27 Mar 2023 14:32:41 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 27, 2023

This week we recognize Alyce Santoro, and her twenty-five year practice combining sound, textiles and her coined concept and works known as "philosoprops."

The Homeopathic Remedies for the Five Ills of Society (above) is an ongoing series which began in 2002, presenting elixirs in brown glass medicine bottles with droppers for social ailments based on the premise that “like cures like.” “Violence” was prepared by soaking a bullet in distilled water. “Greed” is an infusion made from coins. “Consumerism” is a dilution of bottled water from Wal-Mart. “Alienation” is empty (in homeopathy, the more diluted the remedy, the more potent it is). “Detachment” contains a drop of super glue many times diluted (this is a “dialectic remedy,” the ailment being countered by its opposite. I wonder if, like especially diluted remedies, paradoxical ones have special potency as well?). Image courtesy Klemens Gasser and Tanja Grunert Gallery

click images for more info

"With an early background in biology and scientific illustration, I set out with a straightforward goal: to make visible the invisible wonders of science and nature. Shortly, however, upon encountering overlaps and paradoxes inherent in accepted—if sometimes seemingly divergent—approaches to art "versus" science, I became focused on the cultural phenomena that cause these fields to be viewed as separate, and the ways that social imaginaries form and can shift."

"In the 1990s, I coined the word philosoprops to describe multi-media works intended to raise a question, illustrate a concept, catalyze an action, challenge perception, or spark a dialog. Philosoprops offer subtle, often playful critiques of the foibles of highly literal, positivist, hierarchical, anthropocentric, reductionist thinking."

"....Philosophical apparatuses and instruments –philosoprops– are the tools of Alyce’s obvious multiverse. Informed by a love of wisdom and an absurd sense of humor, these material propaganda draw attention to human behaviors and the social, political and environmental ramifications of our beliefs and actions. Alyce’s
instruments broadcast a hopeful message: that changing the world for the better begins the moment we realize it is possible. When we reach out with open arms, an open mind and an open heart, simple actions (like hanging laundry in the sun to dry instead of relying on a machine powered by coal, fracking, or nuclear fission) take on transformative power...." – Eve Andrée Laramée, interdisciplinary artist, ecological activist

Tell–Tale Sails–Score), 2007 (above): "In December of 2012, two months after Hurricane Sandy struck New York City, I was invited to mount an exhibition of the philosoprops at Klemens Gasser & Tanja Grunert Gallery in the Chelsea district of New York City. The gallery – like many others in the neighborhood – had been completely submerged during the storm and was in the process of being restored. While the gallery owners were appreciators of my philosophy-based work, for the reopening on January 10, 2013, they felt a particular sense of urgency to exhibit a piece that could offer a sense of resilience, optimism, and cooperation with the elements. They wanted a 21-‐foot-‐tall set of Sonic Fabric sails to fill a room that had been flooded under 14 feet of water. On the night of the opening we hoisted the sails, raised a toast to Spaceship Earth, and symbolically broke a bottle of Champaign on the bow of a boat we are all in together."

Santoro's thesis for Rhode Island School of Design's M.A. in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies was completed January 2020. Titled "An Intricate Ensemble: The Art-Science of an Ecological Imaginary for the Anthropocene Epoch"(below), her abstract states: The contradictions inherent in European Enlightenment-based “logics” that externalize humans from “nature” were a concern for the Romantic Naturalists, Dadaists, and Surrealists. More recently, some in the environmental humanities and socio-ecologically-concerned arts and sciences have also posed challenges to anthropocentric, hierarchical, positivist modes of thought. I suggest that by engaging the ludic, imaginative, and collaborative while bearing the empirical in mind, dualisms (such as objective and subjective, individual and collective) dissipate, and existence as a dialectical state of intricate ensemble can be revealed. In light of catastrophic disruption to Earth’s life-sustaining processes by exploitative forms of human activity, I argue an “ecological imaginary” is urgently needed, and everyone is capable of contributing to its prefiguring.

Alyce Santoro has a background in both marine biology and scientific illustration, and has been exploring the intersection of art and science for over twenty-five years. Widely known as the inventor of Sonic Fabric — an audible textile composed of recorded audiotape — Santoro’s interdisciplinary projects weave together philosophy and physics with ecology and social activism in quirky and provocative ways. Her visual and sound pieces have appeared internationally in over 50 exhibitions related to innovative textiles, experimental musical scores, sound/listening, and the intersection of art, science, and ecology. She has written for Leonardo Music Journal, the Center for Sustainable Practice in the Arts Journal, Antennae, and Hyperallergic. In 2015, she self-published Philosoprops: A Unified Field Guide, a catalog of her work/exegesis on the ways that thought—and the phenomena that spark it—shapes culture. Santoro holds a B.S. in Marine Biology from Southampton College in Southampton, New York, a Graduate Certificate in Scientific Illustration and an M.A. in Nature-Culture-Sustainability Studies from the Rhode Island School of Design in Providence, Rhode Island. www.alycesantoro.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Alyce Santoro, Homepathic Remedies for the Five Ills of Society, 2002 - ongoing, photo by Mary Lou Saxon; Subtle Reality Technologies, 2011, photo by Mary Lou Saxon; Amplified Cactus (Improvisation on "Child of Tree" by John Cage), performed September 5, 2012 on the 100th anniversary of the birth of John Cage, Projects for Prepared Ear presented works in honor of the composer at the Marfa book company in Marfa, Texas; Tell–Tale Sails–Score, 2007, suit of Sonic Fabric sails, recorded with the “Sounds of ½ Life” collage, 9 x 9 feet; MA Thesis "An Intricate Ensemble: The Art-Science of an Ecological Imaginary for the Anthropocene Epoch," 2020, photo courtesy Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego; portrait of the artist, Sea Urchin Spine Headgear, 2004, live action photo by Matthew Magee.

Member Spotlight l Krista Leigh Steinke

Mon, 20 Mar 2023 22:17:05 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 20, 2023

This week we recognize Krista Leigh Steinke Krista Leigh Steinke, and her interdisciplinary lens-based practice focused on the interconnection between human experience and the natural world.

"Inspired by spirit photography and post-mortem photography from the late 19th century, Purgatory Road, 2010 - 2014 (above)chronicles my experimentation with the photo medium while exploring the fragility of life. The project takes its title from an actual place where I live in the summer months – a wooded region divided by a dirt-covered path. Local legends and folklore surround this road, where the land on one side slopes down into a dark, cavernous area while a lush, peaceful green forest grows on the opposite side. Rooted in my concern for the environment, these images serve as metaphors for the concept of purgatory as an in-between state; a place where visual and conceptual polarities intersect and become blurry."

click images for more info

The Earth is Not a Spaceship, 2016 (above) is an experimental film that remixes vintage educational source footage collected by the Texas Archive of the Moving Image. A woman’s voice narrates the film, functioning as a type of mother nature character. The narration becomes haunting and robotic when coupled with glitchy film footage that has been re-recorded off of various electronic devices. The reworking of the footage presents new meaning at the intersection of abstraction, the digital sublime, and an implied dystopian future.

"After Hurricane Harvey hit Houston, I started thinking about cycles...cycles in the weather, cycles in nature, and cycles in one’s lifetime. I thought about how a natural disaster can suddenly and unexpectedly interrupt the cycle of daily life and how recovery efforts quickly become integrated into our day to day routine. 40 Days After the Storm, 2018 (above) is not specifically about the Houston flood but a response to the disaster - a project that aims to poetically address the idea of aftermath and resilience. The installation chronicles the days following Hurricane Harvey. Daily samples from the flood site (debris from homes, dead insects, fallen branches, even a lizard that drowned) were placed inside homemade pinhole cameras and left in my yard for 40 days – one specimen a day, one camera at a time. During the extended exposure, the path of the rising and setting sun combined with watermarks from the rain become layered with shadowy objects that appear to be floating in water. Here, the microscopic world of an insect becomes entwined with the larger universe in the sky. Each specimen represents a small moment or story that points to loss, survival, or recovery. Collectively, these seemingly insignificant objects become part of a bigger picture — a reference to how the ordinary everyday can be shaped by an epic event such as a flood or natural disaster."

Sun Notations, 2018 (above) is part of a larger body of work that focuses on the sun as both a subject and creative tool to reflect upon our physical and psychological connection to our planet’s closest star. For this project, pinhole cameras (made from soda cans, cookie tins, and other small containers) capture the sun’s pathway over time, with exposures that can last from a few hours up to two years. The cameras, which sometimes contain multiple pinholes, are rotated periodically, so the rhythm of the sun’s movement becomes a drawing process or mark-making system, like the routine of crossing days off a calendar. Light leaks, dirt, water damage, embedded dead bugs, even rips in the paper, become part of the visual alchemy and function as metaphors for the delicate balance we share with the physical world. Here, time and space expand, overlap, and then dissipate as clusters of dust appear like stars and the landscape morphs into abstraction. Titles for the images, such as “Since you’ve been gone” or “70 days after the election,” frame exposures around personal and collective experience, giving the work a diaristic context, inviting viewers to consider how our lives align with the cosmic cycles.

Sun Mapping, 2022 (below) is an experimental video that animates the pathway of the sun juxtaposed with imagery of natural specimens collected along the Gulf Coast. The project, a unique merging of analog and digital processes, is a poetic exploration of the symbiotic relationship between the oceanfront landscape, its ecosystem, and the greater cosmos.

Krista Leigh Steinke is an interdisciplinary lens-based artist working in moving image, experimental photography, and collage. Her work fluctuates between the photographic and the abstract to present poetic reflections on time, place, perception, and the interconnection between human experience and the natural world. With the use of pinhole cameras, homemade filters, and other unconventional techniques, she draws meaning from her materials and process, often exploring photo media as a point of inquiry or embracing it as a catalyst for new possibilities such as an installation or a stop-frame animation. Informed by various sources (from art and photographic history, science and star maps, memory and the female perspective, to current events and the weather), her creative research often takes a diaristic form as a way to illustrate how the personal, social, and universal intertwine. The plight of insects, the pathway of the sun, a hurricane, a global pandemic – she is interested in both the obvious and more mysterious ways that nature impacts our lives while calling attention to broader issues surrounding the environment and our shared community. www.kristasteinke.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Krista Leigh Steinke,Purgatory Road, 2010 - 2014;The Earth is Not a Spaceship, 2016, created for "Mess With Texas," co-presented by TAMI and the Aurora Picture Show, Texas;40 Days After the Storm, 2018; Sun Notations, 2018; Sun Mapping, 2022, commissioned for The Port of Corpus Christi Authority Building, Texas, curated by Mary Magsamen and sponsored by The Aurora Picture Show and The Weingarten Art Group, image by Magsamen; portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight l Renata Buziak

Mon, 13 Mar 2023 14:39:38 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 13, 2023

This week we recognize Renata Buziak, and her almost twenty-year practice as a photo-media artist creating images of medicinal plants by an experimental biochrome process which she has developed.

“Biochromes are generated by arranging plant samples on photographic emulsions, and allowing them to transform through the bacterial micro-organic activities that are part of cyclic decay and regeneration. This process of developing images through decomposition led me to work with time-lapse photography, which allows recording the blossoming and movement of fungi and microbes.” RB

This art and science endeavor traces the activities of the microbes, reveals the complex process of decay, while addressing its metamorphic power.

click images for more info

For thousands of years plants have been used for their healing properties throughout the world. Many edible and medicinal plants, including various species of Eucalyptus, were used by Quandamooka people on North Stradbroke Island as food and for treatments of various conditions and illnesses. In Buziak's series titled Tree Line (above) from 2012, she presents the Eucalyptus species Corymbia gummifera (bloodwood), which is recognized for medicinal qualities including the essential oil and is considered a bactericide. The images are the result of micro organic activities present during decay, celebrating their healing, cultural and visual qualities and highlighting their significance in the cycle of life.

Polish Meadows, 2018-2019 (above) is a series of works focusing on medicinal flora of Southeast Poland, many of which are internationally recognized herbs with medicinal properties, such as nettle or elderberry. "During my childhood, I was introduced to the therapeutic power of local plants by my mother and grandmother and joined them in collecting herbs and weeds to make home remedies. More recently, my visits to Poland have led to a rediscovery of some of these same flora spontaneously growing in and around my hometown." RB

The Wrong Kind of Beauty, 2018 (above) is a series of works created by Bloom Collective, including Buziak, which were made during an Artist in Residence Science (AIRS) Program with the Science Division of the Department of Environment and Science (DES). The works are an embodied, experiential response to the fragility of the landscape produced by the gullying process. The harrowing and ongoing drama of the landscape, simultaneously reveals moments of delicate sculptural beauty, explored here through poetry, movement, sound and visual documentation. Biochrome images of soil featured on paper, fabrics, and time-lapse videos, were created with soil samples collected from the site, and from the Bowen River catchment. Buziak's biochromes were used to present traces of micro-organic and chemical transformations recorded over several weeks on photographic emulsions, and depict the diversity in soil types and show that even highly erodible soils are living.

In 2022, Buziak was the inaugural Artist-in-Residence on the Binna Burra Cultural Landscape where she created her Gondwanan Biochrome series (below) with plants located at Binna Burra. Located on the Yugambeh language groups’ country, in the World Heritage Gondwana Rainforest of Australia in Woonoongoora / Lamington National Park, Binna Burra allows visitors to experience unique flora, of which ancestral lineages go back to Gondwanaland millions of years ago.

Renata Buziak is a biochrome artist, researcher and educator working at the nexus of art and science, with a particular interest in nature. By bending the rules of traditional photography and letting photographic materials interact with organic matter, Buziak has developed a unique process of creating art that she calls the biochrome. At Binna Burra in Queensland, Buziak has developed and led a foundation year of the new Art. Nature. Science. Program as the Program Director, where she managed a group of volunteers and delivered 30 events, a book, and a podcast. Her innovative practice of collaborating with nature has led her to work as the ECO Harmony Guide with homeowners, business owners and leaders to help enhance the experience of their spaces in harmony with the natural world. Buziak’s biochromes have been displayed in solo and group exhibitions, nationally and internationally. She has received several awards for her work, and is featured in private and public collections. Buziak received her Doctor of Philosophy from Queensland College of Art (QCA), Griffith University, Brisbane, Australia (2011-2016). https://renatabuziak.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Renata Buziak, Habitat, 2015, is a collaborative project between photographic artists Renata Buziak and Lynette Letic, collecting visuals and verbal stories of various residential gardens of Greater Brisbane, Moreton Bay in Queensland (previously known as Pine Rivers) in order to provide historic and cultural material specific to the region; Polish Meadows, 2018-2019; The Wrong Kind of Beauty, 2018, biochrome time-lapse stills of surface soil ferrosol sample from a grazing property in the Bowen River Catchment, exhibited at Art meets Science Exhibition at the Ecosciences Precinct Boggo Road, Dutton Park Qld, Australia; Gondwanan Biochromes, 4-15 Dec 2022, Binna Burra, Queensland; Portrait of the artist by Pete Purnell.

With Her Exhibit 'Poetic Ecologies,' Painter Cameron Davis Explores Radical Aliveness

Thu, 09 Mar 2023 13:13:15 GMT

"encounter"

With Her Exhibit 'Poetic Ecologies,' Painter Cameron Davis Explores Radical Aliveness

By Pamela Polston

Published March 1, 2023 at 10:00 a.m. for www.sevendayssvt.com

Cameron Davis' paintings simultaneously convey vastness and intimacy. Her works are loosely tethered to botany, yet the recognizable shapes of petals and leaves could be seen as spirit guides to a less understood but deeply immersive realm. Call it the web of life. Or call it, as Davis does, "poetic ecologies."

That's the title of her entrancing solo exhibition at the Vermont Supreme Court Gallery in Montpelier; the phrase, which Davis borrowed from German biologist and writer Andreas Weber, hints at her existential engagement with nature. Her goal is not simply to observe and replicate earthly elements on canvas; rather, Davis investigates what it means to be in an empathic relationship with the Earth.

"My paintings are fundamentally an act of sense making," her artist statement begins. "I have been circling experiences of presence in nature — including questions of what is nature — within the formal language of painting for 40 years."

"At a perceptual level, connectivity is a form of activism." Cameron Davis

Davis recently retired after teaching for 34 years in the University of Vermont art department and is currently on sabbatical. And she's putting in time at the easel: Many of the paintings in her exhibit are quite new.

Most of the 17 acrylic works in the courthouse gallery are large — particularly several diptychs. "Encounter," for example, is 72 by 60 inches. Several ghostly magnolia blossoms dominate the left panel; the right contains a thicket of murkier plant shapes and colors. Gestural dabs of bright turquoise and sherbet orange, perhaps liberated petals, seem to leap from the foreground.

In the 80-by-60-inch "Entanglements With Spare Intensities," vivid turquoise blossoms seem to dance atop a bramble of other plant patterns, while in the center of the diptych, areas of cavernous black pull the eye deeper.

Davis' skilled application of contrasting hues and translucency gives her canvases remarkable dimensionality. Even the denser compositions have an ethereal inner glow, beckoning like a secret.

To create literal layers on the canvas, Davis uses a mix of other techniques, including tracing projections, laying down physical plants that leave impressions when removed, and pouring and manipulating paint. Some of the paintings subtly shimmer, as if sprinkled with fairy dust. Alas, the source is less chimerical: "It's watered-down gold paint," the artist said.

"Magnolia Memorial I"

Davis compared the elements in her paintings to "different kinds of languages — spontaneous, intuitive, referential, photographic, impressionistic," she said. "I'm really interested in what happens mashing up these different vocabularies. How do you make those work? That's where the newness happens."

Her artistic process creates multiple spaces — perhaps multiple realities — within a single painting. The visual experience is both unsettling and enticing, like coming upon a portal to a parallel universe. "I like that space shifting, which for me also corresponds to time shifts," Davis said. "I like that fracture, or disjunction of time and space."

In a wide-ranging phone conversation, Davis shared ideas about coexistence with the Earth, the practice of awe and why painting is like life.

There's a lot to unpack in your artist statement. You write that you've been "circling experiences of presence in nature..." Do you mean human presence?

I'm exploring the subjective nature of nature, and that includes humans, but also that there is presence in liveness.

What is your formal language in painting?

What I'm doing is using line and color and mark, surface, space. The paintings have imagery, or subject matter, that might refer to plant patterns, but I also think the process itself reveals how nature works. Multiple layers of communication happen.

The [painting] process is improvisational, so the references to the patterns almost could be an equivalent to laying down a melodic line and then responding to it. Contrast, saturation of color, detail, three-dimensionality — they have a kind of pace. What you notice more, or less, that's where it starts to feel musical. Those coherent moments feel emergent.

Working musically, you lay down a track. But the tracks aren't separate; they're talking to each other. Accidents happen, relationships that you hadn't noticed. It's a corollary to how life works, how evolution works.

"Magnolia Memorial"

Continue reading interview here

The exhibition is up through March 31, 2023 at the Vermont Supreme Court Gallery, more information here

Member Spotlight l Minoosh Zomorodina

Mon, 06 Mar 2023 23:12:06 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 6, 2023

This week we recognize Minoosh Zomorodinia Minoosh Zomorodinia, and her almost twenty-year practice as a photographer and interdisciplinary artist.

"Informed by my cultural background, religion, and politics, my work investigates the concept of “Self,” specifically how it relates to the environment. Inspired by nature, I borrow from rituals including walking, sometimes infusing humor. I integrate contradictory concepts into pieces that visualize struggles of the “self” by inserting my body into these moments of time and space. Recently I employed walking as a catalyst for my sculptures, which reference nomadic lifestyles, as well as colonialism. By tracking my paths using technology, I claim the ownership of the land, while representing a changed perception in the digital age and addressing transformation of memories into actual physical space absurdly."

click images for more info

"Over several years I have referenced the natural elements in my work. The three channel video titled Resist: Air, Water, Earth, 2014 (above) is an ongoing project sometimes displayed as a photograph and sometimes as a video. I have been using water, air and earth as a metaphor of resistance, to demonstrate the challenges of daily life and global cultural conflicts. In the two side videos, I documented an ice cylinder using water from the San Francisco Bay, melting in different locations. In the middle screen, I use my body wearing a Chador (a traditional garment that devout Muslim women wear to cover the head and body). I hold it tightly so the wind or water don’t remove it while I'm walking backwards, entering the ocean. The video demands the viewer to watch the struggle, navigating my body with the camera, also while not paying attention to me." (19:07 mins)

"Feelings produce different psychological states within the human being. Sensation (above) is the result from the air stimulation at different sites. I search for the self in nature while letting the wind touch the mylar to curve the shape of my body. I’m interested in the connection between my body and the landscape to express my feelings. My body merges with the landscape and the emergency blanket to integrate within the sky. Although the sense of touch is experienced through the lens it identifies resistance. The natural environment is a source of inspiration for me. Over the years, in search of the self in nature, I have attempted to create work using natural elements as material to explore connections between my body and landscape. In Sensation, for the first time the wind became an intuitive collaborator during a walk at the Djerassi Resident Artists site. I let the wind’s force define the shape of my body through an emergency blanket, a material that represents heat and protection for refugees in times of crisis. The video camera, the only witness to my actions, documents my struggles with the air that covers my entire body, making its force visible, caressing my form, emphasizing every movement and act of resistance. In attempts to merge my body with the landscape that surrounds me, the force of the wind is sometimes the winner. Sensation has been performed and documented at different sites, including the Marin Headlands and Talaghan, located in the Northeast of my hometown, Tehran."

During the pandemic, Zomorodinia started to paint from the digital record of places that she physically experienced. In this series, Map of Walking, 2020 (above) she references archiving memory in space and time based on data saved through satellite maps. The gold leaf covers her physical movements in the place and addresses labor and the value of time and land. These paintings are from her residency at Recology AIR program, San Francisco, where she recorded her motions and time while scavenging trash from the dump to make art for her final exhibition. "I am interested in how technology forms memory through digital archiving, transforming invisible routes that exist as a memory into actual objects in abstract form. Is there any limitation?"

In her most recent series, Made Lands, 2021 (below) Zomorodinia re-forms and reshapes borders to reference historical monuments to labor and the memories of various localities, as well as representing topography in the digital age. The abstracted natural imagery is printed on leftover material with textures from the actual location. The printed images transform our perceptions of the natural environment in the new media age. She is interested in how technology forms memory through digital archiving, transforming invisible routes that exist as a memory into actual objects in abstract form. She asks, "How will the history of a place exist in the future?"

Minoosh Zomorodinia is an Iranian-born interdisciplinary artist who makes visible the emotional and psychological reflections of her mind's eye inspired by nature and her environment. She employs walking as a catalyst to reference the power of technology as a colonial structure while negotiating boundaries of land. Her strollings sometimes reimagine our relationships between nature, land, and technology, while addressing the transformation of memories into actual physical space absurdly. Zomorodinia has received several awards, residences, and grants including the Kala Media Fellowship Award, Headlands Center for the Arts, Ox-Bow School of Art and Artists' Residency, Djerassi Residency, Recology Artist Residency, the Alternative Exposure Award, and California Art Council Grants. She has exhibited locally and internationally at Asian Art Museum San Francisco, Yerba Buena Center for the Arts, San Francisco Arts Commission, Berkeley Art Center, Pori Art Museum, Nevada Museum of Art, ProARTS, Untitled Art Fair Miami and many more. Her work has been featured in the SF Chronicle, Hyperallergic, SFWeekly, KQED and many other media outlets. She earned her MFA in New Genres from the San Francisco Art Institute, and holds a Masters degree in Graphic Design and BA in Photography from Azad University in Tehran. She currently lives and works in the Bay Area. rahelehzomorodinia.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Minoosh Zomorodinia, Faces of God series 2008, images primarily shot in Iran; Resist: Air, Water, Earth, 2014; Sensation III, 2016-ongoing, silver metallic print, 8 x 11 inches;Map of Walking, 2020, made during the pandemic while at Recology AIR, San Francisco, California; Made Lands, 2021, print on shaped aluminum, various sizes, exhibited at Local Language, Oakland, California; Selfie portrait by the artist.

March 2023 Newsletter for Non-Members

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 15:54:11 GMT

The ecoartspace March 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Retracing the Paths of the Planet: Katrina Bello’s process, reflections, and intimacy with the world through drawing

Wed, 01 Mar 2023 12:30:00 GMT

Artist during field research in desert

Retracing the Paths of the Planet:
Katrina Bello’s process, reflections, and intimacy with the world through drawing

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Katrina Bello’s artwork begins far outside the walls of her studio. She revisits physical, intellectual, and emotional landscapes through a touching example of experiential fieldwork. Combined with informed philosophical questions and insights and an in-depth understanding of the physical world and its textures, she uses drawing as an intermediary between herself and this world. Everything from the physicality of her process to her choice of scale and subject are intentional and steeped in perception. She is a fantastic example of an artist whose work is an interwoven extension of her very sense of being.

From “Drawing as a Noun, Drawing as a Verb”, Modeka Art, Phillipines, 2021

Katrina, in your work, you create hyper-realistic surveys of the natural world, often of water, tree bark, and rocks. What is it about your process that helps create this intimate connection between yourself and your subject?

I think the textures in my work result from my studio process that has a heavy involvement with the sense of touch. Part of my work process is hiking and photographing for references for the drawings; during this activity I am constantly touching the things I encounter so I can observe them closely and see the details of the tree bark, the rocks, the water, and the desert canyon walls.

The role that touch plays in my work was something I did not examine until it was pointed out to me by the graduate school director at MICA. Her name is Zlata Baum and she recommended I read a particular text by Finnish architect Juhani Pallasmaa titled “Eyes of The Skin: Architecture and The Senses”. The text shed light on what I felt I was doing. In the text, Pallasmaa mentions touch as the “mother of the senses.” In the book’s introduction, he wrote: “Touch is the sensory mode that integrates our experience of the world with ourselves…My body is truly the navel of my world, not in the sense of the viewing point of the central perspective, but as the very locus of reference, memory, imagination and integration.”

More than simply finding references for my work, it is my process of knowing and having a deeper connection to the place that makes it unique. In this intimate process I become aware of the textures of things. Even in my studio process, while drawing, touch also plays a large role. For example, my drawings are made with soft pastels that I crush into a powder, which I then apply on the paper with my hands rubbing the powder vigorously with my palms on the papers surface and using my fingertips to make details.

From “40,000 Tons”, Caldwell University, New Jersey, 2023

More than simply finding references for my work, it is my process of knowing and having a deeper connection to the place that makes it unique.

Your process makes sense to me and how I experience your work. When I look at your work, it brings me an incredible stillness; a similar feeling that I have when, lost deep in thought. I find myself sitting peacefully as time flows freely past me. There has also been a lot of discussion in my circles about the histories and identities that materials and objects themselves hold. What do you consider the relationship between material, identity, and experience?

I am very grateful when my work evokes a sense of stillness in someone. Stillness is not a quality that I intentionally work to create, but because the work takes a great amount of time to execute. The process of making the small details, especially the large drawings, often necessitates that I am sitting and standing still for hours. Perhaps these are somehow embedded and revealed in the work. I find the relationship between material, identity and experience as something that is forged, informed, and understood through lived experience and knowledge. One of the questions that had occupied my thoughts in my studio practice was “how do I know what I know” and how my work is forged by what I know. A few years ago, I came across a text that lists the main sources of knowledge: memory, senses, rational thought, testimony of others, and revelation.

Time is also an idea that occupies my thoughts when I am working, so perhaps that also permeates the work as well. I think of the contradiction between the human experience of time through minutes and years, while rocks and mountains experience time in epochs and eons. And when I observe the tiny lines that look like drawings in the cracks and fissures in tree bark and rocks, I feel a sense of wonder for the length of time during which such lines developed. This stands in contradiction to the speed through which I make a line with my pencil on the paper. I am confounded by the seeming stillness of these linear patterns found in nature, which are signs of an ongoing yet barely perceptible movement and transformation that is taking place. Therefore, when I am in my studio making a line drawing that takes months to almost a whole year to execute, I feel like I am retracing or reenacting the slow geologic time that these lines in nature occurred.

Artist in studio during artist residency at Brush Creek Founation, Saratoga, Wyoming, 2018

…when I am in my studio making a line drawing that takes months to almost a whole year to execute, I feel like I am retracing or reenacting the slow geologic time that these lines in nature occurred.

And, those lines are compositionally fascinating as well! Though your work is based in intensive observation, your compositions sit at the intersection of realism and abstraction. The pieces I have seen, interface and permeate between topics of artistic materialness, and the actual physical patterns of the world. Is there a correlation for you between abstract reflection and a literal understanding of the landscapes we inhabit?

I think of abstraction in the planning and composition of my drawings. At the same time, when I am executing the drawings, I am constantly thinking of realism when it comes to the details of the rocks, tree bark, and textures of the landscapes that these subjects are part of. My engagement with nature often entails up-close observation. And when I do so, I often find what appears like miniature terrains on the surfaces of rocks and tree bark. I am fascinated by how they seem alien, otherworldly, and remote.

I am more interested in the desire to trace the lines of these otherworldly forms, and draw them as they appear, rather than invest in the desire to reinvent them. This “otherness” in things that is manifested in their surfaces and patterns is an idea that I became interested in after I came across a 2007 lecture on the works by Gilles Deleuze of philosopher Manuel de Landa at the European Graduate School. In the lecture, de Landa spoke of Deleuze’s studies on nonhuman expressivity. He gave examples such as crystals, rock striations and geological events like volcanic explosions and tectonic plate movements that dramatically change our landscape in very slow times scales; these are all part of the idea that expressivity is not solely possessed by humans, and that even inorganic things have the capacity to express their identity through their forms. De Landa further explains that for Deleuze, if we focus only on things that are human and the creations by humans, we lose sense of our “otherness” which refers to the nonhuman.

These ideas about nonhuman expressivity and otherness were such significant revelations for me. It made me reexamine how I perceive the natural world and how to represent it in my work, especially in my drawings. It taught me to “re-see” forms in nature as marks, paths, and imprints of purposeful processes that lead to their construction. It led me to reconsider working with realism, literal representations and understandings of the landscapes we inhabit.

Salix, 2017, charcoal and pastel on paper, 60 x 92 inches

… even inorganic things have the capacity to express their identity through their forms.

I love how considerate you are of perception relating to your subject. And you express this very intentionally through your formatting. You are very considerate when choosing the scale of your artworks, presenting either monumental 5 ft x 8ft or delicate and intimate 5 in x 8 in pieces. How did you decide to choose specifically these scales? What is it about these two extremes that you want to emphasize to your audience?

I am interested in these extremes in scale as reflections on the sense of scale that is implied in the subjects of the works themselves. Because my subjects are nature, the environment, migration, and my memories and experiences of landscapes that I have physically encountered. I often feel that there’s an overwhelming sense of boundlessness in these subjects- that they are ungraspable; especially when it comes to memory. Just as a desert or body of water can feel vast and enormous, so do the scale of environmental issues that we are currently dealing with such as global warming, ocean pollution, deforestation, and more.

At the same time, I also make the opposite: very small things that are intended to communicate intimacy and fragility. When I make very small drawings based on oceans and landscapes that can fit in the palm of one’s hands. It is intended to communicate the sense that it is fragile, precious and something to care for. Therefore, I count on size and scale to insist on themes that have an urgency (such as the ones relating to the environment) within the subject of the work.

Hawak/Hold: Passamaquoddy Bay, 2019, still image from video animation

I often feel that there’s an overwhelming sense of boundlessness in these subjects that they are ungraspable; especially when it comes to memory.

You mentioned a combination of literal physical reflection and personal experience. From what I understand, the topics you choose to depict are related to your own migration story. What was it about your own migration that inspired this reflective and structured practice?

I feel that my experience of the landscapes here in the United States is through the lens or spirit of exploration, with a little bit of longing for the remembered landscapes of my native country. The more I live here, in my adopted country, the more it seems like my memories of my migration experience are embedded in the work. When I migrated to the United States, it was unexpected, and I was not prepared to leave my native country. I had an intensely strong connection to the landscapes of the city of my birth, which is located in the southern part of the Philippines. The tropical coastal city I was born in lies at the foot of the largest volcano in the country that is presumably extinct, and the city has a beach with black sand made from eroded volcanic material. My siblings and I spent our youth mostly exploring the tropical outdoors, especially this black sand beach and a sea that is darkened by that sand.

Immensity (Smudge), 2019, charcoal and pastel on paper, 60 x 37 inches

As my memories of this landscape begin to fade as I get older and live longer here in the United States, I notice that my work begins to have a sense of that landscape more and more; my drawing works became larger, more detailed, and with color resembling the color of the dark sand. Perhaps this development of my work is attributed to longing and nostalgia.

At the same time, the work is made with an intense interest and fascination with the landscapes of my adopted country. I am especially interested in exploring tree species that are so different from those in the Philippines, and mountains and deserts that I have never seen until coming into the United States.

My landscape exploration here in the United States started in New Jersey. This was the second state I lived in here; New York was where I first lived when I migrated. I was first interested in the trees near where I lived and often photographed and observed them through the years. From there, I started becoming interested in rocks, trees, ocean waters, and mountains in places I traveled to as a tourist and as an artist-in-residence.

My drawing works became larger, more detailed, and with color resembling the color of the dark sand (of my birth landscape). Perhaps this development of my work is attributed to longing and nostalgia.

I can see a parallel to your process with charcoal dust in your hands, the volcanic soil, new landscapes, and the subject of your new work. Your recent exhibition “40,000 Tons” at the Mueller Gallery at Caldwell University, expanded your earthbound topics to astrological ones. “40,000 Tons” is the amount of stardust that falls to earth each year, correct? What has inspired you to focus on stardust and abiogenesis (the origin of evolutionary life on Earth)?

Correct. According to a 2015 feature in National Geographic, that is the volume of cosmic dust that falls on Earth annually from space. My interest in looking into space subjects emerged during the lockdown during the early part of the pandemic in 2020 when I was unable to travel to the Nevada desert where I intended to photograph and observe rocks for a series of drawings and videos. Before the pandemic, the objects and landscapes referenced for my work were things and places I had physically visited, observed, and photographed repeatedly through several years. But when the pandemic started, I had to find ways to make up for my inability to travel.

Then, in May 2020, the world was captivated by the first launch of NASA astronauts into space by SpaceX. During those days around the launch, it felt as if the whole world stood still and was looking upwards to the skies and outside of Earth. It was for me a realization of how the entirety of my studio practice was focused on mostly looking into the natural world that is limited to Earth, even though I was thinking of vastness.

It was for me the beginning of thinking of the exponentially rich, expansive and vast resource of matter, time and astronomical events outside of Earth. And when I began to work with this new resource, my research reached a point of learning about the formation of how the planet, and everything in it, even the thoughts and emotions we feel, emerged from the matter that comes from space. I was fixated with the volume of this matter - this 40,000 tons of cosmic material that falls annually. So, when I am working with drawings using soft pastel powder and rubbing these pigments with my hands on a five by eight foot expanse of paper, sometimes I feel like I am retracing the path that cosmic dust is traveling on the planet.

Sometimes I feel like I am retracing the path that the cosmic dust is traveling on the planet.

Thank you, Katrina, for a truly perceptive interview. You have given me a lot to think about and broadened my perspective on the world.

40,000 Tons has been extend at the Mueller Gallery until March 7 here

Pam Longobardi - academic paper on plastics published on The Conversation

Tue, 28 Feb 2023 16:26:19 GMT

Pam Longobardi amid a giant heap of fishing gear that she and volunteers from the Hawaii Wildlife Fund collected in 2008. David Rothstein, CC BY-ND

The Conversation, published February 14, 2023

I am obsessed with plastic objects. I harvest them from the ocean for the stories they hold and to mitigate their ability to harm. Each object has the potential to be a message from the sea – a poem, a cipher, a metaphor, a warning.

My work collecting and photographing ocean plastic and turning it into art began with an epiphany in 2005, on a far-flung beach at the southern tip of the Big Island of Hawaii. At the edge of a black lava beach pounded by surf, I encountered multitudes upon multitudes of plastic objects that the angry ocean was vomiting onto the rocky shore.

I could see that somehow, impossibly, humans had permeated the ocean with plastic waste. Its alien presence was so enormous that it had reached this most isolated point of land in the immense Pacific Ocean. I felt I was witness to an unspeakable crime against nature, and needed to document it and bring back evidence.

I began cleaning the beach, hauling away weathered and misshapen plastic debris – known and unknown objects, hidden parts of a world of things I had never seen before, and enormous whalelike colored entanglements of nets and ropes.

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight l Gene A. Felice II

Mon, 27 Feb 2023 19:13:02 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 27, 2023

This week we recognize Gene A. Felice II Gene A. Felice II, and his twenty year hybrid practice focused on collaboration at the intersection of nature and technology.

FLOW, 2017, (above) was a multi-media evening of water themed light and projection during the annual Spring tour of the Thomas Hill Standpipe, a 1.5 million gallon water storage for fire fighting, situated in downtown Bangor, Maine. Sound and moving imagery inspired by the rich history and daily functions of this unique riveted wrought iron tank with a wood frame jacket, at 50 feet high and 75 feet in diameter, represents the incredible diversity of life that depends on water ecosystems. Collaborators on the work included faculty and students from The Coaction Lab at the University of Maine, in partnership with the Intermedia MFA program, the New Media Department, and the Bangor Water District.

click images for more info

Visitors to Oceanic Scales, 2015 - ongoing, (above) explore their role in maintaining a stable ocean ecology through a multi-sensory, interactive art and science puzzle inspired by the microorganisms of the sea. Light, scent, sound and touch inspire new ways of thinking about ocean health while exploring the visualization and contextualization of ocean sensor data into a creative digital output, streamed from the MBARI Elkhorn Slough sensor array API located in the Monterey bay on the California central coast.

Above is an early 3D test print from a collaboration with Columban de Vargas, Research Director at the CNRS France, and leader of the EPEP – Evolution of Pelagic Ecosystems & Protists – team at the Station Biologique de Roscoff. Felice has been taking high resolution 3D scans of microscopic phytoplankton, hollowing them and creating scientific manipulative that can be opened so that students can examine their interior cellular components. The blue prints are early tests done on my Ultimaker 2 PLA filament based printer, printed at 60 microns resolution. The clear prints were done on our new Form Labs Form 1 SLA printer at the IMRC, with a much higher 25 micron resolution and very nice transparency / durability factors. The next steps are to print the interior components and the other half of the outer shell, as well as finalizing connector mechanisms that allow the two halves to join together and pull apart when needed.

Ebb & Flow, 2019, (above) was a three week summer research and performance trip taken with the Mobile Coaction Lab (MCL) from Wilmington, North Carolina to Santa Barbara, California and points between.The Labcollects, visualizes and sonifies local water data and shares it through outdoor, multi-media, video projection mapping and light and sound based digital storytelling events. MCL at the University of North Carolina Wilmington together with Open Lab Research at the University of California Santa Cruz, collaborated with Maine artist and wooden boat builder, Reed Hayden at the University of Maine to create the lab, constructed using a combination of wooden boat building and digital fabrication techniques, designed to house an array of art and science tools.

The exhibition titled CONFLUENCE (below) was presented at the Cameron Art Museum in 2021, by the collaborative Algae Society, which Felice co-founded with Jennifer Parker at UCSC / Openlab that has several members, both artists and scientists. The works showcased a variety of media formats, time & magnification scales, and creative approaches to being with algae as a multi-sensory art & science (media art & culture) experience. Included were growing algal portraits in a Bio Art lab, VR worldmaking experiences, biodegradable 3D printed sculptures, immersive video & sound works, seaweed pressings, 19th century botanical illustrations, a floating island ecosystem, and more. Visitors of all ages were invited to get to know algae, from the microscopic scales of phytoplankton – to the giant kelp of the Pacific Northwest. The exhibition is currently available to travel.

Gene A. Felice II bridges his creative practice across art, science, education and design, developing a sustainable network of innovation, living systems, and emerging technologies. His hybrid practice grows at the intersection of nature and technology, developing coactive systems as arts science research. His interdependent systems of hardware and software translate research into interactive, multi-sensory puzzles, exploring both passive and active modes of interaction, providing multiple ways for the audience to engage with the work. Video and animated imagery displayed via projection mapping / shared VR, transform two-dimensional surfaces into three-dimensional storytelling systems. Throughout his creative process, emerging technologies such as 3D printing, laser cutting & CNC milling hybridize with older methods such as wood fabrication, lost wax bronze casting, ceramics, glass casting and more. While keeping site specific histories in mind, he achieves confluence by merging these varied passions into a system of creative collaboration. Felice is an assistant professor in Digital Art within the department of Art & Art History at the University of North Carolina Wilmington where he is developing the Coaction Lab for interdisciplinary collaboration. His work has been featured nationally at the Cameron Art Museum, the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts in San Francisco, internationally at Sussex University in the UK, at ISEA Hong Kong and as a 2018 American Arts Incubator / State Dept. funded exchange artist based in Alexandria Egypt. genefelice.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Gene Felice, FLOW, 2017 - ongoing,multi-media evening of water themed light and projection, Bangor, Maine, and following at Fort Knox Intercreate International SCANZ Biennial, and in Wilmington, North Carolina as FlowILM for Earth Day 2019-2023; Oceanic Scales, 2015 - ongoing, California Academy of Sciences & Alterspace in San Francisco; high resolution 3D scans of microscopic phytoplankton in development; Ebb and Flow, 2019, cross country research excursion with the Mobile Coaction lab (MCL), 2017 - ongoing; CONFLUENCE, 2021, exhibition at the Cameron Art Museum, North Carolina; portrait of the artist.

Trees, Humanity, and Reaching for the Light - Interview with David Paul Bayles

Sun, 26 Feb 2023 20:44:39 GMT

Trees, Humanity, and Reaching for the Light

Feb 14th 2023

BY Rebecca Senf for meansandmatters.bankofthewest.com

One day in 1981, photographer David Paul Bayles was rushing through Santa Barbara, California, to pick up film for a job when he noticed a tree.

Tree and Three Windows, 1981, from the series Urban Forest
Santa Barbara, CA

The recent photography graduate from Brooks Institute of Photography was struck by the relationship of the tree to three curtained windows, lit from inside. The juxtaposition of the sinuous trunk, elegantly branching into a dark mass of leaves, with the geometry of the building’s linear bricks signaled something to the photographer. There was rhythm, pattern, contrast, and tension, but also, there was something elemental about the proximity and interaction between nature, symbolized by this lone and beautiful tree, and the presence of humanity in the form of a background-filling building, a massive dominating structure.

Bayles felt the photo’s exploration of this relationship between humanity and trees had potential as an ongoing area of study. He continued to make these urban forest pictures as they appeared to him, and eventually, the work gained the notice of journalists, gallerists, and publishers. Over many years, his work on the subject garnered articles, exhibitions, and, ultimately, a 2003 book published by the Sierra Club called Urban Forest: Images of Trees in the Human Landscape. That human-tree connection remains a central theme in his work today, including a recent and ongoing project on wildfires and forest recovery, as well as the upcoming publication of Sap In Their Veins, a photography book featuring intimate portraits of loggers and their work among the trees.

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The Artist [Angela Manno] Painting Icons of Earth’s Endangered Species - Hyperallergic

Sat, 25 Feb 2023 22:39:44 GMT

Angela Manno, “Apis, the Honey Bee” (2016) and “Pangolin” (2021), egg tempera and gold leaf on wood (all images © and courtesy Angela Manno)

The Artist Painting Icons of Earth’s Endangered Species

While the human cannot make a blade of grass, there is liable not to be a blade of grass unless it is accepted, protected and fostered by the human. — Thomas Berry

Angela Manno applies her knowledge of Byzantine iconography to memorialize the fauna and flora whose days are threatened or already past.

Sarah Rose Sharp for Hyperallergic

February 16, 2023

In each of her emails, beneath the sign-off, Angela Manno includes a quote from Thomas Berry’s The Determining Features of Ecozoic Era (1998), whose premise is that Earth “can survive only in its integral functioning.” Manno is one of many artists who feel increasingly called to centralize issues of ecology within their practice, an aim perhaps best expressed in her ongoing series Contemporary Icons of Threatened and Endangered Species, which merges the beauty of biodiversity with the horrors of its impending loss.

“Art and activism are my dual callings and for some time, I longed to bring them both together,” Manno told Hyperallergic. Combining her training in traditional Byzantine Russian iconography and experience in environmental organizing, the artist creates “icons” dedicated to fauna and flora whose days on Earth are threatened or already past.

Angela Manno, “Apis, the Honey Bee” (2016) and “Pangolin” (2021), egg tempera and gold leaf on wood (all images © and courtesy Angela Manno)

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Member Spotlight l Cynthia Hooper

Mon, 20 Feb 2023 16:57:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 20, 2023

This week we recognize Cynthia Hooper Cynthia Hooper, and her twenty plus year practice as a painter and research-based video artist located in Northern California.

Her early paintings (example above) from the mid to late 1990s, document the timber industry and related infrastructure in Humboldt County, California. This region's monumental log decks were once a ubiquitous sight—grand and metaphorical Ziggurats honoring the gods of progress and profit. Because of the depletion of historical timber stock (along with increased regulation and unpredictable cycles of market demand) far fewer of these iconic monuments are still around, though this industry remains regionally and internationally significant.

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Transnational Water: The Cienega de Santa Clara and the Mode, featured above, is an example of Hooper's essays/paintings describing anthropogenic wetlands in Mexico's Colorado River Delta and the wetlands' complex relationship with U.S. political and environmental policy. It is one of three panels presented for the exhibition Shifting Baselines, presented at the Santa Fe Art Institute made during the artists' residency and exhibition in 2012.

A Negotiable Utopia: The Humboldt Bay Project, 2015 (above), is an interdisciplinary media project featuring six short observational documentary videos and accompanying essays that examine and interpret the built environment of Humboldt Bay—California's second largest estuary. This project investigates the bay's natural resource economy and infrastructure (including timber, fishing, and aquaculture), its transportation (including roads, rails, and ships), as well as the bay's power infrastructure—including formerly nuclear, fossil fuel, and renewable energy. The project also documents Humboldt Bay's natural and municipal watersheds, as well as its varied conservation zones and complicated shoreline. Each video features atypical and unexpectedly graceful views of the bay, and each accompanying essay includes evidence-based narratives that honor the diversity of perspectives and experiences that index these compelling environments.

Humedales Artificiales: Three Transnational Wetlands, 2012, is the title of a video and essay media publication about the anthropogenic wetlands of the Colorado River Delta in Mexico. In the video (above), Las Arenitas is an anthropogenic site and represents a highly successful and collaborative remedy for two big borderland challenges: wetland restoration and municipal infrastructure improvement. Municipal effluent from the Baja California city of Mexicali meanders through a maze of treatment wetlands that also support thousands of local and migratory birds. After helping the local environment, this repurposed water sometimes makes it way to the Gulf of California, thereby re-connecting the Colorado River by way of the sinks and toilets of 300,000 people.

Westlands, 2011 (below), is a two-channel video installation about The Westlands water district in California's San Joaquin Valley, which is undisputedly the largest and most powerful water district in the nation. This agricultural district's outsized and highly mechanized operations grow billions of pounds of tomatoes, almonds, pistachios, wheat and cotton for the global market each year. Westlands also has the country's highest poverty rate, lowest education levels, intractable pollution and tainted water. The story of this place typifies well-intentioned Federal policy gone awry: subsidies historically devised to foster a sustainable agrarian economy for the many now promote concentrations of power and profit for the few. Despite all these troubling metrics, however, the sweeping panoramas of efficiency and servitude that define this site as a phenomenological experience often complicate predictable assumptions about it. The subtle and grandiose visual metaphors found here possess undeniable political agency, but also a capacious poetry as well.

Cynthia Hooper makes paintings, research-based videos and essays that examine and interpret infrastructural landscapes in the United States and Mexico. Her detailed investigations patiently capture the incidental and emblematic activities that define these complicated places, and advocate for the regional laborers, activists, and researchers who tactically refashion their complex geography. Her generously observational strategies and evidence-based narratives honor the diversity of perspectives that index the sites that she studies. Hooper has worked with Tijuana's complex urban infrastructure, politicized water issues along the U.S./Mexico border, and water, power, industrial and agricultural sites in California, Oregon, Arizona, and Ohio. Recent sites examined include the reconfigured wildlife refuges of California’s Central Valley, the artificial wetlands of Mexico's Colorado River Delta, and the built environment of California's Humboldt Bay. Exhibitions and screenings include the Center for Land Use Interpretation in Los Angeles, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, the Centro Cultural Tijuana, Santa Fe Art Institute, Museo de Arte Carrillo Gil, and MASS MoCA. Published work includes Places Journal and Arid: A Journal of Desert Art, Design and Ecology. Residencies and grants include the Headlands Center for the Arts, Djerassi Resident Artists Program, the Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts, and the Gunk Foundation. She lives in Northern California. www.cynthiahooper.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Cynthia Hooper, Eel River Log Deck, 1995, oil on canvas, 30 x 42 inches; Transnational Water, 2011-2012, watercolor and gouache with essays on paper, 18 x 24 inches; A Negotiable Utopia: The Humboldt Bay Project, 2015, videos and essays; Humedales Artificiales: Three Transnational Wetlands, 2012; Westlands, 2011, two-channel video installation, 6.5 minutes running time; portrait of the artist by Jesse Wiedel.

Member Spotlight l Perri Lynch Howard

Mon, 13 Feb 2023 17:32:33 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 13, 2023

This week we recognize Perri Lynch Howard, and her twenty plus year practice in public art and acoustic installations.

Floating Datum: Fixed Grid, 2005 (above), an outdoor site-specific work, created an interstitial relationship between the natural rhythms of Pritchard Park, a 50-acre former Superfund environmental cleanup site on the shore of Bainbridge Island's Eagle Harbor in Washington State, and mankind’s systematic tendencies towards land use. Installed for three months, the work utilized 100% recycled materials and was designed to welcome the community back to a section of beach previously closed due to high toxicity. The poles reflect our human tendency to map and monitor and the wind sensors remind us to look and feel. Howard worked with the Environmental Protection Agency and Bainbridge Island Arts and Humanities Council. The site was also a former creosote factory.

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At Ease, 2008-2011 (above), was a temporary public art project sited at Warren G. Magnuson Park in Seattle, Washington. Located at the primary threshold between the park and surrounding neighborhood, the work transformed a neglected, empty, and vandalized guard shack into a symbol of Magnuson’s military past, and transitional present, and the ongoing commitment to balance human wants and environmental needs. Howard used vinyl graphics and lit the structure from within. Project partners were Seattle Parks & Recreation, 4 Culture and Rainier Industries.

Working from audio archives at Ocean Alliance in Gloucester, Massachusetts, Howard created a compilation of signature hydrophone whale recordings from expeditions led by Dr. Roger Payne, its founder, along with colleagues dating back to 1967. Visitors entered the Ocean Alliance headquarters library, where the collection of reel-to-reels are archived, and the gallery where the artists’ sound works echoed through the space via a 4-channel speaker system while immersed in hanging textile scrolls (above), each printed with spectrogram imagery that visualize the recordings. The installation, titled Once Upon a Whale Song, was created in 2022.

A Gathering Storm, 2021 (below), included photography and photogravure, images of harbor defenses sited near the coastal waters of Puget Sound, Washington, along with field sound recordings. Fort Worden, Fort Casey, and Fort Flagler are just three of over seventy-five coastal forts that protect our harbors, cities, and waterways in the United States. Many of these emplacements are on the front lines of climate change, but were never designed to face this sort of surge. This work harnesses the power of sound to tell the little-known story of Coastal Defenses in the United States, their stalwart past, and present day vulnerabilities.

“The work evolves in series, sharing a common theme and employing a wide range of media; from painting and printmaking to drawing and collage. Subtle qualities of landscape are combined with symbols, maps, and icons to convey the complexity of real-world experience, relating to the ‘there-ness’ of everything.” perri lynch howard

Frequencies: Standing Watch, 2022 (below), is a painting from Howard's Frequencies’ series, which was inspired by extreme environments where sea meets shore and land meets sky. The work explores patterns of light and sound traveling over, under, and through the landscape, shaping our sense of place.

Perri Lynch Howard is an artist dedicated to forging new narratives from the front lines of climate change. Working in the context of extreme environments is an essential aspect of Ms. Howard’s practice, driving her curiosity to seek a deeper sense of place, beyond the dichotomy of near and far. Her artwork is a charting or mapping of sites and situations expressed through painting, drawing, sculpture and sound. Originally from Marblehead, Massachusetts, Howard received her BA from The Evergreen State College, BFA from the University of Washington, and MFA from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Her work is represented by the Seattle Art Museum Gallery. She has recently completed afield recording expedition to Svalbard in the Arctic Circle, investigating the impacts of anthropogenic marine noise on whales and arctic sea life. This work was funded by the McMillen Foundation. Her projects have received support from numerous residencies and fellowships including the Montello Foundation, Civita Institute, Willapa Bay AiR, PLAYA, Kingsbrae International Residency for the Arts, Jack Straw Artist Support Program, Centrum Foundation, and the Mamori Sound Project, among others. Howards’s art has a global reach through projects completed in Italy, Portugal, Brazil, Canada, and in South India as a Fulbright Scholar. www.perrilynchhoward.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Perri Lynch Howard,Floating Datum: Fixed Grid, 2005, Spinnaker cloth, aluminum supports, PVC pipes, 10 x 60 x 60 feet, Pritchard Park, Brainbridge Island, Washington; At Ease, 2008, vinyl graphic on existing structure, lighting from within, commissioned by Seattle Parks & Recreation, located at Warren G. Magnuson Park, Seattle, Washington; Once Upon a Whale Song, 2022, textile scrolls and sound, installation at Ocean Alliance, Gloucester, Massachusetts; A Gathering Storm, 2021, photography, photogravure, and sound; Frequencies: Standing Watch, 2022, painting with sound, 48 x 30 inches; self portrait of the artist.

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira interview for wethemuse.art

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:58:34 GMT

Walking Away (Water Ceremony), 2022, still from video, print on metal

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira

Nov 29, 2022

Interview conducted by Kate Mothes for wethemuse.art

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira is an Oakland-based multimedia artist who centres her practice on ideas of embodiment and physical presence in the world. Relationships between ourselves and nature, the space around us, the time of day, momentous events, and the seasons are captured in a range of video, sculpture, dance, installation, and music. She often collaborates with artists and performers who focus on meditation and healing practices, and as a teacher, works with students to envision ways that art can translate physical, emotional, and spiritual experience into new ways of seeing. Independent curator and WTM mentor Kate Mothes met with Koym-Murteira in November on Zoom to discuss ideas around perception, presence, memory, and her most recent project Unseen to Seen, which collaboratively explored responses to the pandemic.

Kate Mothes: There's a lot of research that goes into your work. And probably, I'm assuming from teaching, there's an element of constantly gleaning information as you’re working with students.

Kimberlee Koym-Murteira: I actually did a lot of the [plaster] casting and different things with students for the Unseen to Seen project. So that was a chance to break my practice into my teaching, which I've been trying to do more and more.

The framework [of my practice] is really the idea of embodiment, like, how are we physically present? That arches over like everything. In our emails, you were asking about the perception. And perception is actually like an embodiment tool. I really think that a lot of us become artists because we need a meditation system. And art, for me, it's like a moving meditation system.

Anyway, I got to teach this embodiment art class and did some of the practices that I’d just done by myself, but with a larger group. So I see that's kind of a thing that I would like my practice to grow into: getting to do kind of social art practice with larger groups, like doing body-casting or different embodiment practices. That's all very art-related. You know, ‘Is that embodiment?’

Shadow Gesture, 2022, interactive projection

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David Paul Bayles and Frederick J. Swanson: Following Fire: A Resilient Forest, An Uncertain Future by Linda Alterwitz

Sat, 11 Feb 2023 14:56:20 GMT

David Paul Bayles and Frederick J. Swanson: Following Fire: A Resilient Forest, An Uncertain Future by Linda Alterwitz

January 17, 2023 for Lenscratch

In the series Following Fire: A Resilient Forest/ An Uncertain Future, (2020 – present) photographer David Paul Bayles and scientist Frederick J. Swanson collaborate to explore post-fire landscape. The photographs by Bayles and text by Swanson contribute to their investigations of forest resilience in the face of increasing challenges and environmental uncertainties. By sharing this series of photographs, they add to the education, appreciation, and future of the forests.

This Following Fire project is part of long-term ecological inquiry based at the nearby H.J. Andrews Experimental Forest program where studies have been underway for 75 years, and experiments have design-lives of 200 years. In this spirit they intend to pass on the project, and even the photography equipment, to the next generations of photographer-scientist teams.

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Member Spotlight l Babs Reingold

Mon, 06 Feb 2023 18:42:59 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 6, 2023

This week we recognize Babs Reingold, and her focus on our human tendencies for self-destruction.

"My works dealing with the environment began with the destruction of New Orleans by hurricane Katrina. A bit after, I heard Jared Diamond’s illustrious portrayal of the Easter Island self-devastation through deforestation. These cases brought to fore the inherent greed that exists in all societies, an avarice that damages societies, or in some cases becomes the ultimate demise of insular civilizations. In a catchphrase, self-absorption transforms to self-destruction. It is this thinking—survival versus extinction—that has nurtured my objects and installations for the past 15 years or so. I question at what point do we recognize and act upon our self-destruction?"

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"The investigation of unusual materials is just as significant in this process. It is the tangible handling and manipulation of substances to form new stories for an object. I’m attracted to materials that have a history specific to experiences of a life before I discover them. Objects have a memory through their original use, but can continue to form new memories once transformed. It is a form of up-cycling too. They have included doors, windows, drawers, leather gloves, stones, sand, tree branches, plastic trash, human hair, and on-and-on.
Silk organza is another favored material. Scarred and stitched textures, transformed from the fabric I stain, metaphorically mimic surfaces, whether ours or in nature. They contribute to the effort to re-contextualize my sculptures and installations and impart a new role."

"Time is still another factor. The two-plus years in the making of the first large installation about the environment, “The Last Tree,” speaks to the physical manifestation of time, and in itself rewards the effort."

"Trees, for me are awe-inspiring. They are obviously environmental with a recorded twenty-two benefits, with global air quality and climate change as two of the vital ones. Tree markers, as well, are crucial —trunk scars and burns and tree-ring dating provide a climate history for each yearly ring. They speak of a life, of a existence not distant from our own, affected by elements beyond their and our control — drought, fire, disease and of course, humans."

"Hair is another significant signature in my work. Its intrinsic links to DNA and its endearing symbolism loom large in the art. Stained organza is stuffed with human hair to form trees, roots, stumps, ladders and animals in the installations and are a symbiotic link to hair living beyond death. Hair remains a collective binder for mortality. As an artist, I want to provoke the viewer emotionally and viscerally. I ask: “How do I present the complexity and seriousness of complex environmental issues to motivate recognition and action?”

Babs Reingold is a Venezuela-born American artist who creates sculptures, drawings and installations, focusing on the environment, poverty and beauty. She has an extensive history exhibiting in solo and group exhibits in galleries and museums from New York to Los Angeles and internationally. Recent exhibits include "Lost Trees" – a solo installation at HCC Gallery 221 Tampa FL • Address: Earth – Hudson Valley MOCA Peekskill NY • Water Over the Bridge: Contemporary Seascapes – Morean Art Center • Planet Ax4+1 – David & Schweitzer Gallery Brooklyn NY • Skyway: A Contemporary Collaboration – St. Petersburg Museum of Fine Arts. Her installation, The Last Tree a solo exhibit had a six-month run at Burchfield Penney Art Center Buffalo NY. It had debuted earlier at the ISE Cultural Foundation in SOHO NY. Reingold has a MFA SUNY-Buffalo and BFA Cleveland Institute of Art. Her primary studio is in St Petersburg, Floria with viewing space in New York City. babsreingold.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Babs Reingold, The Last Tree, Burchfield Penney Art Center, 2016-2017, silk Organza, rust, tea, human hair, encaustic, string, thread, yarn, 194 pails, video with music soundtrack by Lin Culbertson, approximately 25 x 40 x 14 feet; The Last Sea, 2018, Wood boat coated with paper mache and modeling paste, graphite, rust and tea stained. Animals: rust and tea stained silk organza stuffed with human hair, cheesecloth, leather, thread, yarns, nails, rusted chain, and used plastic debris, approximately 144w x 36h x 168L inches; Lost Trees, 2022, Silk organza, cotton organza, yarn, thread, graphite on panel prepared with modeling paste, wood stumps and branches, old pails, upcycled cast paper bricks from junk mail and old files, drawings on paper and panel, approximately 32 x 26 feet; Hair Nest (left to right) ’01” 2020, Hair Nest ’16” 2018-2020, Hair Nest ’15” 2019; Last Sea: Diorama, 2020, Wood boat, paddles and windows, rust/tea-stained silk organza, cheesecloth, thread, yarn, string, rusted chain, old nails, miniature plastic bottles, tree branches, marble stones, beach sand, Giclee prints of monotypes, 20 x 16 x 14 inches; Portrait of the artist by Grace Roselli, Pandora's BoxX Project.

Science meets Art and Activism in Pflugheber and White’s Microcosms Project

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 21:26:00 GMT

(Salvia Divinorum 2 Enhanced, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

Unfolding Knowledge, One Leaf at a Time:
Science meets Art and Activism in Pflugheber and White’s Microcosms Project

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Jill Pflugheber and Steven White have created layers of fascination, activism, and learning through their visually stunning Microcosms: A Homage to Sacred Plants of the Americas (https://www.microcosmssacredplants.org/). A sparkling example of the intersection between arts and sciences, Steven and Jill use microscopy to reveal the innerworkings of sacred plants to the Americas. By promoting indigenous knowledge bases within both artistic and scientific academic disciplines, they are supporting a vital and much overdue spotlight on some of the most important information about the very ground we live on and the people who spent thousands of years learning from and about it. Their work was featured at the Chamanismo (Shamanism) exhibition held at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino in Santiago, Chile in 2022.

(Datura Innoxia, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

Jill and Steven, these images are enrapturing. Microcosms is not only beautiful, but also scientific. Can you specify what the color microscopy is depicting here (cholorphyll, proteins, stomata, etc.)? What have you learned about both the plants and their visual properties in this process?

These confocal images were acquired by scanning the plant (leaves or flowers mostly) with three lasers. The plants were not labeled with any dyes or stains, so the only fluorescence (blue, green or red) we see is from components of the plant that will fluoresce under these light conditions. This means it is not possible to delineate exactly what structure is what color. Additionally, there may be a variety of molecules excited by the same laser line—so multiple structures may emit the same color. A single structure or molecule may excite/emit more than one color at a time, giving a range from purple to yellows. Chlorophyll is most often green but can be blue as well. Stomata often have blue guard cells, and these cells may have different colored proteins within them. Xylem is often green. Terpenes may be any color, depending on the terpene, and so on. Open stomata, closed stomata; terpenes traveling down trichomes; pollen at various stages of maturation. We are visualizing not just structure, but function as well.

(Brugmansia spp., Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

That is amazing! The structures that are revealed are enthralling and beautiful. It is incredible to see the actual functioning of the plant in visual form. And your interest in the function of the plants goes beyond aesthetics. How have you approached choosing your specimen?

We conceived our work in Microcosms as a double homage to the sacred plants of the American continent (with its immense geographical diversity that includes both deserts and rainforests) and also to the indigenous knowledge holders who have safeguarded the stories that the plants tell. The idea of “sacredness” can be difficult to define. Shouldn’t all plants and all life in its tremendous, though ever-diminishing, diversity be considered sacred? Of course. But certain species, for different reasons, are more culturally significant than others, as many readers of Robin Wall Kimmerer’s book Braiding Sweetgrass have discovered. Microcosms selectively highlights a significant, though still relatively small, number of plants forming a spiritual pact that ensures the wellbeing and survival of all species. Using a term that is part of his Rarámuri (Tarahumara) heritage, Enrique Salmón explains the importance of iwígara in the introduction to Iwígara, the Kinship of Plants and People: American Indian Ethnobotanical Traditions and Science: “In a worldview based on iwígara, humans are no more important to the natural world than any other form of life. This notion influences how I lead my own life and guides many of my decisions. Knowing that I am related to everything around me and share breath with all living things helps me to focus on my responsibility to honor all forms of life.” We learned a great deal by researching the plants for Microcosms and also by taking care of them, in their complete cycles from germination to flowering.

(Datura Innoxia, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

When you describe caring for these plants during their complete cycles, it reminds me of rituals and goals of some interspecies collaboration projects. Currently, more and more research is coming to light about the intersection of hallucinogens and psychological healing as well. How do these properties intersect for you within this realm of science, native histories and contemporary healing?

It’s certainly true that often the revered plants that appear in Microcosms are psychoactive. The two authors of Plants of the Gods: Their Sacred, Healing and Hallucinogenic Powers (1998) discuss why these special vegetal entities are so important. According to the great Harvard ethnobotanist Richard Evans Schultes and Albert Hofmann (the Swiss scientist who was the first to synthesize LSD): “Plants that alter the normal functions of the mind and body have always been considered by peoples of nonindustrial societies as sacred, and the hallucinogens have been plants of the gods par excellence […] It is in the New World that the number and cultural significance of hallucinogenic plants are overwhelming, dominating every phase of life among the aboriginal peoples.” The slightly bigger picture with regard to Microcosms and plants such as tobacco, amaranth, cacao, corn, sweetgrass and others is without a doubt more nuanced and well worth one’s attention. Current scientific research on the so-called natural psychedelics (such as magic mushrooms, the plants that together make ayahuasca, and certain cacti) is demonstrating in definitive ways potential health benefits. Absurdly repressive anti-drug laws around the world will need to change in order to accommodate these new realities. This is happening already. Canada and certain places in the United States such as Oregon, Colorado, and even Washington, D.C. are leading the way toward a more just treatment of plants and substances that will become the future treatments of many debilitating diseases. Perhaps Microcosms can contribute in a small way with other myriad efforts toward the creation of this change of consciousness.

(Lophophora Williamsii Peyote, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023 and digital photograph)

This relates well to where your work is being presented at the Chamanismo (Shamanism) exhibition held at the Museo Chileno de Arte Precolombino in Santiago, Chile. Do you see this as an opportunity to contribute to this change of consciousness?

Yes, we were so pleased and honored to learn that Constantino Manuel Torres, the curator of the exhibition “Shamanism: Visions Outside of Time,” (open through June 2023) chose some of our confocal images of Anadenanthera colubrina and Trichocereus pachanoi for the show’s catalog and publicity. It was amazing to see a microscopic San Pedro cactus on a gigantic banner hanging from the roof of the museum illuminating a busy city street. As Torres points out in the published catalog text: “From shamanism we can learn how to develop an intimate knowledge of our immediate environment, to view the city and its surroundings as an entity full of patterns that can be traversed and understood. Such knowledge of the urban environment brings with it and demonstrates the interconnectedness of all component elements. Indigenous cultures all over the world over centuries have intelligently developed concepts of what is proper for them and their setting at a moment in time.” These are powerful ideas that can orient our contemporary actions (wherever we live) in conjunction with a respectful understanding of the sacred plants that we have included in Microcosms.

(Hierochloe Odorata, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

The theme of interconnectedness is increasingly important as a symbol and as an actualization. Can these images act as metaphors that bridge misinformation in cultural understanding?

Microcosms is an ecodigital repository of biocultural heritage. As we mention in the introduction to the website, each stoma, each trichome, each patterned fragment of xylem and vascular tissue, as well as each grain of pollen in these vital portraits is not only a way into previously unseen vegetal realms, but also a potential way out of a collective ecological crisis. EcoArtSpace sponsored a really inspiring Tree Talk last October called “Fire Transforms” by curator, teacher and art activist Rina C. Faletti. She’s written a brief commentary on Microcosms, and in it she says: “Going far beyond what might appear to be another illustrative account of the beauty of plant patterns, shapes, and colors at an unseen scale, White and Pflugheber successfully argue not only for the organism as art, but also art as organism. Here the project extends its reach from the patently visual to deeper realities of consciousness, agency, equality of lifeforms.” We fervently hope that Microcosms, while paying tribute to the indigenous stewards who have preserved ancestral plant knowledge over the millennia, serves as a call to urgent, empathic, morally based activism as conservators, creators and informed citizens against the political and economic systems that are so irrevocably harmful to the environment.

(Anadenanthera colubrina, Microcosms, color microscopic photograph 2023)

Thank you for this truly incredible work, Jill & Steven! It has been fantastic to learn from you.

February 2023 Newsletter for non-members

Wed, 01 Feb 2023 16:30:19 GMT

The ecoartspace February 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

A Warning to Slow Down: In Conversation with Lauren Strohacker with Burnaway

Mon, 30 Jan 2023 17:22:38 GMT

A Warning to Slow Down: In Conversation with Lauren Strohacker and Dr. Lisa Minerva Tolentino

By Erin Johnson

Published January 19, 2023 with Burnaway

A red light races, doubles back, and moves swiftly along the edges of the corridors and stairways in the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art exhibition Old Red, I Know Where Thou Dwellest. The installation, titled Leukos Lukos after the slippage between the Greek words for wolf and light, is the work of Lauren Strohacker and Dr. Lisa Minerva Tolentino. It lives on the periphery of transient spaces and is controlled by an algorithm that turns LED strips into flashes of color left in the wake of running animals in the woods.

Like Strohacker and Tolentino, I’m interested in how canids are experienced, represented, and imagined, and what that can tell us about being human. In my two-channel video Heavy Water, a biologist working for the Savannah River Site (Aiken, GA) delivers a lecture about wild dogs whose mythic relationship to the protected three-hundred square-mile nuclear weapon facility is embellished to justify its displacement of local residents, and obscure the violence sustained by its activities. The video’s two channels enact a confluence between two epic timelines: the deep history of the Carolina dogs, who some speculate descend from the continent’s first wolves, and the precarious future imperiled by nuclear weapons programs and the production of radioactive waste.

Leukos Lukos is one of three works in Strohacker’s solo exhibition that takes as its starting point the very real possibility that red wolves will become extinct in the wild for a second time. The last known group of wild individuals live in and around the Alligator River National Wildlife Refuge in eastern North Carolina, just four hours from SECCA.

Go to interview here

Member Spotlight l Liz McGowan

Mon, 23 Jan 2023 21:51:35 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 23, 2023

This week we recognize Liz McGowan, and her nature-based practice in the United Kingdom.

"I work in conversation with the Norfolk landscape, exploring the meeting points between inner and outer landscapes.My inspirations are the detail, pattern and processes – reed, mud, wind, wave, erosion, tideline, that combine to form a particular environment.My personal concerns are about containment and expansion, about cycles of growth, change and decay, and about the shifting relationship between us and the world in which we are immersed."

click images for more info

Inside Outside was a reed installation sited on the Waveney Valley Sculpture Trail, 2014-2015 (above), which is a fine structure of walls made from reed that meanders and curls in upon itself to form a hide. When the act of seeking shelter–under a tree, in a cave–becomes the act of making shelter, there is a fundamental shift in the way in which one perceives the world: ‘outdoors’ happens because we have made an ‘indoors’. Once we are ‘inside’, we experience ourselves as no longer visible to us, no longer a part of the ‘outside. The ‘outside’ becomes ‘other’, a place of potential menace that we need protection from.

In McGowan's Spirit Wraps Around Me series (above), each of her cloaks is made with materials from a specific Norfolk habitat – tideline, reedbed and barley field. The cloak mediates between the human body and the landscape it emerges from. It’s an invitation to immerse oneself in the more than human world, like plunging into cold water. More than that, by referencing ritual cloaks, it opens up the possibility of a connection with the genius loci, the deep spirit of the land.

McGowan's Chthon earthworks series (above), refers to the Greek word for 'earth,’ referring specifically to that which is under the earth. In English, ‘chthonic’ describes deities or spirits of the underworld. These works are the result of playing with saltmarsh mud in liquid and solid form, to create patterns and sculptures, exploring what it does and how it moves.

Tidelines, made in 2018 (below), was inspired by the fluid patterns carved into their spindle whorls by the Haida people, a coastal seafaring nation of North West Canada. Using plastics collected from the English and Welsh coastlines over many years and set on repurposed plexiglass the work was influenced by Indigenous designs that spoke to McGowan, who is also an island dweller that spends her time by the sea whenever she can.

Liz McGowan has worked with natural and found materials for over two decades, creating responses to particular environments through installation, sculpture, drawing and conversation. Her focus is the meeting point between inner and outer landscapes, where personal creativity is given inspiration and form by those elements – stone, reed, tree, earth, tideline – that combine to form a landscape. lizmcgowan.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Liz McGowan, Reed Fans, 2017, reed installations at Cley Marshes Visitor Centre; Inside Outside, 2012, reed installation by Liz McGowan and Jane Frost for Aisle and Air, a curated exhibition at Cley church and surroundings; Tideline Cloak, 2021, Spirit Wraps Around Me series, The Yare Gallery, Great Yarmouth; From Tree to Apple, 2022, earth, apples, shrew skulls, raptor feathers (apple becomes shrew, shrew becomes windhover, becomes will-a-wix, becomes buzzard) Chthon earthworks series, work on paper; Tidelines, 2018, found plastics, set on plexiglass; below, portrait of the artist, wearing Chalk Stream Cloak photographed by Harry Cory Wright.

Member Spotlight l Constance Mallinson

Mon, 16 Jan 2023 16:07:55 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 16, 2023

This week we recognize Constance Mallinson, and her forty plus year practice as a painter in Los Angeles, California.

"My earliest paintings are minimalist, and upon moving to Los Angeles in the late 1970’s I started to explore and connect with feminist artists and feminist art theory. I wanted to change from the hardcore reductive work that I was doing to something more personal, and this type of work felt really personal to me. For me, the tiny insistent repetitious marks were a way for me to assert my female body and presence. There is an insistence in building up a surface of thousands and thousands of tiny marks that is quite different from casting a piece with steel. This is my body engaging with the material."

click images for more info

More recently, Mallinson has engaged in apocalyptic imagery of the sublime landscape, as in "The Large Blass-t" (above), depicting a free fall of post-consumer objects through smoky skies, items she culled from urban streets. Now useless, these objects are dispensed of human attention and in their decaying state. They seem to challenge their own existence, with abundance transposed into waste. The paradox of higher standards of living as manifested by hyperconsumption and resulting ecological disasters is critical to understanding her work.

The artists' epic panoramic landscapes painted from 2001 to 2009 (above) began as an investigation into the relationship between photographic and painted representations of landscape. Literally thousands of appropriated landscape images were “collaged” via painting to form dense imaginary landscapes incorporating multiple perspectives from the microcosmic to the macro, and conflicting narratives. Superseding the traditional single view of the landscape, they engage ideas of received information and its overriding influence on our perceptions of the natural, as well as question historicist ideologies such as the Edenic, the pastoral, and the gendered gaze. Spanning geography, time zones, and seasons, these paintings are tours de force intheir scale and execution and have been appreciated for their ability to seduce and deliver a critique while simultaneously positing a continuing relevance for painting in an era of ubiquitous mass media.

Mallinson's Nature Morte paintings (above and below), are inspired by decaying natural materials and often include Archimboldo-esque human figures. Twisted branches, rotting stumps and logs, curling dried leaves and desiccated flora collected from the artists' daily walks through Los Angeles’ streets and canyons were painted from direct observation in a technique reminiscent of botanical illustration or trompe d’oeil. Some are painted on grainy plywood as “backdrops” for decomposing woodland scenes or Renaissance like saints. Suggesting a mutual vulnerability and destruction in an era of environmental instability, the paintings also represent a ruination of the previous pristine, scenery of her panoramic paintings or the progressive productions of Modernism itself. In some, fragments of human-made objects are intermingled with the flora and fauna to form eccentric, post-apocalyptic constructions, both an incrimination of wasteful consumer culture and a monument to its ongoing ingenuity.

Constance Mallinson (b.1948, Washington, D.C.) is a Los Angeles based painter, writer and curator. During her career, she has exhibited widely and her critically acclaimed paintings are included in the collections of Los Angeles County Museum of Art, The Museum of Contemporary Art Los Angeles, The San Jose Museum, and the Pomona Art Museum, the National Academy of Sciences. She has taught all levels of studio art and criticism at the major colleges and universities in Southern California and has written for many art publications such as Art in America, Xtra, Artillery, the Times Quotidian, and numerous catalog essays for university art museums. Her most recent curatorial projects have included “Urbanature” at ArtCenter College of Design, "The Feminine Sublime" at the Pasadena Museum of California Art, and “Small is beautiful” at the Irvine Fine Arts Center. Mallinson is the recipient of a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship and a COLA Fellowship. Twenty-four of her collages, transferred to porcelain enamel steel, are permanently installed at the Bergamot Station Metro Station. www.constancemallinson.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Constance Mallison, #2 (Green and Pink), 1979, acrylic on canvas, 66 1/2 x 94 inches; Large Blass-t, 2016, oil on canvas, 60 x 192 inches; What Makes Today's Homes So Different, So Appealing?, 2007, oil on canvas, 60 x 216 inches, from panoramic landscape series; You, 2008, oil on Rives paper, from the Nature Morte Series (2009-2011); Lost Woods, 2014, oil on plywood, 48 x 96 inches, from the Nature Morte Series (2009-2011); below, portrait of the artist taken by Eric Alter, 1977.

Member Spotlight l Ana MacArthur

Tue, 10 Jan 2023 02:43:47 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 9, 2023

This week we recognize Ana MacArthur, and her forty plus year practice, from holography to games, while examining the intersection of art and science.

Ignition, 1989, 1982(above) is one installation in a series of works resulting from research into the current state of solar technology. It is a meditation on holography and its role as a bridge to a possible future, where the ingenuity of light would be one of the keystones to environmentally sound modes of energy production. A Seed, is a five feet diameter pumice crete dish reminiscent of both a satellite parabolic and a metaté (a tool used to transform corn into flour) and holds in its center a circular dichromate hologram that slowly turns causing a transformation of colored light on a white feather suspended above. The hologram is made from an optic that bends light to a focal point out in space, and as a result, when lit, splits the white light into its spectrum. Instead of the hologram recording an object, it captures only light itself.

click images for more info

MacArthur's installation titled Necessary pupils for climate change, Variation 2, from 2008 (above), reflects on the changes in earth's atmosphere, ensuing global climate change, as a ‘veil‘, of sorts, concealing the planet. Under this veil three million species face radical change, putting us in the midst of the 6th greatest extinction cycle in the history of the planet, and due significantly to practices unleashed by the industrial revolution and our dependence on fossil fuels.

In a moment of speculation, there is a reflection on what species are nearing extinction, and, with a near-by glass book, suggestions towards the significance of protecting this library of knowledge. Appearing as pools of water in flagstone slabs on the floor, circular holograms turning by hidden motors perplex as to how they generate the ephemeral spectrum, as if slow moving search lights, they circumnavigate the room and cross over the pupils housing the biological specimens.

Where Light Meets Water; Mumuru on the Equator, T12a, 2009 (above) is an installation focused around the display of a 5 feet diameter mold of the victoria amazonica, the world’s largest water lily from the Amazon Rainforest of Brazil. As an ongoing extensive project, an initial phase involved making a successful mold of an exceptionally large water lily, on site in the Amazon. On one surrounding wall a 15 foot scroll shares stories, through photos and text, and experiences from two trips and six attempts to complete a successful mold of this unusual organism. It outlines the context of a bioregion extremely vital for what it produces biologically, yet presently under great threat via the reciprocal effects of deforestation and climate change. A small object with a dichromate hologram of a solar cell draws a report with the nearby impressions of the giant leaf and, by association, recalling leaves as the inspiration for photo-voltaic cells. A series of small shelves with translucent wax impressions of the complex, underside of the lily are backlit with a two LED colors per shelf; a representation through linear time of the most pronounced frequencies of the sun's radiation affecting the plants growth in each phase of transformation. Nearby in an enclosed room, a continuous loop video slows one into painterly, haunted sounds of the primordial edges of the Amazon.

MacArthur’s installation In Search of the Collaborative Blue Fringe, Part II,2016 (above) is focused on a collaboration with a non-human animal (butterfly) and a biologist, while reflecting on extinction, interspecies relationships, energy generation and efficiency, and collaboration as a means to unexpected solutions. The work evolves from layers of exploration and meaning of the blue diffracted light from two species of butterflies. The work engaged scanning electron microscope explorations, fieldwork collaboration with a behavioral biologist, the symbolism and psychology of the color blue, and the use of sugar as both energy source for butterflies and flow of energy through the living world.

For Pollinator Concentrator, 2019-2020 (above), located in Taos, New Mexico, the hexagon tiles and the overall pattern of tile work were inspired by the ommatidia pattern on a butterfly’s eye. As much as the tile imagery looks simplistic it was derived from exact scientific photos or specimens with the purpose to maintain the exact morphology for identification, study, and memorization through touch. Each pollinator tile species is from New Mexico, with one exception, and with representations from the main pollinator groups, bees, hummingbirds, bats, butterflies, and wasps. Particular species were chosen for ease of laser etching, resulting readability, and ease of casting. Each specific pollinator in tile has a unique story. A blue glass knob at the top of the pole, the exact mathematical 'focal point' of the parabolic tiled dish, is also a small dish to capture water for thirsty pollinators.

Hexapous, 2022 (below) is a poetic board game played to somatically integrate awareness toward protection and increased propagation of the ‘class insecta’ and more specifically pollinators. Within actions of the player, empathy increases thus clarifying human behaviors that impinge or expand the diversity of this decreasing family of partially invisible creatures; some appearing in the full light of the sun and others in its absence, at night.

Ana MacArthur’s trans-disciplinary art practice functions as a creative catalyst by revealing nature’s processes and connected metaphors through the lenses of life’s relationship to light, environmental intelligence, and appropriate technology. MacArthur’s years of art/science researched-based practice along with tactile engagement with light and environmental work has focused on biodiversity preservation via collaborating with scientists and biologists, immersion in fieldwork including in the Amazon rainforest, pioneering the field of dichromate holography, site specific projects working with community, and innovative curriculum building in biomimicry, environmental education, and STEAM with the desire to catalyze significant change. She has exhibited her art projects and lectured internationally. anamacarthur.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Ana MacArthur, Ignition, Techno-Artists: New Paradigms for Virtual Reality, Metro State College of Denver, Colorado, 1989, 1992;Necessary Pupils for Climate Change Variation 2, 2008, Flagstone, 18 inches circular dichromate holograms, motors, hydrocal plaster, dcg holograms on glass, steel, halogen lights, dimensions variable; Where Light Meets Water, Mumuru on the Equator, T12a, as part of LAND/ART, Santa Fe Art Institute, Santa Fe, NM, 2009, archival pigment print scroll, 42 x 15 inches, suspended hand lenses, dichromate hologram of solar cell, paraffin wax, LED's, digital photos on translucent paper, projected DVD in dark room, 2 part 5 feet diameter mold of Victoria amazonica;In Search of the Collaborative Blue Fringe, Part II, Heizhaus, Uferstudios, Berlin, Germany, 2016, mixed media, black tent 10 feet diameter x 10 feet, video triptych, projectors, speakers, sugar crystals, sugar castings, blue trash, sugar lens, LED light, silk panels; In Search of the Collaborative Blue Fringe, video triptych dimensions variable;Pollinator Concentrator, 2019 – 2020, site-specific interspecies installation, BioSTEAM, STEMarts program for the Taos Land Trust, sited at Rio Fernando Park on Taos Pueblo indigenous land, Taos, New Mexico; Hexapous, 2022, prints of insects or pressed flora sandwiched between Plexiglas tiles, text, marbles, o-rings, cushions, 9ft diameter, sited at Poetry Garden, Santa Fe, New Mexico, ecoartspace exhibition and fundraiser; below, portrait of artist by Kristen Kuester.

Moira Bateman’s Truly Sustainable Dye and Abstraction Practice

Mon, 02 Jan 2023 00:00:00 GMT

The Hungry Girls #7, linen, Fleece, thread, horse yoke, 112 x 24 inches.

Canvases that Flow through the Landscape like Rivers at Peace with the Earth: Moira Bateman’s Truly Sustainable Dye and Abstraction Practice

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Moira Bateman makes work that extends local waterways onto canvas the way rivers expand lakes through the land. Using sediment and waters natural movement as her canvas, she works in conversation with the land by assembling her naturally dyed cloths into works of abstraction. Being in conversation with Moira, it quickly becomes obvious the consciousness of her work in relation to a deep reverence and appreciation of her surroundings. From sourcing to practice, to her expanded knowledge of local traditions and insights, and beyond to her personal compositional philosophy, Moira is an incredible example of a truly sustainable environmental artist.

Cloth after submerged in Prune Lake one year drying at lake edge, Gunflint Trail, Grand Marais, Minnesota.

Hello Moira, it is wonderful to get to know a practitioner who is as rooted in their surroundings as you are. Waterways are so relevant to the sustainability of landscapes and land politics. So, how about we start with you and move into larger topics from there… How about: what is your personal connection to water, its microbiology, and the Minnesota ecosystem? How has it nurtured you and how have you nurtured it through this work?

Minnesota is a very wet state! There’s up to 90,000 miles of shoreline around the lakes, wetlands, peatlands, rivers, and streams. Because water flows significantly out of and not into the state, it has been called “The center of the water universe of North America” …. most certainly by a Minnesotan. My favorite wayside rest is a three-way continental divide called The Giants Range, where water runs north to Hudson Bay, east to Lake Superior and the Atlantic Ocean, and south down the Mississippi River to the Gulf of Mexico. City water in Minneapolis comes from the Mississippi River. Like other Minnesotans, I have been nurtured by our waterways - spending so much time in boats, in lakes, on the edges of lakes and rivers, walking in bogs, and crossing rivers and streams on bridges as I move around my daily life…. Living here, it seems hard not to think about and be thankful for the water and its varied landscapes. In addition to ourselves, the diverse ecosystems, biodiversity of plants, and animals that live here depend on water. I hope to tell part of the story of this beautiful “Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds”.

Exhibition photo of By Way of Water (84 x 60 inches) and Watershed (72 x 144 inches), Bowery Gallery, New York City.

I am especially excited to dig into your work with water sediment as a dyeing medium. Firstly, how have the waterways influenced your process? And what have they taught you about their surroundings and history?

When I submerge cloth in a waterway, it is usually the bigger rivers where the cloth quickly becomes a darker shade of brown and begins disintegrating after a few weeks. I assume this is mostly from urban and agricultural run-off, but it may also be from the moving water on the cloth. I find the disintegration and unraveling of the fabric poignant as it represents a juxtaposition of fragility alongside strength; a theme that runs deep in my work.

I learned some remarkable things about changes in waterway sediments from paleolimnologists during a residency at the St. Croix Watershed Research Station in 2018. I joined scientists in their research boat as we pulled long tubes of lake bottom sediment from far below the lake surface. Studying the sediment layers helps measure change in historical diatom communities, lake productivity, and nutrient levels in relation to climate and land use. I used diatom-fossil rich lake bottom sediment in dying the cloth for my 2019 exhibition “By Way of Water” at The Bowery Gallery in New York City. The abstractions for this series were inspired by the microscopic images of diatoms and other microscopic lake life.

Retrieving cloth after submerged in Prune Lake one year, Gunflint Trail, Grand Marais, Minnesota.

You use bundling techniques to create textures in your abstract work. Are there any resist techniques that have worked best for your process?

I love shibori, but my experiments have been too distinct of patterns for my work. Strong patterns distract the eye from the overall abstractions I make and so I try to create more subtle changes by loosely bunching my fabrics when I dye them. This way, instead of patterns dyed in the fabric, I create the abstractions or patterning in my work by cutting holes or assembling light and dark pieces of fabric next to each other.

Your process of uncontrolled dye process combined with cutting and assembly makes your work uniquely conscious while still so abstract. What is the philosophy behind your compositional style and how does it relate to the ecosystems you are working with?

I work in abstractions because they keep my mind and eyes busy. Abstract work is my way of telling a story about ecosystems, the earth, and life. I use natural materials and processes as these add meaning to the story of the individual places. The places themselves collaborate and become imbued into the cloth and a part of the artwork. Abstraction suits this work best because the pieces are becoming a part of the place and telling their own story through the work. The work needs to be abstract because it is not portraying the place like a representational portrait--the places are bigger and more complex than a representational image could encompass.

Natural tannins, plant materials, iron-rich soils, and water can be unpredictable, but viscerally connected to life and the earth. As I discover how they interact, the work feels like a sort of alchemy. I go to remote places to source dye materials or leave my fabric submerged in a bog or lake bottom. I like getting my hands in the mud, literally. The cloth becomes imbued with the landscape, becoming a part of that place.

Last summer I attended a class with Aboubakar Fofana, a Malian bogolanfini (fermented mud-dye) master. I wanted to better understand the technical aspects around these traditional materials and processes. In addition to the technical fermented mud dye techniques, I loved learning Aboubakar Fofana’s methods of respectful collection of materials, conservation of water during the rinsing process, and the saving and re-use of every speck of dried mud. I am incorporating his thoughtful practices into my own processes.

Cloth after submerged in Lake of the Little Tree Spirits, Gneiss Outcrops, Minnesota.

What an incredible experience and inspiration Fofana must have been! Just like the Malian bogolanfini masters, your own work is deeply connected to the earth, ecosystem, and intention of place. How important is your Minnesota location to your work? Are there other makers who inspire you?

During graduate school I studied landscape architecture with dual concentrations in studio art and landscape ecology, the ecosystems of Minnesota being the primary focus. My aspirations looked towards earth artists like Robert Smithson and Nancy Holt as well as sculptors Eva Hesse, Magdalena Abakanowicz, and Eduardo Chillida. I was always drawn to cloth and textile art, but it wasn’t until about 2011 that I began using cloth in my work. The biggest influence for my work at that time came from author Patricia Eakins and her story “The Hungry Girls”. The work I made in response to her story made a monumental change in my art as it moved from the landscape into the gallery, and I started working with gestural markings on cloth to depict conceptual ideas.

Currently, I look to artists who attempt to tell the story of the environment and to effect positive change. I have always enjoyed the work of Maya Lin, but I especially admire her Memorial to Vanishing Nature Project: What is Missing. I also follow the work of Studio Olafur Eliasson and admire the variety of projects that highlight global warming but also seek to find solutions for clean sustainable energy.

By Way of Water, Peace Silk, Wax, Thread, Lake Bottom Sediment Stains, Iron, 84 x 60 inches.

You are not alone in your appreciation of local waterways. I understand that Minnesota is home to several indigenous communities like the Dakota and the Ojibwe, whose traditions are deeply connected to the regional waterways and lakes. Have the traditions of these tribes influenced your own understanding of these spaces?

The name Minnesota comes from the Dakota phrase Mni Sota Makoce which means “Land Where the Waters Reflect the Clouds”. Minnesota is the traditional homeland of the Dakota and their rich history here is many thousands of years old. An important book on Dakota history and culture in Minnesota is Mni Sota Makoce: The Land of the Dakota by Gwen Westerman and Bruce White. The many waterways of Minnesota hold special significance to the Dakota, including a creation story centering on Bdote (the confluence of the Minnesota and Mississippi Rivers), a location now surrounded by an international airport, an army fort, and many busy roadways and bridges. The Ojibwe people in Minnesota reached their current homeland by following the food that grows on the water (manoomin, or wild rice). This reminds me of the beautiful sight of vast stands of tall wild rice along stretches of the Mississippi River in northern Minnesota. Significantly, Indigenous Water Protectors in Minnesota have led the way in protecting waterways by working to stop the Enbridge Line 3 oil pipeline from crossing critical wetlands, lakes and the Mississippi River. There are innumerable lessons to learn about land and water stewardship from Indigenous neighbors.

As someone who values the world’s ecosystems, your work consciously uses only natural materials (silk, sediment, and wax). What do you pay attention to when sourcing your materials?

I use natural materials because they are the most interesting and alive to me. I practice conscientious and respectful collecting as well as conservation methods during my processes. I use peace silk which is fairly traded, sustainably sourced and cruelty free. The moths are not killed when they emerge from their cocoons. The people who weave the cloth earn a living wage and are involved in the business of selling their silk. I often think of the people who weave and the moths who make the beautiful silk that I use to create my work.

Lastly, what ecosystems are you working with currently? What would you like appreciators of your work to know?

My hope is to tell a story of these natural waterways that ultimately will help protect them. My current work, Etudes: Waterways, Bogs, Kayaks, is largely relating to the peat bogs of Northern Minnesota. I was eleven years old when I first stood on a quaking bog and since then I have been in awe of these beautiful, biodiverse landscapes teeming with life. I would love for people to know and love peatlands. In addition to being amazing biodiverse ecosystems and homes to many plants and animals, they are a climate super-hero. Peatlands store 30 per cent of the earth’s soil carbon while only covering 3 per cent of the earth’s surface. In Minnesota, about 10 per cent of the state is covered with peatland.

Thank you, Moira. It has truly been an honor and deeply inspiring to interview you.

January 2023 Newsletter for subscribers (nonmembers)

Sun, 01 Jan 2023 22:44:25 GMT

The ecoartspace January 2023 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member Spotlight I Mali Wu

Tue, 20 Dec 2022 03:21:46 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 19, 2022

This week we recognize Wu Mali, based in Taiwan, a leading practitioner of socially engaged art. For over thirty years she has developed a distinctive approach to working with communities across Taiwan, in projects that consider rural culture, land use, environmental concerns, and the shifting relationship between the rural and urban in Asia.

click images for more info

Art as Environment—A Cultural Action on Tropic of Cancer, made between 2005–2007 in Chiayi County (above), is an agricultural area in south of Taiwan. With the help of the county government she invited over 30 artists to reside in 20 villages and together they attempted to shape a learning community through art. This project made a significant impact on local cultural policy and inspired people to consider different ways to activate community building. It also resulted in a series of conferences and dialogues organised by NGOs.

"The piece I did in the 2008 Taipei Biennial is titled Taipei Tomorrow As A Lake Again (above) and it deals with global climate change; as the sea level rises, many parts of Taiwan could become underwater. In 1670, Taipei was a lake and not the city that we know. I chose the title because Taipei could return to that state again. As operators, managers, and planners of this city, how should we deal with this issue?"

"In A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek, 2010-2012 and ongoing (above), a significant part of our work was in fact to develop educational programs with primary and secondary schools. Inspired by our proposal to search for the legendary tree plum, Chen Chien-Hsing, a teacher at Zhuwei Elementary School, wrote a class plan to help students investigate Zhuwei’s ecological history. Bamboo Curtain Studio, my partner in the Plum Tree Creek project, is a respected local organization. They have carried on the work after I left. The Plum Tree Creek project generated visible changes. New Taipei City government started to pay more attention to this waterway, and is now working on a new landscape plan. Previously they never discussed policy plans with local residents; plans were sent to us, and we then, through Bamboo Curtain Studio, distribute the plans in the community. A platform for dialogue was established."

Wu Mali lived by Plum Tree Creek. One day in 2009 Mr. Wu Chung-Ho, a local historian, told her the creek was the mother river of the Zhuwei District. People used to live on the creek (cooking, washing, and swimming). She was amazed, because the creek was filthy. She realized that if she wanted the Danshui River clean, she should work from this small creek, and she started developing the Plum Tree Creek Project with Margaret Shiu and Professor Jui-Mao Hwang. The project was funded by the National Culture and Arts Foundation (2011–2013) and consisted of three components: (1) eco education, (2) urban planning, and (3) local harvest and breakfast meetings. Each component was organized by artists and the action team." Ecofeminism: Art As Environment--A Cultural Action at Plum Creek, WEAD (2014).

Wu Mali lives and works in Kaohsiung and Taipei, Taiwan. She is the “godmother” of Taiwan’s socially engaged art. After graduating from the National Art Academy, Dusseldorf, Wu Mali returned to Taiwan in 1985, and started to make installations and objects that deal with historical narratives. Since 2000, she has produced community-based projects such as Awake in Your Skin, 2000–2004, a collaboration with the Taipei Awakening Association, a feminist group that uses fabric to explore the texture of women’s lives. In By the River, on the River, of the River, 2006, she worked with several community universities tracing the four rivers that surround Taipei. Her project Art as Environment—A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek (jointly produced with Bamboo Curtain Studio) won the Taishin Arts Award in 2013, the most prestigious art prize in Taiwan. Her work has been included in biennials such as the 9th Shanghai Biennial, China (2012); 3rd Fukuoka Asian Art Triennale, Japan (2005); and, the 46th Venice Biennial, Italy (1995). She received Taiwan’s National Award for Arts in 2016, and was appointed co-curator of the 11th Taipei Biennale, 2018. Wu Mali is a Professor at the Graduate Institute of Transdisciplinary Art, National Kaohsiung Normal University, Taiwan.

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Wu Mali, Secret Garden, 1998, site specific installation at Nan Tau County; Art as Environment—A Cultural Action on the Tropic of Cancer Operation, 2005-2007, a three year project in Chiayi County; Taipei Tomorrow As A Lake Again, 2008, installation at Taipei Biennial; Farmland and the Plum Tree Creek, project with Bamboo Curtain Studio: A Cultural Action at the Plum Tree Creek, 2010-2012; Plum Tree Creek breakfast gatherings; below, portrait of the artist, 2015, by Wu Yi-Ping.

Member Spotlight l Deanna Pindell

Mon, 12 Dec 2022 15:41:40 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 12, 2022

This week we recognize Deanna Pindell, based in Washington State and her focus on forest and water quality issues through community engagement.

Unsanctioned Restoration Actions, 2012 (above) is an ongoing performative project in collaboration with Douglas Fir trees. The mugshots document these youthful delinquents. "Life for these Fir seedlings began in unfortunate circumstances. Perhaps they germinated underneath power lines, or in lots slated for development. These youths sprout as wayward and neglected weeds. They are highly at-risk for future delinquency: blocking views, disrupting power lines, and worse. Society generally chops them down before they have a chance. These yearlings must be rescued and nurtured. Eventually they are replanted along eroding hillsides and stream-banks, where trees are needed to protect the watershed. The young trees thrive in a healthier habitat, where they can be successful and useful to their ecosystem." click images for more info

Sequestrium, 2008 (above) is a theatrical stage installation to be experienced by one person at a time. The forms of the pods and twines are inspired by the questions: What would it be like to be inside, or underneath, a tree’s roots .... to feel the world from a tree’s perspective. Inscribed on the walls are a number of proverbs, quotations, and lines of poetry, about trees; collected from cultures around the world.

Seeking Salal, 2010 (above) undertakes the restoration of both the woodland ecology and the social ecology through the important native shrub, Salal. The forest-habitat remediation began with removing invasive vegetation and replacing with native Salal, a keystone indigenous shrub. Handmade wattles meander 200 feet through the forest, along the trail and under trees. The wattles serve to mulch salal seedlings. Text is hand-stitched into the hand-made burlap wattles, using black wool. The text includes the word for Salal in eight Pacific Northwest Indigenous languages, and English poetry. Eventually the wattles will decay, becoming mulch and nesting material for the resident flora and fauna.

We All Share the Same Water, 2012 (below) was designed to improve an existing stormwater runoff system, and adds art inspired by the research of the students who use the pond as an outdoor classroom. This earthwork functions to protect the nearby Catawba River, which supplies the drinking water aquifer for the region. The problem which we needed to solve involved slowing down the fast flow of stormwater from the nearby parking lot during rain events. The stormwater carries pollutants and sediments from the parking lot, and causes erosion. Our goal was to slow down stormwater and allow it to pool up before it gets to the settling pond. This allows the sediments and heavy metals to settle out and filter some of the pollutants. Next, the 'pre-treated' water flows to the pond where bacteria and plants continue to cleanse the water naturally. Small critters and insects can flourish in such a stormwater pond. The students at this school used the pond as an outdoor laboratory. Together, we chose five species from their research projects to be represented in this artwork.

Koh Seametrey, 2016 (below) is an ecosystem built by a coalition of Khmer and Western human organisms, an artificial island designed to clean water and provide wetland habitat in Cambodia. "What was there to work with, in this rural village? We used the most plentiful materials at hand: emptied plastic water bottles, bamboo, coconut coir, and a sticky clay mud, to form the traditional Khmer design of chan flower. As form came to float, we planted with water-cleansing wetlands plants, botanically known as emergent species. Roots and rhizomes of these sedges and pickerels will develop into an underwater thicket, perfect habitat for a microbial sludge that will consume pollutants. The tiniest will soon be eaten by the larger; fish and amphibians will bring forth new young in the shady, nutrient dense homeland. The emergence of this artificial territory parallels the emerging minds of the rural children at Seametry Montessori Children’s Village south of Phnom Penh. You Muoy, founder and headmistress, sponsored this artist residency with three goals: to teach children to recycle plastic bottles (in a country where potable tap water is never available); to teach the children about the plant cycles that clean the water; and to initiate the cleaning of these construction drainage ponds. Rhizomatic reciprocity, in the most littoral of senses."

Deanna Pindell focuses on forest and water quality issues through sculpture, installation, and public art. She explores the complexity of these concerns and proposes functional, remediative solutions when possible. As a citizen scientist and community-engaged artist, she has worked with climate scientists, marine biologists, water-quality chemists, soils scientists and a variety of community stakeholders. Pindell also teaches art and gives presentations on ecoart history, practitioners, and potentials. Her background includes curation, gallerist, boardmember, theatrical scenic artist and set-builder, performer, producer ... a wide range of experiences as befits a lifetime working artist Deanna lives with her husband and animals on a tiny rural farm known as Pindellopia, an art project of a different sort.

www.deannapindell.net

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Deanna Pindell, Unsanctioned Restoration Mugshots, 2012, Douglas fir seedlings, archival digital ink print on canvas, 36 x 24 inches; Sequestrium, 2008, porcelain pods, sisal twine, resin, handwritten text, plywood booth, exterior booth dimensions 9 x 5 x 5 feet, installation interior 8 x 5 x 5 feet; Seeking Salal, 2010, plants, mulch, wattles, located at Webster’s Wood Sculpture Park, Port Angeles Fine Art Center, Port Angeles, Washington; We All Share the Same Water, 2012, engraved granite on concrete pillars, made during residency at McColl Center for Visual Art Environmental Artist-in-Residency (EAIR), Charlotte, North Carolina; Koh Seametrey, 2016, wetlands plants, bamboo, recycled plastic water bottles, natural fibers, located in Tonli Bati, Cambodia at the Seametrey Children’s Village; below, portrait of the artist.

December 2022 Newsletter for subcribers (non-members)

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 16:55:56 GMT

The ecoartspace December 2022 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Wendy DesChene + Jeff Schmuki working as PlantBot Genetics

Thu, 01 Dec 2022 14:16:41 GMT

Armaggarden: Community Chard installation at Fuller Craft Museum “Food Justice” exhibition, hydroponics system, autumn 2022, Brockton, MA

Nanabush’s Spirit Brings Dinner Home with a Smile: Wendy DesChene + Jeff Schmuki working as PlantBot Genetics

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki use a satirical guise of corporate agriculture to create interventions that help address food insecurity in the communities of installation. By promoting solutions like hydroponics systems to combat climate and industry related soil and water depletion, they advocate for existing projects and help develop new initiatives in communities that face poverty and insecurity. They approach these difficult topics not in a confrontational manner, but by using humor and interactivity to bridge understanding and have a lasting impact.

Armaggarden: Community Chard installation at Fuller Craft Museum “Food Justice” exhibition, hydroponics system, autumn 2022, Brockton, MA

Wendy and Jeff, it is very exciting to get the chance to discuss your work at a time when food insecurity and the need for integration and innovation are so poignant. How have your common goals of art as political intervention led you to the topic of food security and accessibility?

As one of the building blocks of culture, cuisine helps define cultural identity by strengthening communities. By promoting healthy and prosperous communities, food becomes a political act to combat systemic poverty, food insecurity and manipulation. By association, healthy food systems help combat corporate greed and raise people out of poverty. Lower-quality, homogenized convenience foods that are marketed to people struggling with time and/or money, continue this circle of disempowerment. We believe that access to clean, affordable, and healthy food is a basic need and right.

Food Justice Exhibition at Fuller Craft Museum, autumn 2022

I was lucky enough to see your piece “Armagardden: Community Chard” at the Fuller Craft Museum. You have created a hydroponics system built out of otherwise discarded terra-cotta refuse that produces actual produce. How have you designed your work to support food justice within communities directly?

Jeff: The title of this work “grows” from the concept that the people living near the installation will tend to it and continually harvest food from it. No matter where the garden is located, the grown chard is directly donated to non-profit organizations that put it into the hands of people who are experiencing food insecurity. The art center becomes a local community garden during this time. This interruption of the day-to-day workings of the gallery is also important because it demonstrates food can be grown anywhere. Food insecurity is not only caused by geography.

Hydroponics is as healthy as traditional cultivation. Our process involves recycled ceramics that are fired at temperatures above 1500°F. This vaporizes unwanted pathogens such as bacteria and viruses. All other hydroponic equipment is also sanitized following standard food handling practices. Since hydroponically grown plants are raised in a sanitized environment, we can use fewer pesticides and herbicides as well as less water and space. The ‘Community Chard’ work is free from any pesticides and herbicides.

Portable Solar Gardens

It is so cool to integrate the museum space into the surrounding community this way. Also, I did not realize that hydroponics systems are thousands of years old! How does contemporary Indigenism relate to food and hydroponic systems?

Wendy: No one in North America understands the land better than the people who thrived here for 20,000 years. Colonial farming styles started taking over about 350 years ago – a blink of an eye in the overall presence of humans on the continent- but with it brought a rapid decline of natural systems that were previously stable. It's time we look at older techniques that were forcefully dismissed by colonial re-education and relocation. This cultural genocide changed traditional diets and lifestyles, creating social and economic inequalities that contribute to food insecurity to this day. As a woman and a minority, it was clear that this work needed to challenge elitist and discriminatory structures that touch all areas of a healthy and happy life, including food, shelter, and education.

Reclamation is the modern native story. Sustainable innovation is a First Nation's ideal. Hydroponics systems use less water than industrial farming styles by delivering nutrients and water to the roots directly. For example, within the Navajo Nation, food insecurity is 76.7% (the highest reported rate in the US) because their reservations regularly experience severe drought due to extraction companies nearby. Through the Farm & Garden Incentive, hydroponics systems can help mitigate these effects by producing higher yields in shorter time frames using less space and without soil. Using these systems does not contribute to the destruction and disruption of topsoil unlike industrial agriculture that has severely depleted topsoil integrity and biodiversity in the US.

Monsantra Plant Bots (2019) from “PlantBot Genetics, Inc., interactive animatronic work, recycled and refashioned mixed materials

And you address this directly! By creating a satirical corporation like PlantBot Genetics, you are directly criticizing the systems and structures of industrial agriculture through humor! How does satire create lasting change in food? And what would you like to change most?

Transparency. Big-Ag food system designs are difficult to understand, inaccessible, and overly complicated. They also put profit before people by promoting products such as herbicides, pesticides, and synthetic fertilizers. Since documenting how our food is produced is illegal in many states due to food libel laws, it seems like the food industry believes the less the public knows about how food is produced, the better.

The PlantBot projects are a way to educate and advocate. Still, no one is standing on a street corner, picketing, or handing out flyers. Today that type of engagement turns people off. Instead, we are on the street with a remote-controlled plant, piquing curiosity through laughter. Humor is universal, disarming and puts everyone in a good mood. Showcasing the irrationality of big Ag in an absurdist, yet funny way pushes for change in an unexpected way.

Automatic Greenhouse detail, PlantBot Genetics, Devils Hopyard, CT (2019)

Jeff: We love subversive structures because many people are overworked and don't always have the mental bandwidth left to take action for what is best. Changing perceptions through a fun disruption creates room for experiences that an audience will remember. Wendy modeled the PlantBot's function after her favorite First Nation trickster and hero, Nanabush (Ojibwe). Although Nanabush stories can be used as entertainment, they can also be used to pass down information and life lessons. Our lessons try to be empowering and fun. As a collaborative, we have never been interested in art that lands in a morgue-like-museum atmosphere to hang on a wall and die. We are also weary of artworks that illustrate problems without offering solutions. PlantBot Genetics practices Socially Engaged Dialogical Art which means art that interacts with communities directly to discuss what is happening in their area. Generally, people understand the importance of making changes; they are just overwhelmed and don’t always know what is best or where to start. Our projects work from the bottom up to provide easy solutions that make an impact. Get the average family involved in any way you can, and they will make small changes from within. Culture is fluid, and if you can engage enough people this way, you can instigate individual decisions that lead to community actions and a more just society.

Thank you, Wendy and Jeff!

Member Spotlight I Perdita Phillips

Mon, 28 Nov 2022 16:49:14 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 28, 2022

This week we recognize Perdita Phillips, based in Australia, and her thirty plus year practice of imagining environmental futures.

Cyanotypes (above) are an early photographic technique invented by astronomer Sir John Herschel in 1842. Paper is sensitized and then exposed to sunlight to turn uncovered areas of the image blue. In Phillips' work Natura Autem Vivit, Sed Occisio de Felibus, natural materials including bones have been combined with hand-drawn stencils. 10% of endemic Australian land mammal fauna are extinction and 21% of the 273 species are now threatened. Quendas (top and bottom right, above) were once found throughout the southwest of Australia. But, unlike many other local marsupials, they still survive in pockets in the urban areas of Perth. Nature is alive, but [for] the killing of cats. click images for more info

"Anticipatory terrain (above) is about dreams and nightmares and the night landscape as a place of uncertainty and potential. The video installation contains footage from Perth’s urban wetlands, plotting the shadowy traces of Western Grey Kangaroos, which may or may not inhabit various locations. It sprang from a re-envisaging of Goya’s El sueño de la razón produce monstruos (The Sleep of Reason Produces Monsters) where the positions of dreamer and dreams might be reversed and how, along with an ethical commitment to let animals exist in their own worlds, one should also recognise how other animals are essential to our own (entangled) being. Do landscapes, themselves, dream? That is a much harder question to answer, but even posing the question alerts us to the possibility of not the singular dream of twentieth-century modernist development, but of dreams as multiple, open-ended assemblages. And thus “we might look around to notice this strange new world, and we might stretch our imaginations to grasp its contours” (Tsing, 2015, p. 3)."

Artistic practices and ecoaesthetics in post-sustainable worlds is a chapter written by Phillips (above), included in the book, An introduction to sustainability and aesthetics: The arts and design for the environment (2015). This chapter considers the question of sustainability and aesthetics from the perspective of an artist’s critical reflection on contemporary environmental art practice. It adopts a specifically concretionary approach, examining the way concepts from different disciplines might be able to generate creative and speculative aesthetic possibilities. It considers scientific ecology alongside allusionsto Guattari’s (2000) ‘three ecologies’. It argues that art and aesthetics has a role in ‘unsolidifying’ sustainability. Through reference to a practice-based example, it concludes with a call for an aesthetics of action in the face of the inevitable uncertainties inherent in an ecological worldview.

Wattie (below) is a short video meditation included in Embodied Forest, in 2021, that shows crown shyness as each tree weaves its own space facing the sun. Wattie (Taxandria juniperina) are thin spindly trees that live in watery landscapes, in single age stands at Tjuirtgellong (Lake Seppings) in Albany/ Kinjarling, a rural city in Western Australia on Menang Noongar Boodja. They use their strength in numbers to deflect southerly storms. Once extensive, the Wattie thickets were sponge landscapes that sucked up water over winter and let it slowly seep out over the dry summers of a Mediterranean climate. Phillips writes, "sensing soundscapes is an embodied practice of attunement that can decentre settler cultures."

We Must Catch Up, 2017/2019 (below) was a performance/ installation that ran 9:30am – 5pm daily, for one week at Paper Mountain in Northbridge, Western Australia. "In confusing and compromising times, we must take action despite being surrounded by doubt. We Must Catch Up explores the point of talking through doubt and progressing towards action. In this interactive exhibition, participants experienced a time of reflection in a world that needs thinkers and people who absorb and react to the mad auratic flows that surround us." Meanwhile, other gallery visitors were able to observe or overhear conversations of warmth and positive exchange. Later, the mountain was rebuilt at The Farm, Margaret River, 2019, allows visitors time to catch up surrounded by paddocks and peppermint (Wanil) trees on the land of the Wadandi People in the South West Boojarah region.

Perdita Phillips is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised on unceded Whadjuk Nyoongar Boodja. After years of wrestling with the ideas of beauty and wildness, Phillips decided that things are not simple: they are complex and contested and worth fighting for. This is what she calls the both/and condition: how to live in an impure and compromised world. Perdy has employed many different media including walking, mapping, ephemeral outdoor works/ situations (eclogues), photographs/video and spatial sound. Her work is marked by a continuing interest in the relationships between humans and nonhuman others (rocks, plants, animals, ecosystem processes). Beginning in 1992, Phillips’ commitment to ‘ecosystemic thinking’ has led her to work with material and conceptual networks as diverse as drains, minerals, termites and bowerbirds. Originally training in environmental science, she completed a MA at Goldsmiths College 1997-1999. Phillips’ practice-based PhD (2003-2006) fieldwork/fieldwalking was recognized as top three annual abstracts in the Leonardo Abstracts Service Database. She has received two Inter Arts Grants from the Australia Council and has contributed to many interdisciplinary forums. Phillips has recently contributed to, and edited, Tectonics: bringing together artistic practices united by lithic thinking beyond human scales (2021, Lethologica Press), the both/and issue of CSPA Quarterly (issue 36, 2022) and Swamphen: A Journal of Cultural Ecology issue 8 on Particular Planetary Aesthetics (2022, co-edited). Other published books include Fossil III (2019, as part of the Lost Rocks project). Current art projects revolve around geological time, extractivism and contemporary colonial unforgetting. www.perditaphillips.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Perdita Phillips, Natura Autem Vivit, Sed Occisio de Felibus, 2019, cyanotype print, City of Joondalup, Invitational Art Prize, Western Australia; Anticipatory terrain (capricious dreams), 2017, video installation; Artistic Practices and Ecoaesthetics in Post-sustainable Worlds, chapter in Crouch, C. Kaye, N and Crouch, J. An introduction to sustainability and aesthetics: The arts and design for the environment (55-68) Boca Raton, Florida: Brown Walker Press; Wattie, 2018, looped video, Wattie (Taxandria juniperina) at Tjurltgellong (Lake Seppings), Kinjarling/Albany, on the lands of the Menang people, Western Australia, included in Embodied Forest 2021; We Must Catch Up, 2017/2019, performance/ installation at Paper Mountain and The Farm, Western Australia (photo Christopher Young); Perdita Phillips at the Flow walkshop 2021, listening to swamp water by Jane Finlay (below).

Member Spotlight l Kim Abeles

Mon, 21 Nov 2022 17:30:19 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 21, 2022

This week we recognize Kim Abeles, based in Los Angeles, and her thirty plus year practice addressing ecological issues.

"I created the first Smog Collector in 1987 while working on artworks about the "invisible" San Gabriel Mountains, obscured by the smog as I looked from my studio fire escape in downtown Los Angeles. In the 1980s it was common to hear people insist that it was fog, not smog, that filled the air. The Smog Collectors are presented in several series, including the Presidential Commemorative Smog Plates, all the presidents from McKinley to Bush with their portraits in smog and their quotes about the environment or industry hand-painted in gold around the rims. I left them out on the roof longer, depending on their environmental records." click images for more info

In 1995, using trash picked up from Los Angeles beaches, Abeles created a sculpture depicting a dolphin, which was designed to tour schools to help children understand the effects of throwing trash into storm drains. Entitled Run-off Dolphin Suitcase, the portable sculpture put the ethic of pollution prevention, and the value of preventing ocean pollution into vividly concrete terms. The familiarity of garbage run-off art stimulates an assessment of one's own complicity and how to prevent future "run-off" pollution in the ocean and, by implication, to protect all of our natural environment.

Women and Water (above) was originally created for the exhibition, (re-) cycles of Paradise in 2012, curated by ARTPORT_making waves, and first exhibited at Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions (LACE) in cooperation with swissnex San Francisco. The embedded videos are presented in pairs with the first in real time and for the second, one minute of footage is slowed to 6 hours. In some parts of the world, women spend as much as six hours a day carrying water to their communities. The journey's length for these courageous women to carry the heavy water containers is depicted in this artwork.

Cabinet of Wondering (below) brings together a wall covered with a large photograph of objects that I have collected over many years. Embedded in the wall are video monitors and cases for specimens on loan from the Natural History Museum of the University of Florida. Cabinet of Wondering expresses the urge to separate objects from their surroundings, and then bring them together on a shelf, in the box, in our imagination. Throughout human history, people have collected objects—specimens, spiritual talismans, souvenir pencils, family remembrances—in an effort to possess, reaffirm their existence, and to connect with the “natural world.”

"Citizen Seeds (below) is a series of six sculptures placed in various locations along three miles at the start of the Park to Playa trail. The sculptures are mixed media and portray six plants native to Southern California: Sugar Pine, California Black Oak, Coast Live Oak, Bladderpod, Black Walnut, and Manzanita. Abeles designed the seeds to have a visual presence from afar (sizes range from 6’ to 8’) and serve as a meeting place for trail users. The top of each seed appears to be split open, revealing a map and other design elements. Each map is fashioned in bronze, indicates its location on the trail, and includes the word “Here”. The sculptures then become wayfinding objects." Alicia Vogl Saenz for ecoartspace blog, April 21, 2022.

Kim Abeles is an artist whose artworks explore biography, geography, feminism, and the environment. Her work speaks to society, science literacy, and civic engagement, creating projects with the California Science Center, health clinics and mental health departments, and the National Park Service. Her collaborations with air pollution control agencies involve images from the smog, and largescale projects with natural history museums in California, Colorado and Florida incorporate specimens ranging from lichen to nudibranchs. In 1987, she innovated a method to create images from the smog in the air, and Smog Collectors brought her work to national and international attention. National Endowment for the Arts funded two recent projects: as artist-in-residence at the Institute of Forest Genetics she focused on Resilience; and, Valises for Camp Ground: Arts, Corrections, and Fire Management in the Santa Monica Mountains were made in collaboration with Camp 13, a group of female prison inmates stationed in the Santa Monica Mountains who fight wildfires. She has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund for the Visual Arts, California Community Foundation and Pollack-Krasner Foundation. Her work is in forty public collections including MOCA, LACMA, Berkeley Art Museum, Brooklyn Museum, California African American Museum, and the National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. Abeles’ process documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment, Nevada Museum of Art. www.kimabeles.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Kim Abeles, Presidential Commemorative Smog Plates, 1992, smog (particulate matter) on porcelain plates; Run-off Dolphin Suitcase, 1995, beach trash/storm drain run-off, welded steel, satin, mixed media, 16 x 64 x 22 inches, Courtesy Institute of Contemporary Art San Diego; Women and Water, 2017(2012-ongoing), terəˈf3:mə, Orange Coast College, California. Photo Credit Kristine Schomaker; Cabinet of Wondering, 2014-2015, Technology & the Natural World, Harn Museum of Art, University of Florida; Citizen Seed, 2022, California State and Los Angeles County Parks, Baldwin Hills, Los Angeles, California. Commissioned by LA County Arts and Culture; Portrait of the artist by Joyce Kim for The New York Times, December 9, 2021.

Spirit of the Land - Artillery review

Fri, 18 Nov 2022 17:04:28 GMT

Paul Jackson, "In the First Times," 2022. Image courtesy of The Doyle.

GALLERY ROUNDS: Spirit of the Land

The Doyle, Artillery magazine, Los Angeles

by Jennie E. Park | Nov 16, 2022

“Spirit of the Land: Artists Honor Avi Kwa Ame” fortifies the work of activists—including the show’s curators, Checko Salgado, Kim Garrison Means and Mikayla Whitmore—who catalyzed the introduction of a congressional bill this year that would designate Avi Kwa Ame (Mojave for “Spirit Mountain”) and its surrounding 443,671 acres of public lands in Southern Nevada a national monument. Without such designation the region, considered sacred by over a dozen local tribes, could be irreversibly harmed by tourists, mining and industrial “green” (wind and solar) energy activities; with the designation, tribes and other local communities would be meaningfully consulted in land use proposals.

Through allied modes of storytelling, this evolving traveling exhibition reflects the coalition strategy of the advocacy efforts it supports. Participating storytellers include artists, scientists, tribal elders, members of increasingly varied communities and nature itself; the voices and works highlighted in a given iteration reflect its venue and local community. Having germinated earlier this year at community spaces in Nevada, the show reaches a national register through The Doyle, where visitors are invited to recognize that imperiled land and ecosystems around Avi Kwa Ame (forty miles of which border Southern California) parallel similarly imperiled regions nationwide.

Continue reading here

This Artist Uses Trees and Maps to Imagine a Colorado with No Drought

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 15:07:13 GMT

This Artist Uses Trees and Maps to Imagine a Colorado with No Drought

Meredith Nemirov makes topography beautiful

published by Orion Magazine, Autumn 2022

MEREDITH NEMIROV HAS SPENT THE last 30 years walking in the forests of southwest Colorado.

While mainly an observational painter, Meredith’s experience of spending time drawing and painting among aspen trees led her to intense visual explorations of naturally occurring phenomena, reflected in her series Blowdown, which abstractly depicts the mycorrhizal fungi growing beneath the forest floor. Most recently, her series Rivers Feed the Trees uses old topographical maps of Colorado, where she paints the color blue into all the canyons, arroyos, and dry washes to create an abundance of rivers and streams.

“Meredith plays with perspective. She transforms topographic maps–aerial views of our landscape–into both the grounds the trees are planted in and the sky that frames them as they grow vertically. We love what this suggests about the different relationships and connections found in nature,” says a curator from the gallery in Telluride that represents her work.

This visual representation is meant to be akin to an Indigenous rain dance ceremony, a weather-modification ritual that attempts to invoke rain.

Through these works the artist hopes to bring attention to processes occurring in the natural world.

Read full article here

‘Gold Rush’ Documents the Social and Ecological Impact of Mining on Indigenous Lands

Wed, 16 Nov 2022 14:54:19 GMT

‘Gold Rush’ Documents the Social and Ecological Impact of Mining on Indigenous Lands

Stephanie Garon uses mine core samples to guide the creation of sculpture, video, sound and photography.

Published by BmoreArt, November 14, 2022

by Caroline Cliona Boyle

Thirty minutes from the Canadian border, an organic farm in Pembroke, Maine, harvests blueberries, cranberries, and mushrooms from its orchards. The Smithereen Farm cultivates the land, but it also works to replenish its acres to preserve natural ecosystems. Underneath this biodiverse landscape, the cellar of the Smithereen farmhouse stores 20,000 core samples, cylindrical mineral extractions used by miners to assess the presence of precious metals.

“I will never, ever forget the first time I went down there,” recounts artist Stephanie Garon. “It was flickering lights, a deep stairwell, [and] leaking, seeping water coming in.” The core samples stored at Smithereen Farm date as far back as the 19th century, when Pembroke became a prominent mining center. Located two miles away from the farmhouse, a mine known to locals as “Big Hill” represents both the remnants, and active pursuits, of prospectors’ attempts to acquire natural resources.

Garon is an environmental artist whose paintings, sculptures, and installations explore humanity’s complex relationship with nature. Her new solo exhibition, Gold Rush, uses materials previously extracted from Big Hill to examine the ecological, cultural, and social implications of mining land that Indigenous tribes, including the Passamaquoddy, have inhabited for more than 12,000 years.

Throughout her career, Garon has experimented with organic materials, often treading the line between art and environmental science. “Being immersed in nature, and being surrounded by metal, were my earliest forms of language,” she says over a Zoom preview tour of the exhibition. The artist is a fellow of Hamiltonian Artists, a nonprofit that advocates for accessibility within the contemporary art community. The organization operates out of Hamiltonian Gallery in Washington, DC where Gold Rush is displayed.

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight l Nancy Azara

Mon, 14 Nov 2022 18:00:58 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 14, 2022

This week we recognize Nancy Azara, and her fifty plus year practice as an ecofeminist artist working primarily with trees.

"I make collages, prints, banners, and carved and painted sculptures that record a journey of ideas and memories around the unseen and the unknown, reflecting on time and mortality through facets of my personal history. I juxtapose real tree limbs and vines with arboreal imagery—including renderings of witch hazel and rhubarb leaves—using them as stand-ins for my own presence, and as expressions of the dogged persistence of life." click images for more info

"For several decades I have been making sculpture, carving pieces of wood that are logs or milled lumber, ranging in size from 1 foot to 12 feet or more. The work is often gilded with metal leaf, painted with tempera, encaustic, and oils, stained and sometimes burned or bleached. These formal properties are the psychic outer layer. Within the psychic inner layer is the voice of my heart and what resides within it. The wood, the paint, and layers that make up the sculpture record a journey of memory, images, and ideas." Nancy Azara, Brooklyn Museum, Feminist Art Base

"Conflating natural form and religious iconography, Azara’s aesthetic language is at once universal, highly personal, and deeply resonant. Gleaning from the simplicity of nature’s gifts, she creates experiential encounters for her viewers while expressing her feminist ethos through symbols of creativity, wishes, and prayers—or votives. Through her work, she illuminates a deep sense of what connects us all, our inescapable awareness that we are nature." Excerpt from feature essay by Patricia Watts for the monograph, Votives, published in 2022.

"When I think about the things that have formed my sense of self as an artist, I always return to those lessons from my grandfather’s garden, which delighted me and heightened my sense of observation, awakened my curiosity and made me comfortable with solitude. It opened my eyes to an appreciation of colors and shapes, and brought wonder at its different cycles. Because there were no children my age in the neighborhood, I was often left alone there. Still vivid in my mind is the explosion of colors in the spring, the change of colors in the fall, the brilliance of the sun, the softness of the moon, the shadows cast by the trees, the rhythm and patterns of spacing and thinning, shaping and pruning, of watching things change, of seeing birds and plants mature and die. I remember observing this garden, its everyday activities and the activities of the adults who worked in it. My grandfather and his gardener used such love and caring. As I watched their passion I learned how to bring the same kind of attention that I now bring to my art." Nancy Azara, Veteran Feminists of America

Nancy Azara is an artist and feminist educator best known for her large-scale wood sculptures and mixed media collages. Nancy developed, and continues to work in, a distinct style of sculpture working with found wood, carved, ornamented and mounted. Instinctive chip carving peels off an outer layer of wood, reaching for an essentialized raw experience of the body, of the limbs, exposing flesh and blood. This work explores life cycles, utilizing the metaphor of tree for personhood. Egg tempera, often in reds and pinks, and aluminum, palladium, gold gilding recover these exposed layers, exploring folkloric stories of women’s roles, goddess imagery, ancient symbols, mystic spiritual traditions and affirmation of female self. Nancy continues to make and exhibit work from her studios in Tribeca and Woodstock. She is constantly challenging herself and her community in quarterly intergenerational feminist dialogues, (RE)PRESENT, an outgrowth of NYFAI, The New York Feminist Art Institute, a school she co-founded in 1979. Here, she formalized automatic journal drawing for a class she taught called Visual Diaries, Consciousness Raising Workshop, as a way to access the unconscious. This method quickly became popular as a feminist consciousness-raising technique and was embraced in the nascent feminist art community in New York and with groups like Redstockings. www.nancyazara.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Nancy Azara, Hand/Palm, 2018, carved and painted wood with aluminum leaf, 18 x 17 x 5 inches, Photo: Jude Broughan; The Twins, 2010, carved and painted wood with aluminum leaf, 12 x 3 inches each, Photo: Jude Broughan; Leaf Altar for Anunzia 1913-2004, 2007, carved and painted wood with aluminum leaf, 80 x 53 x 17 inches; Circle with Seven Hands, 1996, carved and painted wood with gold leaf, 5 feet x 40 inches in diameter; Red Twins, 2016, etching plate 13 x 16 inches, paper 21.5 x 22.25 inches, Photo: Courtesy VanDeb Editions; (below) portrait of the artist inside her work Spirit House of the Mother, 1994, carved and painted wood with gold leaf, 11 x 6 x 7 inches, photographed by Jamie McEwen.

Nancy Azara: Votives, Sculptures, monograph published 2022 (download here)

click on image to purchase

Fluid Dynamics: Connecting the Drops at Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 19:00:49 GMT

Fluid Dynamics: Connecting the Drops at Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery

by Kaya Turan

From July 21st to October 29th, visitors to Stony Brook University’s Zuccaire Gallery were immersed in a space of aquatic motion: swirling whirlpools, falling rain, rising tides, melting ice, and flowing currents. “Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water,” an exhibition curated by the gallery’s director Karen Levitov, explores the kinetic capacities of water. The show presented the work of seven female artists who consider the role of water in climate crisis and environmental justice. “Connecting the Drops” emphasized the dynamic qualities of water, which are both constructive and destructive. The exhibition engaged with the ecological specificity of Long Island and Stony Brook, which occupies the ancestral, traditional, and contemporary lands of the aboriginal territory of the Setalcott and Shinnecock peoples. “Connecting the Drops” stressed the need for connective movements, for the productive and beautiful harnessing of fluid dynamics.

Jaanika Peerna, Ice Memory, 2021-ongoing

Several works employed water itself as artistic medium. Jaanika Peerna’s Ice Memory, a large-scale drawing reaching the gallery’s ceiling, archives water’s transformative, but vanishing, properties. Each week, Peerna returned to the gallery to melt ice onto the drawing and gradually alter its composition. In Clepsydra for Carbon, Mary Mattingly similar offers water as a method of time-measurement, with a delicately constructed arrangement of tubes, plants, and flowing water which counts carbon absorption.

Mary Mattingly, Clepsydra for Carbon, 2022

Sculptural works by Erin Genia and Courtney M. Leonard explore the foundational, but increasingly strained entanglement of humans and water. Genia’s Earthling is a life-sized figure constructed in part with architectural model turf, reminding the visitor of the ecological constitution of their own corporeality. Painted and sculpted in part directly on the gallery wall, Beach: Logbook 22 | Cull (Leonard) uses wooden pallets and oyster shells to reference the history of the Shinnecock bay’s docks. These works critique Western culture’s estrangement from the natural world, examining the ways in which human bodies and cultures move and are moved by water. Similar themes are developed in Allicia Grullón’s multichannel video work 7 Stories About Water, which examines relations of cultural and individual memory to water.

Betsy Damon, The Primary Movement of Water is the Vortex, 2018

All is not (yet) lost: the exhibition also explored the generative and re-generative motions of water. Betsy Damon’s series of Sumi ink drawings, Principles of Water, examine the vortical movements of whirlpools and eddies, emphasizing the creative and productive nature of these kinetic patterns. In swirling, inky compositions, Damon posits turbulence as a kind of genesis. The restorative capacities of and for water are also foregrounded in Go H.O.M.E Bimini (Lillian Ball), an interactive video game which occupied a darkened corner in the rear of the gallery space. Using the strategy game Go, the game asks the player to envision and enact the restoration of mangrove wetlands in the Bahamas. The exhibition accordingly asked visitors to consider the ways in which we might foster and return water’s restorative powers.

In “Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water,” water emerged as a fundamentally kinetic force. Thoroughly entangled with human life, aquatic processes make, and unmake, our world. The exhibition warned that how we relate to the flows and fluxes of water matters crucially in the time of anthropogenic climate crisis. “Connecting the Drops” both mourned and hoped, searching for rhythms that might allow for generative movement to flourish on our planet.

Kaya Turan is a PhD student in Art History & Criticism at Stony Brook University. His research focuses on contemporary experimental film and cinematic spectatorship in relation to digital media theory and ecology. His recent work engages with process philosophy and philosophy of science, as well as theories of “elemental” media, in order to examine relations between cinematic and ecological kinetics.

Connecting the Drops: The Power of Water at the Paul W. Zuccaire Gallery, Stony Brook University (July 21 - October 29, 2022)

Watch Zuccaire Gallery panel discussion on Indigenous Art and Environmental Issues, including Courtney M. Leonard in Connecting the Drops, October 27, 2022.

Fibers of Place: Michele Brody reconstructs local plants into visual reflections

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 15:27:09 GMT

Fibers of Place: Michele Brody reconstructs local plants into visual reflections

Interview by: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Integrating site-specific process-oriented paper making, Michele Brody addresses questions of localness, the natural world, and plant indigenousness. At her recent exhibition at St. Michael’s College in Vermont, presented in partnership with ecoartspace, Michele’s work reflects on both biodiversity and its loss. As a papermaker, her topic is the very fiber of her art and study whether in Vermont or in the Bronx. Her international experience has created a portfolio and knowledge base that truly embodies the idea of the “GLocal”. In our interview she discusses her experience in Vermont, her inspirations, and her process.

Entrance detail, handmade paper with local flora

Hi Michele! What first struck me about your body of work is that you have worked creating site-specific pieces based on the local flora and fauna all over the world. How has the St. Michael’s College, Vermont area inspired you in a unique way? 

When I was invited to exhibit at St. Michael’s college, the Director Brian Collier invited me to come up for a preview visit. He especially wanted to show me the School’s Nature area. A property that for years had been rented out to a farmer. Once the school regained control of the land again, they decided to let it naturally go back to being a Riparian Forest. When I went it was still in the early stages of re-growing native species such as Goldenrod, Milkweed and in the distance Cotton wood trees. I was especially excited to see Cattails growing along a natural marsh that the local beavers helped to create so that the land could go back to being a native wetland. I was especially inspired by the narrow swath of a walkway cut into the tall meadow throughout the nature area. I wanted to re-create this experience as one entered the gallery. The feeling of walking through the tall grass meadow sprouting up on either side of you.

Exhibition entrance, handmade paper with local flora

Native plants are so central to your work, and we are living in a time when climate change is ever-present. What aspects of changing climate and resilience measures did you become aware of during your time in Vermont?

Ironically, it was not until I started driving again after not owning a car for 20 years that I became more aware of the abundance of plant life along the roads and highways. While diving up to Vermont I was most attuned to looking for Cattails and Milkweed which are both Native to the area, but less and less available due to be crowded out by the non-native species of Phragmites and Mug wort. But once I entered Vermont, I was pleasantly surprised to see more of the native species growing along the highways. I believe this is mainly due to Vermont being less developed than the rest of the Northeast. Also, while on site at Saint Michael’s it was exciting to learn about the “Nature area” project to return farmland to being a natural wetland. The beavers were especially happy about this, and the fruits of their labors could certainly be seen, as well as the return of native species taking back the land.

Your knowledge and observations about the nature around you are so intimate. What have these plants taught you about the world that people often overlook?

The main thing I have learned that no matter what we as humans try to do to control and manage Nature, especially with the development of monocultures and agriculture, Nature will in the end find its own way to survive. It may not be the same as before, such as having non-native species take over the land where natives once thrive. But over time, nature will find its own balance and become once again more diverse and in abundance.

Exhibition entrance, handmade paper with local flora

Since we are talking about balance, I noticed that several pieces use both positive and negative space and imprinting to leave reliefs of local flora. What is the intention you have behind integrating some flora and imprinting others? And what role do non-native or Indigenous plants play?

Much of my current work is inspired by Rachel Carson’s seminal book “Silent Spring.” The title for this series that integrates positive and negative imprints of local flora is "Nature in Absentia." The goal of "Nature in Absentia" is to illustrate how the current loss of ecological biodiversity within the natural environment due to over development, pollution and climate change is in stark contrast to the ever expanding cultural and racial diversity throughout the world. The impetus is to deconstruct and redeﬁne the traditional practice of categorizing plants and animals as either native, non-native or invasive within a particular ecosystem in comparison to the ever-growing diversity of human populations through immigration, and to see how being sensitive to cultivating a balance between plant species can be mirrored in humans.

In this effort to deconstruct and redefine traditional categorizations, you are using site-specific fibers. How has your medium and process inspired you in your work?

The show in Vermont is titled after a recent series of handmade paper works called Papers of Place. For this series I have been producing handmade paper collages with pulp processed from natural seasonal detritus gathered from specific locations related to my practice and home. The series started when I was working as an Artist in Residence in 2018 at the Wave Hill Cultural Center and Garden in the Riverdale section of The Bronx. The work is very processed oriented involving the choice of location and plants, watching the seasons, knowing when best to harvest and gather materials, drying out and pressing the plants, then soaking the plants in water to loosen the fibers (which can get rather stinky in a one-bedroom apartment/studio), then I boil the fibers, pulverize the fibers in a beater until finally I can then get down to actually making the paper.

St. Michael’s Nature Area/Riparian Forest, Vermont

I believe it! And admire your dedication despite your space limitations. As a result, many of your works present organic forms which are often textural and allow the viewer to see the elements you have added. What is your visual philosophy regarding viewership and these textures?

The essence of my practice thrives on the interaction with new communities by exploring what it means to establish roots within an unfamiliar environment. With each new location I conduct a careful investigative method that involves the gathering of regional materials, native plants, local stories, and historic research. I employ this process to create site-generated works of art that illuminate the unobserved in our day-to-day surroundings and the challenges facing our environment. I am intrigued with the process of creating a controlled environment where the work organically develops and changes over time. Building from this foundation, my work represents the daily flux and naturally occurring entropy surrounding us, while exploring how memory and time simultaneously erode and enhance the interpretations of our experiences.

And lastly, what can art do that other forms of reflection and observation miss?

Art has a way of communicating beyond language. Some can be heavy hitting and political, but the most successful artworks are the ones that subtly change one’s point of view, revealing things that may not have been seen before. Providing the viewer with a new outlook on the world, and hopefully a better appreciation for the beauty found in all things, in particular the day-to-day environment we take for granted.

Thank you, Michele! It has been fantastic to interview you and very inspiring to think of the literal integration of a subject in an artwork.

Papers of Place at McCarthy Art Gallery, St. Michael’s College, Vermont (closed October 29, 2022)

Risky Beauty: Aesthetics and Climate Change: Not a Minute Too Soon

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:59:50 GMT

Cynthia H. Veloric and Diane Burko in front of Summer Heat 1,2; 2020. Mixed media on canvas, 84” x 162” overall.

Risky Beauty: Aesthetics and Climate Change: Not a Minute Too Soon

By Arden Kass

Risky Beauty: Aesthetics and Climate Change (closed October 28, 2022), curated by Cynthia Haveson Veloric, PhD, at Philadelphia’s Main Line Art Center, was an informative and affecting show. Showcasing six eco-artists, it presented a thoughtfully panoramic overview of life in the Anthropocene era from a diversity of artistic perspectives, both in a stylistic and literal sense. Yet distinctive as these works are, they share a common and disturbing subtext.

Every art history course identifies the conflicting forces of Eros and Thanatos, Love and Death, as the struggle at the heart of most of the world’s great masterpieces in every artform. Similarly, the works in this show embody the (curator’s) view that beauty and devastation can share space, that the eye and brain are capable of processing both inputs simultaneously. What to make of that information is our problem — and responsibility. But each artist here undeniably pairs beauty with a message about the bottomless risk we take in continuing to distance our emotions and actions from the reality of climate change.

Stacy Levy, Missing Waters, video, Painting the historic Norman Kill Creek flowing into the Bushwick Inlet, Brooklyn, NY, 2018;on right,Flushing Bay Kayak and Canoe Launch, Marina Road Corona, New York, 2020. Chalk and water on pavement, 120 yards x 15 yards.

Stacy Levy, for example, “collaborates with the force of water” to illustrate the pathways in urban areas of underground streams that have been paved over but originally provided a watershed for storm overflow. Covering the asphalt with chalk paintings that evoke almost aboriginal patterns of waves and the rhythms of water, Levy signals how, as storms intensify, water will find a way to disperse, often by forcefully re-claiming its own former pathways.

Deirdre Murphy scatters delicate, seemingly whimsical marks like handfuls of confetti across brightly colored, flat wooden disks representing Earth. Based on the flight routes taken by Arctic Terns fleeing their homes in search of more hospitable nesting grounds and interspersed with tiny dots that trace the spread of pathogens in our increasingly unstable atmosphere, the patterns chart the course of environmental disruption, chillingly underscored by the artist’s narrative of scientific research in which she participated.

Visitor contemplates Deirdre Murphy’s Invisible Currents Celestial Maps, 2022. Mixed media print on Japanese rice paper, 24” diameter.

Hiro Sakaguchi expresses his “concerns for the wellbeing of this planet that is our home” in a candy-colored, childlike palette that belies the dire import of his imagery. Beneath their appealing surfaces, Sakaguchi’s paintings detail the rapacious devastation of our world in comics-inflected line drawings; from the approach of machines of war glimpsed through a scrim of crocuses, to the sheer chaos unleashed from outer space to ocean by human incursions into every dimension of the galaxy. They are both beguiling and terrifying.

Working in an aesthetic that references “the sensory experience of being within the forest” Amie Potsic creates lush images of leaf canopies photographed or printed onto draped fabric. Her installation conjured a visual and sense memory that placed us in this sacred space essential to our survival, while silently raising the question of what will exist when that curtain is ripped away – when development, logging, or deadly wildfires, turn these magical environments into nothing more tangible than a memory.

Tim Portlock composes digitized versions of imaginary urban landscapes to question the definitions of wilderness and civilization; what represents progress, what portends dystopia? And above all, what has become of the natural landscapes these human-made vistas are replacing?

From left to right Hiro Sakaguchi, Deirdre Murphy, Amie Potsic, curator Cynthia H. Veloric, Stacy Levy, Diane Burko surrounded by Potsic’s Paradise, 2019. Archival pigment print on silk (rolled onto bolts).

One of the staunchest and most irrefutable artistic voices on climate change, Diane Burko has devoted herself since 2006 to “critical thinking... about the impact humans are having on the environment.” In monumental and/or multi-panel images of rigorously designed, masterfully painted landscapes, often documented over time and supported by the inclusion of maps and charts, Burko does not traffic in metaphor or imagined scenarios, but in scientific fact. If there is a fantastical, allegorical dimension to her work, it is in the explosive contrast between the beauty captured in her images, and the unimaginable outcome of how it is being altered in our lifetimes…and how that plays out as we walk away from the magnificent vista portrayed with meta-accuracy before us.

Yes, here on the East Coast, it is easier to be lulled into the sense that our tree-shaded, sun-dappled forests are endlessly resilient, or to embrace the hopeful notion that “something” might help us prevent catastrophe. This show illuminated the global “nature” of our situation, and its urgency. Risky Beauty, and more exhibitions like it, are both timely and essential.

Catalogue here

Arden Kass writes for stage and film, as well as interviews, cultural essays, and personal narratives.

November 2022 Newsletter

Tue, 01 Nov 2022 13:13:04 GMT

The ecoartspace November 2022 e-Newsletter for subscribers is here

Member Spotlight l Steven Siegel

Mon, 31 Oct 2022 14:58:42 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 31, 2022

This week we recognize Steven Siegel, and his forty plus year practice focused on the new geology leading to the Anthropocene.

Siegel's early interest in geology was stimulated after reading Basin and Range by John McPhee. Sponsored by the New York Foundation for the Arts, he traveled to Scotland in 1983, and visited the site where geologist Dr. James Hutton made his discoveries. The rock formations in Scotland were the result of the geologic processes at work over millions of years. The experience had resonated with Siegel and is reflected in his early work, notably in his newspaper sculptures, which he first attempted for the Snug Harbor Sculpture Festival on Staten Island, New York in 1990. Staten Island is home to Freshkills Park, once the world’s largest landfill, with tons of refuse buried under mounds of earth. The location prompted Siegel to note that humans were creating a “new geology” from waste, and inspired the titles of his first sculptures of this kind: New Geology #1 (1990, below) and New Geology #2 (1992). click images for more info

"There is a dutiful, yet delightful dimension to Siegel’s work. A great task produces a very simple thing. Yet this may be the only clear and dependable equation. Other connections and conclusions are variable and elusive. Generically characterized as big, spare forms of recycled newspapers, plastic bottles, aluminum cans, shredded rubber, or other jetsam, there is a serious content to this seemingly unaffected work. Remarkable and robust physical evidence and material accumulations convey a tension of imminent vulnerability and gradual dissolution. There is a puzzling experience of dissonant beauty in these ungainly objects made of disposable, if not unsightly materials. Often mimicking natural forms and processes, the conspicuously artificial work “fits” its environment in a plain, natural manner." – Patricia C. Phillips, art historian and critic, Sculpture Magazine, 2003

As a young artist working with sculptor Michael Singer in the seventies, Steven traveled to installation sites from Texas to Germany. “At the time, [Singer] was probably the best artist in the world working with natural materials and natural settings. I got a sense of what it meant to be around people doing ambitious things in ambitious places.” excerpt from Siegel's installation diary

"For an artist, or scientist, or any kind of human being really, sometimes the unfailing need to ask the same questions over and over again can become a kind of answer in itself. Where Siegel's work exists, the most salient question perhaps is one of the relationship of a person, caught like a bug in a tiny mortal moment, to the old primal earth. But the nature of the question is what defines the artwork in the end. In Siegel's work, the subtle transmission of meaning through inquiry may be in the fact that the question is "how do the natural forces of time and decay and accumulation act on earthly matter?" And in this formulation, humanity is not separate from the category of earthly matter, but part of its awesome whole. The real inspiration comes when someone grasps that deep time is not a threat to one's personal significance, but a vast enfoldment in which one's little light husk becomes part of something venerable and profound." Karin Bolender, artist-researcher, Dutchess Magazine, 2000

Steven Siegel is nationally and internationally recognized visual artist who has been making large-scale sculptures since the 1970s. He has created public artworks, private commissions, sited sculptures and installations that fall into three broad categories: time-bound, outdoor newspaper structures; organic, linear works primarily made with shredded rubber; and large cubes or spheres of bound waste materials, often crushed plastic or aluminum containers.Though his more recent works have tended towards large wall pieces–mural versions of his sculptures. Siegel has been interviewed by John K. Grande for Sculpture magazine in 2010 and his work written about by Patricia C. Phillips for Sculpture magazine in 2003. He has created commissioned works in cities and universities throughout the U.S. and Europe, in Australia, and Kazakhstan and Korea, and at the DeCordova Museum, Arte Sella Sculpture Park (Italy), Grounds for Sculpture, and Art Omi. Siegel lives and works in Tivoli in upstate New York.

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Steven Siegel,Oak, 2004, newspaper, Gong-Ju, Korea; New Geology #1, 1990, newspaper, soil, plants, at Snug Harbor Cultural Center, Staten Island, New York; Round, 1995, plastic jugs, Connemara Nature Conservancy, Plano, Texas; Scale, 2002, newspaper, Abington Arts Center, Jenkinstown, Pennsylvania; Like a Buoy, Like a Barrel, 2019, plastic, rubber, Providence, Rhode Island (destroyed by vandalism, fire, in 2020); below, portrait of the artist with his monumental work titled Biography (2008-2013).

Artistic Practices and Ecoaesthetics in Post-sustainable Worlds by Perdita Phillips

Mon, 24 Oct 2022 15:00:36 GMT

Phillips, P. (2015). “Artistic Practices and Ecoaesthetics in Post-sustainable Worlds”. In C. Crouch, N. Kaye, & J. Crouch (Eds.), An introduction to sustainability and aesthetics: The arts and design for the environment (pp. 55-68). Boca Raton, Florida: Brown Walker Press.

The concept of Plastic Words and the book The Tyranny of Modular Language by Uwe Pörksen, published in 1995, was brought up this weekend, and our member Perdita Phillips, in Australia, shared her paper below regarding the word sustainability. This concept is the focus on her contribution to the ecoartspace Earthkeepers Handbook, soon to be released.

"The concept of sustainability, its discourse and societal application has been subject to pointed critique, including claims that the term has become an empty rhetorical vessel, is liable to greenwashing or that critical reflection is required on the political and philosophical underpinnings of sustainability and sustainable development (Holden 2010; Phillips 2007). Part of the critical framing around an aesthetics of sustainability has already been explored by artists and thinkers such as Maja and Reuben Fowkes (2012) and Sacha Kagan (2011). Sustainability’s broad nature mirrors the complexity of environmentalism and allows for many different aesthetic approaches. It asks of us to decrease our consumption and also to take a transdisciplinary perspective (Kagan, 2010). However a significant trend in twenty-first century relations with the natural world has been a ‘darkening’ in the tone of debate and mobilisation of apocalyptic metaphors. Climate denial by some in society is mirrored by an underlying zeitgeist of despair and guilt in areas of the environmental movement (Anderson, 2010). I have argued elsewhere that this has left us open to ‘zombie environmentalism’ (Phillips, 2012b). Is it possible to stir from this apparent stalemate to a state of flourishing, by moving on from disaster? Morton (2012) argues for a re-examination of sadness and Soper (2008) reconfigures austerity into alternative hedonism. TJ Demos (2013) discusses the significance of a political ecology to artists working towards new formulations of eco-aesthetics. A key strategy for arts practice is to relinquish “the privileged position of its autonomous and exceptionalist positioning” at the same time as maintaining a ‘countervisuality’, or ability to see things and see them differently (Mizroeff, 2013). In my own work I see eco-aesthetics as a broad set of tendencies that will take us into new futures. Elsewhere I have outlined eight sensibilities in artworks that are more adaptive at dealing with uncertainty and imperfection, risk and opportunity (Phillips, 2012a). Working through Lauren Berlant’s ideas of cruel optimism (Berlant, 2011) as a way of escaping this sense of environmental procrastination, I’ve been considering how an artwork can both embody and encourage resilience in an unruly world, something that is still positive at the same time as it ‘stays with the trouble’ (Haraway, 2013). In a recent project about Little Penguins in Sydney I’ve been grappling with applying some sense of anticipatory readiness or “a cultivated, patient, sensory attentiveness to nonhuman forces” (Bennett, 2010, p. xiv). Through this practice-based example, this paper invites an aesthetics of action in the face of the inevitable uncertainties inherent in an ecological worldview."

Read full paper, here

Member Spotlight l Pam Longobardi

Mon, 17 Oct 2022 13:43:42 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 17, 2022

This week we recognize Pam Longobardi, and her twenty plus year practice focused on plastic pollution.

"I engage citizens in active processes of cleaning ascare: action as antidote to experience the transformative connective shift that occurs. Plastic is the geologic marker of the Anthropocene, Capitalocene, or most poignantly, Eremocene, the ‘Age of Loneliness’(E.O.Wilson). Plastic production, dissemination and zombie afterlife contributes to Earth’s present 6th Mass Extinction. In addition to gallery/museum installations, I do site-work, involving forms of distance messaging such as mirror communication, Semaphore, and S.O.S. messages shot by drone, as performative pieces, projecting messages of attention. This, along with my studio-based painting practice involving phenomenology and chemistry, makes up the whole of my work." click images for more info

"Plastic objects are the cultural archeology of our time. These objects I see as a portrait of global late-capitalist consumer society, mirroring our desires, wishes, hubris and ingenuity. These are objects with unintended consequences that become transformed as they leave the quotidian world and collide with nature to be transformed, transported and regurgitated out of the shifting oceans. The ocean is communicating with us through the materials of our own making. The plastic elements initially seem attractive and innocuous, like toys, some with an eerie familiarity and some totally alien. At first, the plastic seems innocent and fun, but it is not. It is dangerous. We are remaking the world in plastic."

"In keeping with the movement of drift of these material artifacts, I prefer using them in a transitiveform as installation. All of the work can be dismantled, reconfigured but nearly impossibly recycled. The objects are presented as specimens on steel pins or wired together to form larger structures. I am interested in the collision between nature and global consumer culture. Ocean plastic is a material that can unleash unpredictable dynamics. As a product of culture that exhibits visibly the attempts of nature to reabsorb and regurgitate this invader, ocean plastic has profound stories to tell."

In 2013, Longobardi created a site-specific installation for a special project of the Venice cultural association Ministero di Beni Culturali (MiBAC), and the Ministry of Culture of Rome, for the 55th Venice Biennale on the Island of San Francesco del Deserto in the Venetian Lagoon; a work made from plastic water bottles, crystals and a mirrored satellite dish that signaled an apology to St. Francis across the lagoon to the island of Burano (below).

Pam Longobardi lives and works in Atlanta as Regents’ Professor and Distinguished Professor of Art at Georgia State University. Her Drifters Project, which began in 2006 after encountering mountainous piles of plastic on remote Hawaiian beaches, is ongoing,following the world ocean currents. With the Drifters Project, she collects, documents and transforms oceanic plastic into installations, public art and photography. The work provides a visual statement about the engine of global consumption, the vast amounts of plastic objects’ impact on the world’s most remote places and its’ creatures, framed within a conversation about globalism and conservation. She has exhibited across the US and in Greece, Monaco, Germany, Finland, Slovakia, China, Japan, Italy, Spain, Belgium, Costa Rica and Poland. Longobardi participated in the 2013 GYRE expedition to remote coastal areas of Alaska and created project-specific large-scale works for exhibition at the Anchorage Museum February 2014 that traveled nationwide to five US museums. She was featured in a National Geographic film on the GYRE expedition and her Drifters Project was featured in National Geographic magazine. Longbardi is Oceanic Society’s Artist-In-Nature.

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Pam Longobardi, Drifters Objects; ForensicLab, Ocean Gleaning, solo exhibition at Baker Museum, Florida, 2022; Baker Museum, back room, Laocoon Threnodfy Bounty Pilfered, 2022; Reflecting Web of the Anthropocene (An Apology to Saint Francis), 2013, Venice, Italy; below, portrait of the artist.

Member Spotlight I Debra Swack

Wed, 12 Oct 2022 03:24:39 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 10, 2022

This week we recognize Debra Swack, and her media and sound work focused on the interstice of humans and non-humans.

Swack’s work is a catalyst for change, innovation, and collaboration in helping to solve world problems. For example: ‘Bloom’ addresses plant consciousness; ‘Cloud Mapping Project’ addresses climate change, surveillance, artificial intelligence, machine learning and creativity (can machines create?); and ‘Animal Patterning Project’ addresses the history of genetically manipulating animals, environmental displacement through urbanization, and the rise of infectious diseases due to deforestation such as COVID. click on images for more information

Bloom (above) utilizes the research of evolutionary biology to present digital simulations of the sounds that plants communicate bio-acoustically through vibrations. The work was featured in the New York Academy of Science's fall 2017 magazine about scientific innovations for the next 100 years. It was also presented in Sound, Images and Data for Leonardo Electronic Almanac (MIT Press) at NYU, and for EvoS (Evolutionary Studies at SUNY Binghamton).

Cloud Mapping Project (below) addresses surveillance, artificial intelligence, machine learning and creativity (can machines create?). The Project was presented at the Pera Museum in Istanbul, the American Academy of Rome (where she was a visiting artist along with William Kentridge, Joan Tower, and Vincent Katz), and Banff Centre in Canada. At Banff, the work was the subject of a Fulbright eye-tracking workshop and an exhibition of related works under a Leighton Colony Residency. In 2019, Cloud Mapping Project was the subject of an interview by science journalist Clarissa Wright for NatureVolve.

Animal Patterning Project (below), is an ephemeral dance performance about our complex relationship with other-animals and simulates their return by projecting their likeness onto the urban environment they once inhabited. It includes the historical practice of taxidermy, our unique ability to genetically manipulate their bodies and skins for our own purposes, and the dilemma of displaced indigenous other-animals that urban development creates. The project was selected in 2021 for the online presentation and book Becoming Feral. It is a 2021 recipient of a City Arts grant from the NYC Dept of Cultural Affairs and New York Foundation of the Arts.

Debra Swack is a digital and sound artist who creates transformative participatory experiences about the most critical issues of our time. She received Fulbright grants from Banff Centre (2015) and Tel Aviv University (2018). Her writings have been published by MIT, and she was included in Art and Innovation at Xerox Parc (MIT, 1999). In 2019, she was selected by the New York Academy of Science, Pratt Institute and Guerrilla Science, to participate in Conveying Science Through Art, who believe that public engagement in science is critical to a well-functioning society. Called ‘an important work,’ by Margaret Morton (Ford Foundation), The mixed reality Monument Project, about heroes and the democratization of memorialization, was shortlisted by Creative Time/NEW INC at the New Museum in 2019 for an installation in Central Park. The project was a 2020 recipient of a Mellon Foundation grant and a 2018 Creative Engagement grant from the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, and NYC Department of Cultural Affairs, in collaboration with Microsoft, the Siddhartha School, and the Rubin Foundation.

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Debra Swack, Birdsongs, Sonic Fragments Sound art Festival, Princeton University, 2008; Bloom, 2017, featured at New York Academy of Sciences; Cloud Mapping, 2014, video edition of 10, featured in Fragile Rainbow at Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, May 2022; Animal Patterning, 2015, commissioned by Pratt Institute & the West Harlem Art Fund; below, portrait of the artist.

Ashley Eliza Williams Wishes to Speak with the Growth in the Forest

Wed, 05 Oct 2022 17:04:52 GMT

Rudiments, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches, and sculpture: clay, gouache, wire stand

Adoration, Observation and Visual Ecology: Ashley Eliza Williams Wishes to Speak with the Growth in the Forest

Interview by: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Ashley Eliza Williams is practicing through careful study, observation, and sentience, the ability to communicate with the building blocks of the natural world. She is at one with the lichens, mosses, lithophytes, and most solid rocks of the forest. Her visions are filled with future ecologies based on the tales and dreams of both the oldest forebearers and the most adaptable around us. I had the pleasure of asking her questions to her practice…

Resonant, oil on panel, 40 x 30 inches

Dear Ashley, in your process of seeking sentience in the natural world, what have you found so far and what has most surprised you?

Although a rock in the forest isn’t “alive” by any scientific metric, it hosts an ecosystem of beings with relational and sensory capacities: lichens, mosses, insects, small mammals, bacteria, algae, and other lithophytes. These beings sense the world and interact with each other in wildly different ways. In a certain sense, when you contemplate a rock, you are in dialogue with an entire community of sentient beings. This feels magical and incredible to me, but it is very real.

Index Fossil, oil on panel, 20 x 20 inches, and sculpture: wire stand, gouache

I believe you, perhaps we are not listening closely enough. In the visual depictions of your findings, you often choose a chart format for your compositions. What has led you to explore this representational form and what role does color choice have in what you are representing?

I’ve always loved field notebooks and scientific charts. I think they are beautiful and I’m fascinated by the kinds of information scientists have chosen to record throughout the ages. Why is one piece of information more important than another? What do these choices say about an individual scientist, the cultures that we are a part of, and our anthropocentric worldviews? Being an artist gives me an excuse to play with and think about these questions.

Since 2014, I’ve been using color charts to try to abstract or distill experiences in nature and my attempts at interspecies communication. My latest project is an attempt to communicate with a lichen. I’ve been visiting the same patch of lichen every day. Each day, I create a color strip that reflects my experience with the lichen. I’ve visited the lichen in the evening, in the morning, in the middle of the night, when I’m feeling hopeful, and when I’m depressed. Each time I interact, I mix a very specific color to describe that interaction. The colors are a record of my many (and mostly failed) communication attempts.

Convergence Studies 2, oil on canvas, 20 x 20 inches

Beyond your process, how much of your work is scientific explorations, spiritual findings, and fantasy?

It’s a mix of real and imagined. My partner is a scientist, and my projects often involve working closely with scientists in the field. But I also love imagining potential future beings and ecologies. I believe that there is a link between the human imagination and biodiversity. Artists who care about ecology need to be wild dreamers and we need wild landscapes to be able to dream. I think it’s important to imagine what a healthier future ecology might look like. What animals, plants, and ecosystems will exist in the future if we don’t drive everything to extinction? Most of the images I paint and sculpt are imaginary or highly abstracted. But they are built on a foundation of obsessive observation, research, a love of wild places, and my deep respect for and curiosity about all living beings, especially those that are quiet and easily overlooked.

Nucleus, oil on panel, 18 x 24 inches, and sculpture: clay, wire stand, cut paper, gouache, coral

Thank you, Ashley. And good luck with your incredible interspecies goals. We have a lot to learn from this earth.

Member Spotlight l Eliza Evans

Mon, 03 Oct 2022 16:41:51 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 3, 2022

This week we recognize Eliza Evans Eliza Evans, and her work focused on climate and resource extraction.

Evans' current and ongoing project, All the Way to Hell (above), which began in 2020,is an activist art model for disrupting fossil fuel development on private land in the U.S.The monumental work, currently with over 7,000 participants, converts hundreds of individual gestures into a new form of environmental resistance at the intersection of property law, fossil fuel business practice, and bureaucracy. The project transfers rights from single mineral properties to hundreds of people to impeded fossil fuel development. Evans will attempt to file the first deeds in Oklahoma this month. (click images for more information)

Time Machine (2019-ongoing, above) is a durational and interactive work in which the artist spent 8-hours inside a mass-produced greenhouse. The outside and inside temperature difference served as a kind of climate change scenario generator. As the temperature rose during the day it was amplified inside the greenhouse with attendant stress on her body. The following day the artist invited visitors inside the Time Machine to experience a possible future.

The Compact (above) is three seven-foot tall cast concrete figures that enlist Cycladic, Greek, and 3D-scanned female forms to examine the compression of individual agency over millennia and our more contemporary assent to the myriad ways we are surveilled, measured, and archived. The figure is made from clearly defined parts loosely held by two threaded rods and patches of mortar. The rebar matrixes that reinforce the concrete reference the inscription of gridded systems on our bodies and our actions.

Pause (2018, above) is three 10-foot squares plots surrounded by an 8 to 9-foot tall fence made of t-posts and tinted monofilament. The installation is an unambiguous artwork inscribed in the forest that by its shape and materials alludes to science, gardening, cultivation, and management. There is no gate or passageway into the plots. The viewer is excluded from the plot’s interior but for a 12-18-inch gap between the forest floor and the bottom of the fencing. The viewer is left to consider what is protected and why. Inside the plots, the forest will be for the most part unmolested by both deer and humans for the duration of the work.

Below is a well core sample and quitclaim mineral deed representing Evan's All the Way to Hell project in a gallery setting.

Eliza Evans experiments with sculpture, print, video, and digital media to identify disconnections and absurdities in social, economic, and ecological systems. Her work has been exhibited at the Bronx Museum (2021), Missoula Art Museum (2021), Austin Peay State University, Clarksville TN (2021), Thomas Erben Gallery, New York, NY (2020), Alexey von Schlippe Gallery, University of Connecticut (2020), Chautauqua Institution, Chautauqua, NY (2019), Edward Hopper House Museum, Nyack, NY (2019), and BRIC, Brooklyn (2017), and has appeared in the New York Times, Art in America, Hyperallergic, The Brooklyn Rail, and Dissent Magazine. A law review article on her work is forthcoming in the Cardozo Arts and Entertainment Law Journal. Residencies include the LMCC Art Center (2022), the Art Law Program (2021), National Center for Ecological Analysis and Synthesis, UC Santa Barbara (2020), and Bronx Museum AIM. She is currently a member of NEW INC, the New Museum’s cultural incubator. Evans was born in a Rust Belt steel town and raised in rural Appalachia. She currently splits her time between Tennessee and New York.

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Eliza Evans, All the Way to Hell, 2020-ongoing; Time Machine, 2019-ongoing; The Compact, 2019, concrete, steel; Pause, 2018, posts, monofilament; All the Way to Hell, 2020-ongoing; below is portrait of the artist.

October 2022 Newsletter

Sat, 01 Oct 2022 15:21:31 GMT

The ecoartspace October 2022 e-Newsletter for non-members is here

Member Spotlight l Toby Zallman

Mon, 26 Sep 2022 15:45:11 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 26, 2022

This week we recognize Toby Zallman Toby Zallman, and her work focused on plastic pollution.

Trained as a painter in the 1970s, Zallman transitioned to sculpture in the 1990s, and began to examine the role of technology in our lives in 2004. She stated in an interview, “It was a period where I transitioned from looking inward to becoming conscious of what was happening outside of me, in the landscape.” She learned about the burning of e-waste in China and the resulting air pollution, and subsequently became concerned about safe drinking water. By 2014, the artist was shocked and captivated by the relentless proliferation and neglect of plastic pollution and decided to make her materials the message.

Zallman's Molluscs (above), one of eighteen total, is made from plastic drinking cups that the artist had in her studio for years and decided to use, together forming the series Small Works Group. The sealife simulation is also a combination of stones and cloth, all upcycled and assembled as a memorial portrait.

The artists has also made sculpture using plastic bags wrapped around wire in the shape of ocean corals. Her work Mongo consists of a broad range of food packaging (below).

"My art transforms toxic refuse into evocative objects of abstract seduction, that bring a sense of beauty to environmentally devastating situations and arouse cognitive dissonance in viewers. Since 2005, I have made sculptures and drawings which respond to the by products of our society’s rampant consumerism. My aim is for the work to incite both a sense of pleasure and a disturbing awareness of the degradation of our oceans, land and bodies. This engaging visual experience will support change in viewers' behaviors. My involvement with the group, Organizing for Plastic Alternatives, has both channelled some energy towards finding practical solutions to these problems, as well as increased awareness of my own problematic behaviors."

Plastic production is expected to triple by 2050. By then, our oceans will contain more weight in plastic than fish. In 2018 China refused to accept non-recyclable waste from other countries, and it’s cheaper for manufacturers to make virgin plastic than recycle. In America, we still have eighteen states that have preemptive laws stopping plastic bag regulations. As John Oliver states in his recent special on plastics in March 2021, “the real behavior change needs to come from manufacturers, the Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). They need to create the infrastructure to recycle the products they make.” EPR laws are being proposed now, and it cannot happen soon enough for Toby Zallman.

Toby Zallman is a Chicago artist whose art practice focuses on sculpture and drawing. In 2004, after becoming aware of how damaging our plastic and e-waste is to the environment, she changed her materials to both incorporate recycled/re-purposed materials in her sculpture as well as a source of visual inspiration for both the sculptures and drawings. She has used computer detritus, plastic bags, plastic bottles and solid plastic trash to create unique art works that shed light on the environmental devastation cause by our culture of consumerism. Zallman shows both locally and nationally. Zallman has been the recipient of several Illinois Arts Council grants, including one in 2021 for her exhibition “Our Plastic Trash,” and an Individual Artist Program Grant, City of Chicago’s Department of Cultural Affairs and Special Events (DCASE) and a 2022 Puffin Foundation grant for her project, "reefscollape." She has had artist residencies at the MacDowell Colony, Yaddo and Ragdale. Zallman received her BFA from Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia. tobyzallman.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Toby Zallman, reefscollapse, 2018-2022, site-responsive installation made with discarded plastic packaging; (sculpture), large format color print on muslin with pastel and plastic (backdrop), approximately 12 x 8 x 6 feet (sculpture) 9 x 18 feet (backdrop); Mollusc 10, 2020, plastic, 2.75 x 1.375 x 2 inches; Mongo, 2021, plastic refuse, 13.5 x 19.5 x 19.5 inches; Water Bottles, 2007, mixed mediums on plastic water bottles, 33 x 51 x 36 inches; Whorl, 2016, acrylic, laser print, graphite, pastel, plastic bags on muslin, 43 x 62 inches; Portrait of the artist (below), by Tom Van Eynde.

Member Spotlight l Bremner Benedict

Mon, 19 Sep 2022 13:57:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 19, 2022

This week we recognize Bremner Benedict Bremner Benedict, and her Hidden Waters Series.

Benedict’s projects center on the role that landscape plays in the human experience. Her focus is on unrecognized, under-valued yet important elements of the natural world. Her earlier projects, range from the role of landscape in creating memory - Distant Places; to electrical towers interruption of the American Western landscape - Gridlines; to a child’s imaginary play in natural history dioramas - Field Trip, Re-Imagining Eden. Benedict’s recent work, Hidden Waters, combines art and science to envision the impacts of climate change and overuse on endangered arid-land springs in the American West.

"Since prehistoric times springs have been key to humanity’s survival. Unfortunately arid and semi-arid land springs, ciénegas, and their aquifers in North America are endangered and disappearing at a rate that continues to increase as the water crisis in the West prevails across lands that are the driest they have been in 1,200 years. Being an artist who is passionate about the water crisis in the West, I am drawn to their story as unseen yet essential details whose importance is misunderstood."

"Living on the Colorado Plateau I was struck by the contrast between spring-fed oases and their parched surroundings. I noticed how a landscape of drought and aquifer overuse can drain color out of the environment. The toned colors of Maynard Dixon’s Western landscape paintings provided my inspiration to use color to imply the vulnerability and precarious future of dryland springs. This series is an intersection of art and ecology where I interpret scientific data visually and viscerally to humanize its complexity, while at the same time addressing a wider view of climate change and its impacts on dryland springs by making them feel accessible and personal in order to encourage their stewardship."

"Currently there is a lack of public information on the importance of these waters and the need for their protection; conservation is inconsistent at best. Springs continue to hold vital clues to the health and longevity of the underground aquifers we depend on and the loss of these significant ecosystems will continue to threaten our ability to live in dry places. If we want any chance to combat the climate crisis, then the importance of documenting these ecological sites before they are gone, and capitalizing on these opportunities to raise awareness, cannot be understated."

Bremner Benedict's photographs have been featured at Fidelity Art Boston; Center for Photography, Tucson, Arizona; Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; New Mexico Museum of Art; Decordova Museum of Art and Sculpture, Massachusetts; Harvard's Fogg Museum, Boston; and George Eastman Museum, Rochester, New York. Solo exhibitions include Florida Museum of Photographic Arts; Griffin Museum of Photography at Stoneham, Winchester, Massachusetts; Texas Woman’s University, Denton; and Philadelphia Print Center. Her Hidden Waters archive resides at the Museum of Art & Environment, Reno Nevada. Recent awards include Juror’s Award, Karen Haas Juror, Conversations with the Land, Center for Creative Photography, 2021; Massachusetts Cultural Council Finalist, 2021; Juror’s Honorable Mention, 2021; Art and Science 2, A. Smith Gallery, 2021; Critical Mass Top 200, 2019; the FENCE, New England, 2019; Legacy Award, Griffin Museum of Photography; two Puffin Foundation Grants; Museum of Northern Arizona artist residency; and solo exhibitions at Texas Women’s University, and Philadelphia Print Center. Benedict is a member of Blue Earth Alliance. Photographer Mark Klett chose her work Quitobaquito Springs for inclusion in his up-coming book, Wild Visions. bremner-benedict.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Bremner Benedict,Hidden Water Series; portrait of the artist below.

ecoartspace fundraiser and pop-up in Santa Fe 9/30

Thu, 15 Sep 2022 18:54:25 GMT

Fundraiser & Pop-Up Exhibition

Miriam Sagan’s Poetry Yard, Santa Fe

Ana MacArthur, Ahni Rocheleau, Chrissie Orr, Frances Whitehead, Toni Gentilli, Hilary Lorenz

FUNDRAISER EVENT September 30, 4:30-630pm

POP-UP EXHIBITION October 1 & 2, 11-5pm (free)

RSVP info@ecoartspace.org

ecoartspace invites you to experience site-works by six ecoartspace artists for our three day pop-up exhibition at member Miriam Sagan's private poetry yard in Santa Fe. We will be serving drinks and appetizers, and there will be seating to listen to the artists talk about their work.

Suggested donation is $50-$100 per person

Donations will go toward the printing of two ecoartspace publications; a second edition of our annual exhibition book for 2021, Embodied Forest; and our upcoming 2022, Earthkeepers Handbook.

RSVP for fundraiser by September 28

Can't make it? Not in New Mexico, please consider making a donation here

RSVP for fundraiser by September 28

Newton Harrison (1932–2022)

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 19:18:27 GMT

Newton Harrison in 2019. Photo: The Harrison Studio/Various Small Fires.

ARTFORUM September 07, 2022 at 10:53am

Newton Harrison (1932–2022)

Newton Harrison, who with his wife, Helen Mayer Harrison, introduced the ecological art movement that positively affected both neighborhoods and nature around the world, died September 4 at the age of eighty-nine. The news was announced by the Los Angeles–based gallery Various Small Fires, which represented “the Harrisons,” as the couple were known. In a practice that spanned more than five decades and encompassed a broad range of media, the Harrisons collaborated with ecologists, biologists, historians, architects, urban planners, and activists, as well as other artists, to investigate issues of biodiversity and community development, presenting their carefully documented findings within the context of art. The couple’s work shaped government policy and city planning in the US and Europe, and continues to influence a broad network of eco-artists focused on raising awareness of the ongoing negative impacts of militarization, environmental disregard, industrialization, and pollution on the land.

“Put most simply,” Harrison told the journal Ecopoesis in 2021, “I as an artist am unafraid to offend. I as an artist feel compelled to improvise much the way my other companion species do. I improvise my existence as best I can with the material at hand. The intention,” he concluded, “is to the improve that which is around me.”

Newton Harrison was born October 20, 1932, in Brooklyn, New York, the grandson (through his mother) of Russian immigrant Simon Farber, a tinsmith and the founder of the kitchenware brand Farberware. Harrison grew up in the nearby suburb of New Rochelle, and by fifteen knew he wanted to be an artist, though his parents urged him to finish his prep-school studies. From 1948 through 1953, Harrison assisted sculptor Michael Lantz, to whom he had introduced himself. From Lantz, whose 1942 Man Controlling Trade greets visitors to the Federal Trade Commission Building in Washington, DC, he learned to sculpt with a variety of materials and to read and draft architectural blueprints, which would themselves become a key facet of his own practice.

Continue reading on ARTFORUM here

Member Spotlight l Sarah Kanouse

Mon, 12 Sep 2022 18:05:04 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 12, 2022

This week we recognize Sarah Kanouse Sarah Kanouse based in Boston, and her recent works including a solo performance "My Electric Genealogy (above), which will premiere in Los Angeles this month.

For nearly forty years, Kanouse's grandfather worked for the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power, designing, planning, and supervising the network of lines connecting the city to its distant sources of electricity. His legacy includes some of the most polluting fossil fuel infrastructure in the country—much of it located out of state, on Indigenous land. As these power plants finally and belatedly come down, the performance asks what is owed to the communities long harmed by this infrastructure? Weaving together signal moments in the city’s history with voices of Diné advocates for just, equitable transition, “My Electric Genealogy” is an essayistic working-through of energy as a personal and collective inheritance at a moment of eco-political reckoning.

"A People’s Atlas of the Nuclear Colorado (above) is a digital public humanities project that documents and interprets the relational geographies of nuclear materials developed and deployed by the United States. With contributions by scholars, students, and artists, the Atlas offers the public an opportunity to explore, research, and document nuclear materials and ecologies of Colorado. Powered by the Scalar publishing platform, the Atlas is loosely organized around the nuclear fuel cycle, from extraction, milling, and processing to the assembly and deployment of weapons to the storage and monitoring of waste. It challenges, however, conventional models of this process by weaving in its 'shadow side:' environmental contamination, workplace exposures, boom and bust economies, geopolitical instability."

"Beyond Property (below) is a suite of tools guiding inquiry into the proposition that property is an Anthropocene technology. The collection includes: a book of readings; a suite of cards for embodied exploration; a small sculptural object; and a section of barbed wire removed from an American fenceline decoupaged or “bandaged” with text from the writings from Gerrard Winstanley, the 17th century English activist-philosopher. Rooted in Quakerism, Winstanley’s True Levellers movement enacted a powerful critique of the morality of private property at the moment of its formalization through enclosure. The project began as part of Field Guides to the Anthropocene Drift, published by Field Station 2 with the Haus der Kulturen der Welt, Max Planck Institute for the History of Science, and the Goethe Institute, Chicago." [Free downloads]

"Ecologies of Acknowledgement (below) was commissioned by the University Hall Gallery at UMass Boston for the exhibition Local Ecologies, which included a video, letterpress print, and boat tour, focuses on the land use histories of Deer Island in the Boston Harbor. Going beyond mere ‘recognition’ of Native territory, the project asks instead what it means to accept the relationships and responsibilities that come with living on occupied land. In the 17th century, Deer Island was a forced Indian removal and incarceration site, where between 500 and 1,000 people suffered from dire conditions comparable to a concentration camp. It is now the site of Boston’s wastewater treatment plant."

"The experimental nonfiction film Grassland (below) uses stop-motion animation, live action footage, text fragments, and expressive sound to excavate the stratigraphic layers of belief, ecology, practice, and geology that form a northeastern Colorado landscape. Carved out of decimated ranch lands during the Dust Bowl, the grassland is both a conservation zone and a working landscape. Cattle grazing, nuclear missiles, hydraulic fracturing, and wind power generation co-exist within a few miles of each other. Less explication than essay, the film locates the grassland in historic and geologic time, ranging over changing frameworks of law, ideology, and cosmology, variable and contradictory human practices, and the material and geological forces of the land itself. Meditative original footage of the grassland merges with collage animations created from diagrams, drawings, and found photography to portray the refuge’s subterranean activities, from well drilling to missile storage to soil sedimentation. The resulting nineteen-minute film is a poetic and unsettling portrait of a complex, evolving place."

Sarah Kanouse is an interdisciplinary artist and critical writer who examines the politics of landscape and space. Migrating between video, photography, and performative forms, her research-based creative projects shift the visual dimension of the landscape to allow hidden stories of environmental and social transformation to emerge. Her creative work has been screened or exhibited at Documenta 13, the Museum of Contemporary Art-Chicago, the Cooper Union, the Clark Art Institute, the Smart Museum, the Museum of Contemporary Art Detroit, and in numerous academic institutions as CUNY Graduate Center, George Mason University, University of California Berkeley, and the University of Wisconsin. She has written about performative and site-based contemporary art practices in the journals: Acme, Leonardo, Parallax, and Art Journal; as well the edited volumes Ecologies, Agents, Terrains, Critical Landscapes, Art Against the Law, and Mapping Environmental Issues in the City. A 2019 Rachel Carson Fellow at Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich, Sarah Kanouse is Associate Professor of Media Arts in the Department of Art + Design at Northeastern University. She earned her MFA degree in Studio Art from the University of Illinois, and a BA in Art, magna cum laude, from Yale University. readysubjects.org

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Sarah Kanouse, My Electric Genealogy, 2021-2022; A People's Atlas of the Nuclear Colorado, 2021; Beyond Property, Field Guides to the Anthropocene Drift, 2021; Ecologies of Acknowledgement, traveling exhibition 2019-2021; Grassland, 2019, nonfiction film recently screened at the Mimesis Documentary Film Festival, Boulder, Colorado; portrait of the artist (below).

Member Spotlight l Renata Padovan

Mon, 05 Sep 2022 18:05:01 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

September 5, 2022

This week we recognize the ecological work of Renata Padovan Renata Padovan based in São Paulo, Brazil.

In the last two decades, Padovan's work has narrated the consequences of anthropogenic transformations on the landscape. Navigating between landart and art engaged with socio-environmental issues, her work has a strong denunciatory character. Captivated by what is ephemeral and transient, the artist creates memories about life’s state of impermanence, documenting the impacts of natural resource exploitation and the construction of mega-infrastructures, the foundations of neoliberal capitalism.

Returning the water to the seam, 2015 (above) is a video documentation of an action performed at the former Aral Sea in Uzbekistan. The artist walks back and forth on what was once the bottom of the sea, watering can in hand, pouring water on the sandy soil. As she walks, her footsteps mark deep into the ground of what was once the fourth largest inland lake in the world. Due to soviet policy of growing cotton in the region, waters of the two rivers that fed the sea, Syr Darya and Amu Darya, were diverted to irrigation channels. In about 20 years the rivers dried out. The Aral Sea dehydrated becoming a vast desert of polluted sand, a socioenvironmental disaster. The fishing industry collapsed and only those who had no conditions to move out still live in the inhospitable area.

Frozen at sea, 2009 (below) was developed during Padovan's Nes artist residency in Skagaströnd, Iceland. It is a large sculpture made of ice, in the shape of Iceland, set afloat in the sea where it drifts until meltdown. The work had double meanings, one concerning global warming and the melting of glaciers, and the other concerning the economic crisis Iceland was going through at the time.

The installation ‘Irreversible’ (below) presents a legacy of destruction and impunity, linked to the history of colonization of the Amazonian rivers for the production of energy, revealing the real socio-environmental cost of hydroelectric plants in the Amazon. The artist creates an immersive environment about the Balbina Dam disaster, the first in a series of large hydroelectric plants built in the Amazon basin in the 1980s. After more than thirty years, such constructions continue to be imposed by State policies, despite their devastating impact on local communities and ecosystems.

The piece “Para Saber Onde Está Pisando” (To Know Were You Stand), stems from a drawing, a graphic representation that seeks, on a macro scale, to bring a new sensitivity to the destruction of the Amazon (below). After being transferred onto canvas, the drawing was hand embroidered in wool, by artisans from the state of Pernambuco. Representing the Amazon area as a biome, the artist maps the deforested regions in red, protected forests in green and indigenous lands in ochre, while gray areas correspond to oil blocks. The white areas, shown within the external limits, refer to non-destined public forests, which are public lands susceptible to speculation, invasions and squattings. The piece establishes a counterpoint between the act of constructing the work, expressed by weaving, which is manual and feminine, with the act of destruction, which is male and mechanized.

Renata Padovan graduated from the Social Communication Department that belongs to the Faculty FAAP (Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado). In 2001, she was given a scholarship from “Virtuose” to do a masters program at Chelsea College of Art and Design in London. The artist has been participating in various residencies around the world, such as Banff Centre for the Arts, Canada; Nagasawa Art Park, Japan, Braziers international artists workshop in England and NES in Skagaströnd, Iceland. Her solos shows include: Baró Gallery, Eduardo H. Fernandes Gallery, Thomas Cohn Gallery, Centro Cultural São Paulo, Millan Gallery, Valu Oria Gallery, Brazilian Sculpture Museum in São Paulo, and in Rio de Janeiro at Espaço Cultural dos Correios, Paço Imperial e Açude Museum. Padovan's work has been exhibiting at group shows, festivals, national and international, and in Brazil. www.renatapadovan.me

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Renata Padovan, Venal Series, Balbina, 2018, Food coloriong on tree, Intervention at the Balbina Hydroelectric Dam, Amazonas, considered one of the biggest ecological disaster in Brazil; Returning the water to the sea, 2015, action performed on what was once the bed of the Aral Sea, Uzbekistan; Frozen at sea, 2009, Ice sculpture in the shape of Iceland, launched in the sea where it floated until complete melt down, Skagaströnd, Iceland, 60 x 86 cm; Irreversível | Irreversible, 2019, Photos of dead trees at Balbina dam, one of the worst ecological disasters in Brazil, Large format prints on voile fabric. Installation at Paiol da Cultura, INPA, Manaus; Para Saber Onde Está Pisando (To Know Were You Stand), 2022 at Casa Nova Arte e Cultura Contemporanea; Portrait of the artist.

September 2022 Newsletter

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 22:00:30 GMT

The ecoartspace September 2022 e-Newsletter for non-members is here

Meet Linda Gass | Environmental Artist and Activist on Shoutout LA

Thu, 01 Sep 2022 15:24:33 GMT

Published August 1, 2022 Shoutout LA

We had the good fortune of connecting with Linda Gass and we’ve shared our conversation below.

Hi Linda, we’d love to hear about how you approach risk and risk-taking

With very few exceptions, my best experiences and most satisfying projects in life have come from risk-taking. Taking risks has enabled me to learn new skills, taught me to be more comfortable with the unknown and discomfort. I wouldn’t be the artist I am today if I hadn’t taken the risk of walking away from a successful career in the software industry where I was managing large projects alongside brilliant and wonderful colleagues. But I wasn’t doing what I love, and it was time to do what I love, to make art full time. I view risk taking as a necessary part of staying true to my vision for life and art. I go through plenty of ups and downs with those risks. The beginning is charged with the excitement of embarking on a new idea. Then the reality of not knowing how to do it sets in and that old emotion of fear of failure tries to take over. Risk taking definitely includes a lot of type-2 fun: miserable while it’s happening and fun to look back on. I’ve found the best way to deal with the fear is with what I’ve learned from long-distance backpacking: if you just keep taking one step at a time, you can travel more miles than you thought possible. I break large problems into smaller problems that are easier to solve. I do experiments and tests, almost as a methodical form of play. Sometimes I’m successful in solving the problems and other times I fail. I can be stubborn and the failures make me feel even more determined to find a solution. I’ve learned that failures are a form of success because it if you are willing to analyze your failures, it often leads to the solution.

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight l Fredericka Foster

Mon, 29 Aug 2022 15:37:26 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 29, 2022

This week we recognize Fredericka Foster and her contemplative and dedicated work focused on water.

"Our bodies are mostly water, and we are an intimate part of the hydrological cycle. Think about this when you first awaken – we are all water filters. We intrinsically know this, and that all life depends on water. Looking at water, or a painting of water, resonates emotionally in our bodies and minds."

Foster, a painter and photographer, works primarily with the theme of water to raise awareness and examine its centrality to life; how its movement shapes the world socioeconomically, environmentally and subconsciously. An accomplished colorist using a limited palette and many layers of paint, she works "in the romantic landscape tradition of Dove, Hartley, Burchfield and O'Keeffe." She has shown her work since the late 1970s, though the AIDS epidemic, healing and dying has inspired her paintings and installations since the 1990s. Buddhist practice influences her art and she has engaged in public talks on this topic with composer Philip Glass.

"Each water painting begins with a photograph. I travel to bodies of water ranging from the deep fjords of Norway to the industrialized Hudson River, choosing images that stimulate my imagination and that showcase the complexity of water as it plays with light, wind, and the earth beneath it. These photos are models for, but not dictators of, the painting process. My vision changes even as I seek to get the image down, and I experiment with ways to mix and layer pigments in order to trap the evanescent nature of the experience."

Foster often collaborates with artists, scientists and non-profit organizations on water in relation to the environment, pollution and climate change. To teach about the water crisis, she has presented her work to hundreds of scientists, including a performance titled Exploring a Catastrophe to Water Through Science and Artat the Sage Assembly 2017, based on a sewage spill into Puget Sound that same year; and an exhibition and talk at the Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries. Her video series, Like a Circle in Water, was part of the Elements video series commissioned by the Tricycle Foundation in 2014, an official selection of the Awareness Festival and Blue Ocean Film Festival.

Fredericka Foster grew up surrounded by water, and with a Sami great grandmother who nutured a mythical reverence for water and water culture for the artist. As a cultural activist, through her painting and exhibition curating, Foster raises and sustains dialogue, transforming our understanding and misperceptions in relation to the environment. She is known for guest curating and participating in The Value of Water at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York City (2011-2012), which was the largest exhibition to ever appear at the Cathedral. The show anchored a year long initiative by the Cathedral on our dependence upon water, and featured over 200 artworks by forty artists, including Jenny Holzer, Robert Longo, Mark Rothko, William Kentridge, April Gornik, Kara Walker, Kiki Smith, Pat Steir, Edwina Sandys, Alice Dalton Brown, Teresita Fernandez, Eiko Otake, and Bill Viola. Foster is the founder of Think About Water, a water advocacy website that gathers cultural activists and their work together in order to strengthen their cause. Foster’s notable one-person shows include Water Way, Beacon Institute for Rivers and Estuaries at Clarkson University, Beacon, NY; five solo exhibitions titled Water Way at the Fischbach Gallery, NYC (2013, 2009, 2006, 2004, 2002); Deus/Virus: Transforming the Protease, Riverrun Gallery, Lambertville, NJ; and Transforming the HIV Protease, The Norbert Considine Gallery at Stuart Country Day School, Princeton, NJ. frederickafoster.com

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Fredericka Foster, Arctic Diptych Midnight Sun, 2017, oil on canvas, 48 x 36 inches; Covid 19 Drowning, 2021, oil on linen, 20 × 34 inches; Tree and Water, 2017, oil on canvas, 18 × 24 inches; Hudson River IX, 2007, oil on canvas, 42 x 64 inches; Himalayas Carved by Water, 2013, oil on canvas, 42 x 64 inches; below is portrait of the artist by Andrew Gladstone.

14 Gripping, Change-Making Projects That Won AWAW’s First Ever $250,000 Environmental Art Grants

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 22:25:59 GMT

artnet Art World

paris cyan cian in collaboration with theShoreCo.'s Cameron Mitchell Ware (creative producer) and jeremy de'jon (AWAW EAG), theShore:in/SIGHT (2021), film. Photo Credit: Ryan Hodgson-Rigsbee

Here Are the 14 Gripping, Change-Making Projects That Won Anonymous Was A Woman’s First Ever $250,000 Environmental Art Grants

The grant is designed to address the lack of existing support for environmental art.

Vittoria Benzine, August 24, 2022

A community project focused on soil health, an installation that brings queer artists to the streets of New Orleans, and an exhibition that interrogates Brownsville, Texas’s rebranding as a SpaceX “space city” are among the projects awarded funding as part of the first ever Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants.

The program—an offshoot of the long-running Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) grant initiative—is a partnership with New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) and offers a onetime grant of up to $20,000 to 14 female-led, impact-driven environmental art projects in the U.S. Awardees hail from locations ranging from Puerto Rico to the Pacific Northwest and explore climate change through performance, magic, mycology, fashion design, and more.

Read full article on Artnet here

AWAW and NYFA Announce Environmental Art Grants Recipients

Wed, 24 Aug 2022 22:22:52 GMT

Image Detail: "WE ARE HERE/ESTAMOS AQUI" (Michelle Glass) featuring Epifania Salazar, Francisca Rangel, Juanita Garza, Monse Rodriquez, Luz Maria Sosa, Photo Credit: Natalie Zajac

$250,000 Awarded to 14 Projects Led by Women-Identifying Artists in the United States and U.S. Territories.

Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) and The New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) have announced the recipients of the Anonymous Was A Woman Environmental Art Grants (AWAW EAG) program, which provides one-time grants of up to $20,000 to support environmental art projects led by women-identifying artists nationwide. The program awarded a total of $250,000 in funding to artists from states and territories including California, Kansas, Louisiana, New York, Puerto Rico (Borikén), and Texas. Selected projects use a range of media to address soil, air, and water pollution; colonialism and its environmental and human impact; and climate change issues including coastal erosion—many which directly involve and engage affected communities.

Image Detail: digital artwork by Autumn Leiker

The AWAW EAG program supports environmental art projects that inspire thought, action, and ethical engagement. The intended impact of the project was an important factor in the selection process. The applications were reviewed by an esteemed panel comprising Patricia Watts, founder/curator of ecoartspace; Angie Tillges, Great River Passage Fellow, City of Saint Paul, MN; and Alicia Grullón, conceptual multimedia artist, educator, and organizer. Each of the selected projects will have a public engagement component which will be completed by June 2023. See below for more on each of the selected projects:

Continue reading on the NYFA website/blog, here

Member Spotlight l Hugh Pocock

Mon, 22 Aug 2022 13:57:34 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 22, 2022

This week we recognize Hugh Pocock Hugh Pocockand his thirty year career engaging with the dynamics of natural and cultural phenomena.

Pocock seeks to integrate the intersections of labor, industry and organic materials, such as water, air, salt, wood and earth. He is interested in the history and metaphor of the human relationship to natural resources, space, time, consumerism, art, energy and language, which he investigates through his sculptures, installations, performances and videos.

Living With A Log (above) was created in 1998, in Ashland, Oregon, and consisted of a 2.5 ton, 42 foot log that was placed inside of a residential home. Daily activities of cooking, eating, sleeping, working and socializing were conducted alongside of the Log.

Pocock's work has been exhibited in galleries and museums including Portikus Museum in Frankfurt, Germany, the Wexner Museum, the Santa Monica Museum of Art and the Baltimore Museum of Art. He has also built “non-art sites” for private homes, movie theatres and farms.

Drilling A Well For Water (above) was drilled in the Levi Sculpture Garden of the Baltimore Museum of Art in 2003. This activity was performed live during museum hours. The well reached the water table at 40 feet and a hand pump was installed. The 350 gallons of water from the well was added to the museum's heating and cooling system where it is permanently recycled to create both hot and cold air. This process produced the object Volume which is the volumetric space of the entire museum building.

This Garden, making salt and evaporation drawings (below) was performed at the Santa Monica Museum of Art in 2004. Seawater was collected and evaporated to produce salt in the Project Room. The salt was dried, bottled and given away to museum visitors. An Evaporation Drawing was made to mark the time and atmospheric conditions unique to the site for the duration of the exhibition.

No Man’s Land (below) is a proposal for a permanent park for the Non-Humans that Pocock conceived in 2018. The project is ongoing.

"No Man’s Land will be an area of land where humans are prohibited from entering. It is a space where the plants, animals, insects and fungi will have full and sole autonomy. Where they are free from the presence of human beings. The park will not be used for research or organized observation. It is not a place for humans to study or 'enjoy' nature. No tagging, recording, research or human technology of any kind is permitted in No Man’s Land. While it is recognized that Humans are a part of the earth’s ecology, NML is proposed to be a legally protected place where the Non-Humans are guaranteed to be free of the presence of Humans and their actions.

Legal Goals: No Man’s Land is both a physical and a legal space. The legal goal of the project is to establish the living ecology that is within NML as a recognized Legal Entity. Identifying it as a place that can never be interfered with by human acts of possession. This will be done through Trusts, Deeds, local ordinance or another legal device that is to be determined."

Hugh Pocock was born in Aotearoa (New Zealand) and raised in the United States, England and Aotearoa. Time, energy, climate change, social connectivity and the Rights of Nature are among the issues he has investigated and continues to explore. Over the past three decades, he has shown his work in Los Angeles, San Francisco, New York, Santa Fe and Baltimore as well as internationally in the former Soviet Union, Germany and China. He received his BFA from the San Francisco Art Institute and then completed his MFA at UCLA in New Genres. Pocock is a faculty member at Maryland Institute College of Art where he is the founding Coordinator of the Minor in Sustainability and Social Practice and the Studio Major titled "Ecosystems, Sustainability and Justice." He teaches Sculpture, Video and Social Practice courses that focus on the impact of Climate Change and issues of Sustainability. He is also Co-Facilitator of the Global Ecologies Studio taught annually at the Burren College of Art in Ballyvaughan, Ireland. Pocock lives and works in Baltimore, Maryland. hughpocock.com IG@hughpocockstudio

Featured Images (top to bottom): ©Hugh Pocock, Untitled, 1995, Warner Studios, Los Angeles, glass, soil, Caucasian flesh toned paint; Living With A Log, 1998, Ashland, Oregon; Drilling A Well For Water, 2003, Levi Sculpture Garden, Baltimore Museum of Art; This Garden, making salt and evaporation drawings, 2004, Santa Monica Museum of Art, California; No Man’s Land, 2018- present, proposal for a permanent park for the Non-Humans; photograph of the artist, links to a recent symposium presentation on No Man's Land during the artists' solo exhibition at Burren College of Art, Ireland, June 20 - July 22, 2022.

Member Spotlight l Catherine Chalmers

Mon, 15 Aug 2022 15:18:49 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 15, 2022

This week we recognize Catherine Chalmers and her twenty plus year career collaborating with nature.

"I refer to myself as an artist. But, perhaps it’s more accurate to say I’m part of an art collective. I never work alone. My colleagues just don’t happen to be human. Early on I raised my collaborators in the studio, fed them, housed them. The dialogue was between me and the cockroach, me and the praying mantis. But, with the Leafcutters project, the exchange is between me and millions of wild ants."

"My work is at the intersection of art, science and nature. I do extensive research for each of my long-term, multimedia projects and a direct engagement with the natural world is central to my what I do. My work aims to give form to the richness, as well as the brutality and indifference that often characterize our relationship with animals."

"I use the narrative possibilities of the visual arts to bridge the increasing rift between humanity and the ecosystem and to creatively engage with the systems that support life on earth. Our culture is far richer with the inclusion of other life forms."

"I’ve worked with a variety of media, from engineering to painting, photography, video, sculpture and drawing, yet my artistic career has been focused on one central issue, how to confront and challenge our anthropocentric point of view. Humanity has been drawing lines in the sand forever, defining what is in and what is out, maybe now, at the dawn of the Anthropocene, is a good time to reconsider those lines and what lives on the other side."

For her upcoming exhibition We Rule (below), opening at the Drawing Center in New York, October 2022, Chalmers will create a site-specific drawing installation in the lower-level gallery and corridor that depicts the underground labyrinth of an ant colony. The installation is inspired by the artist's observation of, and engagement with more than one dozen colonies of Leafcutter Ants on the Osa Peninsula in Costa Rica. Over a ten-year period, Chalmers returned annually to the same spot, filming, photographing, and tracking the fate of these colonies. Leafcutter Ants are a metaphor for humanity’s life on earth: they farm, communicate, and collaborate; they also colonize, battle, and destroy.

Catherine Chalmers holds a B.S. in Engineering from Stanford University and an M.F.A. in Painting from the Royal College of Art in London. She has exhibited her artwork around the world, including MoMA P.S.1; MASSMoCA; Kunsthalle Vienna; Today Art Museum, Beijing; among others. Her work has appeared in a variety of publications, including the New York Times, Washington Post, ArtNews and Artforum. Chalmers has been featured on PBS, CNN, NPR, and the BBC. Two books have been published on her work: FOOD CHAIN (Aperture 2000) and AMERICAN COCKROACH (Aperture 2004). Her video “Safari” received a Jury Award (Best Experimental Short) at SXSW Film Festival in 2008. In 2010 Chalmers received a Guggenheim Fellowship and in 2015 she was awarded a Rauschenberg Residency. In 2018, she created a course called Art & Environmental Engagement, which she taught that spring quarter at Stanford University. Her video “Leafcutters” won Best Environmental Short at the 2018 Natourale Film Festival in Wiesbaden, Germany and in 2019, won the Gil Omenn Art & Science Award at the Ann Arbor Film Festival. She lives in New York City. catherinechalmers.com

Featured Images: ©Catherine Chalmers, TREE, Northeastern Cherry, 2008, 11 feet tall, Boise Art Museum; Food Chain Series (praying mantis); Food Chain, 2000, installation at MASS MoCA, North Adams, MA; Idols and Offerings Series: PORTRAIT, pigment print, 30 x 45 inches; Leaf Cutter Ant drawings, 2022, pen and ink on paper; the artist with E.O. Wilson, 2012 (below).

Member Spotlight l Blue McRight

Mon, 08 Aug 2022 15:24:44 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 8, 2022

This week we recognize Blue McRight and Blue McRighher dedication to the elimination of plastic pollution and the protection of our oceans.

"My world of artmaking is deeply immersive. I cross the wires of intention and chance to see what will happen, and the resulting shock rings me like a bell. I am struck, hollowed out, reverberating, transfixed until interrupted by dinner or some other distraction, whereupon my reaction is and always will be “five more minutes.” I am dedicated to creating a visual, metaphoric language about water and the ocean, synthesizing years of witnessing the undersea wilderness as a scuba diver. In ways that are provocative, but more poetic than didactic, my work engages with major environmental issues including drought, sea level rise and ocean plastic pollution."

"The organic processes of life behaviors, gender fluidity, reproduction, and death in marine creatures and their environments inspire me. These processes are timeless, unsentimental; outside of humans’ shifting cultural and political values. They continue with or without us. I trust their beauty, their indifference, their violence and integrity."

"Like an octopus, each of my arms has its own brain. The thoughts in my hands guide me: knotting and tying, cutting, sewing, and binding, I make each sculpture in cycles of repetition and improvisation. I utilize fishing nets, fish and crab traps, and bait baskets; though porous, they carry the weight of phantoms. They speak to life, death, struggle, capture, escape, despair, longing, and elation. They enable my formal and narrative exploration of transparency, weight and weightlessness, color, texture, and volume."

"My mind is in the gutter; constantly looking for plastic straws and lids in the street and on the beach. Along highways and at gas stations, I gather fallen urban fruit from the filthy orchard of our consumer culture. I insist that plastic trash such as salvaged nets, rope, straws, lids and other objects can be beautiful as material for artwork, forcing us to confront the possibilities of what we thoughtlessly discard, giving agency to the rejected as it assumes space in the realm of cultural dialogue, alluding to what is overlooked and wasted."

"The ultimate meaning of my work resides in engaging viewers while remaining elusive, in making personal and poetic connections to the conflict between nature and a culture of consumption. It speaks to our present era of the Anthropocene. It makes no predictions as to its outcome." Click image above for video interview

Blue McRight's work explores the psychological and cultural terrain between nature, personal experience, and politics. She creates works that include found objects such as vintage nozzles and sprinklers, rubber hoses, faucets, and used books as well as natural ephemera such as trees and tree branches. The objects undergo transformative operations that abstract them while enhancing their realist core. McRight studied at the Rhode Island School of Design from 1974 to 1975 and the Evergreen State College from 1977 to 1979. She began exhibiting in the early 1980s and has been included in numerous group shows including at the Delaware Art Museum, the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, and the Santa Monica Museum of Art. The artist has received public sculpture commissions from the City of Ventura, Culver City, Los Angeles, San Buenaventura and San Diego, all in the state of California. McRight has received grants from the Santa Fe Arts Council, and her work is included in the public collections of Sun America in New York, the Port of Portland in Oregon, Chemical Bank in New York, the Delaware Art Museum, Mountain Bell in Colorado, the New Mexico Museum of Art, and the Palm Springs Arts Museum. She lives and works in Venice, California. bluemcright.com

Featured Images: ©Blue McRight, The Invisible Obvious, 2021, studio installation, mixed media, dimensions variable; Antigone/Drink Me: Siren, 2014, mixed media, 60 x 111 inches; Quench: Well Wisher, 2012, mixed media, 50 x 43 x 29 inches; Fathom, 2020, installation including salvaged ocean plastics, lids, nets, rope and objects, dimensions variable; Font, 2016, used books, rubber hoses, vintage brass faucets and sprinklers, wood and metal, installation for COLA Individual Artist Fellowship exhibition, 9 x 12 x 15 feet; Still image of artist taken from COLA video interview 2016 (below).

Earthkeepers CALL FOR ARTISTS - Deadline 9/15 MEMBERS ONLY

Fri, 05 Aug 2022 18:24:29 GMT

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Washing/Tracks/Maintenance: Outside (July 23, 1973), Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art ©Mierle Laderman Ukeles

The Earthkeepers Handbook: recipes and remedies for healing the land and ourselves

Taking cues from the 1976 homestead handbook by Kim Abeles titled Crafts, Cookery and Country Living (background image), this fall 2022 we will assemble an ecoartspace "Members Handbook" for healing ourselves and the land.

Get your favorite recipes ready for making art materials, concoctions, spells, foods, and remedies. You can even submit a manifesto à la Mierle Ukeles (above), or directions on how to develop special skills. The objective is to share your knowledge and help make the world a better place.

NOTE: Hand drawn images and text are encouraged (à la Abeles), although typed text and photographs are accepted.

The Plan: Our goal with this book is to include as many members as possible, at least 200-300. The fee for submitting recipes/remedies is to cover the cost of designing and editing the book, and reviewers fees.

The reviewers are not looking to eliminate recipes, and will only be making sure that there's not too much repetition. Though they may ask for revisions if needed. They will also be organizing the book layout/design by themes and will write introductory essays.

The book will initially be available online, launching this fall, and a limited edition printed book will be ready at the start of 2023.

We are encouraging an ethos that challenges systemic racism and colonial extraction, which are at the core of ecocide. And, we will place importance on the inclusion of indigenous and LGTBQ voices. This book will represent the mission of ecoartspace which encourages a non-hierarchical, open-source dissemination of creative and ecofeminist wisdom; exactly what's lacking today in addressing human actions and interventions in the land that are causing the climate to change so quickly.

Other sources to consider regarding developing replicable social practice projects, see HighWaterLine Guide and SOS Action Guides (Watts, 2013-2014).

Note: The title Earthkeepers was inspired by the Heresies Magazine issue #13: Earthkeeping / Earthshaking: Feminism & Ecology (Volume 4, Number 1), 1981.

MEMBERS ONLY, NOT A MEMBER? PLEASE JOIN US

Timeline:

Deadline for submissions is September 15, 2022

Review submissions September and contact artists if needed for revisions

Book will be designed in October

The online book will launch by November 2022

Our goal is to go to print in December/January 2022

The printed book will launch by February 2023

REVIEWERS

Photo: Ken Marchionno

Kim Abeles explores society, science literacy, feminism, and the environment, creating projects with science and natural history museums, health departments, air pollution control agencies, and National Park Service. NEA-funded projects involved a residency at the Institute of Forest Genetics; and Valises for Camp Ground in collaboration with Camp 13, a group of female prison inmates who fight wildfires. Permanent outdoor works include sculptural Citizen Seeds along the Park to Playa Trail in Los Angeles, and Walk a Mile in My Shoes, based on the shoes of the Civil Rights marchers and local activists. Abeles has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Memorial Foundation, J. Paul Getty Trust Fund, and her process documents are archived at the Center for Art + Environment. Her work is in public collections including MOCA, LACMA, CAAM, Berkeley Art Museum, and National Geospatial Intelligence Agency. “Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors, 1987-2020” is a survey exhibition of the environmental series, presented at CSU Fullerton (2022) and CSU Sacramento (2023). Recent publications about her projects include New York Times, Los Angeles Times, and the book, Social Practice: Technologies for Change, Routledge Press (2022). https://kimabeles.com

WhiteFeather Hunter is a multiple award-winning Canadian artist and scholar, holding an MFA in Fibres and Material Practices from Concordia University. She is currently a PhD candidate in Biological Arts at the University of Western Australia, supported by a SSHRC Doctoral Fellowship, Australian Government International Scholarship and University of Western Australia International Postgraduate Scholarship. Before commencing her PhD, WhiteFeather was founding member and Principal Investigator of the Speculative Life BioLab at the Milieux Institute for Arts, Culture and Technology at Concordia University (Montreal) from 2016-2019. Her biotechnological art practice intersects technofeminism, witchcraft, micro and cellular biology with performance, new media and craft. Recent presentations include at Ars Electronica, Art Laboratory Berlin, University of Applied Arts Vienna, Royal College of Art London, Innovation Centre Iceland, and numerous North American institutions. WhiteFeather’s recent doctoral research into developing a novel menstrual serum for tissue engineering experiments was spotlighted by Merck/ Sigma-Aldrich for International Day of Women and Girls in Science 2021 as part of their #nextgreatimpossible campaign.www.whitefeatherhunter.ca

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Member Spotlight I Marietta Patricia Leis

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 14:18:59 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

August 1, 2022

This week we recognize Marietta Patricia Leis in Santa Fe, New Mexico and her series from 2019 titled ENGRAINED: Ode to Trees.

"We’ve always known trees—they grow along with us marking our lives. Perhaps there has been a favorite tree in your life—one that you climbed, picked fruit from or one that defined your property from another or you contemplated outside your classroom window. Trees are special friends because they provide us with so much—shelter, shade, nourishment, beauty, protection, refuge, regeneration and a purifier of our air. The Japanese have an activity they call “bathing in the woods,” walking among trees to dispel the stress of life and maintain mental health. It is no wonder then that we grieve when a tree(s) goes missing."

"I am an outed tree-hugger. I have said hello and good-bye and goodnight to trees. I have thanked them and loved them and I have mourned their loss. In fact it was the loss of my 30-foot high spruce tree, the one that lured me to the property where I lived and worked, which died shortly after I moved in, that provided the first physical materials and impetus. Maybe its job was over when it found me but my job had just begun."

"Even as I mourned the loss of the spruce I saved slices of the Spruce’s trunk that eventually transformed into some of the art forms in this homage to forests, tree canopies, felled trees, reforested trees, the mighty great grandfather trees and the baby sprout. As a multimedia artist I was inspired to use my entire tool chest of videos, sculpture, paintings and prints to tell the story of trees and appeal to as many of the viewer’s senses as possible. My reductive art is intended to reach beyond our familiar intellectual understanding to a place where instinct and feelings lie."

"There is no ugly tree but there are people that commit ugly acts against trees by not caring for them—starving them—or killing them often with a sad price to pay. E.G; Iceland has a dramatic barren landscape without trees because the early settlers used them for housing and fires. Now the planting of new trees in their volcanic landscape has proven almost impossible. Icelandic people I have spoken with had never grown up with trees but longed for them the way an orphan longs for parents. And, then there is the cutting of forests where greed can overcome our need for preservation."

"My hope is that my art will attract the viewer with beauty and invigorate our love and need for trees and propel us to save them for our planet’s health, grace and survival for future generations!"

Tree

Oh majestic tree
how safe I feel
hugging your stable trunk
Although you tower over me
you protect my soul
from unbelieving

Leis's most recent book of poetry titled Engrained is available for purchase in the ecoartspace store (click image below).

Marietta Patricia Leis considers herself a lifetime artist. The arts have been her primary focus since she was a child growing up in New Jersey. She studied and performed as a dancer at 14 and then moved to New York City when she was 17 where she studied the Stanislavski Method of acting with Lee Strasberg. Between classes and gigs as a dancer, actor and model, she was making paintings and began to show her work in the East Village. In 1962, she moved to Los Angeles for her acting career and played minor roles in film as she continued to paint. Visual art eventually became her primary form of creative expression, which led her to New Mexico and an MFA from the University of New Mexico. A longtime fan of minimalism, one of Leis’ major goals has been to evoke emotion from simplistic elements. Extensive travels have influenced her concerns for the planet, its sustainability and the inter-connectivity of everything in it. The ENGRAINED Series was exhibited at the New Mexico Museum of Art in 2020, and most recently included in a large solo exhibition titled Sense Memories at the Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, 2020-2021. www.mariettaleis.com

Featured Images: ©Marietta Patricia Leis, Seed 27, 2018, oil on panel, 59 x 49.75 inches, Traces 4, 2018, oil on Spruce wood, 17 x 14 x 16 inches; Remembrances 2, 2018, burnt Spruce wood, lacquer, steel, 23 x 22.4 x 3 inches; Tree, 2018, mixed media installation, 9 x 9 feet; Sense Memories installation shot at CAA, Santa Fe, 2021: Engrained: Reflections on Trees in Poetry, book published 2021; Artist portrait in front of Silent Road, 2019, tyvek, mixed media (below).

August 2022 Newsletter

Mon, 01 Aug 2022 14:08:08 GMT

The ecoartspace August 2022 e-Newsletter for non-members is here

Eternal Forest by Evgenia Emets for The Empty Square

Sat, 30 Jul 2022 14:40:04 GMT

Eternal Forest

Editorial for The Empty Square (written January 2022)

“Learning to live like a forest, to operate like a forest, running on reciprocity, on mutuality, could perhaps be a proposition for a healthier society, one that considers the well-being of other species well as important as its own. I am asking myself can we really learn this? Forest is telling me that she can teach us: she is a great book we can read if we can connect the patterns in our minds.” Evgenia Emets.

By Evgenia Emets, artist and founder of Eternal Forest

What if we lived in Forest Time?

What if our society was organised like a forest?

What if our relationship with forests was based on reciprocity, respect and long-term vision?

What if forests became sacred places for us, once again?

These are the questions I have been asking myself since I was called to manifest the project I call ‘Eternal Forest’.

In 2018, when I moved from London to Portugal, I became interested in the relationship humans have with forests and started to explore it through art, poetry and film. Now, after four years of learning and listening deeply to forests and people, I am convinced that the forest is calling us to review our relationship. We need to revise our values, rethink our priorities, revitalise our creativity, intuition and spirit. We need to reconnect to the sacred cycles of nature, build a relationship with nature as equals.

Today, as I tune into deep interconnectedness, I see the hope of a society operating like a forest: together, in a mutually beneficial and collaborative way. The transition to such a society requires a shift on personal, community and societal levels. What is needed is not only a rethinking of our modes of seeing and our behaviours but also a re-imagining of the actual core of our being in relation to the whole ecosystem, the other-than-human. This also demands a shift in our understanding of time, our highly controlled, linear, short-term vision of time, towards an expanded perspective, one that embraces a non-linear, multiplicity-of-cycles, long-term view of a more natural time, Forest Time.

There is not a single day that passes without news of the destruction of another bit of old-growth forest. For paper, for wood, for soya and corn production, for mining, for real-estate development - the list of reasons for this erasure is never-ending. To me, it is like destroying an incredibly intricate complex masterpiece, an artwork of Time. Rivers are disappearing, soils are being washed away by torrential rains and are being dispersed by the ever-increasing violence of winds. The forest can be restored, but an old-growth forest is an artwork that needs its artist - The Long Time - in order for it to re-emerge.

Everything is interconnected; we just need to tune our senses to see that. Forests are us. We are forests. Everything in our culture is because of the forest, every object, every piece of clothing, every vehicle, every building is somehow indebted to the forest. Denying or ignoring this reflects our disconnection, ignorance, numbness and loss of gratitude.

What are we missing?

When I moved to Portugal, I experienced the most shocking environmental disaster I have witnessed in my life - the aftermath of the devastating forest fires of 2017, with kilometre after kilometre of charred remains of trees marking the ravages endured by the earth. An otherworldly landscape of devastation created by fires sweeping through the endless eucalyptus plantations that have taken over the Portuguese countryside. Burned forests, farms, gardens and villages. Human, plant and animal lives lost. Seeing this devastation pushed me to connect with communities able to share their feelings and observations of the forest. I was hoping to gain a deeper understanding of the situation and uncover the root of the crisis. But I also desperately wanted to hear that people still remembered and loved their forests, despite the wide-scale replacement of natural forests with monoculture tree factories.

After making my first art-film Eternal Forest (2018), composed of interviews with people from the communities in the area of Góis, Coimbra, an area greatly affected by those tragic fires, I organised film screenings and discussions all around Portugal. While meeting people, I kept hearing similar questions and observations. Everywhere the conversations focused on the economic benefits of a profit-driven, extractive relationship with nature, and concerns, framed by a scarcity mindset, about the viability of living with naturally biodiverse forests.

Forest is a place where we plant and harvest - forest gradually becomes a farm. If a certain element of the ecosystem has no commercial value, we simply take it out of the equation. The end result is monoculture - endless rows of eucalyptus, cork oaks, olive, almond and pine trees, with little in-between. This inevitably leads to a loss of health and vitality of the ecosystem, a loss of biodiversity and water, and the degradation of the soil. The land stops giving.

I want to contemplate a thought for a moment. Scarcity does not exist in a healthy, biodiverse, fully functional ecosystem. Scarcity has been instilled into us based on a story of losing our place in the garden of Eden. Working hard, extracting what we can, and when we cannot take more, moving on - this has been our path. Today there are simply no places left without the scars of industrial-scale extraction, and all too often the idea of an abundant garden seems unbelievable when we hold in our hands the soil that has no life and is just dust.

What if we gave space and time?

I sensed there was something fundamental missing from the conversations I was having. It felt like trying to listen to the faint pulse of someone who had lost consciousness, to see if they were coming back. That piece of the puzzle came to me as a counterpoint to the mainstream economic narrative of always needing to profit from the forest.

After many remarkable encounters with the public, climate change specialists, soil and forest scientists, ecologists, permaculturists, philosophers and anthropologists, I kept questioning the idea that we can only ‘afford’ forests when they are economically viable. Once I formulated the new thought, it was clear that it was fresh but not new - it was an old message from the forest that has been dreaming for a long time (not so long, though, in Forest Time) and returned because we need it now so badly and are ready to hear it.

This is when the vision of an Eternal Forest as a sanctuary came to me. It was to be a protected forest space, created through art, with a focus on biodiversity and supported by a local community for 1,000 years. I could finally verbalise it, describe it and even design it. During an art residency in 2019 I proposed to establish with a community an Eternal Forest Sanctuary, as a place, process and practice, whereby the community became the long-term guardian of the forest sanctuary, created a cycle of events and experiences, and welcomed artists interested in co-creating with the evolving forest ecosystem.

Continue reading on The Empty Square

Member Spotlight l Stephen Whisler

Mon, 25 Jul 2022 15:18:51 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 25, 2022

This week we recognize Stephen Whisler who began his journey of art and nature in the late 1970s. Above is his work Der Goldwald made in the Black Forest, Germany in 1979.

"The Plant Works series (below) are photographs that I worked on from 1977 to 1980, documents of my private performances with plants. At that time I was intrigued with the notion that all of human and animal energy is ultimately derived from plants which take their energy from the sun. These early performances of mine were an attempt to show that relationship in a shamanistic fashion, performing a kind of ritual with the plants. I would sometimes use a knife to cut into the plant and then press the flesh of my hand into the cut, or I would transfer something from the plant to myself as in Plant Work 11 where I take the spines from one palm of a prickly pear cactus and stick them into the palm of my hand."

"As I traveled to various locations in California, Arizona and Germany I would set up my camera on a tripod and using a shutter release cable I photographed the performance myself with no one else present. Early in the project I mostly used a three image format in the printing but later I sometimes found that one or two images told the story. I see the photographs not only as the document of the performances but as art works in themselves. Of course photographs also use the energy from the sun to lock a point of time onto film and paper in a kind of symbiotic relationship with my performances. As I look back at these works from 45 years ago I still feel the yearning of my young self to make a connection with the plant world and our world itself; just trying to make some sense out of my existence on earth."

Above are Whisler's Titan launch drawings from 2016 and his performative work with a sculpture titled Walking The Bomb from 2017. He states "The Bomb is a human scale version of Little Boy, the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima. This bomb-shaped sculpture is exactly my size, and is handcrafted from wood and sheet metal. Dressed in a dark grey suit with a white shirt, I walk the streets towing The Bomb behind me." The performance was first initiated in Joshua Tree, California and a recent iteration was included in the ecoartspace exhibition Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats curated by Sue Spaid at the Williamsburg Art & Historical Center, in New York City, May 2022.

Whisler has created works on paper, sculptures, and performances as part of an ongoing investigation of military actions. Through these works, the viewer can appreciate the formal aspects with bold shapes, richly colored and textured surfaces, and dazzling compositions; while also considering the meaning behind images of war planes, atomic bombs, and other tools of destruction. The artist's tight focus forces us to confront the reality of modern warfare. In a plane or drone, the war is fought from a distance. Humans are far from sight. Up close, the ominous silhouettes and angular shapes of military equipment are imposing and hard to ignore. His imagery often forces the viewer to question whether they are a spectator or a target.

Stealth 1 (below) from 2019 is a pastel drawing of a stealth bomber. To create these large-scale drawings (20 x 70 inches), Whisler looks at imagery sourced from the internet, then draws them in Illustrator. He uses this hard-edge template to create the final large-scale drawings, which are rendered in thousands of pastel fingerprints. He refers to the fingerprints as “the most ancient ‘digital’ technique,” like thousands of bits of evidence; evidence of the horrible potential of human creations.

Stephen Whisler was born into a military family in the middle of the age of anxiety in the 1950s. His father was a Navy pilot, and the family of five moved often, from the East Coast where he was born in Virginia, to California and back to the East Coast, Taiwan and then California again. Whisler studied art at UC Davis where he met his wife, Sabine Reckewell. After receiving his MFA at Claremont Graduate University the couple moved to New York where they lived and worked for 27 years. He has exhibited his work at Artist's Space, The New Museum and various other galleries and museums in New York, California, Chicago and Wisconsin. In 2008, Whisler and his wife sold their downtown New York City loft and moved to Napa, California where they lived and worked for thirteen years. Recently, they returned to the East Coast and settled in Saugerties, New York where the artist continues his explorations. stephenwhisler.net

Featured Images: ©Stephen Whisler, Der Goldwald, Black Forest, 1979, Gold leaf on birkin, birch; ©Stephen Whisler, Plant Works, 1976 to 1980, photographs; ©Stephen Whisler, Titan Titan II Launch, 2016, V2 in Der Wüste, 2016, and Titan II Launch II, 2016; ©Stephen Whisler, Walking the Bomb, 2017, Joshua Tree, California; ©Stephen Whisler, The Fat Man at 11:02 AM, 2018, Papier-mache, wood steel and steel wire, room sized installation with actual size sculpture of the Fat Man bomb used on Hiroshima, 60 x 60 x 126 feet; ©Stephen Whisler, Stealth 1, 2019, Pastel on paper, 42 x 70 inches; Artist selfie, 2021.

Meet Rewilding Collagist Jennifer Gunlock - LA WEEKLY

Wed, 13 Jul 2022 15:01:36 GMT

Meet Rewilding Collagist Jennifer Gunlock

Shana Nys Dambrot July 11, 2022

Jennifer Gunlock builds trees out of trees — well, pictures of trees. Her practice as a mixed media collagist enacts a mediated rewilding of compromised landscapes, chronicling and deconstructing the cyclical encroachment of human habitats on the arboreal realm and nature’s inevitable revenge. Captured at a moment of poise between architectural and ecological devastation and feral verdant comeback, Gunlock’s fractal, organic landscapes are constructed of studio materials as well as her own photographs of the world out there today — even as they envision a potentially survivable tomorrow. She is a recipient of this year’s Pollock-Krasner Foundation grant, which is quite a big deal actually, and will now spend the next year creating the project.

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight l Mags Harries

Mon, 11 Jul 2022 14:48:20 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 11, 2022

This week we recognize the important ecological work of Cambridge (MA,USA) artist Mags Harries.

In the 1950's The Emerald Necklace, Fredrick Law Olmsted's chain of parks following the Muddy River, was broken when Sears & Roebuck put a parking lot over one of its links. With that a portion of The Muddy River was put into a culvert. In the late 1980s, Mags Harries with students at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts carried reeds and buckets of water between the divided segments of the River. They filled the buckets at one end and emptied them in the other, metaphorically reconnecting the River (above). Many of her early temporary projects involved community participation and social action, including Winding Down the Charles, where community members helped to physically wind the length of the Charles River into a ball of string, and Speed of Light, for which she organized with her students a twenty-mile bicycle ride to bring attention to a planned transportation 'Urban Ring' around Boston. Click on images to get more information

Reclamation Artists (above), performed in the late 1980s through the 1990s, was a group of approximately 100 environmental artists, including Harries and many of her students. They were interested in producing site-specific art installations which included three at the Charles River Basin in the area of the Central Artery construction sites, one at the Fort Point Channel area behind South Station, and one at Boston’s City Hall Plaza.

As a group, Reclamation Artists (RA) were committed to working on important though little used or misused sites in Boston. Through temporary art installations they called attention to evocative artifacts, aspects of history and ecology, past and future city building that often escaped the attention of planners and designers. They explored big issues through personal perceptions. They looked closely at what they found at these sites to reclaim their stories, and deeper meanings. Through this process they hoped to affect the future of these places and the way we build our city.

The Bronx River Golden Ball was performed by Harries from 1999 to 2001, and is a universal, positive image that can be seen as the sun, the world, energy, life. Its ambiguity encourages people to invent stories about it and add their own mythology. The reoccurring, multimedia New York City public art event was designed to tie together the fractured experience of the Bronx River and the complex layers of people and artifacts that exist along the River. The Golden Ball is a metaphor and physical link to the River, calling for a greater sense of community. It also directs attention to its struggling ecology, asking people to reclaim the Bronx River.

WaterWorks (2003) at Arizona Falls (above) is a well used public space, an art environment and a functioning hydro-power plant on the Arizona Canal in Phoenix designed by Mags Harries and her husband and public art partner, architect Lajo Heder. The site is focused on the water room and includes a power platform/dance floor; an outdoor classroom; pedestrian bridge; shade structures; seating; riparian terraces; and sustainable plantings, all designed by the artist led team. The site brings into focus the role of water in the history of Phoenix and in the future of green-energy, exploring water as both a utilitarian commodity and as a beautiful transformative substance. Surrounded by desert, the site is a lush environment full of water sensations. The project won the top environmental design award for the Phoenix area.

SunFlowers (2009), also designed by Harries and Heder is an Electric Garden including fifteen sculptural solar collectors that generate energy used for lighting at night. The 15 kilowatts of additional energy that they produce is fed into the Austin, Texas electrical grid for credit to fund the installation’s maintenance. During the day the SunFlowers provide a shaded grove for a pedestrian path and at night the LED’s in the flower stamens glows with blue light. The project is both an icon for the sustainable, LEED certified Mueller Development and a highly visible metaphor for the energy conscious City of Austin. Like real flowers, the SunFlowers transform sunlight into energy.

Mags Harries was born in Wales, graduated from the Leicester College of Art and Design, received her MFA at Southern Illinois University, and is currently senior faculty at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. She is a multimedia artist who uses found objects, drawing, photography, performance, new technology, and 3D printing to fabricate visually alluring work. In 1990, Harries and her husband Lajos Héder, an architect and city planner, formed the Harries/Héder Collaborative. Together they activate public spaces that combine practical functions with strong metaphorical significance and bring communities together. Harries has exhibited at The Institute of Contemporary Art in Boston, and the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, and a retrospective of her work at the Decordova Museum, in Lincoln, MA. She has received a fellowship and residency from The Bogliasco Foundation in Genoa, Italy, and attended residencies at the Baer Art Center (Hofsos, Iceland), Civitella Ranieri (Italy), and The American Academy (Rome, Italy). Water and water-related issues have been and continue to be a primary theme both in Harries’s individual studio practice and in her public art collaborations. www.magsharries.com

Featured Images: ©Mags Harries, Re-Membering the River, student collaborations, circa 1980s; The Reclamation Artists (RA), Charles River, Near Longfellow Bridge, Boston, MA (late 1980’s – 90’s); The Bronx River Golden Ball, 1999-2001, New York; WaterWorks at Arizona Falls, 2003, Water Room framed by the aqueduct waterfalls, Photo: Salt River Project Archives; Sunflowers, Electric Garden, 2009, public art, Austin, Texas; below, Mags Harries with her most recent series titled Adrift, iceberg sculptures.

Member Spotlight l Gloria Feman Orenstein

Mon, 04 Jul 2022 16:04:40 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

July 4, 2022

This week we recognize Gloria Feman Orenstein.

Orenstein is a feminist art critic, discoverer of the women of Surrealism, and a scholar of ecofeminism in the arts. Her book Reweaving the World (1990) is considered a seminal ecofeminist text which has played a crucial role in the development of U.S. ecofeminism as a political position. Essays include leading ecofeminist scholars, poets, novelists, scientists, ecological activists, and spiritual teachers (Starhawk, Vananda Shiva), who envision a restoration of harmony in a global environment damaged by a devaluation of nature and women. Many of the essays were first presented at the conference "Ecofeminism: culture, nature and theory," held at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, in March 1987. click image below

Reweaving the World, co-edited by Orenstein, posits an ecofeminist movement that brings together “the environmental, feminist, and women’s spirituality movements out of a shared concern for the well-being of the Earth and all forms of life that our Earth supports.” In the book, Orenstein described “’ecofeminist arts’ function [as] ceremonially to connect us with the two powerful worlds from which the Enlightenment severed us—nature and the spirit world.” She suggested such arts often invoked the symbol of the Great Mother (Goddess) to emphasize three levels of creation “imaged as female outside patriarchy: cosmic creation, procreation, and artistic creation.”

While a graduate student at New York University, Orenstein wrote her dissertation on Surrealism in France and Latin America after WWII.

"Someone suggested I write to Leonora, and we corresponded almost daily. Nothing had been written about her in the early 70's so she sent me reproductions of her visual art. I was astounded by the beauty of her art and decided to include her in my dissertation. I would have to go to Mexico to speak with her in person, but had no money for travel. I decided to purchase a Mexican dress, hoping the vibes would enter my brain and enlighten me about the meaning of her cryptic, but absolutely incredible imagery. One day, just as I had asked the cosmos to send me an answer, the telephone rang and a most distinctive English accent spoke: "This is Leonora Carrington. I have just arrived in New York and I would like to meet you."

"We met that night and remained dear friends for the rest of her life (Carrington died in 2011). In New York I took her to a meeting of OWL (Older Women's Liberation) and we met with Betty Friedan, Jacqui Ceballos and Irma Diamond. Leonora wanted to start a branch of NOW in Mexico City. She was sailing for France in a few days and wanted me to go with her. Thanks to my brother I was able to make the trip by plane."

"The time I spent with Leonora opened my eyes to the Celtic roots of her literary and artistic vision. I was able to spend six weeks as her guest in Mexico the following summer. It was a most extraordinary entrée to her world. She saw the traces of the ancestors at the archeological sites we visited. It was the dream trip of a lifetime." click images above and below

In 1987, following the Ecofeminism conference, Orenstein was invited by a Shaman of Samiland (Lapland, N. Norway), Ellen Marit Gaup Dunfjeld, to be a student with her in Alta, Norway, an experience that continued intermittently for almost five years.

"The shaman was exquisitely beautiful in her native costume with jangling fringes. She began to sing a yoik, a chant that calls in the spirits of deceased ancestors. As she sang, we were literally transported to the ancient times of humanity's origins. During this meeting the shaman informed me I had to make a trip to Samiland because "The Great Spirit has called you, Gloria and you have to come to meet the Great Spirit."

Orenstein then writes an essay "Toward an ecofeminist ethic of Shamanism and the sacred," included in the book Ecofeminism and the Sacred, published in 1993. In 2022, she's invited to participate in the virtual Meetings on Art for

the 59th Venice Biennale to explore the interconnections between Leonora Carrington and Sami Noaidis (shamans), proposing that Indigenous Sami epistemology might serve as a generative alternative to Western anthrocentrism. click image below

Gloria Feman Orenstein received a B.A. in Romance Languages and Literature from Brandeis University in 1959 and an M.A. in Slavic Languages and Literature from Radcliffe Graduate School of Harvard University in 1961. She studied in abroad in 1957 and 1958 completing courses at both the Sorbonne, University of Paris and Ecole du Louvre. Orenstein began her teaching career in 1963, when she accepted a position teaching High school French in Lexington, MA. She returned to New York University to continue her education, completing a Ph.D. in Comparative Literature in 1971. From 1975 to 1981 she was faculty of Rutgers University where she also served as the chair of the Women's Studies Program from 1976 to 1978. She was hired as Professor in the Department of Comparative Literature and Gender Studies at the University of Southern California in 1981 where she taught until she retired. She is a professor emerita of the University of Southern California. She received a Lifetime Achievement award from the Women's Caucus for Art in February 2018 in Los Angeles, California.

Featured Images: All images are snapshots taken from the award-winning short film Gloria's Call directed by Cheri Gaulke.

Click image of Orenstein below to watch Gloria's Call, which premiered in Los Angeles, October 2018. The film was born in 2016 during a presentation by Orenstein at the Southern California Women's Caucus for Art (SCWCA), Surrealist Tea. (16:45 mins)

July 2022 Newsletter

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 03:54:46 GMT

The ecoartspace July 2022 e-Newsletter is here

Note: As of today there's a separate newsletter for members only that will not public, visible on our website.

Active Maps Between the Trees and Me: Katerie Gladdys Interview

Sat, 02 Jul 2022 00:46:07 GMT

(Thy Neighbor’s Fruit, shelves, jars of jam, audio and video, 2010- now, https://vimeo.com/51706961)

Active Maps Between the Trees and Me:
Katerie Gladdys Interview

by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Katerie Gladdys is an alchemist of disciplines dedicated to promoting awareness of community and environmental impacts. Many of her topics are everyday objects with big histories like how your orange juice arrived on your table that morning and the circumstances that have resulted from its cultivation. But furthermore, she uses academic research to inform interactive data visualizations that are incredibly relatable like a jar of jam made from local fruit trees or through the promotion of edible weed gardens. I asked Gladdys about her depiction methods, process and how she sees the world.

Hi Katerie, so much of your work is intersectional; you bring together topics of both environment and social factors approaching fruit and local environment using both a research and creative lens. For example, in work like “Thy Neighbor’s Fruit” you gather unused fruits from neighboring trees and prepare them as jams while mapping the resources. How do you decide on how to depict your findings and integrate your community?

My art practice oscillates between local food systems and managed forests, often punctuated by investigations into the hyper local of my backyard and personal encounters with “nature.” Mapping is a methodology that allows me to vigilantly attend to the natural world at multiple and simultaneous scales. My mission and challenge as an artist to not just aestheticize data but to create meaningful visualizations connected to the data, but also to conversations about art.

For instance, in Thy Neighbor’s Fruit, ideas about mass production, overlooked resources and waste comingle with serialization, the multiple, color theory and even the idea of a mosaic. The installation has audio and/or video where the people who contributed the fruit for the jam discuss their relationship to their trees, food preservation and family stories about growing food. The jars of jam and the stories feel familiar even comforting, but the presentation and context perhaps invites further thought about gendered labor and food systems. One audience engagement that I find particularly gratifying with this piece was an elderly woman who surreptitiously picked up the jars to see if the jam had set. Or how the jam often enters exchange and gift economies as food post-exhibition.

(Eccentric Grids: Mapping the Managed Forest: Enumeration and Density, small format video, custom electronics, sawdust, 2017-ongoing)

You mention mapping, which you often use as a way of articulating your research. And your presentations of what maps can be are varied and integrative. What work have you made that speak especially to the goal of “meaningful visualizations connected to the data?”

In Eccentric Grids: Mapping the Managed Forest: Enumeration and Density, I researched the tree density of managed commercial pine plantations harvesting for both pulp for paper products and board lumber with the natural spacing of the “trunk print” of old growth longleaf pine forests. I laid out the trunk prints of pulp, board and old growth trees in the scaled grids in which they are planted in a managed pine plantation or occur “naturally” in pre-settlement forests maintained by indigenous people. Each trunk print is a stencil of sawdust, an ephemeral by-product of chopping down a tree, that marks the trace of each tree. The audience is allowed to walk amongst the trunk prints and I often expect and plan for the piece to be obliterated during the time span of the exhibition. But often, most of the stencils remain intact suggesting much care and mindfulness of those walking through the visualization of the forest.

(Seed Cabinet, repurposed card catalog, custom electronics, video, and seeds, 28” x 18” x 38”, 2018-ongoing, https://vimeo.com/224731846 )

Wonderful. It is incredible how many elements you integrate into your process, and I wonder if this has to do with your academic research. For example, you often integrate your research into your artistic development like in the Agent Orangerie analysis of both consumer and production patterns in orange juice manufacturing and the resulting work, "Thy Neighbor's Fruit". In what ways does your academic work intersect and inform your artistic process?

I am very fortunate to teach at a land grant research institution. My research practice is very experiential yet informed by academic research. How people “do science” in an institutional setting becomes a space of play and potential critique. If one uses the metaphor of a recipe to think about scientific method and data, a research-based art practice uses the data and methods to redirect and comment upon the larger social context created by academic research. I am lucky to be able to go and have conversations with colleagues whose life’s work is thinking about food security or managed forests or to be able to go and look at seeds from endangered native plants growing in a lab. I get to see a lot of stuff and talk with interesting people.

(Seed Cabinet, repurposed card catalog, custom electronics, video, and seeds, 28” x 18” x 38”, 2018-ongoing, https://vimeo.com/224731846 )

What a unique and fruitful community you have found! No wonder this theme of community is very present in what you have exhibited. As both environmental research, presentation, and interactive design, many of your works engage the public through both awareness and activation (ex. Forest art collab, seed cabinet). What is your mission in creating this novel intersection and have audience members engaged after the initial viewing?

I endeavor to make art that awakens the curiosity in my viewers: transforming spectators into participants yearning to explore their surrounding environments. For example, in Seed Cabinet, opening each drawer of repurposed card catalog triggers the playing of videos and audio narratives that depict the community’s living intertwined relationships with these plants. Seed Cabinet collides the ordered worlds of science and libraries with the messiness of soil and plants, sowing the seeds for dialog. This piece invites the audience to engage with stories that describe personal and cultural relationships with the vegetal world told by those whose lives are profoundly intertwined with plants and agriculture. Seed Cabinet operates on multiple levels—sculptural object, performative installation, and participates in hands-on educational and community events, international conferences and symposiums. Interacting with both seeds and card catalogs is sensual and tactile, an active experience and a call to dialog and action to manifest further engagement with food systems in the form of learning about alternative food sources and cultivating gardens.

(Seed Cabinet, repurposed card catalog, custom electronics, video, and seeds, 28” x 18” x 38”, 2018-ongoing, https://vimeo.com/224731846 )

Now you’re talking my language! I was particularly interest in your “Green Lining?” and “Sanctuary” work that take a strong stance in favor of “weeds” as gardens themselves, especially the edible ones! What would an ideal inhabited landscape look to you?

An ideal inhabited landscape is one that sustains a diversity of species including humans and recognizes the sentience of those other-than-humans. That being said I live in what used to be rural north central Florida, a rapidly changing landscape, where the timber forests and agricultural lands that succeeded pre-settlement long leaf pine ecosystems and coastal wetlands, vanish daily replaced at an alarming rate by homogeneous suburban sprawl. I have difficulty processing and literally finding my way in the midst of the weekly destruction of green space resulting from exponential development due to the increasing population of Florida and inland “development” perhaps expecting salinization and rising sea levels. I am left to focus on the ruderal ecologies of what persists and supplants what came before. Weeds are resilient, often invasive plants that may function as potential food sources in a changing climate. I am working on another iteration of Seed Cabinet that invites the audience to re-examine ubiquitous ecosystems as speculative nutrition in a warming world and to question the notion, "What is a weed?" Many “weeds” local to north central Florida are heritage vegetables in diaspora and indigenous communities and are connected to stories of survival and immigration.

Thank you, Katerie, for a wonderful interview.

Katerie Gladdys is a transdisciplinary artist who thinks about place, marginalized landscapes, sustainability, mapping, consumption, food, agriculture, and disability. She creates installations, interactive, sculpture, video, and relational performances. She is currently an associate professor in Art and Technology in the School of Art and Art History at the University of Florida. Recent partners in collaboration include Working Food, a non-for-profit that educates people about sustainability and local food, University of Florida School of Forest Resource and Conservation, and the Gainesville community. Prior to joining the faculty at University of Florida, Gladdys was the multimedia education coordinator at University of Illinois at Springfield. She served as an educator at the Virginia Museum of Fine Art traveling to rural counties with the Artmobile teaching K-12 workshops as well as creating exhibition programming. She received her MFA in New Media from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and a BA in Art and Design from the University of Chicago. She also has an MA in Teaching English to Speakers of Other Languages with a specialization in pragmatics and discourse from Southern Illinois University at Carbondale. layoftheland.net

Substance of Venom - Cherie Sampson

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 21:40:07 GMT

Substance of Venom (2021-22) 4K single channel video. 9:34 (presented in a video installation constructed of applewood and silk above) Photo by: Lisa Wigoda

Submitted by the artist

Substance of Venom by Cherie Sampson is included in the exhibition The Quality of Being Fleeting at 826 Currents gallery in Santa Fe through September 11, 2022.

Description:

The gardens, prairies, orchard, woodlands in the home environment where the artist, Cherie Sampson lives set the mise-en-scène for a series of self-administered honeybee “stinging rituals” over a period of several months in 2021. A team of Australian researchers recently discovered that the active substance in honeybee venom, melittin, has demonstrated a capacity to induce cell death in two types of aggressive breast cancers: triple-negative and HER2.* As a survivor of TNBC, Sampson engaged this symbolic act, calling attention to the need for more natural or other forms of cancer therapy that may one day offer alternatives to toxic and often ineffectual treatments – some that have not changed for decades. Footage of the foraging patterns of honeybees and other native pollinators of the Midwest that illustrate the diverse life in healthy ecosystems are juxtaposed with images of the stinging rites. (In the video installation, the imagery is projected onto silk scrims that hang in a sculptural installation constructed of applewood from the organic orchard in NE Missouri, USA, operated by Sampson’s husband, Dan Kelly.)

Credits: Camera: Cherie Sampson & Radim Schreiber Musical elements: Charles Gran All other audio + video production & post-production: Cherie Sampson

Voice-Over for 9-minute Substance of Venom video

(May-June 2022)

“Honeybee venom and melittin suppress growth factor receptor activation in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast cancer.” NPJ – Nature Partner Journals. *

I will help you to feel magically better…
The placebo said to me.
As your escort, it is my duty and pleasure.

I shall please.
I   shall   please.
I      shall      please…

“Despite decades of study, the molecular mechanisms and selectivity of the biomolecular components of honeybee (Apis mellifera) venom as anticancer agents remain largely unknown. Here, we demonstrate that honeybee venom and its major component melittin potently induce cell death, particularly in the aggressive triple-negative and HER2-enriched breast cancer subtypes…”

I      shall      please…
I          shall          please…

“Our work unveils a molecular mechanism underpinning the anticancer selectivity of melittin, and outlines treatment strategies to target aggressive breast cancers…”

I       shall       please.

April 22: The first sting in the orchard.
Caught a couple honeybees that got away and was stung on my hand while trying.
Administered on left forearm so I could hold her with the insect tweezers with my right hand.

All night I felt and dreamt of the pain and initiation of melittin.

{music & sound effects}

“The European honeybee (Apis mellifera) has been the source of a number of products used medicinally by humans, such as honey, propolis, and venom for thousands of years1. However, the molecular determinants of the anticancer activity of bee venom remain poorly understood, particularly in breast cancer…”

June 6: Keep eyes on mustards, white and yellow clover, milkweed, holly hock…the milkweed still not quite in bloom. And the growing ashy sunflower in the field. Milkweed and sunflower emerging from the ash of a controlled burn.

{sounds of buzzing bees, fire crackling…}

Got a bee from the asparagus for the second sting. I placed her on the upper left chest – above the former tumor. She spun round and round before finally releasing the venom sac.

Afterward, she rested on my body for a long time, preening, preparing to die.
My chest rose and fell with breath. Life.

{music}

Observing the girls in the white clover now.
Also saw a beautiful swallow tail butterfly there.

Arranged to do the sting in the evening with deep golden light.
Very shallow depth of field.

She escaped…

{high-pitched sound effect}

June 23: Saw the first bee in the milkweed today – some are staring to bloom!
Others are still in tight clusters.

July second. Incredible diversity of pollinators in the milkweed, including bumblebees and a gorgeous hummingbird moth. Many honeybees were active. I was able to track a single bee for a long time because there is so much to gather on a single flowerhead.

Observed many pollinators in the vivid butterfly milkweed on “goddess hill.”
Also, a monarch caterpillar.

Did two stings on my right shoulder – where I have had some unexplainable pain over the past few months. The first one did not go deep. In the second sting, the venom sack still administered venom even after the bee detached.

Or so I think.

{sound effects from slow-motion video, summer insects}

July 26: Many pollinators in the Cup Plants now, including honeybees and the jeweled metallic green sweat bees.

The clover is drying up but managed to capture one there into a little jam jar.

Administered the sting in the upper right breast. Not too intense and the venom sac did not released into my flesh.

August 22: Abundant pollinators in the blooming chives right outside the back door. Not since the cup plants in July have I seen so many honeybees in one place!
They move quickly there as the flowers are so tiny.

Keeping my eyes on the zinnias…are the girls interested?

Stings become less severe as the season progresses.

As your escort, it is my duty and pleasure…

To kill any rogue TNBC cells that may be wandering around in my bloodstream?

August 24.
Dan has observed that the bees are now in the upper garden in the cover crop Milpa field with buckwheat, sunflower, brassicas, squashes…

Mil-pa
translates as -
cultivated field.

One in every three bites of food comes from pollination by honeybees.

Caught a bee in the chives for later sting.

September 2: Did four stings today. The first time with so many in one day. Arms and upper back. On the shoulder.

{abstract music & insect sounds}

Pollinators are really busy in the milpa field.
Goldenrods are just starting to open…

The honeybees stay for many minutes on a single sunflower head…

Continuing to watch milpa field, sunflowers, cucumbers, zinnias, ash sunflower.

…gathering bright pollen.

Continuing to watch milpa field, sunflowers, cucumbers, zinnias, ash sunflower.
Continuing to watch milpa field, sunflowers, cucumbers, zinnias, ash sunflower.

Been seeing a lot of pollinators in the zinnias on sunny mid-days. Things are getting sparse, and our zinnia garden may be one of the last foraging places. They are also in the sprouting broccoli flowers in the garden.
Continuing to watch milpa field, sunflowers, cucumbers, zinnias, ash sunflower.

Been watching the asters for weeks looking for the apis mellifera and never see them.
Finally saw a couple today there about 12:30 PM.

November 8: Just did a sting on my left foot. This very well may the last sting from a captured bee outdoors this season.

It is getting rather cold in coming days…

Honeybees forage in the last phase of their life.
Their time of death is impending but hastened by my capture.

Provocation.

Am I entirely comfortable with my role in her ever-so-slightly?
Earlier death?

Thank you.

Thank you, honey. Honeybee.

Your substance of venom.
Placebo?

Golden one. Giver of life,
beauty,
food,
intoxication.

Medicine.

{musical outro}

*All quotes about melittin research and TNBC:
Duffy, C., Sorolla, A., Wang, E. et al. Honeybee venom and melittin suppress growth factor receptor activation in HER2-enriched and triple-negative breast cancer. npj Precis. Onc. 4, 24 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41698-020-00129-0

Bay Area Eco Artists: Where Art Meets Nature by Leora Lutz

Fri, 01 Jul 2022 15:23:51 GMT

Bay Area Eco Artists: Where Art Meets Nature by Leora Lutz

This past spring has been a busy time for several ecoartspace members who live in the San Francisco Bay Area. Through intimate interactions with the land and with each other, they are making poignant and pivotal statements to help further the dialog about ecological trauma.

Alicia Escott was one of four artists selected from over 130 applicants for the Annual Artists Life Cycle juried exhibition titled “This Land: Art/Act Local," now on view at the David Brower Center in Berkeley. The prompt for the exhibition is “What does it mean to be connected to the land that holds us and life on this planet, along with the imperative to protect it?” Her work is serious and poetic, but within that dynamic is a sense of gentle levity, a light acknowledgement of the magnitude and absurdity of humans’ relationships with objects, waste and living things.

The artist's contribution to the show titled “Various Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors: An ongoing series of collaborations with wildflower seeds” includes several “living sculptures,” eight videos, and photographs. Her work with seeds, compost, Oak Ecologies and Victorian Gold Rush architecture among other things “are always ways of getting back to the core issues of recognizing interconnectivity, that what the earth wants is so often what we want (that we need to stop fighting ourselves), and creating spaces to sit with the grief of living within mass extinction and climate crisis....”

Escott's sculptures are comprised of post-industrial/pre-consumer waste plastic bags that are full of dirt with flora sprouting through their “heads.” They lean against walls with a sense of personhood, slumped and drunk on life. In one video, brown water seeps from the tied end of a bag, as if it’s oozing its waste onto the floor. She acknowledges that there’s a fecal innuendo with these bags, yet, from this compost shoots beauty in delicate wild flowers and willowy grasses. The plants reach for light, and bloom when ready. They persevere.

Alongside these compact slow growing life forms are accompanying videos that document a person’s interaction with the plants. A woman’s arm is in frame, slowly touching a soft tan grassy frond; a tender green branch; or a bright pink gentle bloom. As the arm moves away, the plant bends in response, as if to return the gesture, or to beckon for more.

Escott also participated in a collaborative project with Bay Area-based Fog Fire Collective, alongside Jillian Crochet, Angela Willetts, Tanja Geis and Minoosh Zomorodinia. They presented a striking, monumental installation titled “Scrub Index” at the Palace of Fine Arts in San Francisco for this year’s Bioneers Conference in May. The work featured multiple 40 foot scrolls of muslin suspended from the ceiling. A labor of love. The muslin was weighted by jagged oceanic rocks from the immediate area, which the artists returned to their place of origin after the installation. Videos of hands kneading and “washing” the fabric were projected onto the fabric surfaces. 

Created onsite in the ocean-shored areas adjacent to the Palace, the muslin was naturally dyed by rubbings of the Palace, mud rubbings of a sea wall nearby, and in the shallow areas where green algae, and soft beige and gray sand linger. The fabric absorbs the land’s colors and textures, inverting the act of washing by “dirtying” to signify different ecologies of the area. The piece is inspired by a lake in the area that was once home to the “Washerwoman’s Lagoon”—a place during the Gold Rush for people to come and collectively wash their clothes, eat lunch, and gather while the clothes dried, draped on nearby chaparral. You can see a video of their process on their Instagram site, here.

Iranian-born Minoosh Zomorodinia also recently curated an ambitious group show titled “Between Lands” at Southern Exposure in the Mission District, which includes Iranian artists from the US and Iran. The exhibition featured several video works, inviting viewers to spend quality time with each piece, watching and listening. Much of the content was generated on the other side of the world, which further illuminated the point that ecological issues are global as well as local. The works invited visitors to “consider our attachments and anxieties in relationship with land and home when there is loss caused by war, fire, displacement, or other disaster,” stated Zomorodinia.

Through cinematography, collage, performance or mapping, the artists highlight the damage and demise of the landscape at the hands of humans. There was also an afternoon of tea and snacks held outside the gallery on the busy sidewalk, made from herbs and plants that can help curb the effects of air pollution caused by wildfire smoke. The problems caused by humans that damage land, erase history, or provoke health issues commonly stem from the need for territory or the ego’s need for power—desperation to live at the expense of our precious resources.

Yet there’s also a glimmer of hope as people endure and persist, whether through song, storytelling, sharing a moment with a cup of tea…or making art like the members of ecoartspace.

Member Spotlight - Beth Ames Swartz

Mon, 27 Jun 2022 16:10:02 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 27, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Beth Ames Swartz.

Coming from a spiritual and artistic grounding rooted in an urban environment in New York, Swartz initially struggled with a feeling of displacement and disconnection when she moved to the desert environs of Arizona in 1959. Over the following decade, her art began to transition away from representation and into the realms of landscape abstraction. In 1970, during a rafting trip down the Colorado River through the Grand Canyon, the artist was transformed by the enveloping experience. She states "The desert became my mentor. Exposed to nature's abiding cycles, I felt the dignity and continuity of the earth and needed to translate my feelings visually." Pilgrimage and associated rituals using fire then became a prominent strategy in her art, leading to multi-year projects where the artist traveled to sacred sites in the Southwest and Europe, where she initiated on-site paintings on heavy scrolls of paper, incorporating soils from each location into the works.

In the late 1970’s, Swartz made smoke drawings and imagery or “fire works,” which were a material transformation she developed from the application of destructive forces, mutilation and fire onto her work. Her series Transformations: Mica, Fabric & Lint (above), then led to a series Process/Ritual, forms that emerged from her large site works (below).

"The crux of all my art is life, death and rebirth, the cycles of life both in nature and life. Entropy is misunderstood once we realize that this constant reordering is always an opportunity to reframe the past into new awareness, reconciliation and eventual transformation."

Green Sand Beach #8”, 1979,(above) was created with fire, sand, acrylic, variegated gold leaf and mixed-media on layered paper. While Swartz was an artist-in residence in Hawaii, she heard about and then visited the green sand beach and executed her fire-ritual at the site; ordering, disordering, reordering or life/ death/ rebirth; similar to the transformations that the earth goes thru after eruptions with the eventual rebirth.

"My art practice is a devotional activity, an intuitive journey and lifelong quest to transcend brokenness and create reconciliation, transformation and beauty. I focus on art's potential for healing & unifying people, helping us to recognize the commonality of the human experience and our place in the cosmos."

In 1980, Swartz traveled to Israel and visited ten historical sites as part of her series “Israel Revisited.” The series is a culmination of her exploration into the four elements and a reflection on influences of feminism, environmentalism and Jewish history. Each site was chosen for its connection to important female figures from the Bible. Red Sea #1 (above) honors Miriam, who, like her brother Moses, was considered a prophet and leader of the Israelites. Swartz painted and pierced the surface of a heavy rag paper, then covered it in soil and set it afire. She later reconstructed the tattered pieces in her studio, completing a personal cycle of life, death and rebirth.

In her series The Thirteenth Moon (below), Swartz was inspired by three revered eighth century Chinese poets: Du Fu, Li Bai and Wang Wei. Her mixed media paintings visualize their poems to reflect the richness of their respective world views: Confucianism, Taoism and Buddhism.

Beth Ames Swartz grew up in New York City where she studied at the Art Students League in the late 1940s while attending The High School of Music & Art. Following she attended Cornell University for undergraduate school and New York University where she received her Masters. In 1959, at age twenty-three, she moved with her first husband to Phoenix, Arizona. There she was introduced to Action Painting, a spontaneous application of paint to the canvas, which she combined with her feminist interests to make expressions of her relationship with the Earth. She received the Arizona Governor's Individual Artist Award in 2001 and was the subject of a Phoenix Art Museum retrospective and major monograph in 2002. The Veteran Feminists of America honored Beth in 2003 for her contribution to the arts nationally. Swartz's work is in the public collections of National Museum of American Art (Smithsonian Institution), Jewish Museum, New York; San Francisco Museum of Modern Art; Brooklyn Museum, New York; Phoenix Art Museum, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Albuquerque Museum and many corporate and private collections. Her new website, coming soon! www.bethamesswartz.com

Featured Images: Above, ©Beth Ames Swartz, painting at the Red Sea, Israel, April 17, 1980; Transformations: Mica, Fabric & Lint Series, 1977, mixed media on paper, approximately 23 x 33 inches; Green Sand Beach #8, 1979, fire, sand, acrylic, variegated gold leaf, mixed-media on layered paper, 34 x 54 inches; The Red Sea #1 (Israel Revisited, Ten Sites),” 1980, Collection of Diane and Gary Tooker, included in the exhibition “Counter-Landscapes: Performative Actions from the 1970s – Now,” 2020, Scottsdale Museum of Contemporary Art, Arizona; Du Fu: A lonely moon turns among the waves (A line of cranes in flight is silent; A pack of wolves baying over their prey breaks the quiet; I cannot sleep because I am concerned about wars; Because I am powerless to amend the world), 2012, acrylic and paste on canvas, approximately 36 x 48 inches.

Watch the New Art of the American West film segment on Beth Ames Swartz from 1979:

Elisabeth Condon: Beautiful complexity - Two Coats of Paint

Wed, 22 Jun 2022 14:50:09 GMT

Elizabeth Condon, Abstraction of the World, 2022, acrylic on canvas, 27 x 23 inches

Studio Visit with Two Coats of Paint

Elisabeth Condon: Beautiful complexity

June 21, 2022

Contributed by Sharon Butler / To understand Elisabeth Condon‘s paintings, it seems important to know that she grew up in California in a highly decorated house where she spent hours staring at the wild patterns of the fabrics and wallpapers. The experience certainly informs her exuberant paintings, in which pattern, flower, landscape all co-exist, as she says in her artist statement, in living, breathing presence. She has traveled extensively in China, where she studied sumi-e. Her aesthetic is also informed by the Expressionists’ and Color Fields painters’ approaches to paint application, although she seems to be moving away from the pour in a new series of work on paper. In a 2019 catalogue essay, Jason Stopa wrote that Condon’s paintings are visionary, “a container for near-religious feeling in a world of the secular.” Condon lives primarily in New York, but spends time in Florida, where she has had a house since her faculty days in the painting program at the University of South Florida. I stopped by her LES studio during the Clemente Open Studios where we talked about what she’s been doing, and then I followed up via email with a few questions.

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight - Fern Shaffer

Mon, 20 Jun 2022 14:56:59 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 20, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Fern Shaffer.

"My interest in science has always directed me to information about the environment. By recognizing how everything is interconnected, our society can avoid mistakes that will only come back to haunt us. It makes no sense to poison the water when we will ultimately be the ones to consume it. The pattern is repeated over and over again revealing the crisis potential of our culture’s desire for immediate gratification. Living in an increasingly dangerous, toxic, and stagnant environment, for both animal and plant life, led me to investigate the dilemma through my art."

Ginkgo is a genus of highly unusual non-flowering plants. The genus first appeared in the Permian, 250 million years ago, possibly derived from “seed ferns” of the order Peltaspermales, thus the Ginkgo is a living fossil. A single tree can live as long as 1,000 years and grow to 120 feet. The Ginkgo is a tough and hardy tree, they can live in most climates therefore they have been planted and cultivated all over the world. For thousands of years, leaves from the Ginkgo Biloba tree have been a common treatment in Chinese medicine.

"As an artist, this tree represents the plant kingdom, and I paint the leaves as a way to show respect and pay tribute to its strength and endurance. If humans became extinct, life on the planet would survive, but if there were no plants, humans would perish. Our existence depends on these species."

The "Morphogenic Fields" series from 1983 (above), its title referencing the aura of radiation that emanates from living beings, features the female form, rendered in soul-baring, tenuous outline. Shaffer uses a shifting figure/ground relationship calling to mind the flow of energy in, out and through us, depicting women enveloped within fields of gestural DNA-like marks or packed with radiating color strokes like bursts of energy set against darker voids. Evoking both the personal and universal, these works address women's identity on the threshold of exploring, and perhaps realizing, the possibilities for fulfillment opened up by feminism.

In 1980, inspired by her interest in Edgar Cayce, Mircea Eliade and Michael Harner, and prompted by ecological concerns shared with her collaborator Othello Anderson, Shaffer began enacting self-designed shamanistic rituals as a form of spiritual intervention. Anderson documented the rituals in sequential photographs that were later exhibited with elements (ceremonial garments and objects) from the performances. Feminist art critic Gloria Feman Orenstein situated Shaffer's work as part of an emerging Ecofeminism movement, describing the rituals as introducing "feminist matristic resonances" intended to create connections and restoration in the sites and communities within which they are enacted. According to writer and critic Suzi Gablik, Shaffer's "process of creating a shamanic outfit to wear can be likened to creating a cocoon, or alchemical vessel, a contained place within which magical transformations can take place." Art critic Thomas McEvilley related the garments to "an earth mother or fertility-goddess motif," evoking "non-Western or non-Modern identities" in the service of ecological concern. The artists describe the rituals in terms of "energy and thought centered on the equal balance and harmony between Nature, science, and spirit," connecting with the Earth as a living entity whose energy can be reached and unblocked through ritual, prayer and touch, much like acupuncture works on the human body.

Fern Shaffer is an American painter, performance artist, lecturer and environmental advocate. Her work arose in conjunction with an emerging Ecofeminism movement that brought together environmentalism, feminist values and spirituality to address shared concern for the Earth and all forms of life. She first gained widespread recognition for a four-part, shamanistic performance cycle, created in collaboration with photographer Othello Anderson in 1985 title Rituals. Writer and critic Suzi Gablik praised their work for its rejection of the technocratic, rationalizing mindset of modernity, in favor of communion with magic, the mysterious and primordial, and the sous. Gablik featured Shaffer's Winter Solstice, 1985 (below), as the cover art for her influential book, The Reenchantment of Art, and wrote that the ritual opened "a lost sense of oneness with nature and an acute awareness of ecosystem" that offered "a possible basis for reharmonizing our out-of-balance relationship with nature. Shaffer is a long-time activist for women in the art through her involvement and leadership at the Chicago alternative art space Artemisia Gallery (1982-1992) and work with the national Women's Caucus for Art. www.fernshaffer.com

Featured Images: Above, ©Fern Shaffer, The Swamp, 2007, of the Cache River Swamp, Southern, Illinois, acrylic on canvas, 72 x 180 inches; Ginkgo Leaves, Building a Tree (ongoing), oil and acrylic on canvas, 8 x 10 inches each; Morphogenic Fields (series), 1983, acrylic on canvas, 30 x 40 inches; Fifth Ritual, May 9, 1999, Death Valley, California; Life, Ontology at 36, 1981,canvas, acrylic, raffia, 108 x 100 inches; below, Winter Solstice, 1985, ritual performance, Lake Michigan.

Member Spotlight - Mierle Laderman Ukeles

Mon, 13 Jun 2022 16:13:20 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 13, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles.

In 1969, Ukeles wrote Maintenance Art Manifesto 1969! Proposal for an exhibition, "CARE," a manifesto in which she examined her position as an artist and mother. She sought to challenge the domestic role of women by reframing herself as a "maintenance artist," including household activities that keep things going, such as cooking, cleaning and child-rearing. The manifesto also addressed "general" or public maintenance (cleaning a building, or a street) and earth maintenance, such as addressing polluted waters. Her exhibitions and performances were and are intended to bring awareness to the low social status of maintenance work.

Since 1977, when Ukeles became the official, unsalaried Artist-in-Residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation, she has created art that deals with the endless maintenance and service work that “keeps the city alive,” urban waste flows, recycling, ecology, urban sustainability and our power to transform degraded land and water into healthy inhabitable public places.

Ukeles asks whether we can design modes of survival -- for a thriving planet, not an entropic one – that don’t crush our personal and civic freedom and silence the individual’s voice.

Touch Sanitation is one of Ukeles’ most ambitious early projects and a milestone in the history of performance art. Taking almost a year, Ukeles met over 8500 employees of the New York Sanitation Department, shaking hands with each of them and saying, “Thank you for keeping New York City alive.” She documented her activities on a map, meticulously recording her conversations with the workers. Ukeles documented the workers' private stories in an attempt to change some of the negative words used in the public sphere of society, using her art as an agent of change to challenge conventional stereotypes.

This 20 cubic-yard garbage truck (above) faced with hand-tempered mirror is The Social Mirror, which was included in Ukeles' retrospective at the Queens Museum in 2016-2017. It first debuted at the grand finale of the NYC Art Parade in 1983, and later was exhibited at the 2007 Armory Show. According to Ukeles, “This project allowed citizens to see themselves linked with the handlers of their waste.”

Ceremonial Arch (below), also included in Ukeles' retrospective, was comprised of 5,000 used, signed work gloves from workers at New York’s Fire, Police, Sanitation, Environmental Protection, Parks, Cultural Affairs and Transportation Departments, as well as the Metropolitan Transit Authority. The arch was topped with a canopy of tools used by ConEd workers, placed over six sturdy columns. Ukeles stated, “I put the gloves at the entrance as if to bless everyone for the sacrifice of their lives.”

Mierle Laderman Ukeles is a feminist artist known for her service-oriented artworks, which relate the idea of process in conceptual art to domestic and civic "maintenance." She has been the official, unsalaried artist-in-residence at the New York City Department of Sanitation since 1977 (HON 2019). Among her key works not mentioned above include Snow Workers’ Ballet, Echigo Tsumari; Unburning Freedom Hall; and LANDING at Freshkills Park (in process). She has exhibited internationally including the Whitney Museum of American Art, MoMA PS1, Istanbul Biennial, Manifesta 10, among many other important venues and is the permanent collections of Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, Art Institute of Chicago (promised gift), and the Jewish Museum, New York, and many other important art institutions. Ukeles received a B.A. in international relations from Barnard College in 1961 and an M.A. in interrelated arts from New York University in 1973. She is currently based in New York and Israel. feldmangallery.com/artist-home/mierle-laderman-ukeles.com

Featured Images: Above, ©Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Wash: Washing, Tracks, Maintenance — Outside and Inside, July 22, 1973, Wadsworth Atheneum, Hartford, Connecticut; Artist-in-Residence, New York City Department of Sanitation since 1977; Touch Sanitation Performance, 1979-80, New York City; The Social Mirror, 4th iteration since 1983 at Queens Museum, 2016-2017; Ceremonial Arch Honoring Service Workers IV, 1988-2016 including 5000 gloves of maintenance workers at retrospective, Queens Museum, 2016-2017; below, Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Dusting a Baffle, from Private Performances of Personal Maintenance as Art, 1970, Photograph Jack Ukeles.

Member Spotlight - Lenore Malen

Mon, 06 Jun 2022 14:41:44 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

June 6, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Lenore Malen.

Malen is a New York based interdisciplinary artist, who in 1999 invented The New Society for Universal Harmony, a fictional re-creation of an l8th century utopian society. Since she has used the lens of history and humor to explore utopian longings, dystopic aftermaths, and the sciences and technologies that inform them. She works with diverse media in all her projects incorporating live performance, photography, film/video, multi-screen projection, installation and fiction writing.

Filmed in Genoa and Bogliasco in May 2019 during a residency at The Bogliasco Foundation, Circe (above) was produced, written and directed by Lenore Malen. The Story, adapted from Homer’s Odyssey, Book 10, Circe, a Greek mythological figure, a sorceress, daughter of the Oceanid Nymph Perse and the God Helios, uses herbs and potions to poison the men around her. Preferring the company of animals to human males she transforms these same men into pigs.

In this film and installation Circe’s tale is woven into a dérive, an unplanned journey through the city of Genoa and into the mountains. On the journey Circe is accompanied by three men she befriends at the Aquarium of Genoa while lurking around large tanks of aquatic animals. The entourage reads aloud while they walk, at first from a screenplay by Gary Indiana on dislocation, lost objects, unfamiliar places. Eventually they turn to Book 10 that they read and re-read, rehearsing for a play while moving through the city.

Circe is a document of a live performance, a comedy and improbable spectacle on the streets of Genoa. It is also a myth in narrative form.

"From 2012-15, I was working with actors and a stage director hoping to bring to life an image from a 15th century manuscript illumination that we could use as a springboard for an investigation into human ecological destruction and our endlessly cruel treatment of non human animals. Many workshops led to video documentation that inspired the making of short films and eventually developed into Scenes From Paradise."

Scenes From Paradise (above) is a dark comedy presented in multiple formats: a film, live performances, and three-channel video installations, which are variously titled Reversal, The Reason of the Strongest is Always the Best, So we’ll no more go a rowing by the light of the moon and Scenes From Paradise. In every format Eden, the cautionary tale, is made newly relevant by the ticking clock of climate change, habitat loss and extinction. But we do not live in a human centered world; we only imagine that we do.

A fairy tale in an anxious time, the final chapter of Scenes from Paradise, Eve in Sheepland (above) is a dark comedy in 9 short scenes (17 minutes). It was filmed as a live, unscripted performance on a sheep farm in Ghent, New York. The two characters Eve and Adam, time travelers, find themselves on the farm. Naked and unashamed, befuddled and doomed they interact with the sheep, they learn to be human and they die. Together the scenes reveal the sheep’s bodily sense of vulnerability (and panic) as well as their profound knowledge of earth and death that we humans find too much to bear.

I Am The Animal (below) explores apiculture and the writings of Jacques Derrida brought together in three-channel video installations and a documentary film on beekeepers in the Hudson Valley Region. The title of the project is an homage to Derrida’s The Animal That Therefore I Am, l998, which is a philosophical investigation into the way we have anthropomorphized animals and a plea against the industrialized treatment of them. In the films interview with beekeepers are intercut with historical and found footage.

Lenore Malen published her eponymously titled book The New Society For Universal Harmony in 2005 (Granary Books). She has exhibited and performed since 2004 on the BBC (Lion TV), at Apex Art, Participant Inc., Location One, The Slought Foundation. In 2010-2012 she performed at Wave Hill, Tufts University and the Mediations Biennale in Poznan, Poland. And, in 2019 at the Uppsala Konstmusem, Sweden. In Spring 2020, Malen was awarded a grant by the Finnish Cultural Institutes for a project (co-produced with Samir Bhowmik) titled “Where from Here” on the subject of virtuality in a pandemic.

Malen received a BA in Art History from Skidmore College, an MA in Art History from the University of Pennsylvania and later studied at the School of Visual Arts with the artist Will Insley while he was working on “OneCity,” a Non Utopian Monumental City. She was awarded a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship, and NYFA and NYSCA awards in Interdisciplinary Art. She teaches in the Art/Media/Technology Program at Parsons/The New School, New York. lenoremalen.com

Featured Images: Above, ©Lenore Malen, Circe (2020) filmed in Genoa, Italy during a residency at The Bogliasco Foundation; Circe (2020) on Vimeo (25 mins); Scenes from Paradise (2013-2017) performed live at Art Omi International Art Centerin 2016; Eve in Sheepland, 2018, installation at Uppsala Konstmuseum, Sweden, 2019; I Am Animal, 2007-2010, featured at CR10 in 2015, Livingston, New York, curated by Amy Lipton ; below, Lenore Malen at The Bogliasco Foundation, Genoa, Italy, 2019.

June 2022 Newsletter

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 22:17:24 GMT

The ecoartspace June 2022 e-Newsletter is here

Tactile Reality Check: The Hidden Lives of Everyday Objects with Ruth Tabancay

Wed, 01 Jun 2022 16:56:08 GMT

(Bleached, 2022. Crochet, assemblage. Acrylic, wool, bamboo yarns; plastic medical waste (needle caps, needle sheaths, vial caps, tubing caps, oxygen tubing, nasal prong tubing), polystyrene, pins. 36” x 40” x 6”)

Member Interview
By Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Ruth Tabancay is redefining the meaning of renaissance artistry as both a scientist and a textile artist dedicated to environmental awareness work. Using objects that largely exist in excess in her life (used tea bags, plastic medical waste, Styrofoam) she seamlessly blends traditions in textiles while heightening topics in microbiology. From plastic eating micro-organisms to tender memories and ocean impacts, Ruth’s work is multi-facetted and intriguing. The works Bleached, Adapting to New Substrates 2.1, and Adapting to New Substrates 3.0 will be part of the group exhibition A World Free of Plastic Imagined at Ruth's Table, 3160 21st Street, San Francisco, June 9-August 26, 2022. Reception Thursday, June 9, 6-8 pm. www.ruthstable.org

What’s In You and On You Normal Flora and Pathogens 1.2, 2019, Hand embroidery, fabric, embroidery floss, glass Petri dishes, 1 x 28 x 20 inches

Ruth, you create this amazing combination of textile traditions with contemporary issues, materials and sciences. What led you to work in textiles and how have your material and technique decisions informed your work?

As a teenager, I taught myself a variety of textile techniques—machine sewing, embroidery, crochet, knitting, needlepoint— and when I attended California College of the Arts I added weaving, felting, printing, basketry, and others to my collection of methods. I’m comfortable working with fiber materials as I’ve worked with them most of my life. I’m drawn to the tactility of unworked linear fiber materials such as yarn and wire and to objects such as tea bags, needle caps, or plastic bags that carry an intrinsic message. Thinking of their provenance or their future gives me a place to start an idea. When I latch onto a concept, I try to think of a way to impart the idea with materials rather than an exact representation of it. I draw on my inventory of techniques to see what most conveys that meaning.

Adapting to New Substrates 2.1, 2021, Hand embroidery on various plastics, 32 x 42 x 2 inches

And that inventory is vast! In your embroidery work, you integrate your interest in microbiology to display various bacteria that are usually unseen. In “New Substrates” you are displaying bacterial strains on plastics. How are you using your knowledge of microbiology to infer this evolution toward plastic dissolution? How much is science and how much is fantasy?

I majored in bacteriology in college and worked in hospital laboratories before going to medical school, so I’ve spent years looking at micro-organisms and learning their diseases. These microscopic forms and arrangements are embedded in my subconscious. In 2015, I started embroidering stitches that resembled micro-organisms as seen through a microscope onto fabric. In my embroidered series set in Petri dishes, What’s In You and On You: Normal Flora and Pathogens, I refer to the colors of stains, agar media, diagnostic tests and light fields that are actually used in the lab to inform my embroidery floss and fabric colors. I first began embroidering on polystyrene meat trays (commonly referred to as Styrofoam) in 2017 after reading that the gut bacteria of waxworms could digest polystyrene. More research along these lines is taking place in laboratories around the world. Since micro-organisms need substrate to grow on, such as different types of agar media in the lab, I extrapolated that polystyrene, or any kind of plastic could be possible. Though practical use of this research seemed far away, in April 2022 it was reported in Nature that researchers have found an enzyme variant that can break down plastic in hours to days rather than years. This finding gets us closer to actual usage. For my Adapting to New Substrates series, since the premise of organisms digesting plastic on the global scale is not yet a feasible reality, I embroider actual fungal structures such as branching septate hyphae or mycelia as well as larvae, bacteria, fungal spores and colonies. In my fantasy, the organisms could take on the color of the plastic they are living on or a completely new one.

Devour III, 2017, Hand embroidery, foam meat tray, embroidery floss, 5 3/4 x 8 1/4 x 1 inches

I am glad you mentioned the Styrofoam since your work extends beyond traditional fiber materials and into sugars, tea bags and plastics. Yet, when you use these materials, you hold true to practices in quilting or molecular structures. How do you balance tradition, reality, fantasy and avant-garde?

I can trace many of my works back to traditional craft—hand embroidery, hand quilting, crochet, the geometry of traditional patterns, fabric manipulation—but I apply modern concepts and personal experience to my work to add intent. Even my work with the scanning electron microscope and computerized Jacquard loom refers to traditional weave structures, both in the fabrics I scan and how I weave them. Concept is foremost and executing it in a fiber technique is my challenge to creating my artwork. Tradition, reality, and fantasy blend seamlessly together. The work with which I’m most satisfied contains very personal references. My tea bag bed quilt speaks of the times spent with my daughter snuggled in comforters, drinking tea, and doing her geometry homework. The accumulation of tea bags on the windowsill lead to Extending the Useful Life. My piece, Bleached, about the bleaching of the coral reefs, is composed of hyperbolic crochet, a structure seen in corals, sea slugs, lettuces, and cacti, and plastic medical waste. I was diagnosed with a progressive lung disease 10 years ago and 3 years ago, my lung function deteriorated to the point that I needed, and was fortunate to receive, a lung transplant. I have been collecting plastic medical waste for years knowing it would end up in my artwork. I created fantasy coral reef organisms out of vial caps, needle caps, needle sheaths, oxygen tubing, and tubing caps. This work creates personal conflict because I know one of the main causes of coral bleaching is the rise in ocean temperature. The burning of fossil fuels and, in my case, the manufacture of plastic medical waste contribute to this. But I have depended on medications delivered via these plastic objects to keep me alive. It distresses me to know that my personal needs add to this problem.

Extending the Useful Life, 2010. Hand stitched, tea bags, embroidery floss, muslin, batting, 26 x 33 x 65 inches

Thank you so much for a wonderful interview, Ruth!

Member Spotlight - Dominique Mazeaud

Tue, 31 May 2022 15:29:08 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 30, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Dominique Mazeaud.

"The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande (above) was a seven-year performance I began in 1987, my heart calling to speak and act through the intention/attention-filled gestures of ritual. Once a month, I walked the river’s bed and banks doing a literal and symbolic cleansing. The deep-listening portion being as important as the collection of found objects. A journal, “riveries,” chronicled my song as an Earth heartist."

"Thirty years ago a funny little word flew in on the wings of a western wind and burst forth from the river water I scooped up in my hands: the name heartist."

"For many years, I used Marina Abramovic’s quote as a preamble to my biography: “Art, it’s not about doing, it’s about being.” Years later, I met Ulay, Marina's former partner, in Japan while working on re-enlivening a deserted island. Correcting his ex, he said, “Art, it’s not about doing, it’s about becoming.” Doing art is partly becoming one’s definition of art. For me, it comes to the word heartist. I have written about heartist, but today I prefer to let it speak for itself."

"The children, our children, are very much aware of what is happening to the world. In this outdoor installation (above) in 2014 at the Leonora Curtin Wetland Preserve in Santa Fe, marking the 50th anniversary of the signing of The Wilderness Act, they decide not to wait for us and go on a Pilgrimage to the Wild."

The heartist's Secret (above): "Dominique takes us on a journey through her life and practice that offers many rewards to those whose hearts have been broken open by the uncertainty of this time and other previous traumas. She translates wisdom that come from different culture perspectives with deep respect and filters her process through the lenses of dream work and intuition." Beverly Naidus

"As I began recovering from a major hiking accident in 2010, I was called to do art that would encompass my present circumstance and continue to be inspired by Nature’s prompts. One Thousand Arms of Compassion (below) is an installation bringing to light the visible relationship between letterforms and Nature. It consists of a thousand forked branches looking like Ys, installed in concentric circles in the tradition of the mandala."

Dominique Mazeaud is an artist whose ritual performances and installations are considered prayers. Her passion is the Earth, and her identity belongs to Spirit. The word heartist reflects the gift of listening to Nature. The term results from Mazeaud's quest for "the spiritual in art in our time," which she has sought to answer since 1979. Heartist is a word unifying life and art and suggests a way of being in these transformation times. Dominique Mazeaud was born in France and has lived in the United States since 1967. In 1987 she moved to Santa Fe, New Mexico, where she resides today. Mazeaud organized the traveling exhibition Revered Earth for the Center for Contemporary Art, Santa Fe, 1990. earthheartist.net

Featured Images, top to bottom: ©Dominique Mazeaud, The Great Cleansing of the Rio Grande, 1987-1994; 173 Heart Rocks Plus One Broken Heart, 1995, installation at CCA, Santa Fe; Pilgrimage to the Wild, 2014, installation for Wilderness Acts outdoor exhibition, Axle Contemporary, Santa Fe, New Mexico; The heartist's Secret, 2021, a memoirby Dominique Mazeaud; One Thousand Arms of Compassion, 2010,Y-shaped twigs, 9 x 9 feet. Photograph from Alan Eckert.

Member Spotlight - Reiko Goto and Tim Collins

Mon, 23 May 2022 14:21:29 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 23, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artists Reiko Goto and Tim Collins.

Goto and Collins embrace an ecosystems methodology, collaborating with a range of disciplines, communities and other living things. They are interested in the ways that art and imagination contribute to practical wisdom and democratic discourse about ethics and human values. The work primarily focuses upon natural public places and everyday experience of environmental commons. An ethical-aesthetic impulse permeates the artwork.

Deep Mapping at Lough Boora Sculpture Park was commissioned by Offaly County Council and Bord na Móna and funded by Offaly County Council, The Arts Council and Creative Ireland. The book was published in Ireland, 2020, and documents a ‘deep mapping’ of the Park and the contexts which continue to shape its meaning. The text contributes to the goal of agreeing an exceptional and sustainable artistic vision to inform the future development of a Land and Environmental Arts facility. It also intends to provide an initial historic, cultural and ecological contribution for artists and scientists trying to orient themselves at Lough Boora in the future.

Goto and Collins worked with a team of scientists, technologists, and musicians to reveal the breath of a tree. Their intention was to explore the empathic interrelationship we may have with trees. PLEIN AIR above integrates aesthetics, ethics, and awareness in the pursuit of a better understanding of the limitations of people-plant and culture-nature relationships. The artwork provides an experiential interface to an important but generally invisible aspect of carbon sequestration. The experience produced by PLEIN AIR is metaphoric; through the mediation of sensors and software, we hear a sound of one leaf – one tree breathing. Does our sense of moral duty change as we listen? A tree is commonly understood as property, as a utilitarian resource, and as a non-sentient thing. Yet the presence of trees in our daily lives and their bio-chemical agency, their carbon dioxide / oxygen exchange, can be construed as an essential condition of the public realm.

Lanolin, Can you see the forest of Scotland? below is a commentary on the relationship between landscape, trees and sheep in Scotland. The work emerged from a walk in Loch Katrine with the Native Woodlands Discussion Group, where member Ruth Anderson showed Goto the robust bonsai-tree like stem of a native birch tree and its root structure, new growth which developed once sheep were removed (and deer fenced out) of the National Park. The removal of sheep from the Scottish landscape makes an enormous impact on trees and their ability to regenerate and prosper.

Working with unwashed fleece the artist carefully carded the wool and established the background for the lighter, washed wool of the Saint Andrew’s Cross, the Saltire. The land is the context for culture, and the trees are the language of landscape that emerges once the pressure of sheep is lifted. Lanolin is another cultural decoy, conflating nationalism and past land use with future visions of an expanded forest in Scotland.

Collins & Goto Studio: Reiko Goto and Tim Collins have developed long-term, socially engaged environmental research (SEER) that examines the cultural meaning of semi-natural ancient forest: Future Forest (2013-present); Sylva Caledonia (2015); Caledonian Decoy (2017); PLEIN AIR: The Ethical Aesthetic Impulse (2010); CO2 Edinburgh (2013); Sound of a Tree: Cologne (2016); PLEIN AIR Live at Glasgow Botanics (2017); Nine Mile Run (1997-2000); and 3 Rivers 2nd Nature (2000-2005). Outputs include artworks, exhibitions, seminars, workshops, and publications that embrace an arts-led dialogue method of research-and theory-informed public practice. They have worked with other artists, musicians, planners, communities, scientists, and technologists as well as historians and philosophers to realize work for over twenty years. collinsandgoto.com

Featured Images top to bottom: ©Collins & Goto Studio,Deep Mapping at Lough Boora Sculpture Park (2020); Deep Mapping book; Plein Air: The Breath of Trees (2019-2020); Plein Air book; Lanolin, Can you see the forest of Scotland? (2013).

Below: Tim Collins (left) and Reiko Goto (right)

Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats by ecoartspace - Artspiel

Mon, 23 May 2022 13:46:05 GMT

Tessa Grundon, Invasive Species, 2018-2021/2022, Asiatic Bittersweet root systems and border fencing, dimensions variable.

Art Spiel

Reflections on the work of contemporary artists

Posted on May 23, 2022 by Art Spiel

Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats by ecoartspace

Featured Project: with curator Sue Spaid

The group show Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center in Brooklyn includes paintings, sculptures, videos, and installations addressing environmental issues by more than fifty artists from the New York City region who are members of ecoartspace. The title is based on Claire McConaughy’s oil painting, Fragile Rainbow, referencing both hope and loss. The show runs from May 7^th through June 4^th, 2022. Curator Sue Spaid elaborates on this large-scale group show.

What is your curatorial vision for this show and can you walk us briefly through the show?

As it turns out, organizing a members’ exhibition is a bit more complicated than curating a typical group exhibition. For one, I knew only a handful of the artists, though I had encountered many more during ecoartspace’s regular zoom presentations whereby four to five artists introduce their practice in the framework of trees, fungi, plastic, water, or abstraction (multi-monthly zoom sessions are typically thematic). Moreover, this exhibition came together rather rapidly as the gallery’s availability wasn’t secured until March. Ecoartspace founder Patricia Watts identified over fifty local artists who submitted up to six artworks along with installation instructions. Not only was I responsible for selecting artworks and creating meaningful relationships amidst this unusual space replete with radiators, windows and doors, but I had to track whether there was sufficient space to include artworks by as many members as possible.

Technicalities aside, once the artworks were selected, the idea to organize them in terms of habitat and interconnectedness seemed obvious. Even more wonderful was the way everything came together during installation, enabling the exhibition itself to exemplify interconnected habitat. Simulating a grove, one wall features paintings replete with trees, branches, flowers, fungi, roots, animals, and seeds, including pendulous cigar tree seeds (Catalpa speciosa). Two-sided drawings dangling from wires that span three columns fortuitously mimic marks and gestures visible in nearby artworks. As a result, notions of entanglement and sinuousness abound. Continuing the tradition of Plains Indian women’s drawing abstract geometric motifs, Indigenous artist Bebonkwe’s Post-Traumatic Entanglement: Opal proffers a sober counterpoint to this exhibition’s surfeit of exuberant renderings like Pamela Casper’s Forest Spectacle and Deborah Wasserman’s Migrating Crop.

Go to article here

Nancy Evans: Moonshadow - Brooklyn Rail

Fri, 20 May 2022 00:43:29 GMT

Nancy Evans, Fleurs du mal (Evil Flower), 2018. Acrylic and silkscreen on canvas, 64 x 64 inches. © Nancy Evans. Courtesy the artist and Luis De Jesus Los Angeles.

ArtSeen, Brooklyn Rail, May 2022

Nancy Evans: Moonshadow

By Mary Jones

The phenomenal supermoons of the past six years deeply impressed Nancy Evans, and in Moonshadow, Evans’s first show with Luis De Jesus Los Angeles, they serve as a powerful motif to consider our precarious, transient place in the universe. Of her seven large, radiant paintings, five are dated from 2016, the year that the largest supermoon since 1948 rose in the politically unforgettable month of November 2016. The other two were also completed during years of significant supermoons—the Blood Moon of 2018, and the rare Blue Moon of 2020. The title, Moonshadow, refers to the song by Cat Stevens, which whimsically imagines overcoming loss and embracing the here and now. Similarly, Evans constructs her avidly symbolic landscapes with simple compositions, alluding to American Modernism and evoking transformation and awakening in times of upheaval.

Like Agnes Pelton (1881–1961), whose retrospective title aptly labeled her as a “Desert Transcendentalist,” Evans acknowledges being inspired by the landscape of California: her formative years in the fig orchards of its fertile Central Valley, and recently, the desert of Apple Valley. She describes these experiences as encounters with the metaphysical—even hallucinatory—sublime. Also, like Pelton, Evans has studied Hinduism and Jungian symbolism and depicts lumination as a harbinger for a reality beyond the material world, perhaps a messenger for consciousness. One might refer to Evans as a “Desert Existentialist.” There’s little tranquility in these aqueous, dramatic supermoons. Instead of stasis, there’s action, even hints of foreboding. Lars von Trier's film Melancholia (2011) comes to mind, in which a beautiful bright star is soon identified as a rogue planet whose orbit will inevitably destroy Earth. As natural disasters and climate change increasingly become part of our lives, we live with—and deny—the threat of our self-imposed extinction. The moons in Evans’s paintings hover in a restless gestalt, merging natural wonder with a call to consciousness.

Continue reading here

On View

Luis De Jesus
April 16 – May 28, 2022
Los Angeles

Radical Propagations/Propagaciones Radicales - ARTFORUM

Wed, 18 May 2022 14:45:16 GMT

Critics picks ARTFORUM, May 16, 2022

Los Angeles

Radical Propagations/Propagaciones Radicales

March 21 - July 30, 2022

18th Street Arts Center (Airport Campus) 3026 Airport Avenue

Guerrilla gardening, seed libraries, plant marches, and maintenance art come together in this touching and thoughtful group show on regenerative cultural gestures, curated by Mexican transdisciplinary artist Maru García in the 18th Street Arts Center’s spacious Airport Campus space.

Light floods the gallery, illuminating Peruvian artist Lucía Monge’s Plantón Móvil (Plant Walks), 2010–, an installation featuring a menagerie of potted plants on skateboards and roller skates and in wheelbarrows, led by another plant with a megaphone—the ringleader of this verdant protest. Behind these conscientious objectors is a video documenting a collection of Monge’s various Plantóns Móvil performances, which have taken place in various cities around the world over the past twelve years: demonstrations with plants being carried by humans—spilling out of arms or poking out of backpacks—to share in a moment of solidarity. Accompanying the work is a selection of gorgeous printed Plantón Móvil materials which, in part, explain why the plant-supporting dissenters walk: “ . . . plants borrow a speed noticeable by people and in return people may borrow some of their slowness . . . we move together to express our living-ness.”

To the right of this “protest” are a set of three sprouting oak seeds, suspended in bio gel in clear rectangular containers mounted on a wall, their roots clearly visible. This piece is part of Rebecca Youssef’s The Vanishing Canopy, 2022, a body of work inspired by a study from the Spatial Sciences Institute at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles, on the reduction of LA’s residential green cover. Due to mass-produced dwellings and home expansion, this cover has shrunk by as much as 55 percent between 2000 and 2009. As a gesture toward correcting this imbalance, Youssef cultivates five to six different oak varieties and plants approximately five thousand acorns each season in and around the Santa Monica Mountains. The Vanishing Canopy, and these pieces in particular, comment on the resilience and adaptability of oak trees, despite their restrictive and anthropocentric surroundings.

— Halo Rossetti

More about the exhibition here

Member Spotlight: Helen and Newton Harrison

Mon, 16 May 2022 20:23:40 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 16, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist duo Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) and Newton Harrison.

The Harrisons’ concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context.

Greenhouse Britain is an installation that addresses Global Warming from an artist’s perspective. The work proposes an alternative narrative about how people might withdraw as waters rise, what new forms of settlement might look life, and what content or properties a new landscape might have in response to the Global Warming phenomenon. It also demonstrates how a city might be defended.

The installation is composed of a 13 foot long model of the island of Britain. Six projectors above it project the rivers rising in response to storm surge and coastal waters rising in 2 meter increments, up to 16 meters. One key element in this work responds to the fact that the waters will rise gracefully, posing the questions, “How might one withdraw with equal grace?” and “How might one defend against the ocean’s rise?”

Performance, Graffiti, Billboards, and Posters. "Meditations on the Sacramento River, the Delta and the Bays at San Francisco" was commissioned by the Floating Museum of San Francisco and exhibited first at the San Francisco Museum of Contemporary Art as part of a three-museum show that also included street posters, billboards and street graffiti. This was the first critique of the green revolution and intensive irrigated farming in art, linking the loss of bio-diversity to the green revolution and industrialized agriculture. It also advocated an early bio-regional approach to the Central Valley of California. Written about extensively, it was twice on the cover of Art Week.

The Lagoon Cycle, a 360 foot long and eight foot tall mural, is an extended semi-autobiographical dialogue, with stories and anecdotes, plays between two characters, a "Lagoon Maker" and a "witness", and serves to establish the philosophical basis for the ecological argument in many later works. Beginning in Sri Lanka with an edible crab and ending in the Pacific with the greenhouse effect, it seeks ever-larger frames for a consideration of survival. It looks at experimental science, the marketplace and megatechnology, finally posing the question, "What are the conditions necessary for survival" and concluding that it is necessary to reorient consciousness around a different database.

The Lagoon Cycle was also recreated as a complex hand-made book. The Lagoon Cycle was designed to envelop. The Book of the Lagoons was designed to be intimate and accessible.

Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison, among the leading pioneers of the eco-art movement, worked as a collaborative team for almost forty years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development. Their single exhibitions or large scale installations are numerous. Internationally they have presented their work in two Venice Biennales, Two Sao Paolo Biennales, Documenta 8, the Museums of Modern Art in Chicago, San Francisco, Bonn (Germany), Aachen (Germany), Toulouse (France), Ljublijana (Slovenia), the Museum of the Revolution in Zagreb (Croatia) as well as Kasteel Groeneveld in Holland. Their work took Second Prize at the Nagoya Bienale in 1991 in Japan. They received the Groeneveld Award for Doing the Most Significant work of the year for the Dutch Landscape in Holland in 2002. Their gallery representation has been with Ronald Feldman Fine Arts from 1974 to the present. theharrisonstudio.net

Featured Images: ©Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison, "The Kimpenerwaard" (2002/2013), "Greenhouse Britain" (2009), "Meditations on the Sacramento River, the Delta and the Bays at San Francisco" (1976-1977), "The Lagoon Cycle" (1974-1978)

Suzi Gablik, Well-Connected Critic Who Asked Tough Questions, Dies at 87

Thu, 12 May 2022 19:55:33 GMT

Suzi Gablik. Courtesy Deborah Solomon.

by Alex Greenberger, Senior Editor, ARTnews

May 12, 2022 12:11pm

Suzi Gablik, an art critic and artist whose polarizing work dealt with the end of modernism and the growth of a newer, more spiritual style, died of a long illness at 87 at her home in Blacksburg, Virginia.

Deborah Solomon, an art critic for the New York Times and a close friend of Gablik, confirmed Gablik’s death in an email.

“Suzi had a great talent for admiration, and many artists benefitted from her moral support,” Solomon wrote. “She asked little in return, other than the chance to soak up ideas from the culture and ponder them [to] no end. Her book, Has Modernism Failed, which argued, with remarkable prescience, that art should effect social change and help the environment, was disliked by many of her artist-friends. But she had no regrets and went her own way.”

Having gained renown early on for her criticism published by ARTnews and Art in America, Gablik went on to write a series of books beginning in the late ’60s that tackled an array of topics. Many of those books were debated widely in the New York art world and, in some cases, even beyond. She continued to publish criticism in Art in America between the 1970s and 1990s.

During the ’50s and ’60s, she also struck up close friendships with artists such as Robert Rauschenberg, Jasper Johns, and Ray Johnson, and found herself placed at the core of fast-growing and fast-changing New York art scene. Many of her friendships proved long-lasting.

She is even credited in some accounts with having introduced Rauschenberg and Johns, who went on to have a romantic relationship, although in a 2016 Archives of American Art oral history, Gablik said she did not recall having done so.

The first significant book that she published, Pop Art Redefined (1969), was co-written with the critic John Russell, with whom Gablik led a six-year-long romantic relationship. Produced in tandem with an exhibition held at the Hayward Gallery in London, the book is regarded as one of the first surveys of its kind to take up Pop art.

“It was different to everything else that one had ever seen,” Gablik said in her oral history of Pop art as a movement. “And it was fun—and a little wacky—and it was an intriguing moment in time.”

Despite the place it now holds in art history, Pop Art Redefined was not universally praised upon its release. In her review for the New York Times, Annette Michelson, a scholar best known for her writings on film, panned Gablik’s contributions to the book, writing that “blurring boundaries” between artistic styles had allowed her to cut corners and introduce figures who were not related, including Johns.

Born on September 1, 1934, Suzi Gablik was instilled with an interest in art early on by her father, who took her to museums at a young age while she was growing up in New York. As a teenager, she took courses at the storied Black Mountain College in North Carolina, which had become known for its avant-garde offerings that ultimately pushed art in new and stranger directions. At Black Mountain, she took courses with the Abstract Expressionist painter Robert Motherwell.

“Although I was only there for two months, in that unorthodox environment,” Gablik once recalled, “my maverick self, which was not easily accommodated at home, had the time and provocation to emerge.”

Later on, she attended Hunter College for art and English. There she studied once more with Motherwell, with whom she remained friendly after graduating.

After graduating, she had a romantic fling with Harry Torczyner, a married collector who owned some of the deepest holdings of work by René Magritte at the time. When Torczyner contacted Magritte about a potential meeting with Gablik, the Surrealist painter wrote her, and they established a form of correspondence that ultimately enabled her to write the first English-language biography of him. (She even spent nine months living with Magritte in Belgium while researching.) The resulting book, however, was not published until 1970, one year after Pop Art Redefined.

All the while, Gablik also continued making her own art, which took the form of collages made of imagery that appeared in magazines. Some of the works from the ’70s conjure edenic vistas filled with roaring tigers and aimlessly roaming sheep. She sometimes showed with Terry Dintenfass, a New York dealer who had helped make artists like Arthur Dove and Jacob Lawrence famous.

Following the Magritte biography and Pop Art Redefined, Gablik took up topics that may have, for some, been considered unfashionable. There was 1977’s Progress and Art, a theory-steeped meditation that attempted to understand why old styles give way to new ones, and there was 1984’s provocative Has Modernism Failed?, a treatise that sought to diagnose where art of the first half of the 20th century had gone.

The latter book sounded a mournful note about an increasingly commodified art world and expressed concern over a perceived lack of spirituality in art. Many disagreed with its ideas.

Dealer Eugene V. Thaw tore into Gablik in the Times for her “lack of response to the content, both visual and intellectual, of one of the richest periods in history.” “So what?” asked Fredric Tuten in Artforum.

Yet Gablik remained true to her ideas, reiterating them in books such as The Reenchantment of Art (1991) and Conversations Before the End of Time (1995).

Elizabeth C. Baker, who edited Art in America while Gablik was writing for it, said in an email, “She was indefatigable in dissecting the morality and ethics of art in the world at large, a preoccupation that lasted for the rest of her life.”

New York Times obit May 20, 2022 here

Tide Flowers at Domino Park in Brooklyn by Stacy Levy

Sat, 07 May 2022 10:29:36 GMT

Tide Flowers is a new site-specific water installation that registers the rising and falling tide on the East River at Domino Park.

At the southern end of Domino Park, River Street, Brooklyn, New York, 2022

(Just north of the Williamsburg Bridge)

Tide Flowers was created in conjunction with Fragile Rainbow: Traversing Habitats, presented by ecoartspace and curated by Sue Spaid at the Williamsburg Art and Historical Center Second floor, 135 Broadway Williamsburg, New York

Tide Flowers is a new site-specific water installation that registers the rising and falling tide on the East River at Domino Park. The pink flower petals bloom outward at high tide and draw closed as the tide ebbs.

The East River rises and falls nearly 5 feet every 5.5 hours, but our city infrastructure often keeps us removed from these daily cycles. The Tide Flowers connect us to the ocean, the moon, and the rhythm that is nature’s own.

More information HERE

Member Spotlight: Chrysanne Stathacos

Mon, 02 May 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

May 2, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Chrysanne Stathacos.

“Ritual action with nature brings us back to our source, the powers in our psyche, which are common to all human kind. At times catastrophes pop up and people connect, remember, and tie ribbons to trees, touch water with awe, weep by candles, hold a stone for a memory and link fingers wishing hoping praying for relief from suffering. These reflexes are a reflection to a constant spirit, to a past time when understanding nature was part of daily living.”

“The Rose Mandala installations are based on historical circular structures with the intention of creating a temporal work which changes over time. These works are created by plucking dozens of roses apart petal by petal circling coloured mirrors range from 10 feet to 60 feet wide. The viewer’s senses are touched by waves of rose scents inhabiting the space of the work. The mandalas are left to dry as the petals are reduced to a quarter of their original size. At the end, the mandala is dismantled in a final performance. The Rose Mandalas have been swept up, gathered and thrown to the winds or blown away by human in breath by myself and the audience. These installation / performances reflect the ephemeral process of change, age, decay and emptiness.”

"Purify is the first of a series of floating sculptures, 2008-2011. Imagine a large haiku poem, floating in the river, with lotuses and lilies growing, pushing out, revealing themselves while purifying the water of toxins. The intention of these works is to probe a way an integrated form can engage the public, heal the river, and yet be both poetic and political while maintaining a conceptual framework. Going, gone, go – beyond is the intention."

“Refuge, a wish garden, is an interactive public artwork actings as a garden for meditation, protection, and wishing actions. Inside a 20-40 foot circle of sand, eight benches are placed around a large magnificent tree in a circular fashion mirroring a feng shui pa kua. The benches are protected vantage points in which one can sit and view the wish garden, creating a transcendent space before one makes an action. Each direction corresponds to a color, an element, and an aspect of life.

The benches are made from wood, two small trunks holding up a log shaped plank, inspired by benches found in Algonquin Park, Canada. The surface of each bench is painted the color of its direction. The tree has 20-30 foot lengths of hand-braided fabrics tied and wrapped around transforming it into a wishing tree. Baskets placed in between the benches are filled with cloth/fabrics to tie on the tree, rocks to pile up, sticks to draw on the sand and flowers to place anywhere.”

Chrysanne Stathacos is a multidisciplinary artist of Greek, American and Canadian origin. Her work has encompassed printmaking, textile, painting, installation and conceptual art. Stathacos is heavily involved with and influenced by feminism, Greek Mythology, eastern spirituality and Tibetan Buddhism, all of which inform her current artistic practice. Stathacos has exhibited in museums, galleries, and venues internationally. She has participated in countless exhibitions in various media, but she is most known for her unique combination of performance and installation. She has received funding for her projects and her artwork from foundations and government agencies such as the Art Matters Foundation, the Japan Foundation, the Canada Council for the Arts, and the Adolph & Esther Gottlieb Foundation, among others. chrysannestathacos.com

Featured Images: ©Chrysanne Stathacos, "The Three Dakini Mirrors (of the body- speech and mind)" (2021), "Rose Mandala Mirror (three reflections for HHDL) Performance" (2009), "Purify," Destination Schuylkill River, The Manayunk Eco Arts Festival (2010), "Refuge, a wish garden," "Flower Power at Fiendish Plots, Lincoln, Nebraska" (2014).

May 2022 Newsletter

Sun, 01 May 2022 15:26:22 GMT

The ecoartspace May 2022 e-Newsletter is HERE

The Algae Society interviews by Ken Rinaldo

Sun, 01 May 2022 14:06:36 GMT

Gene A. Felice II, Jennifer Parker, and Juniper Harrower
Visions of Algae, installation views, 2022.
Photos : Bradley Pierce, UNCW, courtesy of Cameron Art Museum

The Algae Society just finished a run of two exhibitions. The Confluence exhibition at the Cameron Arts Museum in Wilmington, North Carolina, January 28 – April 24, 2022 featured sculptural, interactive works, video projections, kinetic works, and rapid prototyping, all featuring algae from the microscopic scale of phytoplankton to the giant kelp forests of the Pacific Northwest and the Confluir Exhibition at the Facultad de Bellas Artes Universidad Complutense de Madrid, Sala de Exposiciones del Salon de Actos Feb 9th-March 9th 2022.   The Algae Society embraces a sustainable and equitable path for human+algal relationships and the complex roles in climate change these are manifesting. In this interview Ken Rinaldo chats with members about the Algae Society and their formation and approaches as well as recent curatorial adventures.

Questions: by Ken Rinaldo

Where did you meet, and how did the Algae Society come together with its members? How many members are there, and who are they?

Jennifer Parker: The majority of the Algae Society members worked with me in the OpenLab collaborative research center when they were graduate students at the University of California Santa Cruz. Gene Felice was part of a larger project that I was working on in 2012 called Blue Trail in San Francisco. Gene pitched an idea to work with phytoplankton as part of that initiative known as Oceanic Scales and everything sort of evolved from there. Gene and I worked together for about four years on Oceanic Scales and then when we had an opportunity to exhibit in a children’s museum in southern California, we took the foundation of what we had been building and opened it up to other members and then new connections opened and more people joined to form The Algae Society as we know it today.

Gene Felice: Our full members list can be viewed here: http://algaesociety.org/about-3/ Our core group is made up of seven members from around the globe that have been collaborating for the past three years. Our collaborative group has grown organically, starting with the initial members that Jennifer brought together and then additional members either finding us online or being friends or a colleague of another member with similar interests in algae within the arts & sciences. Over the past five years, we have shared vocabularies, built trust and learned from each other while navigating the challenges of creating collaborative, art & science focused art across international borders.

What do artists and scientists need to learn from each other, what did you feel you learned in this experience, and what realizations do you think the scientists have discovered? Can you give me examples?

Dr. Juniper Harrower: I think art as science communication is fun and interesting, but falls short of what can be accomplished if we are talking about structural or institutional changes. Another common issue that comes up is art in the service of science, artists often becoming a hired hand or general PR for science and feeling obliged to create art that the scientist or institution approves of. While artists can engage in early stage R&D with science experiments and come up with some interesting questions or approaches they also really lack the fundamental skills and language to engage deeply with science methodology that people spend decades wrapping their heads around within their scientific discipline. I also see that many artists generally misunderstand what science even is as a discipline (and what scientists do) and scientists often greatly simplify what the arts has to offer as a research path, so there are misconceptions that are to be expected within each of the different disciplines. This can sometimes result in artists misinterpreting or simplifying systems or stories in ways that frustrate the science community and then makes them dismissive of art as a research practice. But artists can ask questions that are not considered by scientists or can dig into institutional dynamics, question power structures, problematize the western scientific approach, and approach meaning making in ways that scientists do not have skill sets for. Artists can reframe and bring attention to different ways of thinking and knowing beings, communities, and ecological spaces that science methodology does not make space for, and draw attention to modes of questioning and scientific methodologies that are flawed as an approach to respecting life forms. I am also interested in the slippage between science and mysticism and the interesting spaces that can arise when we consider the search for "objective" truths in science (who's truth?) and the methods with which we look for them as we try to make sense of life on this planet.

I think there is a lot of emphasis put on identifying how the arts has/can measurably impact science, like examples of artist interventions that led shifts in the way that a scientist approached a project. While there are those examples out there, I think the much more interesting potential (and really the long game) comes in how an artistic approach to understanding and thinking about the world could fundamentally alter how the scientific community approaches working with life and beings. Ethics and representation, and how to consider histories of oppression and violence that form the discipline of science. Rethinking the "science gaze".

I think the algae society is just starting to lean more into some of these questions - like what does it mean to actually collaborate with other organisms in respectful ways? - and that the work will continue to get even more exciting as we continue to grow!

The Algae Society
Wall Cells, installation view, 2022.
Photo : Bradley Pierce, UNCW, courtesy of Cameron Art Museum

Besides the fact that Algae provides between 50-80% of the oxygen we breathe on the planet, why are Algae important to the art-viewing and general audience?

Jennifer Parker: They are just so beautiful and magical but often overlooked - bringing algae into traditional art spaces opens new pathways for thinking about living systems around us as part of our cultural fabric and common heritage.

Gene Felice: The Algae Society attempts to tell stories about algae through art & science collaborative experiences that make the normally invisible aspects of life on our planet a bit more visible for humans to witness. If we can begin by alluring the public with the aesthetic and functional beauty of algae, the hope is that they will make more informed choices that ultimately impact the health of our water and the life on this planet that depends upon it.

Why are algae important to our oceans and planet?

Jennifer Parker: They are a super special and diverse aquatic organism. They are critical to life on the planet. They lack roots, stems, and leaves so they are very different from other organisms that photosynthesize? - they occur in a huge variety of shapes and sizes and are found in a range of aquatic habitats both freshwater and saltwater. They also are very efficient at using carbon dioxide keeping the atmospheric levels stable.

Dr. Jose Carlos Espinel: I think the impact of algae in our life is much bigger than we tend to think, they do not only produce the oxygen that we breathe but are very important organisms for the different ecosystems where they are present. The exhibition itself works as a tribute to algae. The term “mother nature” talks about some kind of intangible entity that takes care of life on earth and keeps its circle working, looking after the environment and all the living organisms on earth. The term itself leads us to some kind of mystic creature or being, bigger than our self and above our own comprehension. We could be talking about some kind of goddess and in this sense I believe algae could perfectly be acting as some sort of divine being.

Gene Felice: Algae filters much of the air that we breathe turning CO2 into O2, but they’re also the base of our planet’s aquatic food web. Micro algae serve as the photosynthesizing foundation of food for zooplankton, then fish, marine / fresh water mammals and onward. For example, phytoplankton serve as the food source for zooplankton known as copepods which serve as the food source for krill which serves as the food source for one of the largest mammals on the planet, blue whales. Quickly we can see and feel the impact that algae have on all of the organisms on our planet, particularly ones that humans have great affinity for.

Many of the works in the exhibition seem to have been produced with the environment in mind, i.e., not using toxic petroleum-based varnishes, etc. Can you tell us more about the guiding principles for the Confluence Exhibition?

Jennifer Parker: We try our best to use sustainable materials with as low an impact on the environment as possible - it's also a challenge of sorts - as we question our choices and seek alternative materials and methods - we always ask ourselves if it is necessary to make something and what is the value of that something is on our communities? How is it contributing to bettering our environment physically now and in the future? What is the impact of our work, how does it contribute to the waste streams, energy systems, and the future health of ecosystems we work in? - we try to have the smallest footprint possible but it's really hard.

David Harris: Many sustainably focused projects concentrate on how they use resources. Algae is often seen as a sustainable resource in increasing amounts of food, bioplastic, and other products. However, as soon as something becomes just a resource, it becomes open to exploitation. In the Algae Society, we are interested in reconsidering this dynamic so that we consider algae as a partner in our efforts to preserve a livable world. It means considering the short- and long-term needs of algae as well as humans, so that entire ecosystems can thrive. This post-human perspective is a challenge because we don’t even have good language to discuss it let alone yet understand what algal equivalents of rights, ethics, justice, or any other similar human concepts might be applicable.

Gene Felice: When creating a project that seeks harmony within our aquatic ecosystems, it feels counterproductive and hypocritical if the project is made from materials and processes that ultimately pollute those environments. While it can be difficult and expensive to have a zero carbon footprint or to use absolutely all local / biodegradable materials, we do our best to seek out a variety of materials, processes and technologies with biodegradability and ecological impact in mind. For confluence this included 3D Printing material made from corn and wood, seaweed dipped in a mix of beeswax, pine resin and Jojoba oil, sculptural forms made from local cypress wood and CNC’d plywood made with soy based adhesives and finished with Shellac. Instead of plastic window panels we cast our own forms from pine resin and tinted them with Spirulina powder and other mineral based pigments.

What do you feel worked best in this exhibition, and were there any surprises as you installed the works?

Jennifer Parker: That's hard to say - so many of the works are informed by each other - picking just one out would limit its value - the work in the show is valued as a collection dependent on one another to tell a rich and vibrant algal story. Just like our collaborative efforts as a collective of humans, we influence one another through shared experience and conversation -we are always looking to expand and push our ideas to be more relevant and interesting - the work in the exhibition is an extension of our collective conversations with each other, conversations that now include the museum visitors in direct conversation with the work.

Gene Felice: One of the most collaborative pieces from the show is Visions of Algae. The concept for this project bounced between three of us (myself, Jennifer & Juniper) as well as feedback and ideas from all of the Algae Society as it progressed. It started as a ceiling installation but then shifted as we moved into the high ceiling Studio 1 space at the Cameron Art museum. It then became a floor based piece made modularly with different components being created on both the east and west coast of the U.S. Juniper curated the archive of images from all of the Algae Society and beyond and with Jennifer printed them on Japanese rice paper and then dipped them in an encaustic process. I prototyped and 3D printed the lens ring forms that hold the images as well as the CNC milled bases with aluminum rods and fixtures. This combination of sensibilities, skill sets and conceptual frameworks across the group, resulted in a collaborative installation that can adapt to a variety of spaces and configurations based on site specific needs. A lovely surprise was when we installed Visions of Algae into the Cameron Art Museum and realized the morning light through the large corner window illuminates the encaustic dipped images, giving them a warm, translucent glowing quality. At night they also served as dynamic projection surfaces, back lit from a projector used for the Bioluminescent Thursday event series.

Many museums would be reluctant to have living algae or bio artworks within a museum. Was this controversial for the Cameron Arts Museum to accept these elements as part of the Confluence Exhibition?

Jennifer Parker: The Cameron Art Museum is a fantastic place. The director was really open and responsive to all of our ideas. With all the work we do there is a certain level of trust required by the venues as the work is definitely not your typical art exhibition. We want people to pick up work and interact with it, to come back and see what has evolved and changed since their last visit. The work for us is very alive in this way - literally and figuratively

Gene Felice: The Cameron Art Museum and its curatorial staff are both innovative and open minded when it comes to new modes of experiencing art. From experiential groups like Team Lab to our unique blend of eco / bio art, they welcomed us with open arms. Their mission includes major site specific themes such as history and environment and the Algae Society became a perfect fit for the CAM to explore its connections with our local / global water issues, within our particular focus on algae. The museum itself is a stunning environment to create within and the Studio 1 space fits our work in ways that we didn’t fully realize until we were installing. The staff at the Cameron worked with us to create a mix of light and dark spaces as well as a window installation space that can transform at night into a double sided video projection mapped wall of light. Their flexibility allowed us to evolve the show to the space throughout its run, adding new pieces and shifting and adapting experimental work as it evolved through its life cycle. The retention pond on the grounds of the Cameron extended the work beyond the gallery to include our long term, Floating Island Ecosystem bioremediation project.

Do you feel the viewing and interacting audience was able to find a new love of Algae in its myriad of forms?

Jennifer Parker: I hope so! It was our intention to show really diverse works in a variety of media types to spark interest and curiosity with a broad audience inclusive of all ages and backgrounds.

Gene Felice: Our intention is to allure through multi-sensory experiences that foster compelling questions in the minds of our audience. What makes such complex forms? How is it possible that algae produces so much for us (air, food, etc.)? How do our choices affect this multifaceted range of organisms? By cultivating these questions through a multitude of approaches and materials, we hope to reach across multi-generational and political / social divides. One of the most inspiring parts of working in the Cameron Art Museum is that each day the museum welcomes school trips from elementary through middle school as well as families with middle aged parents and babies and older generations of empty nesters and retirees. Each of these groups brings a different set of experiences and questions in relation to our work and the connections between human beings and algae. Some of these questions overlap and others inform each other in new and unexpected ways, shaping the way we evolve our art and science focused work in the future.

How do you imagine the Algae Society could recreate this Confluence Exhibition at other venues?

Jennifer Parker: Working with local residents, creatives in the arts and sciences is one way that we connect and co-create in each of the venues we have exhibited. This includes different types of regional and local algae at the micro and macro levels.

Dr. Jose Carlos Espinal: In this case, the Confluence show had a sister exhibition in Madrid, “Confluir” at the Faculty of Fine Arts at Universidad Complutense, where graduate students developed works related to algae and aquatic environments and the impact of human activity on those. Works developed there were mainly focused on a local level, but keeping a global mindset.

David Harris: Algae Society exhibitions so far have exhibited an ebb and flow of works, with a view to engaging with the needs and interests of communities local to the exhibitions. As we engage different communities around the world, the specific works shown with unique local collaborators help present different emphases but within the broader agenda of the society. For example, we have in mind a future exhibition in Australia that would include a strong connection to and critical involvement of local indigenous peoples and knowledge systems, while also connecting with a robust local institutional research effort.

Gene Felice: The Algae Society is a global collaborative that seeks new questions and art making challenges in each community that it connects with. Confluence was designed to break down into a series of modular parts that can be easily shipped and adapted to new spaces in the future with as low of a carbon footprint as possible. Some projects can be sent digitally and fabricated on site with the tools at hand. Projects like Wall Cells are curatable micro-spaces that can speak and connect to site specific conditions and local ecosystems. Visions of Algae breaks down into a series of flat shipping containers, to reduce space and shipping costs.

Are there other contemporary art science/movements or artists you admire and look to as models for what could be?

Jennifer Parker: That’s a great question. I’m interested in restorative design as a creative practice for imagining new futures of materials using natural resources that protect and restore biodiversity of ecosystems.

Gene Felice: Each Algae Society has their own influences, but here is a short list of art & science groups / artists / architects / collaboratives that have inspired me during the production of Confluence:

https://www.ecologicstudio.com/
http://bestiaryanthropocene.com/
https://feralatlas.org/
https://collinsandgoto.com
https://www.julialohmann.co.uk/
https://www.laurasplan.com/

What is next for the Algae Society?

Jennifer Parker: We are in conversation with venues in different parts of the world to exhibit and develop new works and exhibitions in the future - we welcome interested parties reach out and connect

Gene Felice: We’re ready to develop new, site specific work as Jennifer mentioned and we’re also ready to adapt the Confluence show to its next location in a museum, gallery, science center or non-traditional space. More importantly, we seek to connect to aquatic ecosystems in need of a voice or a new connection for asking questions that foster balance and understanding between human and nonhuman needs.

Ken Rinaldo
Algae Sign, 2022.
Photo : Bradley Pierce, UNCW, courtesy of Cameron Art Museum

Andrea Bersaglieri: Dirt, Weeds, Fire via Art and Cake

Sat, 30 Apr 2022 15:42:39 GMT

Andrea Bersaglieri, Front 2021, Oil on Canvas, Photo Courtesy of the Artist

The Gift of Growing Things: Andrea Bersaglieri’s Dirt, Weeds, Fire

Antelope Valley College Art Gallery, Lancaster
Through April 1, 2022

Written by Genie Davis for Art and Cake

Andrea Bersaglieri can make even a clod of dirt look beautiful and did so at Antelope Valley College Art Gallery in Lancaster. Dirt, Weeds, Fire offered detailed looks at trees, plants, weeds, and yes, dirt, observations of nature taken from her own yard. Undertaking a documentation of the new ecosystems evolving through climate change and other environmental impacts, non-indigenous species, and the like, she reveals the delicate, transitional aspect of all nature – new, and old.

According to Bersaglieri, “My work has increasingly been focused on my immediate surroundings, literally my own yard, looking for evidence – of what, I am not sure. During the pandemic this just became amplified…a lot of the work was done during the pandemic in this very insular environment.”

She considers her work to be documentarian, and the intimacy and detail of these works in watercolor and as charcoal or ink drawings, is careful and exquisite. Seeing the works exhibited in the high desert, she found to be enlightening. She says that the high desert backdrop of the college gallery space, “with all of the sprawl and traffic and open space, helps contextualize [what] I would imagine the LA Basin [would] look like – without all of the irrigation we apply.”

The artist grew up in the bay area and was surprised by the lack of trees in the Los Angeles area when she first moved south. “Here, when you see a big tree, you’re like ‘oh, wow! look at that tree!! Isn’t it amazing!’ My work started reflecting that amazement of nature. But when I go home to visit, there are so many trees it’s almost humdrum, the trees are a dime a dozen, less special. You don’t appreciate things unless their scarcity draws attention to them, causing you to look more closely.”

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight: Tattfoo Tan

Mon, 25 Apr 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 25, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Tattfoo Tan.

“Responding to issues of health, ecology and climate change, I work across social, cultural, and artistic practices. My unique art making practice focuses on learning and mastering new skills and forms of knowledge, developing effective replicable teaching systems, and inspiring the public to take action. Learn-Practice-Teach.”

NMS—Nature Matching System was developed by Tattfoo as a reminder to consume your daily recommended doses of color. The shades of color displayed at farmers’ markets are more than skin deep, reflecting the inner potential of every fruit and vegetable; intense colors might even be called nature’s nutrition labels. They get many of their colors from phytonutrients, compounds that play key roles in health and reduce the risk of heart disease and cancer. The more colors come together at a meal, the better. Sadly, marketers of junk food apply the same technique used by nature to pollinate seed to their nutrition-deprived product. Color is a device that can do good or be deceptive and ensure the pollination of unhealthy eating habits. The colors shown below are all actual food colors, taken from photographs of various fruits and vegetables. Match your meal to the placemat—it is truly a rainbow connection.

“Sustainable. Organic. Stewardship. is a multifaceted and year-long horticulture and cultivation project that includes social, cultural and artistic practices. By acknowledging the shortage of food on the global scale, we should look at how we eat, what we eat and how we can grow our own food and understand the origin of food and the labor, the politics that are involved in growing these perishable items that we consume that have direct effect on our health and well-being.

“I enrolled myself in various green courses and acquiring certification for my green knowledge, in order to flaunt my new found title in the form of a merit patch on my gray coverall and wear it during events and gardening sessions. I'm intrigued by the certification of knowledge and the power that was bestowed by the agency that gave the certificate. I am partly propelled by the thirst of knowledge and partly to sustain the endurance of going to classes and community service requirements of these courses.”

“S.O.S. Pledge is a unique artwork that is based in a concept, a mission, a promise that carries it message and virtue formless across all medium and platform that suit the budget, aesthetic, size and location of it's custodian and proudly display in a public area. It has been reborn as a marble mural in a school, a plywood board in a community garden, a handkerchief for portability and even as a temporary tattoo.”

S.O.S. Pledge

I HEREBY PLEDGE TO MAKE THE FOLLOWING CHANGES IN MY LIFE. MY ACTIONS WILL BE SMALL, BUT THEIR COLLECTIVE IMPACT WILL BE GREAT. I PROMISE TO CONSUME FRESH AND LOCAL PRODUCE. I PROMISE TO REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE, COMPOST, AND CONSERVE ENERGY. I WILL WALK, BIKE OR RIDE PUBLIC TRANSPORTATION AS MUCH AS I CAN. I WILL SET AN EXAMPLE FOR OTHERS AS A SUSTAINABLE ORGANIC STEWARD (S.O.S.).

Tattfoo Tan's practice focuses on issues relating to ecology, sustainability and healthy living. His work is project-based, ephemeral and educational in nature. Tan has exhibited at venues including the Queens Museum of Art, Eugene Lang College at the New School for Liberal Arts, Parsons the New School for Design, the Fashion Institute of Technology, 601 Tully: Center for Engaged Art and Research at Syracuse University, Macalester College, Ballroom Marfa, Creative Time, Aljira Center for Contemporary Art, Project Row Houses, and the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati. Tan has been widely recognized for his artistic contributions and service to the community, and is the proud recipient of a proclamation from The City of New York. In 2010, Tan received the annual Award for Excellence in Design by the Public Design Commission of the City of New York for his design and branding of the Super-Graphic on Bronx River Art Center. He currently serves on the Mayor's Citizens' Advisory Committee to support the development of a Comprehensive Cultural Plan and as NYFA's Artists Advisory Committee.tattfoo.com

Featured Images: ©Tattfoo Tan, Nature Matching System Mural, Port Authority Bus Terminal (2008); Nature Matching System Placemat (2007); Nature Matching System Fruit Labels; S.O.S. Steward Uniform (2009); S.O.S. Pledge at PS971, Brooklyn, New York (2010).

Member Spotlight: Christy Rupp

Mon, 18 Apr 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 18, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Christy Rupp.

"The way we choose to identify with habitat creates our reality. It is this concept, the framing of our opinions of nature, that fuels my studio practice. Like most baby boomers in post war America, Walt Disney films introduced me to nature, framing my ideas about the environment. Here, majestic nature is presented as a resource. In Bambi’s world, man and deer can’t coexist. We are locked in conflict. That’s an old myth that has gotten us deeply in debt to the environment. Science is where the ideas begin, but I would like my art practice to dive deeper into people’s daily experience."

"[Filters and Inverts was] made to collect sediment from the unprecedented turbid releases dumped into the Esopus Creek in spring of 2021. Climate change comes home to the NYC watershed, as we are again made aware of NYC’s amnesia in planning for resiliency amid increasing weather events. There is more mud washing into the Ashokan Reservoir than ever before. NYC Department of Environmental Protection has chosen to release dirty water downstream while filtering clean water bound for NYC faucets. Mud-laden water released into the otherwise healthy creek severely affects water quality, reducing levels of light and oxygen within the water. Fine sediment also physically impacts the stream channel by filling in the natural voids and spaces in the stream bed. This reduces habitat for aquatic insects and smothers fish eggs and larvae.

I wanted to collect some of the mud coming down the creek and started making these in spring as we were witnessing the creek run brown for months at a time, as in recent years. The structures are unbleached muslin and steel, and mimic the appearance and behavior of resident filter feeding organisms like mayflies, snails, and leeches. The brown filters were in the water for a few weeks in spring 2021, the clean ones are for spring 2022. Believing that water should be clean only for human consumption is an assault on the rights of nature.”

“After looking at viral organisms, I became curious about man-made pollutants that dwell close to us, the chemicals in our new homes, our clothes, our foods. Unlike viruses which you can see under a microscope, molecules are theoretical, orbiting each other, always on the move. I wanted to make them tangible, to try to understand how they behave, as they create things like odors and sickness.

Working with a chemistry professor, we made drawings of Toxic Molecules, like the cancer causing chemicals dioxin and formaldehyde. He also explained how new inventions like Olestra, the fake fat, actually work in our bodies, to initiate tiny changes that occur at the invisible, molecular level. I teamed up some of these contaminants with natural forms—for example the spinal column of a rainforest newt was replaced with a chain of nitric acid (acid rain) molecules. Or, using the Olestra structure, I integrated it with a filter-feeding squid and an abstracted human digestive system, to demonstrate how this new ”miracle” molecule can sweep everything out as it washes speedily through our system, making it possible to gorge and starve at the same time. Only in America. Miroscopic micro organisms, these were inspired also by one my favorite artists, Juan Miro."

“Although Homo Sapiens are not innately selfish, our lust to dominate has brought us to a place where we all are threatened. Animal behavior has provided me a portal to the understanding of tipping and collapse, because animals are our reflection, and our partners. No longer a predictable seasonal event, today migration has become risky and inconsistent, as organisms of all sizes and complexity are driven in search of survival. Humans, microbes, as well as birds and mammals get caught in the crossfire of manmade ecological wreckage. The climate crisis is a crisis of the imagination, which we haven’t yet grasped. Being a species so adept at denial that a vision of the apocalypse is a welcome distraction from being in the present, we are in debt as well as in denial."

Christy Rupp is an American eco-artist and community scientist. Born in the Rust Belt of Upstate New York, she was too young for Elvis and too old for Barbie. For the past five decades Rupp has continued the search for clues that might explain how we have arrived at the edge of the Extractocene, a world permanently altered by the presence of Homo sapiens. Rupp was part of the artist collective Collaborative Projects (Colab) - organizer of the historic Times Square Show - as well as ABC No Rio and other East Village-era artist groups. Her solo show "Othered" opens April 21, 2022 at Howl! Happening, in New York City. christyrupp.com

Featured Images: ©Christy Rupp, "Protein Fix" (1995), "Filters and Inverts" (2021), "Spinning (Glyphosate)" (1998), cut paper collage from "Snapshot" series (2020), "Climate Sink" (2008).

Below: Portrait of Christy Rupp by Katvan Studios

Pageantry as Climate Activism: Let Their Voices Sing in Bursts of Color to Support the Earth

Sat, 16 Apr 2022 07:57:32 GMT

(Ecological City-Procession for Climate Solutions Photo Credit: Rachel-Elkind)

Pageantry as Climate Activism: Let Their Voices Sing in Bursts of Color to Support the Earth

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Earth Celebration’s Ecological City pageant in the Lower-East Side Manhattan supports resilience efforts put forth by the community through art integration. The residents of the Lower East Side have developed an inspiring sustainable urban ecosystem involving various climate solution initiatives. Felicia Young, the community organizer behind the arts integration component of the project, discusses the importance of arts and theater as a form of community engagement and activism.

So much about this pageant is about real policy issues effecting the community. In which ways can art act in a symbiotic relationship to planning and policy efforts like the ones you are highlighting?

Art has the ability to inspire and engage people to connect emotionally with the world around them -- places, issues and challenges. It is from that emotional connection and deeper understanding of issues and the places they are rooted in, that can inspire and engage people in action for change.

In 1990, when the 60 community gardens on the Lower East Side of New York City were being threatened with destruction by proposed development plans, I thought I could apply creating public theatrical pageants with processions as a public participatory art form to mobilize an effort to preserve the gardens in my neighborhood. The artistic pageant could provide a powerful and public forum for the community to tell its story. This would affirm their narrative that was counter to the city view at the time, that viewed the gardens as vacant lots to be developed. The city officials had not acknowledged that the act of urban improvisation and revitalization by a low-income community to transform the vacant rubble strewn lots (that were a consequence of city neglect throughout the 1970’s) into magnificent gardens – was an irreplaceable benefit that had become vital to the community’s culture, health, safety and well-being.

The pageant gave voice and visibility to the community that felt powerless in the face of the mighty developers and real estate interests that seemed to control the overall city agenda. The pageant became a 15-year annual collaborative arts project. The arts provided a bridge and an accessible form to mobilize action on the issue, engage diverse sectors of the community to work together creatively and build a powerful grassroots coalition effort. This led to policy change with the preservation of hundreds of community gardens throughout New York City, when Mayor Bloomberg transferred many gardens from HPD (NYC Housing Preservation and Development) to the NYC Parks Department in 2002. This offering them protection from development plans.

(East River Park Spirit- City Hall Hearing)

Fantastic that art has been able to create lasting change! In a video interview for Earth Celebration’s Ecological City, you mention that arts-based organizing can engage a wider population than raw activism alone. How have you noticed increased engagement and what have some of these wider effects been?

The collaborative and participatory art projects and theatrical pageant have engaged youth, schools, families, organizations representing diverse special interests and sectors of the neighborhood, as well as the core stakeholders such as the gardeners. If that effort had started as a protest, it would have been a small group of activists engaged and not the larger community. Many of the participants got introduced to the effort and issue through the cultural activity.

Protests can project an angry energy and alienate the very community one is trying to engage. People participated because they could express and tell the stories of these magnificent gardens that were about to be demolished, and do that through joyous affirmation, visual art and performances celebrating them and their meaning within the neighborhood.

The artistic forum of the pageant was a safe zone, where various groups, who often did not communicate, could come together for a common goal and collectively communicate through a public cultural expression. Within the pageant the community enacted each year, not only the battle with developers, but also the preservation of the gardens with the release of 50 live butterflies by the butterfly children and nature spirits. This theatrical story did not end at the pageants close, as it built a grassroots coalition effort that continued beyond the framework of the pageant and led over the years to effective policy change.

(Waterfront Procession, Photo: Rachel Elkind)

There are so many people involved. In fact, The Earth Celebrations: Ecological City is hosting many varied workshops with local artists. How are some of these projects engaging with their surroundings in unique ways?

For our Ecological City-Art & Climate Solutions Project, 3 months of bi-weekly workshops engage community participants to collaborate with our artists-in-residence, creating visual art, giant puppets and costumes that explore local sites and their climate solution initiatives. The artistic works are presented in the culminating Ecological City-Procession for Climate Solutions featuring a spectacular 5-hour procession with 20 sustainability site performances celebrating the climate solutions throughout the community gardens, neighborhood and waterfront.

After Hurricane Sandy, the community gardens we helped preserve, proved their new role mitigating climate impacts by absorbing flood water and providing a myriad of urban climate solutions -- from plants and soil sequestering carbon and trees filtering polluted air and cooling urban temperatures, to green infrastructure of bio-swales mitigating run-off and ponds collecting rainwater, as well as vital urban sustainable agriculture. While these local climate solutions were thriving, many residents could walk past a garden without knowing how they were connected to their importance in mitigating city or global climate challenges.

GOLES (an organization engaged in low-income housing issues as well as coastal resiliency) collaborated with Earth Celebrations’ theater Director Drew Vanderberg to create a performance about surviving hurricane Sandy. The participants were residents from the NYCHA city housing along waterfront that was severely impacted. They performed their story within the pageant and documentation of the performance was presented within city council – land use planning hearings.

The Mobile Mural -LES Sustainable Solutions engaged community through workshops to create a 50-foot-long mural consisting of 5 panels presenting the architectural features and community vision for the East River Park. The workshops engaged numerous partners at various locations throughout the neighborhood to research and collaborate on the painting of the community vision plan, that the city administration was abruptly dismissing, for a new plan that would demolish the entire park including mature trees and habitat for numerous species. The mobile mural was featured in the procession and at various rallies, press conferences and city hall hearings.

(River Grass Portrait Photo: Rachel Elkind)

So much of sustainability is also community related, how have you expanded local efforts beyond climate resilience and into community resilience in the face of climate disaster?

Climate resilience and community resilience are one. It is the people, their lives, their community and neighborhood that are all impacted by climate change. We have directly experienced this on the Lower East Side, a low-income neighborhood on the frontline of climate impacts due to flooding, sea level rise, pollution, as well as displacement from market rate development. The city administration has been engaged in a top-down approach to many sustainability, urban planning issues and policies, with the wealthy developers interests and goals for profit as a driving force. Former Mayor DeBlasio announced New York City is officially upholding the Paris Climate Accord with goals of reducing carbon along with billions for green infrastructure projects. At the same time his policies are destroying grassroots community generated climate solutions that communities have created free of cost to the city, such as the plan to destroy the Elizabeth Street Garden in Soho/Nolita.

(Ecological City: Waterfront Closing Tableaux Photo: Rachel Elkind)

How has the unique community of the Lower East Side contributed to the inspiration and execution of a project of this scale?

The Lower East Side is a community of inspiring cultural diversity with residents representing various interests and backgrounds. It has been a neighborhood of immigrant communities for hundreds of years that shaped its culture with a mix of traditions, as well as the artists from all over the world that have made the Lower East Side their home. Earth Celebrations projects have grown out of the community issues, struggles and achievements related to these contested public spaces, gardens and parks. These spaces still exist and thrive because of how the community is deeply rooted in shaping its future through its creative and collective strength.

(Felicia Young: Earth Celebrations & Ecological City Director Portrait Photo: Rachel Elkind)

Lastly, what is your vision beyond this festival as both an individual and an organization?

For over 30 years, I have pursued a vision and quest to create framework and cultural action projects, where the arts were applied to engage communities to confront local environmental crises. Through participatory and collaborative arts my vision is to mobilize action on solutions and ecological, policy and social change.

Cultural strategies that proved successful included ritual based collaborative and community-engage art; with both the partnership-building creative collaborative action it generated, as well as actual policy change that the effort led to with the preservation of hundreds of community gardens. The theatrical pageant art form worked to provide a collaborative creative process that engaged the community. The a culminating public forum throughout the streets was significant for sites embedded with the histories, struggles, achievements and common goals for the community’s future.
Art has the ability to inspire and engage people to connect emotionally with the world around them -- places, issues and challenges. It is from that emotional connection, deeper understanding and visceral experience, that can inspire action for change.

Art does not only reflect life but can affect it too — and engage people to connect with what is and imagine what is possible. I have found that by engaging a community in an artistic expression, that is a collaborative co-created public cultural action, that the community is enabled to reaffirm their collective goals --- and then move from the experience of this artistic expression and theatrical reality, into real life action, impact and change.

earthcelebrations.com

feliciayoung.info

Member Spotlight: Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Mon, 11 Apr 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 11, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein.

"I am lucky enough to interview members of this community of long-standing environmental practitioners each month. Over the course of the last few years, this community and my own local community has inspired me to navigate my practice more towards elements of sustainability by teaching classes and workshops surrounding materials, sourcing, practice development and community resilience."

"Through this experience there have been some overarching themes that continue to reveal themselves in this quest toward a responsible and conscious practice. Topics that permeate throughout the systems surrounding arts and design practices like production, materials, and waste management that are often left out of arts curricula."

Carye Hallstein has developed a working list of guidelines for artists to refer to in continually striving toward eco-consciousness and sustainability.

"I have realized that the content of a work is only a small piece of the larger puzzle surrounding the conception and influence that a work has on our environments, our communities, and our own well-beings. No practice can be all these things, but if we each strive towards two of each of these goals for each category, we will be well on our ways toward really standing and acting in the interest of environmental justice and community resilience."

Carye Hallstein's Sustainable Practice Guidelines for the Arts is broken down into five categories: Materials and Sourcing, Production, Content, Influence, and Waste Management. Each category contains a working list of guidelines meant to accompany artists on their journeys towards the goal of sustainability. Examples range from choosing materials sourced from fair trade practices, to ensuring that the content of the work produced creates awareness for the environment or for an ecosystem, to striving to repurpose all waste produced from one's studio practice.

She will be teaching a course based on these guidelines from May 24th to June 6th (Tuesday/Thursday/Sunday) that will cover artistic practices from material to production to concept to waste.

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein is a Cambridge-based internationally exhibited artist and educator who has practiced professionally since 2010 at age 19. She writes articles for ecoartspace, is a Royal Society of Arts Fellow, and works regularly for SMFA at Tufts University. Her studio, the "Edible Nest Studio" (founded 2021) in Cambridge, MA works to create whole systems and integrated approaches to the practice of both design and culinary fields. Exhibition highlights include: Maxim-Gorki Theater, Deutsches Theater, LA54, Uferhallen, RAW Temple, Der Kanal, BAT theater, TIK Theater, the MFA Boston, Piano Craft Gallery, Tufts university, Nature of Cities Festival, and Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute. edibleneststudio.com oachallstein.com

Featured Images: ©Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein, "Taste of Coconut Water (detail)" from the Taste Test Series (2021), "Pokeberry Sketch" from Lifespans: Natural Dyes (2021), "Orange Medley" from Lifespans: Fruits & Berries (2022), "Blackberry Love Circle" from Lifespans: Fruits & Berries (2022).

Member Spotlight: Sant Khalsa

Mon, 04 Apr 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

April 4, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Sant Khalsa.

"I am an artist and activist whose work derives from mindful inquiry into complex environmental and societal issues. It is my intention to create a contemplative space where one can sense the subtle and profound connections between themselves, the natural world and our constructed landscapes."

"Intimate Landscapes was my first series of photographs of the California environment, created in 1982-1983. These photographs were made in response to relocating to San Bernardino after growing up in New York City. I was hypersensitive to the dramatic change in my surroundings and felt displaced, yet I was intrigued by a new experience of space, light, and terrain utterly foreign to me. I began to photograph the landscape as a means of investigating, interpreting, and expressing my sense of place."

"I often refer to the Santa Ana River as 'my river.' Never intending 'my' to allude to ownership or control but rather an intimate relationship one develops over time with a lover or a dear old friend. The Santa Ana River serves as a source of vital sustenance for my body, mind, and creative spirit. The river is the life source that nourishes the earth and every living and human cell in the community I reside. The river has taught me the critical interdependence between humans and the natural world and inspires me to make art that reflects on my life experience and relationship with place.

Paving Paradise refers to the current state of the river and the conflicting terrain of natural riverbeds and dams, flood plains and tract home communities, riparian wetlands and concrete channels. I was first drawn to the Santa Ana because of its natural beauty -- the vast open landscape, the starkness of its often-dry riverbeds and the power of its occasional rushing waters. The river remains a source of creative inspiration as I continue to depict the critical role it plays within the region, my home since 1975."

New Book of Photographs by Sant Khalsa:

Crystal Clear - Western Waters

Before Flint, before ever-expansive wildfires annually ravaged her home state of California and much of the west coast, yet after the popular introduction of bottled water to the American consciousness in the 1990s, Sant Khalsa discovered a store called Water Shed through her ongoing research on issues pertaining to water in the west, and photographed it. That was the first of what would become her series “Western Waters.” The sixty gelatin-silver photographs, made between 2000 and 2002, depict water stores in Arizona, New Mexico, Southern California, and Southern Nevada. At that time, Khalsa said of this work: “the photographs will serve in the future as a historical document of either a fleeting fad, or the foundation of what will become commonplace in our society.

Twenty years have passed since Khalsa completed this photographic project. Bottled water is an over $11 billion dollar industry, yet millions of Americans are daily affected by the lack of access to clean drinking water. The existence of these stores in the early part of the millennium played on human fears and desires—never-ending thirsts—that have become need in a very short period of time.

Preorder Sant Khalsa's second monograph Crystal Clear - Western Waters now from Minor Matters Books and your name will be printed in the book as a co-publisher.

Sant Khalsa's photographs, sculptures and installations have been exhibited internationally; her work is in the permanent collections of the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Center for Creative Photography of Tucson, Nevada Museum of Art, National Galleries of Scotland, and UCR/California Museum of Photography, and others. Khalsa has received fellowships and grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, California Humanities, and California Arts Council. Khalsa was honored as the inaugural recipient of the Society for Photographic Education's Insight Award for her significant contributions to the field. Khalsa is Professor of Art, Emerita at California State University and one of the founding faculty of the CSUSB Water Resources Institute research center and archive. Her first monograph, Prana: Life With Trees (Griffith Moon), was published in 2019. santkhalsa.com

Khalsa hosts the monthly ecoartspace program Tree Talk: Artists Speak for Trees and is the founding director of the Joshua Tree Center for Photographic Arts.

Featured Images: ©Sant Khalsa, Intimate Landscapes ("East Highland, CA"), Paving Paradise ("Flooding Below Prado Dam," and "Flooding Below Prado Dam, 2005,"), Western Waters ("Montebello, California," "Los Angeles, California," "Somerton, Arizona," and "Covina, California"), and "Vishuddha (Self Portrait)."

Citizen Seeds: A Public Art Project by Kim Abeles

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 19:27:00 GMT

Site 6, detail of Manzanita interior overlooking downtown Los Angeles, California. Photo by Ken Marchionno.

Citizen Seeds: A Public Art Project by Kim Abeles

by Alicia Vogl Saenz

A crane slowly lifts Kim Abeles’ large sculpture of a Coast Live Oak seed into the October night sky. The full moon glows behind clouds, Los Angeles city lights sprawl out in a stunning view. Abeles, an installation crew, a truck driver, a photographer, a park ranger, a county public art manager, and me are at the top of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook, a California State Park and one of the sites of Abeles’ public art project Citizen Seeds. The park is surprisingly busy at night, especially groups of runners. I’m helping the ranger redirect people and answer questions so that Abeles and the crew won’t be interrupted. The crane arcs over the entrance to the trail, trees and bushes, then hovers over the concrete base dug into the ground to support the sculpture. Although the equipment is enormous, it is not noisy. I can hear rustles of wildlife and the din of cars below. The installation crew has set up bright lights so that the crane operator can precisely place the seed. The ground crew help with navigation, then secure the sculpture with adhesive. Once installed, this six-foot in length, ten-thousand-pound concrete Coast Live Oak seed appears to have randomly fallen next to the trail from an enormous tree. Kim Abeles is beaming with joy.

Installation at Site 5 of the Coast Live Oak seed.

Installation at Site 5 of the Coast Live Oak seed. The ground crew is navigating the sculpture placement. Nighttime Photos by Alicia Vogl Saenz.

Citizen Seeds is a series of six sculptures placed in various locations along three miles at the start of the Park to Playa trail. The sculptures are mixed media and portray six plants native to Southern California: Sugar Pine, California Black Oak, Coast Live Oak, Bladderpod, Black Walnut, and Manzanita. Abeles designed the seeds to have a visual presence from afar (sizes range from 6’ to 8’) and serve as a meeting place for trail users. The top of each seed appears to be split open, revealing a map and other design elements. Each map is fashioned in bronze, indicates its location on the trail, and includes the word “Here”. The sculptures then become wayfinding objects.

Detail of Site 5. Photo by Ken Marchionno.

“Here” also invites the viewer to slow down for a moment and take in the power of finding themselves immersed in nature while being in the center of urban Los Angeles. Walking has held a special space in Abeles’ artwork. She often walks, plotting areas and incorporates cityscape horizons to her projects and community or classroom workshops. Normally we pass by quickly in our cars. Walking offers participants a fresh viewpoint. Abeles writes in her description of Citizen Seeds: “When walking or stopping for a moment along a trail, we can imagine that there is no beginning or end, rather, a journey’s continuum.”

Interior of the Coast Live Oak seed at Site 5. Photo by Ken Marchionno.

Each seed is unique and features differing design elements. Abeles writes: “The seed interiors speak to the metaphors of personal growth, the journeys we share, and our relationship within nature.” For example, at site 3, located at Kenneth Hahn Park, cast concrete medallions surround the edge of the interior. The medallions were designed by community members in a workshop led by Abeles and are their symbols of growth and journey. The community artists’ names are included in a plaque next to the sculpture.

Site 3, Bladderpod seed. Photo by Ken Marchionno.

Site 4 is a California Black Oak seed and is located near the new La Cienega Pedestrian Bridge and the Stoneview Nature Center. Disks of local animal and bird tracks encircle the seed. Tracks made by squirrels, red tail hawks, coyotes, and other wildlife. A concrete relief blueprint of the nature center represents “tracks” left by humans. The first time I saw this seed, I ran my hands along the disks and imagined all the critters. The large scale of each seed made me imagine a bird’s eye or squirrel’s view of a seed. Or, even perhaps, a lizard’s perspective.

Site 4, California Black Oak seed. Image of interior and labeled details of each animal track. Photo by Ken Marchionno.

Citizen Seeds is an exemplary public art installation. It has many facets that serve the user. The practical—a meeting place, wayfinding, mapping. Aesthetic—the seeds and their interiors are gorgeous. Impart knowledge and inspire curiosity—Southern California native flora and fauna, community values. Reflection and mindfulness—reminder to slow down, and be “here”. If the pandemic has taught us anything, it is that creating memories with those we love, respecting human life, and being present in the now are essential to a well lived and joyful life. Interacting with Kim Abeles’ Citizen Seeds inspires me (and I hope you) to remember that simple acts like walking in nature and greeting those I pass—animal, plant, people—can make your day meaningful.

What simple act gives you joy?

Site 1, Sugar Pine. Photo by Ken Marchionno

Alicia Vogl Saenz is a poet, Manager of Family Programs at Los Angeles County Museum in California, meditation instructor, bread maker, yarn lover who brings her love of Los Angeles, mixed immigrant background (ecuaczech) and queer identity to her writing and teaching. She blogs at www.aliciabird.me

Preciousness Once Disposed, Reimagined: Johanna Tornqvist

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 18:12:59 GMT

“Project Precious Trash” (2016), Photo: Fredrik Sederholm

Preciousness Once Disposed, Reimagined: Johanna Tornqvist

Interview by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Johanna Tornqvist applies her studies in folklore and Swedish traditions to contemporary issues related to waste materials and ecological degradation. Her work has expanded to explore the health care industry by including pill packets as material. She uses her Swedish surroundings as well as her international experiences to draw parallels between aesthetics and contemporary lifestyle related issues. Both elaborate and haunting, her fashions sit at the precipice of an industry shrouded in ecological and ethical issues and solutions related to material choice.

“Vingklippt” (2014), Photo: Fredrik Sederholm

what does the human of today have a superfluous of? Trash.

In your work, you create precious wearable objects out of disposed materials. What was your inspiration to begin this work?

I was educated as a fashion designer in the 80's, but soon left the fashion industry as I could not cope with their ethics. Further on, I worked with craft in different materials, and I became more and more interested in the ecological and ethical aspect of the fashion industry and wanted to merge this with my craft.

After my grandmother passed away, I found in her belongings all kinds of materials that she had collected over the years, as you did in the old times. These included buttons, ribbons and laces from old clothes and bedclothes. I thought to myself: she grew up in a time where everything was reused but grew old in a time when everything is bought new. I saw her collecting these objects as treasures and I wanted to make something out of them. Since they were only small and uneven pieces, the work became jewelry.
Later on, I became more and more radical in my thinking: what happens if I use only the material that we have nearby, as we used to in the old times? Back then it was wool, wood or clay, but what does the human of today have a superfluous of? Trash.

“Side Effects” (2017), Photo: Tomas Bjorkdal

I reflected upon how we sometimes need these medications to survive, or to as a way to have a tolerable existence, or just to cope with a modern way of life.

And nearby materials are so wide ranging! Recently, you have expanded this project to include medical waste materials. How have you forged the connection between jewels and daily medication, a life-saving necessity for many?

The project Side Effects came at first from the fact that there is an enormous amount of overabundance of disposable materials in the health care industry. As a result of my interest in waste management, I decided to dive into the world of disposable material related to healthcare. This was “in” before the pandemic, but it was very difficult to get hold of material because of potential contamination risk. So, the material I was able to access was medical trash we have in our households, mostly blister packs.
Due to illness in my proximity that I was personally affected by, I was aware of both the advantages and disadvantages of medication. I reflected upon how we sometimes need these medications to survive, or to as a way to have a tolerable existence, or just to cope with a modern way of life. Those little pills many of us take, are essential in many people’s lives. But there is a lot of disposable material around them and also a lot of transportation costs due to all the air around the blister packs. Medication and chemicals are also prominent in our oceans and in our drinking water. We are beginning to grip more and more the impact these have on our lives in many different aspects.

“Celestial Twin: röd kopia” (2012)

Nowadays I don´t choose my materials, I use what there is.

Your fashions often include bright and crocheted or knitted materials or wearable decorations that are reminiscent of folkloric Swedish aesthetics. How have your travels and historical research influenced the style you are creating? Is there something specific in the culture that interests you in the connection to upcycling?

I have always been inspired by folklore from all over the world. And also surprised by the similarity of many ornamental traditions in many countries even if they exist on opposite sides of the planet.

Recycling and upcycling have always been part of craft in folklore traditions and are considered a natural way of using materials. It is the present time´s way of exploiting and using up natural resources that is not normal.

My previous work had a lot of inspiration from different folkloristic traditions. But my work nowadays is more focused on the material I get and find and how I can embellish and make a nonprecious material precious. Nowadays I don´t choose my materials, I use what there is.

“Project Precious Trash” (2016), Photo: Fredrik-Sederholm

It is in the way you handle the material, that you make it precious.

The work you do is a wonderful example of upcycling rather than recycling as it gives the disposed objects a more precious life than when they started. How are you responding to the sustainability of the fashion industry?

Project Precious Trash was a project I made about clothes and consumption where I highlighted different aspects of the fashion industry. It’s a really dirty business, as many are increasingly aware, both in ethics as well as ecological and social sustainability. My aim has always been - how can we embrace glamor and adornment but still be part of a sustainable lifestyle?

For many years I have worked with the aspect of what we see as precious versus what we see as useless. And how our point of view has changed over the years.

I´m also interested in the aspect of craft and how today´s humans have largely lost their skills to work with their hands. Only the work of the brain is promoted. In this part of the world, we have therefore become completely dependent on what is produced at the other side of the world.

By using trash materials, I want to change focus from the material away from whether it is precious or not. Instead, I would like to highlight the work of the hands. It is in the way you handle the material, that you make it precious.

Johanna Tornqvist

April 2022 Newsletter

Fri, 01 Apr 2022 16:46:46 GMT

The ecoartspace April 2022 e-Newsletter is HERE

Member Spotlight: Aviva Rahmani

Mon, 28 Mar 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 28, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Aviva Rahmani.

"Working with others across disciplines to effect ecological restoration and change environmental policy with art is a hallmark of my practice. I have engaged with both the scientific and the legal aspects of change to explore environmental justice grounded in environmental science to change systems. The most recent expression of that concern in my work has been The Blued Trees Symphony (2015-present), a series of installations across North America. That work has been realized with teams of local activists in corridors where fossil fuel infrastructure have been planned and in international venues to replace anthropocentric models with models from art which are more appropriate to the Anthropocene era."

Blue Trees Symphony is a spatial and acoustic outdoor installation across North America, embodying trigger point theory. The installation covers many miles of proposed pipeline expansions, exploring how art, science, and law can change environmental policies about fossil fuels. The installation is composed of trees marked with a painted vertical sine wave. Each marked tree is GPS located, indicating an aerial musical score for an overture. Using copyright law, the artwork on the trees is protected, subsequently protecting the land from eminent domain takings for pipeline development.

The Blued Trees Symphony launched on the Summer Solstice, June 21, 2015, with an overture in Peekskill, New York. It is now installed in many miles of proposed pipeline expansions. Individual trees were painted and musical variations of the score were performed to echo the theme of connectivity to all life. The paint for each vertical sine wave is a casein slurry of nontoxic ultramarine blue and buttermilk that grows moss (based on a Japanese gardening technique).

"Blue Rocks (2002) was an example of what curators Amy Lipton and Sue Spaid termed an ecovention, a place where art intervenes in environmental degradation. Forty large boulders painted blue, drawing attention to an obstructed causeway on Pleasant River, Vinalhaven Island, Maine. The ecovention included the painting of the boulders by the river and a “wash-in,” which came as a response to being subpoenaed from the town to clean the rocks, to educate the local community about estuarine health. The project included GIS mapping. The site choice applied Trigger Point Theory. My task was to investigate how the restoration of this small site could have regional impact. It was at a significant confluence of ecotones (transitions between systems)."

Blue Sea Lavender (2009) was a series of events and performances in Maine based upon a mythical plant. The one-day event explored the loss of species diversity in the Gulf of Maine mediated through the narration of Blue Sea Lavender who has “lost my children, my family, my community, my home.” The event included consecutively singing Puccini's Vissi d'arte in a public preserve over a six-hour period. The day before, large drawings of the mythical plant were created on the sand of two local preserve parking lots using branches, rocks and water, knowing that cars would destroy the drawings, as people have destroyed many species across the earth.

The event was a sequence of performances during the one-day “site-specific" show curated by Pat Nick on August 19, 2009. A subtheme of the show was the celebration of recently installed wind power turbines on Vinalhaven Island to serve the Fox Islands.

Aviva Rahmani is a Pioneering ecological artist who has worked at the cutting edge of the avant-garde since she committed to her career in art at the age of nineteen. She has devoted many years of her working life to teaching, inspiring, and leading others through her art to a renewed focus on ecological restoration as artmaking. Rahmani is at the forefront of her field in ecological art and exhibits, publishes, and presents internationally. She currently lives and works in Manhattan and Maine and has recently completed a residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council on Governors Island, New York. avivarahmani.com

Featured Images: ©Aviva Rahmani, "Blued Trees Symphony" (2015-ongoing), "Blue Rocks" (2002), "Blue Sea Lavender" (2009).

Betsy Damon: Keepers of the Waters for Artists & Climate Change

Thu, 24 Mar 2022 18:19:09 GMT

March 22, 2022

Keeper of the Waters

Susan Hoffman Fishman

for Artists & Climate Change blog

For the last 50+ years, eco-artist and environmental activist Betsy Damon has devoted herself to community building – the coming together of individuals to achieve a common purpose. Since the 1980s, after a decade of engaging the public through public performances in New York City, she has worked at the intersection of art and science, focusing on the topic of water and on creating models for communities in the United States and China to know and become stewards of their own water sources. The brief descriptions below, highlighting four of Damon’s many exhibitions, ecological and sustainable design projects, publications, and organizations are only a brief glimpse into her prolific and important body of work.

Damon’s first major project on water came about after a cross-country camping trip with her children in 1983, during which she observed a number of dry riverbeds whose once flowing waters had been dammed and redirected. As a result of this experience and a growing reconnection to the natural world, she conceived of a project that would bring attention to the environmental loss that the dry riverbeds represented and serve as a living memory of the missing water. Damon was able to realize the project, called A Memory of Clean Water, when she brought together a group of master papermakers and local artists to create a paper casting covering 250 feet of a dry riverbed in Castle Rock, Utah. The stunning and powerful piece was installed in seven venues across the country from 1986 through 1991, including at the Danforth Museum in Framingham, Massachusetts; the University of Wisconsin at Madison; Everhart Museum in Scranton, Pennsylvania; MoMA PS1 in New York City; and others.

A Memory of Clean Water was pivotal to the evolution of Damon’s practice. During its creation, as she was working on her hands and knees placing paper pulp over rocks, she looked up and realized that the patterns of stars in the sky mirrored the patterns in the riverbed. Profoundly moved by this personal epiphany, she promised herself to learn as much as she could about water and has spent the rest of her life since then fulfilling that promise.

Continue reading HERE

Book Review: Ecoart in Action - New Art Examiner

Wed, 23 Mar 2022 17:05:48 GMT

Book Review

Ecoart in Action: Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations for Classrooms and Communities

Edited by Amara Geffen, Ann Rosenthal, Chris Fremantle and Aviva Rahmani

by Thomas Wawzenek for New Art Examiner

Ecoart in Action is a new book, published this year, that contributes to the growing literature on artistic responses to global warming and its consequences. While emphasizing the importance of artistic expression, this book also examines and illustrates the interconnection between art, science, and social activism and why the three are needed to work together to enact change.

Compiled from 67 members of the Ecoart Network, a group of 200 internationally established practioners grounded in the arts, education and science, this book offers pragmatic solutions to critical environmental challenges that the world now faces. The framework in this book is organized into three sections (Activities, Case Studies, and Provocations) that examine diverse methods on how to create critical strategies in relation to environmental issues. Each contribution offers templates for ecoart practices that are adaptable within a variety of classroom settings and community groups.

There are 25 activities that make use of various mediums such as art, photography, collage and writing that allow participants to not only reflect on their relationship with nature but also experience the dynamics of working with others in a group setting. Many of these group projects heighten one’s level of critical thinking while utilizing the imagination when creating art.

While many activities are designed specifically for either children or adults, there are some activities that can be enjoyed by both. A good example of the latter is a banner-making project. In this endeavor, participants who live in an urban environment learn about native species such as plants, insects and animals that play a vital role in an urban setting. The participants express their new-found knowledge by composing and painting banners that can be presented as artwork in the community. This activity not only educates people as to how nature is often taken for granted in cities and large towns, but also engenders a sense of community pride. A more ambitious activity, that is geared for students ages 8 through 17, is an energy camp where students learn the basic scientific principles about energy production and how our consumption of nonrenewable energy impacts the environment. The end result is for students to use their creativity and problem-solving skills to discover innovative solutions by building a fully operational solar sculpture or a functional prototype.

Continue reading HERE

Member Spotlight: Cherie Sampson

Mon, 21 Mar 2022 15:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 21, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Cherie Sampson.

"For over 25 years my artistic work has encompassed site-specific environmental performance, sculpture and video art. Many of the works have been created in wilderness, rural and cultivated landscapes in the U.S. and abroad, inspired and informed by the unique geographies, elemental forces, built environments and cultural connections of place. At the center of my art is the presence of the natural world, physically and/or symbolically, and that of my body within those spaces. My performances occur in sculptural installations I construct in nature or other environments, for events attended by live audiences, or ‘staged’ exclusively for the camera in the form of still and moving imagery."

"A significant body of my work has been created in the boreal landscapes of Finland over a twenty-year period. In 1998, while living there for nine months, I initiated the making of video-performances, a practice that has continued to the present. These began as minimalist, one-take videos in analog format sited in diverse “found landscapes” (as one Finnish scholar described) such as mossy forests, arctic tundra and snow-covered terrain. Performing in glacially slow movement, my naked body became an extension of the landscape in an embodiment of temporality in nature – cyclical changes often not perceptible in the moment in gradual process, but as if after-images. With the advance of digital technologies these works have become more layered and mosaiced. While I maintain the integrity of the slow movement in real time in post-production, I now utilize more manipulation of the imagery using masking, mirroring and other techniques to further abstract the body and represent multiple gestures within a single frame. The bodies may appear at once human, animal and vegetative, reflecting patterns in the environment and contemplating the stirring and stilling of time through an interplay of fixed and moving imagery."

"Other performance works have occurred in a variety of settings attended by live audiences. These may take place within sculptural spaces I construct of local and natural materials in the environment, installations in indoor venues and/or public spheres. The projects often require significant preliminary and on-site research as they are informed and inspired by local legends, origins stories or myths associated with the locations in which they are presented."

"Classical traditions from both west and east have profoundly impacted my performance work, as widely varied as the folkloric “rune-singing” culture of Karelian Finland and the classical dance forms of India. For a decade I have been studying the South Indian dance form, Bharatanatyam. Its complex formal structure and mimetic storytelling methods have profoundly impacted my movement vocabulary in both the live and video-performance work. Currently I am working with the dance form's dramaturgy in the performance project, “every.single.one” that portrays my recent experience with hereditary breast cancer. In many ways, this is a significant departure in my work due to the medical and autobiographical nature of the subject matter. Nonetheless, the environment still plays a vital role. During treatment, I continued to make video-performances in the landscape and documented the healing process that included walks in nature, working in the garden, forest wildcrafting and swimming in a northern Wisconsin lake – my first full immersion in water several weeks after surgery."

Cherie Sampson has worked for over 25 years as an interdisciplinary artist in environmental performance, sculpture and video art. She has exhibited internationally in live performances, art-in-nature symposia, video/film screenings and installations in the US, Finland, Norway, Holland, Cuba, France, Greece, Italy, India, Spain, Argentina, South Korea, Hong Kong and other countries. Sampson is the recipient of a number of fellowships & grants including two Fulbright Fellowships to Finland (1998 & 2011), a Finnish Cultural Foundation Grant (North Karelia Fund), three Finlandia Foundation Grants and multiple internal research grants for artistic projects from the University of Missouri. She divides her time between the University of Missouri where she is an Associate Professor of Art and her organic farm in Northeast Missouri where she creates some of her art works in the cultivated and wooded environments. She is the current President of Artists in Nature International Network (AiNIN). Sampson received her Master of Fine Art Degree in Intermedia & Video Art from the University of Iowa in 1997 with a minor in Sculpture. cheriesampson.net

Featured Images: ©Cherie Sampson, “Burning of the Birch” (2018); "Limb to Limbs, Flesh & Home" (1998); "Let a Sleeping Bear Lie," (2016); "every.single.one" (2017), Photographic series/performances for the camera; "Mettä Vuoti Kuivat Kuuset" (2012); "Tufiarte" (2014).

River Fugues by Margaret Cogswell for Open Rivers

Wed, 16 Mar 2022 02:41:11 GMT

Issue Twenty : Winter 2022 / Feature

RIVER FUGUES

By Margaret Cogswell

I’ve known rivers:
I’ve known rivers ancient as the world and older than the flow of human blood in human veins.

My soul has grown deep like the rivers.

Langston Hughes
“The Negro Speaks of Rivers”[1]

What is it to “know” rivers? As an artist I have been asking myself this question for over twenty years. Ever since an artist residency in Cleveland, Ohio led to my encountering the burning river history of the Cuyahoga River, I realized that all rivers have stories, and to learn of their histories was to explore and listen.

Simon Schama, in the introduction to his book, Landscape and Memory, describes this kind of exploration beautifully:

Landscape and Memory has been built around such moments of recognition as this, when a place suddenly exposes its connections to an ancient and peculiar vision of the forest, the mountain, or the river. A curious excavator of traditions stumbles over something protruding above the surface of the commonplaces of contemporary life. He scratches away, discovering bits and pieces of a cultural design that seems to elude coherent reconstitution but which leads him deeper into the past. [2]

In this essay, I will focus on my research on different rivers, sharing the meandering paths which have led me to explore these rivers and my creative responses to them in the form of mixed-media art installations that seek to reflect the complex relationships between land, water, and peoples. To contextualize the impetus for what developed into an ongoing series of River Fugues projects, I will offer some personal history. Although I was born in the United States (in Memphis, Tennessee along the Mississippi River), I went to Japan with my parents when I was 18 months old and lived there until I was 13 years old. Coming back to the United States at age 13 was like moving to a foreign country. Although I was bilingual and spoke English as well as Japanese, I did not know this country’s history, or understand its culture. My early efforts to better understand this country were through the study of literature. This led to my efforts to explore the intervals between words and what cannot be translated, and eventually to my work as a visual artist.

Continue reading here Open Rivers: Rethinking Water Place and Community

Member Spotlight: Ulrike Arnold

Tue, 15 Mar 2022 16:24:42 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 14, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Ulrike Arnold.

"Earth has been the theme of my work over four decades, in a most concrete and tangible way: I use it when I paint outside allowing nature— wind, rain and sun—to be my accomplices."

Arnold’s paintings can be viewed as a tactile micro or macrocosmos. They preserve and structure a fraction of the skin of our earth from close up while also allowing for a perspective from outer space. They are a reminder both of the beauty and of the vulnerability of the planet we all need to protect.

"OneWorldPainting (above) is a dialogue of Earth from five continents including salt and sands from deserts, volcanoes and prehistoric caves, rock formations and river beds. It is symbolic of the deep communion of all the nations in the world. Two large canvases, are displayed together as a giant exclamation mark, a political statement to honor, preserve and protect the very soil on which all mankind walks. I have used colors from my trips over the past 40 years, minerals that glimmer and mud that provides a wealth of shades; reds, blues, yellows and greens. When these two canvas pieces combine, they create a harmonious and beautiful ensemble, a call to every individual and to all nations for peace and protection of our natural environment. A powerful statement to move forward."

Arnold's paintings are an open invitation to the viewer to connect to our planet, to trigger an awareness of our coming and going. They capture something of the beauty of the earth which has been resisting the onslaught of climate change and multiple crises. For 17 years, Arnold has also painted with meteorite dust, which she gets from a Meteor researcher, she met by coincidence. This material is witness to the origin of our planet in the solar system. Her paintings pay homage to the earth and its place within the cosmos.

Ulrike Arnold paints with earth, sand and rocks. She travels to remote places on all continents, where she paints in situ, exposed to the weather and the natural forces of the environment. She collects her painting materials and mixes them with a binder to paint her huge canvases. They capture the essence of the places, where she travels. Arnold was born is Düsseldorf, Germany and currently lives and works between Düsseldorf and Flagstaff, Arizona. ulrikearnold.com

Featured Images: ©Ulrike Arnold, outdoor studio in Utah; (3) Gif images are "Cueva de la Chulacao, Atacama, Chile" (2014); "Cordillera de la Sal, Atacama, Chile" (2014); "Valle de Arcoiris, Atacama, Chile" (2014); "OneWorldPainting"(2019); "Meteorite #04," (2021); "Full Moon" (1991), Bisbee, Arizona, double-sided painting with earth and meteorite dust in the former collection of Dennis Hopper; below is the artist's portrait by Petra W. Barathova.

Member Spotlight: Chrissie Orr

Mon, 07 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

March 7, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Chrissie Orr.

Orr is a co-founder of SeedBroadcast, a collaborative project exploring bioregional agri-Culture and seed action through collective inquiries and hands-on creative practices. SeedBroadcast holds the belief that it is a human right to save seeds and share their gifts, to grow food and share its abundance, and to cultivate grassroots wisdom and share its creativity. Engagement includes community based projects, installations, dialogues, creative actions, experiential practices and cross country tours with the Mobile Seed Story Broadcasting Station.

Seed: Climate Change Resilience is a community engaged arts project exploring seed, arid-land agri-Culture, resiliency, and climate change. Created by SeedBroadcast, a New Mexico based arts and agri-Culture collective, in collaboration with numerous New Mexico farmers and seed stewards, this project features an interactive public exhibition to inspire and activate dialogue around seed, global warming, local food, healthy communities, and the revitalization of bioregional agri-Cultural practices.

SeedBroadcast agri-Culture Journal is a bi-annual collection of poetry, inspired thoughts, essays, photographs, drawings, recipes, How-to’s and wisdom gathered together from a national call out to lovers of local food and seeds. This journal supports collaboration and the sharing of seeds, stories, resources, and inspiration within local communities and between individuals, while also providing pollination through diversified regional, national, and international internet-media networks.

"Fodder Project Collaborative Research Farm hosted the first Meeting of the Seeds, a gathering of local farmers and gardeners who shared their saved seeds and gardens during Interviews in the Field. This meeting included a Roundbale dialogue, where we shared the Collective Seed Book, a culmination of photographs and statements from each participant. We also listened to each others’ stories about the 2011 year of growing local food, saving seeds, and coping with the regional water crisis and drought. We then sat down to a potluck dinner that included dishes made from everyone’s gardens and farms. At the end of the evening seeds were exchanged. Anton Chico, New Mexico."

Chrissie Orr is an artist, animateur and creative investigator focused on developing “a relational aesthetic around community and site with issues relevant to both.” Orr has created innovative, provocative community-based projects in diverse areas of the world and is recognized internationally for her pioneering work. She is a co-founder of the SeedBroadcast Collective and co-founder of the Academy for the Love of Learning’s Institute for Living Story and is presently the Academy’s Creative Practice Fellow. She has kept a journal for more years than she can remember, their broken worn spines line her bookshelves and contain her secret memory lines. One day she might share these. In her spare time she grows ancient varieties of corn and beans to learn new ways of being in this world and loves to instigate beautiful trouble. seedbroadcast.org

On Salt, Seaweed, and Disappearing Places - Christina Conklin

Fri, 04 Mar 2022 19:36:23 GMT

March 4, 2022

On Salt, Seaweed, and Disappearing Places

Susan Hoffman Fishman for Artists & Climate Change

California-based artist, writer, and researcher Christina Conklin grew up spending summers along the coast of Oregon where she first developed a relationship with and understanding of the ocean as “an infinite vessel” of ever-changing and interconnected living systems. For the last 12 years, her artwork has explored the intersection of art, science, and spirituality as it relates to the sea.

Conklin’s career path prior to her current focus as an artist and writer on the ocean in the context of the climate crisis, included work in the publishing and non-profit sectors, after which she became a full-time textile artist and freelance writer. Acknowledging her background in textiles, she admits that all of her artwork has what she calls “textility,” an inherent textural quality. It also incorporates her long-time interest in spirituality and philosophy, which she attributes to her background as an undergraduate religious studies major at Middlebury College in Vermont.

Apophacy, glass vessel, hanging wire, 12 gallons of water, 8 pounds of salt, 13 ft. diameter, 2014

From 2012-2014, during her MFA program at California College of the Arts, Conklin created process-based, ephemeral works that combined scientific experimentation with artmaking and contemplative practice. For these pieces, she used salt and water as her primary media, which she applied directly onto the floor. In Apophacy (see photo above), for example, the salt and water mixture created a rough, almost bubbly surface, like a primordial mix, thick in some areas and thin in others. From above, the floor-based installation had a globe-like appearance, suggesting bodies of water and land formations. Its title references a theological term for “the ineffable nature of that which could be called sacred and the unsaying of all the words that so often fail to approach its description.”

Continue reading HERE

Hearing the Invisible: An Interview with Anne Yoncha

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 17:51:51 GMT

“Tree Talk,” 2018, Ponderosa Pine Tree sonification

Anne Yoncha Interview by
Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Anne Yoncha speaks with the trees. Through biodata depiction using galvanometer sensors and speakers, Yoncha presents the experience of plants, peat and prairie grasses in an eye opening, often minimal, aesthetic. By presenting biodata in its raw form, she allows the environment to be amplified so that all of us can hear the stories of the Pines. Based in Oklahoma, USA, the artist works closely with scientists and composers to create multisensorial interactions between humanity and an otherwise invisible world.

Art allows us to see, feel, hear environmental processes that are otherwise invisible to us, operating at a different scale or a different timeframe.

“Succession: A Visual Score” 2019, sonified biodata composed with cello recording

Much of your work encompasses and visualizes existing issues and studies related to environmental sciences. What can art as a platform do that research alone cannot?

Art allows us to see, feel, hear environmental processes that are otherwise invisible to us, operating at a different scale or a different timeframe. We suddenly have access to a more direct understanding of an experience beyond our typical human one. Maybe we are able for a moment to experience some of the processes and pressures on a lifeform which is not our own. Maybe it leads us to draw parallels to our own experience (for example, our human death from embolism would be physiologically similar to a plant’s death from drought). Maybe it leads us to act, or maybe just to be curious. I think this open, questioning, expanded experience is crucial as we can increasingly access more information, because information doesn’t always lead to understanding. When understanding of our ecological problems is limited, artists have historically been successful in uncovering background narratives, shaping how scientifically declared emergencies are perceived and acted upon.

Artists have historically been successful in uncovering background narratives, shaping how scientifically declared emergencies are perceived and acted upon.

“Second Wind” 2019, Depicting pine tree wind velocity

In order to create this awareness, you often use technologies to transcribe environmental phenomena like in Tree Talk or Succession: A Visual Score or Second Wind. These pieces are embodiments of usually unheard environmental interaction. How do you collaborate or use tools as a bridge for understanding? What is this process like?

I first became interested in this idea of transcription in 2018 when I was playing with a galvanometer sensor and some Ponderosa pine seedlings. We had a room of artists and plant physiologists, using a synthesizer to make the plants sound, at one moment, like an uplifting orchestra, at the next, a quieter, mournful organ. Any decision we made about how to sonify the data was entangled with our subjective choices. In “Succession”, I wanted to explore this idea of reading and interpreting data about two plant groups in conflict. The drawing was my own reading of the place, the data overlay was the sensor reading. Then, I handed the project off to my collaborators, and they read the piece too. Now, as the red cursor moves across the video, the viewer is the last reader. In “Second Wind”, I was interested in performing data –wind data, in the gallery, in real time. We are so focused on collecting data, gathering it, analyzing it later. So, giving it a moment on “stage” and letting it go seemed like a bit of a radical act. Would we pay more attention to it, knowing we could only keep it for a moment?

Would we pay more attention to it, knowing we could only keep it for a moment?

“RE:Peat, Layers of Peat in Northern Finland, a Look and Listen” 2019

By performing data, you are letting the elements speak for themselves rather than through interpretation. As a result, much of your work is highly educational and revealing about the world otherwise unseen. Do you have a mission for this work? What has been your inspiration?

Media theorist Boris Groys wrote about the difference between the digital image file, which is always consistent but impossible to experience, versus the digital image, which we experience as a unique manifestation each time we open the file. I am interested in the distinction between the data itself and our experience of it. Philosopher Albert Borgmann’s “device paradigm” critiques how we consume technological devices and their outputs yet separate ourselves from their mechanics. The digital world has brought us so much connection at the price of so much detachment. I want to extend this thinking into the bio-art realm, building scientific and aesthetic understanding of how we consume ecological systems, while conceptually and emotionally separating ourselves from the damage we do to them. I also see my work as a way for me – and hopefully if all goes well, viewers also – to pay attention. Many of my projects are assignments I give myself to satisfy curiosity about how digital and analog processes work.

…the bio-art realm, building scientific and aesthetic understanding of how we consume ecological systems, while conceptually and emotionally separating ourselves from the damage we do to them.

Lab (2018), Pine Seedling Regrowth, Study and Sonification

So, you are acting not just as a translator between environments, but also between digital and material. Many of the materials you employ are machine based or highly tactile like cloth or painted paper. What appeals to you about this contrast between rationality and tactility?

Tactility makes us feel something! But in all seriousness, I first heard the term “data materialization” from fellow artist Courtney Starrett and it has stuck with me ever since. We can do more than just visualize data. The materials and processes we use can also add meaning and impact. This is fun for me, too, because it means I can learn new processes based on each place and ecosystem I’m making work about. I love this contrast between rationality and tactility, between subjectivity and objectivity, because it gets blurred once you really break down our methods of collecting and interpreting information. I try to make work which points out that slipperiness.

The materials and processes we use can also add meaning and impact.

Thank you, Anne, for a wonderful interview! I look forward to hearing where your work takes you next. Oliva

March 2022 Newsletter

Tue, 01 Mar 2022 16:00:00 GMT

The ecoartspace March 2022 e-Newsletter is HERE

Member Spotlight: Betsy Damon

Mon, 28 Feb 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 28, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Betsy Damon.

"Our world’s living systems are endlessly exciting and constantly humbling in their complexity. My skills as an artist allow me to center water as the foundation to all life. In my journey to understand water, my partner is science and my driving purpose is curiosity. I look through the mist to examine the vast expanse of interconnected living systems that contains you and me."

In 1985, after a cross-country camping trip with her children, Damon found herself reconnected to the primal elements of the natural world --the sound of wind, the flow of water, the forest, the rain. This initiated the casting of a 250-foot dry riverbed, "The Memory of Clean Water," which brought her attention to the invisible destruction that development was having on water sources. In the early evening, while casting the riverbed, Betsy looked up to realize that the stones of the riverbed were patterned like the stars of the sky, that everywhere were the patterns of water. She committed herself to learning everything about water, little did she know that 27 years later she would still be deeply entrenched.

Beginning with the creation of Keepers of the Waters in 1991, Damon has continued to work towards creating community-based models of water stewardship. Her work includes sculpture, teaching, lectures, and workshops. In China, she created the nation's first public art event for the environment, and most notably the Living Water Garden, a world-renowned public park and natural water filtration model. In the US, she is continuously working with communities and grassroots groups, as well as completing art and design commissions.

Betsy Damon's inspiration comes from extensive research of sacred water sites, and her curiosity for the biology and earth sciences that compose living systems. Always seeking new ways to articulate the complexity of water and engage communities in caring for this precious resource, Damon continues her passion.

Betsy Damon is the founder and director of Keepers of the Water, a nonprofit organization that encourages art, science and community projects for the understanding and remediation of living water systems. Forty years ago, Damon stepped outside her traditional art training and carved a unique path to work with the environment, communities, science and art. She was engaged in the women's movement of the 1970s, where she founded No Limits for Women Artists, a network to join and support female artists. In 1985, while making a cast of a dry riverbed in Castle Valley, Utah, she decided to devote the rest of her artistic life to water. She started Keepers of the Waters in 1991 with the support of the Hubert Humphrey Institute. Damon received an MFA from Columbia University in 1966. www.betsydamon.com www.keepersofthewater.org

Featured Images (Top to Bottom): ©Betsy Damon, "Mist Rising," "A Memory of Clean Water" (1985), "Living Water Garden" (1998), "Principles of Water" (2019), "Sounds of Water" (2004).

Artists Find Creative Ways to Raise Food Insecurity Awareness - PlantBot Genetics

Thu, 24 Feb 2022 18:26:41 GMT

Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki, Monsantra Plant Bots (2019)

Artists Find Creative Ways to Raise Food Insecurity Awareness

While it may be strange to think of food insecurity as a basis for art, the works in Food Justice reveal barriers and injustices in food access.

by Anna Mirzayan

January 17, 2022 for Hyperallergic

PITTSBURGH — Food Justice: Growing a Healthier Community through Art, a multimedia group exhibition at Pittsburgh’s Contemporary Craft, is ambitious; it purports to highlight global food insecurity and its place in a complex ecosystem of injustice and inequality, including poverty, racism, climate change, and dubious corporate and governmental practices. It’s fitting, then, that each artist’s work is accompanied by both an object label and a “field guide,” which provides commentary on that work’s thematic relationship to food justice, written by community partners that support related causes, such as food banks, urban gardens, and university food research think tanks.

The inclusion of field guides, which are less direct reflections on each piece and more related ruminations, ingeniously weaves together the works and the issues they represent within the habitats that shaped and naturalized them, complete with signifiers that unite the disparate pieces under the banner of “food justice.”

Read the full review HERE

Excerpt on the work of members Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki

At first glance, Monsantra Plant Bots and Community Hydroponic Garden, both projects by Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki from 2019, use living flora in contrasting ways; the former consists of what looks like lengthy, verdant grass adhered to two sets of remote-controlled monster truck wheels. As the title suggests, the piece merges Monsanto GMO seedlings with robotics, producing a comical hybrid that portends a somber future for agriculture. The edible plants in Community Hydroponic Garden grow from their machines, fed by carefully distilled water into porous, pH-neutral ceramic containers tended throughout the show by community members who actually harvest the yield for food. Perhaps this garden of “working water” (hydroponics) is actually another creation of the plant bots, showing us an alternate future of sustainable food that melds human communal labor and technology. As this project asks “where does our food come from?” it is accompanied by a field guide that talks about what globalized capitalism has done to food sovereignty.

Member Spotlight: Ruth Wallen

Mon, 21 Feb 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 21, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Ruth Wallen.

"The magnificence, diversity and delight of the forest cannot be fully expressed in any single image. I’ve chosen the form of a photomontage to provide a series of glimpses, from a variety of scales and perspectives, to evoke both the vibrancy of life and the fragmentation caused from a myriad of ecological challenges."

"What happens when a community turns its back on its waters? Currently much of Escondido Creek, which runs in front of the California Center for the Arts Escondido museum, where this project was first exhibited, is hidden behind chain link fences and obscured by a cement channel. 'Daylighting Escondido Creek Watershed' helps create a watershed moment by encouraging dialogue around what has been hidden—the wonders of the watershed, its changing ecology due to urbanization, globalization and a warming climate, and possible visions for maintaining and rejuvenating the watershed’s future health."

“Walking with Trees” is an ongoing project to be present to the ecological changes in California forests. Over 150 million trees have died in California since 2010 due to urbanization, climate change and new species introduced through global trade. The massive die-off of trees in San Diego started even earlier with the fires of 2003, one of which, the Cedar Fire, was the largest in the state until two years ago. Another huge series of fires ravaged the county in 2007, followed by the introduction of the Goldspotted oak borer in 2008. The impacts of these events are more fully detailed in other recent projects, including Listen to the Trees, Daylighting Escondido Creek Watershed, and Cascading Memorials.

“Listen to the Trees” addresses the impact of climate change on San Diego's ecology. The installation focuses on two trees, the coastal Torrey pine and the Jeffrey pine growing in the inland mountains. Photomontages line the walls, while tree stumps offer visitors a place to sit and contemplate the scene. On one stump, an iPad touch screen displays diagrams of the tree rings of these two species based on historical data and models projecting future climate under differing emissions scenarios.

Ruth Wallen is a multi-media artist and writer whose work is dedicated to encouraging dialogue around ecological and social justice. After working as an environmental scientist, she turned to art to pose questions beyond disciplinary boundaries, address values informing environmental policy, and contribute to the developing field of ecological art. She creates interactive installations, nature walks, web sites, artist books and performative lectures. Her critical writing addresses ecological art and race, gender and visual culture. Active in the border region she was a founding member of the multinational artist collective Las Comadres, past president of the Binational Association for Schools of Communication in the Californias and a Fulbright Lecturer at the Autonomous University of Baja California, Tijuana. Currently she is chair for the MFAIA in Interdisciplinary Arts program at Goddard College. www.ruthwallen.net

Featured Images: ©Ruth Wallen, "Daylighting Escondido Creek Watershed" (2018), "Walking with Trees," "Listen to the Trees" (2016-2017)

Landscape Deconstructed: Linda Stillman interview on Art Spiel

Sat, 19 Feb 2022 22:16:30 GMT

Linda Stillman, Daily Skies: 2020, February 15, 2020 focus, 2021, archival pigment print on paper, 19 x 13 inches

Posted on February 14, 2022 by Jennifer McGregor on Artspiel

Landscape Deconstructed at the Hammond: Linda Stillman

Part 1: Linda Stillman – Interview with Jennifer McGregor

Landscape Deconstructed: Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillman is a virtual exhibition on view at the Hammond Museum and Japanese Stroll Garden website until June 2022. It is curated by Bibiana Huang Matheis. The opening on September 11, 2021, included a virtual conversation with Mimi Czajka Graminski and Linda Stillmanmoderated byJennifer McGregor which has been distilled and reformatted for individual interviews with each artist.

The Hudson Valley artists met in 2011 and were immediately struck by the similarities in their work and have continued a dialogue since then. Landscape Deconstructed is the first time their artwork is presented in tandem and underscores the way that both artists discover elements of their surroundings and reassemble them in ingenious ways. Through distinct processes, they each preserve fleeting moments of beauty in nature while documenting a particular time and place.

You’ve been documenting the sky every day since 2005 in your Daily Skies series. Since time is such an important element in all of your work, how has this project evolved?

I started out making paintings of a section of the sky on a little panel. To keep the project fresh, I changed the format each year, mounting the panels in different ways. The paintings in Landscape Deconstructed are from 2011. They are mounted by month in the form of a calendar on shaped panels that float away from the wall to create shadows, that give physicality to each month.

After many years of painting on panels, I turned to various media, drawing, painting on paper, collaging and then photography. This year I’ve been taking a square photo of the sky with my phone, facing North at noon each day. I then post it on a dedicated Instagram account along with a photo of the ground.

While the format has changed over the years, the desire to have a daily practice and record a fleeting moment remains the same. Taking time to look up at the sky each day is my way to honor and celebrate nature.

Linda Stillman, Daily Paintings: March 2011, 2011/2014, acrylic on paper on panels, 15 x 14 x 3/4 inches

Continue reading here

Member Spotlight: Bill Gilbert

Mon, 14 Feb 2022 22:05:02 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 14, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Bill Gilbert.

"Since moving to New Mexico, my work has been focused on articulating the relationship between humans and place. Starting in 1979 I made the commitment to work with the native materials of my environmental back yard in northern New Mexico as means to develop an intimacy with the land."

A site specific work on an abandoned tailings pond using aspen trees from the surrounding hillside, Desolation focuses on the beauty often present in destruction. The work changes through the course of the day in response to the movement of the sun, progressing from being nearly invisible in the early morning light to glowing with an apparently internal light at sunset.

"Started in 2003 in the field with the Land Arts of the American West mobile studio, the Physiocartographies series combines the abstraction of cartographic maps with the physical act of walking the surface of the planet to create portraits of place. In the various works from this series I follow prescribed paths across the landscape using a gps unit to navigate and record points, a camera to shoot images and a digital recorder to capture sounds. The final works appear as reconstructed maps, videos and installations."

"Part of my ongoing experiment in constructing a portrait of place by walking the surface of the planet, terrestrial/celestial navigations honors the relationship desert peoples have with the sky by weaving together heaven and earth. Each walk inscribes the land with the patterns of stars earlier cultures created to project their world into the night sky. In this series, I employ pedestrian and satellite technologies using google earth to establish GPS points for each star and my body to then inscribe constellations by walking them onto the ground."

Bill Gilbert is Emeritus Distinguished Professor and Lannan Endowed Chair at the University of New Mexico, where he co-founded the Art & Ecology area and created the Land Arts of the American West program and the Land Arts Mobile Research Center with support from Lannan Foundation and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation. From 1990-2000 Gilbert served as head of Ceramics at UNM. His involvement in developing the curriculum included work with Indigenous artists from Acoma Pueblo and Pastaza, Ecuador and Mestizo artists from Juan Mata Ortiz, Mexico. He has curated numerous exhibitions and written extensively on the topic of Indigenous ceramics practices in the Americas. Over the past fifteen years Gilbert has developed an art practice based in walking completing projects in the United States in Arizona, New Mexico, Utah, West Virginia and Wyoming as well as internationally in Prespes, Greece, New South Wales and South Australia and Malta. Gilbert is author of two books, Land Arts of the American West and Arts Programming for the Anthropocene: art in community and environment, both of which address the need to update the curriculum in tertiary level art education to prepare students to contribute to the changing world they enter upon graduation. www.unm.edu/~wgilbert/physio.html

Featured Images: ©Bill Gilbert, "Terrestrial/Celestial Navigations" (2011-2014); "Desolation" (1992); "For John Wesley Powell: attempts to walk the grid" (2005-2007); "Mindlines"

Lands End at the Former Cliff House on Articultures

Sun, 13 Feb 2022 15:58:50 GMT

One Beach Plastic, for here or to go, 2021; plastic collected at Kehoe Beach and ceramic dishware; Part of the exhibition Lands End, organized by FOR-SITE. Image courtesy FOR-SITE. Photo: Robert Divers Herrick

Lands End at the former Cliff House

by Barbara Morris for Articultures, February 7 ,2022

The FOR-SITE Foundation, founded in 2003, has taken on the unique project of mounting exhibitions of immersive, site-specific installations set in some of the Bay Area’s national parks. With memorable exhibitions including 2012’s International Orange set at the imposing Fort Point, followed by 2014’s @Large:AiWeiwei at Alcatraz housed in the stark and unforgiving former prison, our relationship with the ocean, nature, and the environment, coupled with concern for human rights and freedom of expression, have long been at the forefront of their mission. Other exhibitions have dealt with thorny issues such as the needs for shelter, safety, and security.

The latest in this series is Lands End, curated by FOR-SITE’s executive director Cheryl Haines, which takes the site of the former Cliff House restaurant—vacant since 2020—as a point of departure for the work of 26 artists and artist teams from around the globe. With its spectacular vistas and precarious perch, the work is brought to our attention in a setting that dramatizes it and also holds it at a distance, our attention torn between the interior and the exterior. The show, Haines states, “invites visitors to wade into an immersive environment where their charge is twofold: to discover artwork in unlikely places and to consider the planet’s health.”

This is my second visit to the site, the former Cliff House, an iconic SF restaurant and ballroom—which I somehow managed to completely avoid during its lengthy history of providing dining with a spectacular backdrop to countless SF natives and tourists alike. The first Cliff House was built in 1863, and was destroyed and rebuilt twice, the rambling structure is perched at the edge of the Pacific Ocean on a bluff, quite literally the land’s end. On my previous visit, a clear day, the jaw-dropping views outside distracted me from focusing on the art for some time. This time, SF has been socked in and the coast is still blanketed in wispy fog. Crashing waves on rocks outside still beckon. With such a large show, I intend to give just a taste of the work, installations which stood out the most to me. As I am getting my bearings and juggling my pen, notebook, and other belongings, another visitor remarkably precisely echoes my initial sentiment, that “it’s hard to know whether to look inside or outside…” Well, perhaps it’s not so remarkable, given the show being put on in the bluffs.

Continue on Articultures site HERE

Ellen Kozak – Vigil on Art Spiel

Fri, 11 Feb 2022 01:14:27 GMT

View from artist’s studio, Barges, Tugs and Tankers No. 21, work-in-progress

Vigil, Ellen Kozak’s first solo painting exhibition with David Richard Gallery, featured two fully realized series of abstract oil paintings on panel. The painter, with studios in New York City and beside the Hudson River in Greene County, explores the relationship between the fluidity of paint and river surfaces affected by the intersection of natural and manmade phenomena. Altogether the paintings activated the gallery space into a cohesive site-responsive installation.

Tell me about the body of work in this exhibition.

Two closely related bodies of work are presented in my solo show at the David Richard Gallery. The near-square paintings from 2017 to 2020 precede the Covid-19 pandemic. The paintings in my Barge, Tug and Tanker series began in April 2020. The large gallery, with 1,500 square feet of space and 20-foot ceilings, has provided a wonderful opportunity to unite both bodies of work. The show’s title refers to the inherent watchful nature of my decades-long artistic practice and my service with the environmental organization Riverkeeper, Inc. Gallery Director David Eichholtz designed the installation in a way that brings the site and sight—of the Hudson River from my studio —into the gallery, while simultaneously accentuating the rhythms and movement within each painting.

Eight near-square paintings share a height/width ratio of 7/8. I began each painting on a field-easel on mornings beside the Hudson where I paint at several sites along the shoreline. Each painting is a record, a kind of chronicle, of a direct empirical encounter with subtle color shifts, transitory illumination, and patterns in continuous motion on the water’s surface. These paintings are reductive and more abstract than earlier bodies of work. My perceptual field is closer to the shoreline and without horizon, the behavior of paint is closer to the subject it depicts. Painting alla prima involves an aspect of performance. Oil paint and water share properties of viscosity, I explore paint as a mimetic medium—it has an honest relationship with my subject.

Gallery View. Photo courtesy of David Richard Gallery

Continue reading on Art Speil HERE

Member Spotlight: Kim Stringfellow

Mon, 07 Feb 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

February 7, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Kim Stringfellow.

Featured is The Mojave Project, a transmedia documentary and curatorial project led by Stringfellow exploring the physical, geological and cultural landscape of the Mojave Desert.

The Mojave Project reconsiders and establishes multiple ways in which to interpret this unique and complex landscape, through association and connection of seemingly unrelated sites, themes and subjects thus creating a speculative and immersive experience for our audience. The Mojave Project explores the following themes: Desert as Wasteland, Geological Time vs. Human Time, Sacrifice and Exploitation, Danger and Consequence, Space and Perception, Mobility and Movement, Desert as Staging Ground, Transformation and Reinvention.

The project materializes over time through deep research and direct field inquiry through interviews, reportage and personal journaling supported with still photography, audio and video documentation. Field Dispatches are shared throughout the production period at this site and through our publishing partner, KCET Artbound. Installments include those of notable guest contributors. A program of public field trip experiences and satellite events explores the diverse communities and sites of the Mojave Desert. The initial phase of the project is designed to make ongoing research transparent, inviting the audience into the conversation as the project develops. Ultimately, The Mojave Project aims to create a comprehensive transmedia repository of knowledge relating to the contemporary Mojave Desert.

The Mojave Project is an ongoing, multi-year endeavor culminating in a large-scale exhibition with related public programming at UNLV's Marjorie Barrick Museum of Art, during spring 2022. The project was first launched for Made in the Mojave at MOAH (Museum of Art & History) in Lancaster, California, during spring 2017. Partnering with LACE (Los Angeles Contemporary Exhibitions) through support from The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts Curatorial Fellowship program, The Mojave Project was exhibited during fall 2018. In addition, Stringfellow coordinated two Mojave Desert field trips to provide participants with an immersive on-site experience in conjunction with this exhibition. Please sign up on our mailing list for information on future events.

Kim Stringfellow is an artist, educator, writer, and independent curator based in Joshua Tree, California. For the past twenty years, Stringfellow’s creative practice has focused on the human-driven transformation of some of the American West’s most iconic arid regions through multi-year, research-based projects merging cultural geography, public practice, and experimental documentary into creative, socially engaged transmedia experiences. These art-centered projects combine writing, photography, audio, video, installation, mapping, and community engagement to collectively explore the history of place while also examining how the landscapes we inhabit are socially and culturally constructed. In particular, she is interested in the ecological repercussions of human presence and occupation within these spaces. Stringfellow is a professor at San Diego State University’s School of Art + Design. She received her MFA in Art and Technology from the School of the Art Institute of Chicago in 2000. Claremont Graduate University awarded her an honorary doctoral degree in 2018. kimstringfellow.com

Worlds After Our Dreams: Interview with Christopher Lin

Wed, 02 Feb 2022 03:33:02 GMT

Fossil Memory, Various collected mosses and liches, springtails and dwarf isopods, soil, rocks, activated carbon, glass, water, brain coral, pillow, grow light and aquarium. 18 x 16 x 16 inches (2020)

An Interview with Christopher Lin by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Christopher Lin is a constructor of worlds, our worlds. His images create a vantage point into a reality where humanity no longer exists. His work sits at the cusp of the surreal and the actual often creating sci-fi-esc installations and works that use actual fossils. During times of our own dystopian reality, Christopher’s imaging relates what is real to a vision of what could be without us.

Hello Christopher, thank you for this interview. Let us jump right in.

Your process involves both deep research, collaboration with the past, and imagination. Would you discuss your process to create these works?

My practice visualizes the ecologies we create and inhabit in the Anthropocene through surreal collaborations with nature. Combining elements of scientific investigation and material exploration, I make performative sculptures and installations that incorporate familiar objects interacting in unfamiliar ways to encourage viewers to question the framework of our everyday world. More interested in the poetics of re-contextualization than representation, I collect, deconstruct, and recombine materials to create chimeras that reflect on the existential trauma of environmental anxiety. These ephemeral constructions allude to their impermanence and, by proxy, our own.

Zuru, zuru (Drifting), Carious collected mosses and lichens, springtails and dwarf isopods, soil, activated carbon, glass bottles, water, sand, sea glass, and aquarium, 10 ½ x 16 ¼ x 8 3/8 in, 2020

My ongoing body of work, titled Future Fossils, explores the eventuality of human absence. I have long been inspired and fascinated by fossils of extinct species in distant eras, memento moris which provoke thoughts of our own inevitable end and of the material world we will leave behind. In Future Fossils, I approach the concept of human extinction not through pessimism, but as the inevitable and unavoidable truth to our existence—one that also contains incredible beauty in its transience. Influenced by Buddhist teachings and environmental ecology, I connect fragments from both creation myths and extinction events to visualize this eventuality that is critical to understanding the whole cycle of existence from beginning to end. This ongoing project is an exploration to attain a better understanding of our place in this world both spiritually and scientifically.

I collect, deconstruct, and recombine materials to create chimeras that reflect on the existential trauma of environmental anxiety.

Symbiont, Non-rebreather oxygen mask and pleurocarp moss, 3 x 12 x 4 in, 2014

In your practice as an artist, you combine real found organic elements and place them into often sterile and surreal installations. What is your goal in showcasing your environmental activism in an otherworldly form?

My installations are constructed in this manner to reveal the science fiction nature of today’s world, its material construction, and its values. We often look at science fiction as some kind of distant fantasy, an impossible dystopia, but we are currently living in yesterday’s science fiction. With the pace of material production and technological advances, we do not have the perspective to process the many changes that become quickly integrated into our everyday lives. A few decades ago, the idea of indoor vertical farming replete with grow lights and hydroponic systems would seem like some distant dream, but today it is not only possible but happening in many places in the world. These advances have obvious benefits but also less obvious consequences, and buried even deeper within this aspiration is a kind of dystopian metaphor of technological survival. By revealing the science fiction reality of today’s surroundings, I hope to make some of our contemporary ideas and advances more unfamiliar, despite how normal they appear on the surface, so we can better understand where we are and where we might be going.

We often look at science fiction as some kind of distant fantasy, an impossible dystopia, but we are currently living in yesterday’s science fiction.

Sprechgesang Institute, Homepage Image

Perhaps with that understanding we can move towards a better future! And speech is part of that shift in focus. You are a co-director of Sprechgesang Institute which is a place for cross-disciplinary creatives to produce new language related to art. What are your hopes for the roles of language and interdisciplinary work?

Developing an interdisciplinary language is critical to representing our contemporary world because it is so quickly changing both in its foundational ideas but also in its sounds, textures, and tastes. As a collective, Sprechgesang Institute is centered around performance as a medium to conduct cross-disciplinary experimentation, and our projects have ranged from lecture series to dining experiences to internet plays. It has been exciting to work between these nontraditional performative frameworks through the lens of collaboration and reinterpretation. Our members include a cellist, a cheesemonger, a neuroscientist, a journalist, as well as various artists, and the products of our collaborative syntheses are often resonant. Through our explorations of new in-between languages, we are searching for new forms, methods, and approaches to question conventional methods of understanding and meaning making. Recently we discussed topics of mathematics such as cellular automata and pythagorean music in Idio-Maths, a continuation of our experimental lecture series, and we are currently working on a contemporary reinterpretation of Lachrimae, a collection of variations of mourning songs from the 1600s by John Dowland, himself a plague survivor, which seems all too fitting for our current moment of prolonged loss.

I hope to make some of our contemporary ideas and advances more unfamiliar, despite how normal they appear on the surface, so we can better understand where we are and where we might be going.

Where we begin and end, ink, soap, water, soil, plastic vials and bubble wands, end table, and sensitive plants (Mimosa pudica), 2015

February 2022 Newsletter

Tue, 01 Feb 2022 16:42:05 GMT

The ecoartspace February 2022 e-Newsletter is HERE

Member Spotlight: Stacy Levy

Mon, 31 Jan 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 31, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Stacy Levy.

"People often think that nature ends where the city begins. My projects are designed to allow a site within the built environment to tell its ecological story to the people that inhabit it. As a sculptor, my interest in the natural world rests both in art and science. I use art as a vehicle for translating the patterns and processes of the natural world."

"In my practice, I search for sites that provide the opportunity to make visible some of the forces at work on the site. Interested in watersheds, tides, growth and erosion, I make projects that show how nature functions in an urban setting. My previous projects have been about invisible microorganisms and their complicated relationships of eating and being eaten; spiraling hydrological patterns of a stream, mosaic of growth in a vacant lot, prevailing winds and their effects on vegetation, the flow of rainwater through a building."

"As a sculptor making large-scale public installations in rivers, streets, parking lots, airports and nature centers, I frequently work as part of a collaborative team seamlessly merging sculpture into the architecture, the topography, and the storm water requirements of the site. For Rain Ravine (2016) at the Frick Environmental Center in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania (a Living Building Challenge Project), I worked with architects, landscape architects and engineers to direct all the roof rainwater through the artwork. For other previous projects installed both on and in rivers, I have worked with the Coast Guard on the Ohio River, the Army Corps of Engineers on the Schuylkill River, and city and state municipalities on the Hudson River."

"Through intricate coordination, logistical planning, and art-making in my barn studio, my work and research gives visual form to natural processes that would otherwise remain invisible. To build these visual metaphors, I mesh the clarity of diagrams, the beauty of natural forms and the visceral sense of the site. My practice is motivated by imaging what is too small to be seen, too invisible to be considered or too vast to be understood."

Stacy Levy is an artist who works with rain. Her projects give a home to rain on many sites: from parking lots to nature centers. She also works to make visible how watersheds are the capillaries of the land, carrying precious rainwater from sky to the sea. She works with urban streams, rivers, tides & rainwater. Her recent projects utilize storm water runoff, to make rainwater an asset to the site. Many of her projects register natural processes and changes in nature over the course of a day, a season or a several years. Levy is the Stormwater Artist-in-Residence for the City of Lancaster. She has been awarded the Henry Meigs Environmental Leadership Award, a PennFuture Award for Women in Conservation, and a Pew Fellowship in the Arts. stacylevy.com

Featured Images: ©Stacy Levy, Bushkill Curtain (2011), Springside Rain Wall and Garden (2008), Rain Ravine (2016), Three Views of a River (2016), Ridge & Valley (2009), Missing Waters (2020)

Member Spotlight: Mary Mattingly

Mon, 24 Jan 2022 22:24:03 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 24, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Mary Mattingly.

Featured here is her recent project Limnal Lacrimosa, a free public art installation currently on view at 5 6th Avenue West in Kalispell, Montana, in the valley of Glacier National Park. As the days grow shorter, the installation is open Mondays from 5-6pm by appointment and now also for listening hours on Sunday evenings.

Limnal Lacrimosa is sited in the original home of the Kalispell Malting and Brewing Company. It celebrates the richness of the valley, from the glaciers and lakes to the cultural histories of art and ceramics.

To build the exhibition, Mattingly has been collecting snow melt and rainwater, some that has dripped through holes in the building’s roof. Cycling water through tubing just below the ceiling, she can evoke the feeling of rain inside the building. Like a large water clock, the building is a meditation on water-courses. The drips are caught in lachrymatory vessels while the sounds of the droplets hitting the containers echo throughout the space. Eventually the vessels fill, water spills onto the floor and the cycle repeats itself. The drips keep time.

The artwork was prompted by Kōbō Abe’s novel The Woman in the Dunes, a story about two people who must forever remove sand from a building. It is also driven by the speed of geologic change in Glacier National Park, or Glacier Time. Over the course of nine (Gregorian calendar) months, the exhibition space inside of 5 6th Avenue West will transform several times.

Mary Mattingly is known for her large-scale installations that address ecology, such as Swale, a mobile free public food forest on a barge in New York City, and an education center for estuarial plants on the Thames in London. Her photographs and sculptures are represented by the Robert Mann Gallery in New York. Her work has been exhibited at Storm King Art Center, the International Center of Photography, Seoul Art Center, the Brooklyn Museum, the New York Public Library, the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, and the Palais de Tokyo. She visited Kalispell for the first time in 2020. marymattingly.com limnal-lacrimosa.com

Member Spotlight: Diane Burko

Mon, 17 Jan 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 17, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Diane Burko.

Highlighted are a selection of works from her recent solo exhibition titled "Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change," curated by Mary D. Garrard and Norma Broude, which was on view at the American University Museum from August 28, 2021 - December 12, 2021. The exhibition was included in the New York Times' list of Best Art Exhibitions of 2021.

"What is so amazing about my studio practice now that I’m in my 70s is the new kind of freedom I feel to do whatever - to experiment and play with new materials and tools. New possibilities opened up with my using acrylic paints instead of oils, with the current Reef project. And with the canvas repositioned horizontally - no longer vertically on a wall - has come radical changes in my process. These actions with new material and tools have introduced possibilities I had never imagined.”

"[The World Map Series is a] 56-foot-long suite of paintings. It melds my long-time interest in cartography with my deep concern for our environment being increasingly threatened by climate change. My practice is devoted to this issue. In the early 2000’s, I first investigated the polar region’s melting glaciers. Now I’ve turned my attention to our oceans coral reef ecosystems."

"Being that climate change is a global problem I decided to take on the whole world at once by referencing a world map of glaciers, followed with a map of all the reefs in the world. Each was formatted with a horizontal freeze going across the top, on a 50’ x 88“ canvas. One painting just seemed to lead to another variation until there were six of them. I then decided that each category needed a visual conclusion - a square 50” x 50“ for each suite. However, in June I decided each still needed an exclamation point - so I added another 2 feet to each resulting in a 56 foot long series of paintings."

Also included in "Seeing Climate Change" was a series of lenticular prints, what Burko refers to as "time-based media."

"This first series was created in 2017 in collaboration with Anna Tas, an artist whose métier is 'lenticular.' Together we combined her technical knowledge as well as aesthetic skills, with my on-site experience of bearing witness in the field and in research labs. These circular presentations are referential - providing multiple interpretations spanning a submarine’s 'portal' view under water, a satellite’s aerial perspective to a microscope’s revealing lens. Each piece utilizes the interactive nature of metaphor, inviting the viewer to contemplate and discover. The seductive beauty furthers the conversation about how the natural world is impacted by climate change. Technically, a lenticular print consists of 30 individual frames that are interlaced to become the dynamic image you see before you."

Diane Burko focuses on monumental geological phenomena. Since 2006, her practice has been at the intersection of art, science and the environment, devoted to the urgent issues of climate change. Her work about glacial melt reflects expeditions to the three largest ice fields in the world. Burko is now focusing on the world’s oceans and the dramatic bleaching of coral reef ecosystems. She continually gains knowledge through visiting research labs and engaging with scientists at institutions such as the Norwegian Polar Institute, INSTAAR in Boulder, Colorado, the Institute for Marine and Antarctic Studies in Tasmania, the Hawaiian Institute of Marine Biology, Scripps Institution of Oceanography and the Erik Cordes Lab at Temple University in Philadelphia. Burko is committed to public engagement. She makes herself available to wide audiences in an effort to convey her experiences and share her knowledge about the ways global warming impacts our planet. dianeburko.com

Featured Images: ©Diane Burko, "Unprecedented" (2021), “Reef Map 1” (2019), "World Map Series" (2019), "From Glaciers to Reefs" (2018), "Summer Heat 2" (2020).

Member Spotlight: Robin Lasser

Mon, 10 Jan 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 10, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artist Robin Lasser. Since 2004, Lasser has been collaborating with fellow artist Adrienne Pao on the Dress Tent project.

"We are interested in the land and the body as sites of seduction. Dress Tents are a fusion of architecture, the body and the land played out through living sculpture, moving images and still photography. The Dress Tent project investigates desire from a female centered perspective and uses seduction as a vehicle to explore the relationship between the body and the land."

By referencing modes of female representation such as “bare foot and in the kitchen” in the Picnic Dress Tent, or “mother nature” in the Greenhouse Dress Tent, the dress tents simultaneously utilize and address a history of fantasy associated with women. Through pop-culture humor, the Picnic Dress Tent examines our recreational activities in the landscape though playfully familiar scenarios that leave us to question and reexamine our flow of routine and our relationship to the body as site of cultural desire. A play on green house gasses and what it takes to be "green" in contemporary culture, the Greenhouse Dress Tent becomes a commentary on the current fashion of being “green.”

The Ice Queen: Glacial Retreat Dress Tent, photographed at Mt. Shasta, California underneath one of the few advancing glaciers in the world, embodies the look of a sexy weather hazard/emergency worker in her white winter garb. The dress tent is a polar weather station and research lab, offering a space to ponder the earth, global warming, and glaciers. Underneath her skirt, a chorus of crickets varies their tune, in direct relationship to the climatic changes that have occurred across the globe, from the industrial revolution to the present and beyond. Overlaid upon the cricket chirping are weather reports from the locale in which the tent is stationed, as well as a weather reporter adding commentary on the ice queen's current temperature and state of mind.

Salty Water: South Bay Salt Ponds Dress Tent, celebrates a Bay Area environmental victory: the restoration of the artificially-made salt ponds flanking the southern shores of the bay back to its original wetlands eco system. As far as changing the physical structure of southern San Francisco Bay, no industry, not even waste disposal, has had as great an impact as salt production. More of the south bay has been diked and ponded for salt than not. Salty Water Dress Tent, as an intervention in this landscape, becomes a marker for this important transition of the land back to its original state.

Robin Lasser is an artist residing in Oakland, California. She is currently a Professor of Art at San Jose State University. Lasser produces photographs, video, site-specific installations and public art dealing with socially and culturally significant imagery and themes. Lasser often works in a collaborative mode with other artists, writers, students, public agencies, community organizations, and international coalitions to produce public art and promote public dialogue. Lasser exhibits her work nationally and internationally. robinlasser.com dresstents.com

A Blue of Bioluminescence by Margaret LeJeune for Tatter

Tue, 04 Jan 2022 16:38:10 GMT

Tatter, issue 3 : Blue

A Blue of Bioluminescence

Photographic investigations of ostracods.

Words and images by Margaret LeJeune.

Under a waxing moon, my partner and I sailed our 37-foot sailboat, Bear, down the Chesapeake from Annapolis to Solomons Island. The sky was inky and the water flat calm for the last few hours. As per tradition, we set the anchor and hopped in our dinghy to go to shore for a celebratory cocktail. As we pulled away from Bear, the waters around the dinghy began to light up like fireworks reflecting in a pool. Brilliant blue light danced on the surface. This was my first experience up close and personal with bioluminescent dinoflagellates, and it spurred my cross-species creative research with this incredible light source.

That summer changed the way I thought about the ocean. It was the first season that we lived aboard our boat, traveling, working, entertaining, and recreating by the weather and tides. The rhythm of the sea became the rhythm of our lives, dictating our movements and moods. The bioluminescent sighting set off a flurry of synapses and a flood of curiosity that fueled my desire to better understand marine ecology and the interconnections of life.

The following year we added Solomons Island to our sailing itinerary again, so that I could spend more time with the sparkling seas. I returned to the same anchorage at the same time of year, excited to see the bioluminescence. I was met with disappointment. The blue was absent.

The following fall, I returned back to my academic position at Bradley University in Peoria, IL, with a need to understand why the blue light had been snuffed from the sea. I received a grant from the university to start a new research project investigating the power of bioluminescent organisms in the field of photography. I titled the project Growing Light; and I began by culturing the dinoflagellate Pyrocystis fusiformis, which are similar to the organisms I saw in the Chesapeake Bay. These single-cell marine plankton can generate a bright blue flash of light using a luciferin-luciferase chemical reaction. This biological capacity appears to be useful for startling potential predators, and it is commonly seen in the wave action at popular tourist sites, including Mosquito Bay in Vieques, Puerto Rico and Sam Mun Tsai Beach in Hong Kong.

Continue reading on Tatter HERE

Member Spotlight: PlantBot Genetics

Mon, 03 Jan 2022 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

January 3, 2022

This week we recognize the work of artists Wendy DesChene and Jeff Schmuki, aka PlantBot Genetics.

DesChene and Schmuki operate under the guise of PlantBot Genetics Inc., a parody of Big Agricultural Firms who skillfully manipulate current food production and distribution systems.

"PlantBot Genetics combines tactical media and public space to promote critical thinking and political action on environmental issues. By imitating actual corporate practice, we underscore the potential consequences of the global corporatization of agriculture, the natural environment, and public space. Our products underscore the lack of transparency and corporate ‘grafting’ of food production and distribution by releasing humorous next-generation, robot-plant hybrids to prompt critical discussion on the environmental costs of intensive agricultural practices.”

"If there were one word to explain what PlantBot Genetics is about, it would have to be PlantBots. Billions of people depend on what farmers do and in the future farmers will have to grow more food than they have in the past 10,000 years. We work alongside farmers to meet the demands of the future in sowing the seeds developed through synthetic biotechnology and automated chemical protection."

“PlantBots are better suited to the 21st century. Our ability to manufacture PlantBots that can adapt and mutate to a wide range of climates will ensure unsurpassed yields. PlantBot Genetics inserts valid traits and materials from specific flora and fauna found in each locale. Several species designed by PlantBot Genetics have self-sown and contaminated the surrounding quadrants outside our lab. These rogue PlantBots may prove useful and have been captured in the following footage.”

Wendy DesChene (Canada) and Jeff Schmuki (USA), collaborative team and married partners, began practicing asPlantBot Genetics in 2008. Each had extensive experience and awards as solo artists and both were raised with strong connections to the land around them. PlantBot Genetics create installations, interventions, and collaborations that combine activism, research, and social space in order to foster discussion and generate action in the area of ecological awareness. By linking environmental issues to a diverse array of creative operations and tactics, DesChene + Schmuki extend the “knowledge of the moment”, demonstrates the fragile connection between the natural world and personal action, and offers simple, positive changes that can be enacted to increase sustainability -- an activity that can be replicated long after the artists have moved on. monsantra.com

January 2022 Newsletter

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 22:35:41 GMT

The ecoartspace January 2022 e-Newsletter is HERE

Vibrant Edens for Us All: INTERVIEW with David Allen Burns and Austin Young / FALLEN FRUIT

Sat, 01 Jan 2022 16:12:34 GMT

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, ‘Los Angelitos de Nuestra Señora del Jardin,” asynchronous repeat pattern, archival watercolor inks printed on organic fabric, dimensions variable, commissioned by the Vallarta Botanical Garden, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico, 2021.

Interview with Fallen Fruit by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Combining place-based research, fantastical eden-like installation artworks and community activism, the collaborative behind Fallen Fruits has transformed the meaning of what art can do and provide for its audience. These artworks live and grow providing both nourishment for the body and soul by creating public resources that approach topics of displacement, immigration, and legality. All of this held within the colorful, inviting peels of a topic everyone can relate to: fruit! Fallen Fruit is a collaborative art project originally conceived in 2004 by David Burns, Matias Viegener and Austin Young. Since 2013, David Burns and Austin Young have continued the collaborative work. David Burns and Austin Young discuss their international projects, inspirations and process.

Thank you so much for taking the time for this interview! It is absolutely thrilling to speak with you on your work. Let’s start at the beginning: how did the fruits come to fruition?

In 2004, Fallen Fruit began as a response to an open-call for submission for volume three of The Journal of Aesthetics and Protest. The basic question was asked, “is it possible to use the agency of activism, but without opposition?”

We realized our response had to be something we already knew and something we were not paying attention to. We walked our neighborhood of Silverlake in north east Los Angeles, and discovered that over 100 fruit trees were growing in public spaces. Along alleys, sidewalks, and often branches of fruit trees planted on private property were abundantly overhanging fences well into public right-of-way. We mapped these publicly accessible fruit trees and wrote a text that questions who has a right to the fruit from these trees and who has the right to public space. We called the submission “Fallen Fruit” and this began our collaborative work.

People are so disconnected from each other in Los Angeles - we had the idea this would create social connections. Get out of the car, off the cell phone, and meet neighbors. We also realized we could activate the margins of public space to share resources like fruit bearing trees.

During our interventions, people would tell family histories and stories about fruit. People were excited to connect with their family and cultural rituals, the natural world, and each other. In the end, we created a call to action that could benefit everyone, including the environment, and it does not make anyone wrong.

We have been working on this project for over 17 years now. The project is always collaborative, the artworks are process oriented and research based. We do not have a studio and the work is always site specific. We have a philosophy that what we create is a body of artwork that is living and growing - literally and figuratively.

Image credit: Artists David Allen Burns and Austin Young with Curator Catherine Flood researching the V&A's botanical drawings collection. © Victoria and Albert Museum, London, 2019.

It is so exciting to see work that surpasses the limits of the traditional gallery and into an activist space that, as you say, “does not make anyone wrong.” And the title “Fallen Fruit” is so distinctive. What led to this title and how has this title led your collaborative work?

FALLEN FRUIT is from Leviticus. It references an old Roman law:

When you reap the harvest of your land, you shall not reap all the way to the edges of your field, or gather the gleanings of your harvest.

You shall not pick your vineyard bare, or gather the fallen fruit of your vineyard; you shall leave them for the poor and the stranger.

At first, we took this message literally. Drawing maps, walking cities, and thinking about messages of sharing and generosity. We explored the real world in real time and focused on fruit trees growing on the margins of public space in neighborhoods around the world. And everywhere we are invited to make art, we learn deeply about people and places.

…everywhere we are invited to make art, we learn deeply about people and places.

In our current work, we are focused on research based installation artworks. These works are also about place and activate historic collections, original photography, and now uses limits of architecture as the frame. The works explore collective meanings, cultural mythologies, and celebrate geographical locations. Our art and process has expanded in dynamic ways. We are exploring issues of identity, cultural memory, and historical artifacts. We love nuances of collective histories that synthesize concepts in themes of legacy and the public realm.

For example, we have discovered that history is often bi-located, meaning that what is written and told as the historic truth and located geography is often actually in reference to something that happened elsewhere or its original thought is actually from somewhere else. Like the quote from Leviticus is an old Roman Law. Or that fruit moved westward with pioneers following and Manifest Destiny - an idea that originated in the eastern states of the United States, but it was culturally actualized in a racially motivated movement to the west terminating in Portland, Oregon to be specific aka “the Oregon Trail.”

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, “Paradise,” documentation image, recontextualized selections from the permanent collection with custom made repeat pattern wallcovering, dimensions variable, commissioned by Portland Art Museum, Porland, Oregon, USA, 2015.

Our artworks are sometimes constructed from reorganizing found objects and objectifying the mythology referents of these objects. Our collective ‘perception of truth’ and how these interpretations relate to found objects… and ultimately how authorship and interpretation of meaning informs identity and place.

Your work has quite a range! From living plants to found objects to collage and to repeat pattern installation design. But all of your work seems to have to do with people and connecting people. What role does identity play in your work?

We believe in complex nuances of the familiar that celebrates people and places. We are focused on the importance of beauty and levity at this time. The asynchronous repeat patterns are carefully constructed and created from diligent on the ground research. We consider them to be portraits of a place -perhaps a city, a neighborhood, or even a garden.

Our work has always been about connecting people. We consider our art to be a form of portraiture -- whether that be a map, or an immersive installation artwork, or a language score. We also recognize that everything we do is a collaboration -- not only in making the artwork as a duo, but also in the activation of its meaning via public engagement and museum archives.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, Event Horizon: recontextualized on 52 panels of glass, custom made a synchronous repeat pattern, archival inks printed onto acrylic substrate, commissioned by META / FACEBOOK as a permanent intervention on architecture by Frank Ghery, 2021.

The visitor of an immersive artwork and their emotional response becomes a part of the artwork. The site also becomes an activated space. We focus on joy and delight and a seek to invoke the sense of the sublime. We get excited about the process of ‘discovery’ in two ways; as part of the research process and also in the maximal carefully considered installation design. We want all types of people to have an opportunity to identify with the artwork and have a sense of familiarity and understanding about their city, histories, and culture.’ And also give them a way to read deeper into the work if they choose.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, documentation image with custom refitted vintage sofa, “Teatro del Sole / Theater of the Sun,” asynchronous repeat pattern, archival watercolor inks printed on organic fabric, dimensions variable, commissioned by Manifesta 12, Palermo, Siciily, Italy, 2018.

For much of your work, you are actually in collaboration with local governments as well as institutions and museums. What are some of the rewards and challenges while working with government bodies to create art works?

It is an honor. The best part is always the connections we make with people and the idea that we leave something in a neighborhood that could bear fruit for another 100 years. We feel fortunate to be making artwork. We have been awarded almost 20 permanent works of art in public parks and public rights of way that use fruit bearing trees and shrubs as part of the materials - in New York City, New Orleans, Madrid, Los Angeles, San Diego, and in 2022 upcoming at the Nevada Museum of Art in Reno and more.

All projects have a process and a timeline. “Challenges” and “rewards” we feel are better addressed as “process.” The more people involved and the larger the scale, more agencies are involved for review.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, “Monument to Sharing,” 32 orange trees and 32 line poem created collaboratively with the public, Los Angeles State Historic park, dimensions variable, a Creative Capital Foundation supported project, Los Angeles, California, USA, 2017.

We consider sidewalks in a city and hallways in museums as equitable public spaces. They are the pathways that we travel from place A to place B and they are typically overlooked as places that have meanings. Like the unexpected occasionally epiphenal magic moment -- when the experience of the world resets itself. Seeing a rainbow, running into a friend, remembering something meaningful, noticing something new, etc. We love that place and moment most of all.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, “Promised Land,” asynchronous repeat pattern, archival watercolor inks printed on organic fabric, dimensions variable, commissioned by Tel Aviv University Art Museum for the exhibition PLANET, Tel Aviv, Israel, 2019.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, “Historic Victorville Public Fruit Park,” created with the residents of historic Victorville, in partnership with R.O.O.T., San Bernardino Arts Connection, and the City of Victorville, 2018.

What an important message it is to make magic moments at every corner! What is your advice for artists looking to make an impact beyond traditional artist paths?

At the beginning, people were always trying to define our work as social activism, urban gardening, or a food project. We held our ground and kept presenting and describing the projects as artworks. We are artists making contemporary artwork. If you are starting out, say yes to everything and get into every group exhibition in your category; exhibitions about environment, photography, whatever. Another thing we regularly did was to take opportunities to curate projects inviting other visual artists, performance based artists, and experimental writers to participate with both existing and newly created works. But in the end, you find your own way. There is no magic formula for making it right. We have exhibited in hundreds of group exhibitions and dozens of solo projects at all levels-- local, regional, national, and international. We are actively learning from our research and try to continually push our relationship to materials. We do not actively look for bigger, better, venues -- we are interested in making “good work.”

And this good work has a very distinct style! You have mentioned both surrealism and pop imagery as inspiration for this style. What influences are you responding to in your visual elements?

We are always responding to the present moment - and growing as artists. Considering that we have been making work for 17 + years together - we make video art, photography, fruit parks, we do several participatory projects - some of which have become successful - including Lemonade Stand (our self portrait project) and Fallen Fruit Magazine - (our public magazine collage project) We are always thinking about new things and coming up with new ideas for artworks. It’s a journey. People have fallen in love with our immersive art installations and they have gotten more detailed and complex and better over time.

Pop art and Surrealism have influenced us as artists. We use media like abstraction or collage to relate ideas about the natural world in contemporary moments and in the abstract concepts related to memory and history. Since narrative is subjective, everyone's individual truth makes each person's reaction to the work "right" and we seek to create this common ground for sharing and community.

Image credit: David Allen Burns and Austin Young / Fallen Fruit, “Fruits from the Garden and the Field (Purple and Yellow),” commissioned by V&A Museum for the exhibition FOOD: Bigger than the Plate, London, England, 2019.

Collaboration seems to be a really important part of your process. Can you describe your concept of “decentralized collaboration”?

We believe that collaboration is an essential part of culture. In this way, we find that it is essential in contemporary art. Even visiting a museum is a collaboration. Walking in a neighborhood is a collaboration. Sharing an understanding is a collaboration. We, as a people, continually collaborate in passive and intentional ways everyday. We all can’t help it. It’s automatic and an integrated part of everyday life. This is how we as artists explore the depths and capacities for questioning and expand how authorship is created / co-created.

We, as a people, continually collaborate in passive and intentional ways everyday.

A lot of our research is based on observations. Watching people in spaces; walking sidewalks, hanging out in parks, exploring libraries and museums. We listen. And then we listen more carefully to the sounds behind the words, the traffic, the animals, the machines. We listen to the spaces between the words. We watch this way also, looking for the meaning in all of the spaces we are investigating. These spaces are opportunities for unactivated collaborations.

It goes back to the message from Leviticus -- In this case, our interpretation is to leave the harvest of the margins of meanings for the stranger or the passerby. To create beautiful artwork installations for people in the future. To protect the possibilities of learning about something that you may think you already know; to shift canonized meanings and shift understanding to open-ended possibilities found in the future - People may understand these ideas (artworks) differently than we do today over time.

Thank you so much David Burns and Austin Young of Fallen Fruit for such an insightful interview!

Member Spotlight: Kristin Jones

Mon, 27 Dec 2021 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 27, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Kristin Jones.

"As an artist I see potential in all things. I am compelled to create contemplative, ephemeral work aimed at magnifying our awareness of place and present. Through my work, I attempt to render the invisible visible, and to awaken a sense of wonder on both a grand and intimate scale. Collaboration is central to my practice, prompting a direct dialogue with the site, history, the context, elements, and creative partners. Above all, I am fascinated by the absolute impermanence of the world to which we belong: the fluidity of light, natural phenomena, and the continuum of time."

Four Seasons of Still Lives is a photographic body of work that explores the unseeable through medical imaging techniques. Featuring seasonal produce, flora, and other collected materials, the unlikely process of tomography makes the invisible visible. In most cases, these once familiar objects are abstracted beyond immediate recognition, resulting in a delicate, ghostly, and volumetric series of black and white images. Among the subjects pictured are a head of lettuce, a pompelmo, a durian, a pomegranate, a sweet potato, and the contents of a blue bird’s nest. Developed over the course of an ongoing residency hosted by Dr. Barry Berson at the New York Medical Imaging Lab, this series is a collaboration with radiology technician Elizabeth MacFarlane.

The Suminagashi works are a series of experiments made by floating ink on the surface of water. This ongoing exploration of the physics of intangible fluid media has it’s origins in a fascination with the passage of time, an attempt to record an instant before it passes and dissipates, never to occur again.

In choreographing elements such as the chemistry of different fluids and paper, the moisture in the environment and the movement of air, attempts to understand and control the media are challenging. The subtle movements in the liquid’s surface are thrillingly unpredictable, though anticipated. Time and again, it is a respect for, and collaboration with the materials and their interaction with natural phenomena that yield the most dynamic work.”

Ineffable was a delicate, temporary installation made from an assemblage of hardly perceptible white threads, radiating from the top of a tall tree, fanning out over the stone amphitheater within the mossy woods below. The rays of this tent-like structure, when viewed from a distance coalesced into a distinct geometric form equaling far more than the sum of its’ parts.

The piece was intended to sharpen our awareness of place and to augment our emotional relationship with light and the environment. The work was inspired by the exquisite amphitheater set into the wooded landscape, looking 270 degrees West at Mount Monadnock. The installation, made specifically for Medal Day at the MacDowell Colony during a 2014 residency there, was presented with Ora, di Terra, an atmospheric composition by Walter Branchi.

Kristin Jones maintains both studio and public practices, working collaboratively across disciplines to create site-specific, time-based projects that frame natural phenomena against the built environment. With a deep commitment to public projects and the belief that art is a powerful vehicle for urban renewal and environmental awareness, Jones has spent her career creating large-scale collaborative works for the public domain. Her installations, works on and paper and time-lapse photography have been exhibited internationally. Jones holds a BFA in Sculpture from the Rhode Island School of Design and an MFA from the Yale School of Art and Architecture. She is the winner of three Fulbright Fellowships and is a Fellow of the American Academy in Rome. She is currently based in New York City. kristinandreajones.com

Featured Images: ©Kristin Jones, Four Seasons of Still Lives, 2018, archival prints on paper, 5" x 8.5"; Suminagashi, 2010-2017, sumi ink on Japanese paper, 10" diameter; Ineffable, 2014, elastic thread and hardware, 120' x 80'

Kim Abeles Turns the Climate Crisis Into Eco-art: New York Times

Wed, 22 Dec 2021 17:06:38 GMT

The environmental activist and artist Kim Abeles at the Park to Playa trail in Los Angeles, where her seed sculptures are installed.Credit...Joyce Kim for The New York Times

Kim Abeles Turns the Climate Crisis Into Eco-art

She doesn’t just make art about pollution, she makes art out of it. Now her “Smog Collectors” series is on view at California State University, Fullerton.

By Jori Finkel

Dec. 9, 2021

CULVER CITY — When Kim Abeles had a studio in downtown Los Angeles in the mid 1980s, she was thrilled one day to see a deep bluish wedge appear between two buildings: a sliver of the San Gabriel Mountains, which had for months been obscured by the city’s notoriously thick smog.

Abeles, a conceptual artist by training with roots in nature — she once lived in a grain silo in Ohio — turned her amazement into a project governed by rules of her own making. She set out to photograph that space from her studio fire escape every day until the mountain appeared clearly again. It took a full year and three weeks.

She soon found other ways to approach the wedge. She decided to walk from her studio on Sept. 10, 1987, toward the mountain “as the crow flies,” she said, until she could actually see it. She had to scale barbed wire fences and cross freeways for what proved to be a strenuous 10-hour, 16.5-mile pilgrimage.

“Smog Collector (One Month of Smog)” from 1987, in which the artist gathered smog particulate matter on acrylic. Credit: Kim Abeles

She also experimented that year with a medium that ended up feeding some of her most important work over the last three decades. She cut an image of the mountain wedge into a vinyl sheet covering a plexiglass plate and set it on the fire escape for a month to gather particulate matter. In effect the smog “drew” the image, creating both a record of the pollution — she has called herself “a stenographer of the skyline” — and something meaningful, or even beautiful, from it.

“How do you represent something like the smog, which always looks like it’s in someone else’s neighborhood — how do you show something so elusive and hard to put your finger on?” Abeles, who is 69, said from a clearing near the top of the Baldwin Hills Scenic Overlook in Culver City. With a grand view of Los Angeles stretching out before her, she sat on a bench next to her 10,000 pound sculpture of a manzanita seed, from her series titled “Citizen Seeds.” The series was made for the local trail system through a Los Angeles County arts commission and incorporates the handiwork of community members. It was an unnaturally hot day in November, and she pointed to a faint line of pollution in the distance.

“Citizen Seeds (Ode to the Manzanita)” is one of six mixed media sculptures by Kim Abeles that are placed along the Park to Playa Trail.Credit...Joyce Kim for The New York Times

“It’s the same issue with the climate crisis more broadly,” she said. “We need to identify the problem before we can begin to see our collective or individual roles in solving it.”

Her attempts at making the invisible visible, or the abstract tangible, can now be seen in “Kim Abeles: Smog Collectors, 1987-2020” at California State University, Fullerton, the fullest presentation of her smog series to date. The art historian Karen Moss, while pointing out that Abeles has also done major work on AIDS/H.I.V. and domestic violence, said that she has been immersed in environmental issues for 30-plus years — “before other artists jumped in to do what we now call eco-art.”

The Fullerton show includes little-known smog drawings on paper, fabric, wood, glass and recycled plexiglass, starting with that original mountain wedge, as well as her most famous series, commemorative plates of American presidents she made in 1992 by exposing each portrait to the weather for four to 40 days — her way of grading each president’s environmental record.

Presidential commemorative smog plates include “James Carter in 8 Days of Smog” and “Ronald Reagan in 40 Days of Smog.” The plates were placed on a rooftop exposed to the weather for a number of days, reflecting the environmental record of each president; 1992.Credit...Ken Marchionno

The contrast between Jimmy Carter, whose visage appears faint on the porcelain plate (left outside for 8 days), and Ronald Reagan, whose face is dark and smeared with particulate matter (40 days), is especially striking. As she noted, “Carter put solar panels on the White House and Reagan took them down.”

While she’s better known for public art and community workshops than playing to the international art crowd, Abeles was featured in a 2019 show on the politics of environmental disasters at Moscow’s Garage Museum. She set out to make a new set of commemorative plates, this time featuring global leaders from Emmanuel Macron to Vladimir Putin. But a Russian maintenance worker who was spooked by Putin’s dirty plate wiped it clean of all environmental wrongdoing.

Abeles remade it for the Moscow show, and it now appears in her California survey alongside other commemorative plates.

Continue reading on the NYT's website HERE

Member Spotlight: Susan Leibovitz Steinman

Mon, 20 Dec 2021 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 20, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Susan Leibovitz Steinman.

“Working with diverse groups of local stakeholders, I conceive of, design and collectively create conceptual gardens that meld art, ecology and community action. I’ve been doing environmentally-based artwork since 1989-90, when there were few models for this particular work and little to no interest in “urban food as art.”

“EOE (Equal Opportunity Eating) projects are living sculptural installations manifested as organic collaborative gardens. They model how to grow healthy food with little money and less land - critical survival skills for ecologically and economically disadvantaged neighborhoods. Counterintuitive to art world propriety, my EOE projects are most successful when disseminated, copied, adapted or emulate. Streetfront or in schoolyards, EOE works provide more than healthy food: they are a meeting place, an oasis and a point source for initiating economic organizing and revitalization for the larger community.”

Sweet Survival, a site-specific work, honors a prominent Sonoma County crop that has succeeded over millennia, largely due to sweetness. On the Museum grounds, five commercially-grafted apple trees, mulched with pink quartz, are surrounded by nitrogen fixing wintergreens over winter, and planted in a pentagon-shaped raised bed constructed of five salvaged 11-foot-long French doors. The design refers to every apple’s interior five-pointed star, its five seed chambers, with five+ genetically diverse seeds. The exterior landscape mimicked a native Sonoma grass fieldstone meadow.

Sweet Survival is a demonstration for educating passersby and Museum visitors about the genetically diverse seeds that one tree can grow. Steinman invited the public to collect seeds at Museum tasting events. Students from Santa Rosa Jr. College propagated saplings from the collected seeds at the school’s nearby learning farm. The wild saplings were then added to the Museum orchard the following spring. All trees were donated locally upon dismantling, spreading biodiverse apple trees throughout Sonoma County.

Susan Leibovitz Steinman creates large scale public installations with multiple stakeholder participation to address ecological, social and economic concerns and community-voiced needs. Based in California, she is an “itinerant social sculptor” who travels globally to create street front, temporal, improvisational, performative artworks. Her EOE Projects (equal opportunity eating) model low cost green techniques and social strategies on public land for public use, food rights, natural asset protection, bioremediation, ecological revitalization and tourism for clean local survival. Steinman received her MFA with High Distinction in Sculpture from the California College of Art, Oakland/San Francisco. steinmanstudio.com

Claire McConaughy: Artspiel

Fri, 17 Dec 2021 19:15:08 GMT

Delicate Rainbow, 2021, 24”x30”, oil on canvas, photo courtesy of the artist

December 13, 2021 by Art Spiel

Claire McConaughy: Nearby at 490 Atlantic Gallery

Featured Artist

In her solo show at 490 Atlantic Gallery, New York based painter Claire McConaughy features landscapes depicted in vivid colors and expressive linear marks. In Delicate Rainbow for instance, the painting plays on tension between horizontal, vertical, and diagonal orientations – an unexpected pale pink flow becomes a backdrop horizon to green vegetation spreading its limb-like branches diagonally upwards; on the top, blue-purple brush strokes depicting sky or water, lead the eye sideways, and then right above, a surprising orange linear brush stroke with the other rainbow colors hinted, stretch across the middle top.

Can you tell me about the paintings in your show and what would you like to share about your process?

The paintings in Nearby derive from visual experiences that are transformed though painting. They are not depictions of actual places even though my personal relationship to landscape is very deep having grown up in the Appalachians with abundant woods, lakes, and streams. I don’t exclusively work with landscape but have found a wellspring of information there and nature inspires me on many levels. The history of landscape in art, literature, and film, can make a contemporary interpretation seem daunting, but in these works I use landscape as a catalyst for the painting. The color, line, space, mystery, discovery, nuance, and drama that are all inherent in nature are also present in painting.

Continue feature on Artspiel HERE

Member Spotlight: Luciana Abait

Mon, 13 Dec 2021 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 13, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Luciana Abait.

Abait's work Iceberg - Red Sky, pictured above, will be featured as a billboard installation on Bedford Avenue, just south of Church Avenue, near Prospect Park in Brooklyn, New York starting today through the end of 2021; the board is the eleventh in the I AM WATER ongoing billboard series co-sponsored by ecoartspace and Our Humanity Matters.

"My art practice is informed by my own immigration history from South America into the US in the 1990’s. I faced many struggles and trauma in relation to assimilation and a sense of invisibility within the new urban environments that I had to adapt to. In my work, I portray my personal experiences in two series that I have been developing over the last few years that are comprised of metaphorical, poetic and “alternate reality” artworks."

"In my Iceberg Series, icebergs represent me as a wanderer - shifting between oceans and continents. Mountains, in turn, are metaphors for the hurdles and obstacles I have had to climb along the way since I departed my native hometown in the 1990’s. This work invites viewers to reimagine nature through psychological landscapes that conjure alternate (or perhaps future) realities marked by adaptation and assimilation, isolation and displacement."

"Images are sourced from personal photographs, shots of snowfields and mountain sides, textbooks, encyclopedias and stock imagery, connecting personal experience to a collective geographic history. I work over the surface with pencils and pastels erasing the photographic quality beneath, and lending urgency to these emotionally charged images.

Natural landscapes and human-made utilitarian objects or structures are twisted, scaled out of proportion, or impossibly adapted to new roles where they coexist in a magical reality. The icebergs represent me as a wanderer - shifting between oceans and continents. Mountains, in turn, are metaphors for the hurdles and obstacles I have had to climb along the way since I departed my native hometown in the 1990’s."

Luciana Abait was born in Buenos Aires, Argentina and is currently based in Los Angeles where she is a resident artist of 18TH Street Arts Center in Santa Monica. Her photo-based two- and three-dimensional works deal with climate change and environmental fragility, and their impacts on immigration in particular. Abait’s artworks have been shown widely in the United States, Europe, Latin America and Asia in solo shows in galleries, museums and international art fairs. Selected exhibitions include A Letter to The Future at Los Angeles International Airport and Sur Biennial in California; Flow, Blue at Rockford College Art Museum and Luciana Abait at Jean Albano Gallery in Illinois; Nest at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania; and ARCO in Spain. lucianaabait.com

Betsy Damon: Passages: Rites and Rituals - Brooklyn Rail review

Sun, 12 Dec 2021 16:07:27 GMT

Betsy Damon, 7,000 Year Old Woman, performance on Prince Street, New York, May 21, 1977. Archival Print. © Betsy Damon 1977/2021. Courtesy the artist.

ArtSeen

Betsy Damon: Passages: Rites and Rituals

By Alex A. Jones

What function does art serve in society? There are always multiple answers to this question, all of which can be true at once. At different moments in space and time, however, certain functions of art have perhaps been extra salient. Art always reflects the creative (which is to say, the spiritual) needs of the collective. Thus art can illuminate historical consciousness, and vice versa.

The contemporary art that I grew up with, from postmodern to post-internet, seems to have principally served a social function of deconstruction. You could call it collective reckoning. In a world made ever-more complex by globalization and the rise of mass media, the creative tools of artists have served to detangle its complexities. This analytical function is reflected in the common praxis of contemporary art: interdisciplinary research as a dominant artistic strategy, critical engagement with history and subjectivity, and the inextricability of texts from visual media. In short, a complicated world has been mirrored by complex conceptual art.

But now, I am certain that a new paradigm is in the process of emerging, aligning art with a new social function. It comes forth in the context of collective crisis. Ecosystems are collapsing, the authority of capital forecloses all other priorities, liberal democracy has failed to assure human rights, and beyond the event-horizon of technological “progress” lies an equally alienating and inhumane frontier. These are not just the dooms of one pessimistic critic. “Humanity is failing,” read a banner over the River Clyde in Glasgow last week, an act of protest during the COP26 climate conference. The banner was flown by two German children, ages 10 and 11.¹

I believe their slogan is a sentiment shared by many artists of my generation, who now feel the deconstructive modes of conceptual art are insufficient. In times such as these, art must do more. It must evolve from modes of critique into modes of possibility, becoming an agent of change. In the broken world we now inherit, art must help us to heal.

Betsy Damon’s current solo show in New York successfully frames her as a pioneer of such a healing practice, and as a key artist through which to consider the relationship between art and activism. I first wrote about Damon’s work last summer in a review of the 2020 group show ecofeminisms, where her standout sculpture The Memory of Clean Water (1985) represented to me a sort of elegy for gallery-based practice in times of crisis. However, the current exhibition (curated by Monika Fabijanska) takes a retrospective look at Damon’s experimental performance works from the 1970s and ’80s that preceded the departure of her practice into eco-activism. The 12 projects on view include collaborative works of feminist theater, workshops and public meditations for women, and a Shrine for Everywoman at the United Nations World Conference on Women in 1980 and ’85. Collaboration, public engagement, and solidarity-building are central to all these projects, so that on the whole, the exhibition ties a powerful feedback loop between performance art and activism.

Damon’s breakout performance series was the 7,000 Year Old Woman (1977–79). It started as a quest to discover the lost collective history of women. The artist painted her skin in white makeup with black lips, and covered her body in little cloth sacks filled with 40-pounds of colored flour. She cut these open one by one to spill onto the ground, gradually exposing her naked or nearly-naked body. Beginning with a gallery performance in 1977, Damon subsequently took the character to the city streets, staging public happenings in SoHo and on Wall Street. As she wrote at the time, “so complete has been the eradication of things female from our streets that we do not miss them.”

Holding public space as the 7,000-year-old Woman was an emotionally difficult act, so much so that Damon said, “at a certain point I felt so exposed, I tried to put the bags back on.” Throughout one iteration of the performance on Prince Street, collaborator and painter Amy Siliman painted yellow triangles in a ring around Damon, creating a protective barrier while further underscoring her reclamation of space.

At the time of the performances, Damon recalls, everyone interpreted the 7,000-year-old woman as a goddess image. The character doubtless recalled the mysterious Roman cult statue Diana of Ephesus, covered in little sacs like breasts or eggs (or offertory testicles). But it was a limited reading, for a dead fertility goddess hardly constitutes a credible threat to modern patriarchal order—which is exactly what Damon intended for the work to do. With her white and black makeup, the 7,000 Year Old Woman is more like a ritual-clown, one who both amuses and frightens her audience into the ambivalent space of transformation. In the documentary photos through which the work is experienced today, we see a range of emotions on the faces of the crowd: some laugh at the weird woman on the ground while some solemnly watch. The artist recalls some boys throwing eggs.

Continue reading on the Brooklyn Rail site HERE

Member Spotlight: Erika Blumenfeld

Mon, 06 Dec 2021 16:00:00 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

December 6, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Erika Blumenfeld.

"In April of 2011, after seven months without rainfall, the Rock House Fire ignited in Marfa and raged across the beautiful landscape of far West Texas, devastating the region’s environment. I was living in Marfa at that time and, in those weeks while the wildfire reigned, I began collecting material from the burned landscape—carbonized trees, cacti, dirt, animal bones, grasses—and photographed the charred remains and blackened earth."

Graphite & Charcoal Trees: Las Conchas Wildfire (New Mexico 2011), 2013

"I followed those devastating wildfires throughout the summer of 2011 to Arizona and New Mexico, again in 2012 during the wildfire season in New Mexico and Colorado and finally in 2013’s season in New Mexico. I have documented five major wildfires across of the southwest in this way, gathering burned material from the Rock House Wildfire (Texas 2011), the Wallow Wildfire (Arizona 2011), the Las Conchas Wildfire (New Mexico 2011), the Waldo Canyon Wildfire (Colorado 2012) and the Silver Wildfire (New Mexico, 2012)."

Left: Wildfire Paintings, 2012; Right: An Offering to Stolen Nature, 2012

"For the Wildfire Paintings, I hand-grind the burned debris into a fine carbon pigment and then adhere it to a gilded-edged panel, allowing the raw material to sit on the surface. Each wildfire pigment varies slightly depending on each location’s indigenous flora and fauna as well as how hot the fire burned. In the Arizona, New Mexico and Colorado wildfires the highly iridescent sheen across the surface of the black carbon tells the story of a very hot fire fueled by burning timber. In contrast, the Texas wildfire consists mainly of grasses and dirt and so the pigment is more matte and slightly brown in tone."

An Offering to Stolen Nature, 2012, and Charred Earth: Rock House Wildfire (Marfa, Texas 2011), 2012

"For the installation, An Offering to Stolen Nature, I filled hand-hammered Tibetan song bowls with charred trees, grasses, pine cones, and pine needles and displayed them alongside burned volcanic rocks, animal bones and cacti. All of these materials were collected from areas that were private, state, or federal land. At each location that I gathered debris, I was at some point evicted from the land, and in one case was asked to put back the burned material I had collected. This piece considers the innate sacredness of nature alongside the human desire to own or manage the land, exploring the question: has our land ownership in one sense stolen the land from nature? In stealing it back, the piece intends to re-sacralize nature beyond our possession of it.

In the photographic works, I documented the thick smoke of the active fires and the blackened landscape in the aftermath of fire’s blaze.

These works become forensic evidence of the crime of anthropogenic climate disruption - they are a eulogy to the wildfires, and homage to the nature they consumed. Yet, as carbon is both the building block of all life and is itself an artifact of light, these works also intend to look to the regeneration that is possible as we look for solutions."

Blackened Forest: Las Conchas Wildfire (New Mexico 2011), 2013

Erika Blumenfeld is a transdisciplinary artist whose practice is motivated by the wonder of natural phenomena and the relationship between nature and culture. A Guggenheim and Smithsonian Fellow, Blumenfeld approaches her work like an archivist, driven by a passion to trace and collect the evidence and stories of connection across the cosmos. Blumenfeld often works in collaboration with scientists and research institutions, including NASA, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, McDonald Observatory, and the South African National Antarctic Program. The photo and video-based works, installations, paintings, drawings, sculptures, writing and data science visualizations that result from her artistic investigations are the artifacts that express her inquiries’ reflections and weave an equally conceptual and formalist intent. Blumenfeld lives and works in Houston, Texas. erikablumenfeld.com

Header: Smoke: Las Conchas Wildfire (Los Alamos, New Mexico 2011), 2012

Ceramic Seascapes: Interview with Harriet Hellman for TL Magazine

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 16:41:12 GMT

Shape Shifting, porcelain, 50 x 52 x 22 cm, 2020

Interview by Blaire Dessent

TL Magazine, Landscape’ Autumn–Winter 2021

TLmag: While your work deals with ecological concerns of the planet, there is a particular connection with the sea and coastline. Where does your interest in this come from?

Harriet Hellman: I have always been drawn to the sea and coast, finding it a rich source of inspiration. My connection to the elements embeds itself in my making, both physically and emotionally. I am particularly drawn to wild coastlines, such as the Atlantic coast of North Devon where the ceaseless cycle of the natural elements and the engagement of time on the landscape, creates a visceral response in me which is both immediate and meditative.

I find clay to be the perfect medium to express my ideas, using the tide and the cyclical movement of time as a convergence of thought and action. I am not looking for answers but enjoy the freedom and spontaneity of the journey, exploring hunches, experimenting with form and responding intuitively to the atmosphere and conditions of the moment. I would love to live on the coast but my family and work are in London, so I make sure I visit often, taking a car-full of clay and art materials and my camera, sometimes digging wild clay from the beach to bring back to the studio.

The shifting tidal seascapes and the environmental impact of erosion and tidal destruction are all too evident on the south coast of the UK. Tidal barriers have been swept away and the coastline is constantly changing, serving to remind me of the power of nature and our powerlessness to control it. My work reflects my thinking around this as I let go of my unfired ceramics into the oncoming tide, surrendering it to the sea. The process of filming, painting, sculpting, collecting, interacting with the inter-tidal zone and documenting eroded coastal spaces, creates a visceral response in me, celebrating impermanence and imperfection.

I am striving to capture place, space and time and the energy of the moment. Creating, intimate, ephemeral narratives with clay on the coast. This deliberate communing with nature, means letting go, and hoping for unexpected and transformed, ‘gifts from the sea’. Ceramic residues are fired , completing this alchemical exchange.

Tipping Point, stoneware, porcelain, wood fired, 23 x 12 x 65 cm, 2020

TLmag: You started making ceramics once you had already begun a separate career path. When and how did you get started working in ceramic? Were you doing something else artistic or was this a big shift?

H.H.: I received a BA in Fine Art Sculpture and then followed a career as a prop maker and Art Director in the film and TV industry both here and abroad. I loved the work, but the hours were long and once I had a young family I was not seeing my children enough. A friend suggested I take an evening class in pottery, so I enrolled and was immediately hooked. I reduced my working hours and undertook a part time HND in Ceramics at my local Higher Education College, then decided to rent a studio and continue Ceramics in a full-time capacity. My dream was to study an MA at the Royal College of Art, so I was delighted to gain a place to study there in 2018, this experience gave me the confidence to consider myself a professional Ceramic Sculptor.

TLmag: As you started going further with clay, was it then when you saw a link to landscapes and the sea or were you already looking for the right medium to convey ideas and concepts you had wanted to explore?

H.H.: I find the elements of water, earth, air and fire in ceramics, and the transformative power that these afford exciting and challenging. Clay is a material of change from one state to another and this gives me the opportunity to facilitate transformation, while reflecting on the balance and fragility of the geological landscape. I see clay as the conduit between myself and the natural world through the process of layering, tearing and building.

The concept of letting go of the outcome and surrendering it to the elements was a response to seeing the effect of coastal erosion on the geology of the shoreline and my belief that everything is connected. Not only is clay a particularly suitable material to express those concerns, being of the earth, but the final fired form of the ceramic sculptures evoke geological formations. The deep history of the land feeds directly into the work it inspires. The title of ‘Anthropocene’ points to my concern for ecological fragility, which is powerfully present and concerning in coastal erosion and rising sea levels.

Perspectives of Time, stoneware, porcelain, 38 x 40 x 20 cm, 2020

TLmag: Would you talk about your process? It’s incredible how each piece seems as if it was peeled away by time and nature so organically, the surfaces so textured.

H.H.: I layer many different clays together in the studio, bringing to mind the layers of geological strata in the landscape. These layers are eroded and revealed when the work is left exposed on the shore or when the work is torn, scarred and peeled back in the studio. The pebbles, sand and seaweed imprint themselves into the work, which is then fired, embedding into the surface layer. Tearing up the layers of clay ignites an emotional and physical connection in me, embedding memories of the coast into the form and surface which is worn, torn and scarred. I multi fire and add layers of glaze until I am satisfied with the surface texture and colour, and intuitively know that the work is finished.

TLmag: You recently had a residency in Denmark. How was this experience on your work? You developed a new way of firing?

H.H.: My experience at Guldagergaard International Ceramic research centre in Denmark was very positive. I was able finish the work I had been doing on my MA in London, which had been suspended due the pandemic in March 2020. The studio was open 24hours a day and I was able to work with no distractions in a supportive environment with other International artists. I was also introduced to wood firing and soda firing, which were new for me and I found it really suited my work. I have continued with this method of firing whenever I get the opportunity.

Recently I sailed around the South Coast of the UK with Sail Britain as an artist-in-residence, looking at the marine environment from diverse perspectives. A cross disciplinary crew from creative and scientific back grounds took part, studying environmental issues such as marine aquaculture, plastic pollution , climate change, and eroding coastlines. Highlighting the cultural importance of our relationship with the sea and the connection between ecological issues and society. This experience was invaluable to my practise and I hope to continue exploring opportunities to broaden my understanding of the natural world in the
future.

Uncertain Rhythm, stoneware, porcelain, 24 x 30 x 12 cm, 2020

TLmag: How do you explore, as it says on your website, ‘human’ time vs ‘deep’ time, in your work? What does this mean exactly?

H.H.: Scales of time are most evident to me when I am at the coast, when considering the ecological fragility of the ocean and the geology of the coastline. The contrast between millennial geological timescales and ephemeral human timescales, reflecting on the micro and macro is particularly present when I am working and responding to the coastal landscape. Considering the Anthropocene, the current geological age where human impact has been the dominant influence on climate and the environment makes me consider the scale of human time versus that of deep time. Recognizing our interconnectedness to the earth and the balance and fragility of our place within it is evident in my making, accepting transience and imperfection. Letting go, surrendering and appreciating the moment, stimulates my thoughts and heightens my awareness, opening new possibilities and directions in my work.

This connection to the coastal environment is what drives my practice and I feel it most when experiencing the rawness of the Atlantic coast.

London based ceramic artist Harriet Hellman is deeply inspired and influenced by wild coastlines, tides, erosion and the sea. She creates layered sculptural ceramic objects that feel as if they’ve been stripped by time and the natural elements, which in some cases they have as she often immerses her unfired pieces into the tides and films the experience of its effects on the object. Curved forms that suggest waves or shells, specks of sand and minerals compacted within cracked white glaze, flecks of colour or charred surfaces, the work seems to be influx, as if it was still on a journey within the sea and its current state is only momentary, an unexpected treasure discovered with delight yet holding secrets to harsher realities of the Anthropocene.

Hellman was shortlisted for the Sustainability First prize in 2021.
harriethellman.co.uk
@harriet_ceramics

December 2021 Newsletter

Thu, 02 Dec 2021 04:54:39 GMT

The ecoartspace December 2021 e-Newsletter is here

In the Beginning There Was Only Water - Susan Hoffman Fishman

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 21:18:47 GMT

In the Beginning There Was Only Water II, 5 ft. x 5 ft., acrylic and mixed media on paper, 2020

In the Beginning There Was Only Water

by Joan Sullivan

While some of us taught ourselves to bake sourdough bread or to mend socks during the pandemic, the American painter and arts writer Susan Hoffman Fishman plunged herself into her studio and emerged, a year later, with a revised creation story.

The result: a magnificent, nearly 50-foot (15 meters) opus entitled In The Beginning There Was Only Water.

Currently on exhibit at the Five Points Gallery in Torrington, Connecticut through December 19, 2021, In The Beginning There Was Only Water reframes the biblical creation myth – in which “man” was granted “dominion” over all the Earth’s plants and animals – into a new, non-human-centric story.

Posted November 22, 2021, Artists & Climate Change blog

Continue reading here

Truths Entangle Us: Interview with Tosca Hidalgo y Terán

Wed, 01 Dec 2021 17:59:46 GMT

(Interplanetary Hearing Device)

Interview with Tosca Hidalgo y Terán by Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Tosca Hidalgo y Terán is an internationally exhibited and recognized creator of interactive environments and objects that provide shared experiences surrounding topics of entanglement and interconnectedness. Using her unique perspective on the world and the magic that lives within it, she has employed engineering and technologies to tackle often difficult topics. Her work creating musical collaborations with mycelium has led to incredible insights into the consciousness and interconnectedness of the world around us all.

Hi Tosca, I am so excited to interview you this month. Can we dig right into your interactive musical collaborations with mycelium? You even mention that the mycelium reacts differently to different people.

I believe fungi are sentient, have cognition. Perhaps, too this sentience or awareness is more expansive than human due to its very nature. Mycelium consistently generates periodic patterns that are both enigmatic and very musical. For reasons that I do not fully understand, Mycelium reacts to the proximity of some people more than others—growing more frenetic or more harmonic or completely silent when humans are present.

In 2019 while I was a resident bio-artist during a MOCA Toronto and Ontario Science Centre partnership, MOCA offered resident artists a 500+ square foot studio in their building. Also, on the 3rd floor of MOCA central sat the Akin artist’s studio spaces and once or twice a month, they would hold open studio events. During one such occasion, fellow Alien Agency Collective artists Joel Ong, Nicole Clouston, and I opened our temporary bio-art studio to the public to share our various research in progress. My Mycelium, Martian Dome project, sponsored by Ecovative Design, Moog Audio, and The Brothers Dressler. I had a massive sound system set up for this open studio, synthesizers connected to living mycelium I had sculpted into the shape of a brain. The Myco-brain contained inside a plexiglass case with electrodes threaded through holes; this case was covered in black cloth. There was also a greenhouse set-up that housed large mushroom bags and Petri dishes of growing Ganoderma lucidum, Pleurotus ostreatus and djamor, Stropharia rugosoannulata and Armillaria mellea.

(Symbiosis/Dysbiosis, Remote Residencies)

Guests would enter the studio and hear an ambient mycelium soundscape playing. Rapid, chaotic shifts in the soundscape made it quite obvious the fungi were responding to the people. Children picked up on this quickly and started to play with this interactivity. They would run-up to the Myco-brain and then run out of the space. The adults in the room did not know what to make of this, were the fungi responding to vibrations? Then, quite abruptly, the soundscape stopped playing. At that moment, everyone turned towards the entrance to see a man standing there. To be fair to this person, I have no idea what they were experiencing or going through; there was an aggressive, Joker is wild, air about them. They frantically walked into the studio space and made a bee-line for the greenhouse. I asked them to please refrain from opening it, but I would happily open it if they wanted to see inside. Before I could finish my sentence, they cut me off aggressively, yelling, “Why, is the monster in there?!” Chuckling, I replied, I am just cautious about contamination, and with that, they wildly moved through the studio space and out the door. In the exact moment they crossed the threshold, the soundscape started back up, and everyone in the studio gasped.

One couple left saying that this entirely freaked them out, the mushroom going silent to come back to life then. Now, sure this may have been a curious coincidence, but I don’t think it was. During my Primordia installation at Grow-Op 2019, where I installed an unground mycelium cave in a historic hotel room, similar occurrences took place where people would affect the mycelium - without touching it!

(Detail View of Forest UnderSound 2021)

Holy Moly! That's truly unbelievable. And the work continues: in your monthly podcast you share your recent interactions with mycelium. What have you noticed over the course of this work in different spaces?

I’ve been very fortunate to receive invitations to residencies abroad pre-pandemic which brought me to the Southern Hemisphere (Australia and New Zealand). Different seasons offer different fungi. I also cultivate various mycelium so when I am home or at my studio over the winter there is always fungi growing nearby. ;) Trees are a different story.

(Exhibition View of Forest UnderSound 2021)

And can you discuss a bit about how it is made? What are the technical components that are necessary to create these interactions?

The Symbiosis/Dysbiosis project, generously supported by the Goethe-Institute Montreal, Canada Arts and Toronto Arts councils, is a fully immersive, mixed reality, participatory experience working with living mycelium biodata-sonification within a VR environment. I am collaborating with media artist Allison Moore collecting photogrammetry point clouds scanned from coastal rainforests and Canadian Boreal Forest regions to visualize the VR environment. Projection-mapped floor and wall(s) around the VR space allow visitors within the installation, outside of the VR forests, to interact with the point cloud visuals by stepping on pressure-sensitive mats and touching the projection-mapped surfaces. These actions send data into the VR environment representing an impact within the forest. Living mycelium from locally cultivated fungi responds to the installation's human presence while creating a generative soundscape. Human EEG/PPG/EDA/GSR influences each "player's" VR experience.

(Exhibition View Chaos Fungorum, 2018)

Sonically speaking, I've been working with various purpose-built circuits to detect micro-fluctuations in conductivity, translating this activity in real-time to MIDI notes and controls or voltage control signals.

The primary concept involves visualizing interactions between human and non-human microbiota and the shared environment through macro visualizations of the microbial life on us, around us in the air, trees, fungi, pollen, pollutants. Collaborator and neuroscientist Brendan Lehman has developed code that integrates biodata readings captured in real-time into the virtual environment. Specifically, we are developing for the OpenBCI and Emotibit platforms. I've been awarded an artist research residency at the Coalesce Centre for Biological Art with Dr. Paul Vanouse. During this residency, mycelium is grown and observed using SEM, AFM and Confocal microscopy. This imagery is being captured and integrated into the VR experience of Sym/Dys. I am looking forward to jumping into the mycelium network on a microbial level. Sonically speaking, I've been working with various purpose-built circuits to detect micro-fluctuations in conductivity, translating this activity in real-time to MIDI notes and controls or voltage control signals. MIDI and control voltage enables me to patch directly into my analog and digital synthesizers, creating a mycelial network soundscape. One of the bio-sonification modules I build comes from engineer Sam Cusumano of Electricity for Progress. Initially, I purchased a PCB and a few electrical components from Manuel Domke, who also shared a schematic and Arduino code with me back in 2017. Before that, I was building my touch sensors towards "listening" to various mycelium.

Your work with mycelium goes beyond musical collaboration, but also into creating vegan leather-alternatives by growing the mushrooms directly into form. Can you describe this process and where this is leading?

Admittedly, this research took a bit of a back-burner status over the pandemic. Though I have been consulting several artists towards sculpting, forming, and growing their own pellicles with mycelium. First cultivating their own and then expanding upon that. One project involves developing large, mycelium-covered surfaces that will act like an artist’s canvas’ to explore how the mycelium might remediate paint - the artist works in acrylic and oils, sometimes watercolours. Another consult is growing hollow sculptural forms with an assistant prof at York University to house electronics that work with IoT devices taking readings from a nearby Ontario forest.

You mention that the pandemic has influenced your practice. Can you expand on this please?

With the pandemic and restrictions, my retreating into the forest primarily took shape in the virtual. More time to focus on sound creations, 3D work (3D, VRML, QTVR, and HTML is something I was very much into when I lived in New Mexico in the ’90s), and exploring haptic sensors and solenoid-based projects. I was fortunate with the Mycorrhizal Rhythm Machine installation at New Adventures in Sound Art as it included a short residency at their northern Ontario resort, several kilometres from Algonquin Park and next to Deer Lake. Algonquin Park is simply breathtaking, and there is a lot to explore fungi-wise. I collected a lot of biodata and field recordings of the Dawn Chorus while there.

(Still from Nanopod, Pascal Perich)

Your early work involves using glass and metals to sculpt wearable objects depicting your dreams and thoughts about decay. How does your relationship and workflow with such solid forms contrast to the fluid, living musical and interactive space work?

Many of my past metal and glass works involved soundscapes. Imagining the sounds of the worlds and environments where such objects come from or dwell. Descent to Perelandra, Orbis Tertius and An UnNatural History are bodies of metal and glass works (some wearable) that explored soundscapes and immersive installation. I’ve been revisiting metal and glass projects from 2004, where I started to incorporate various Bone conductance output and touch capacitance. Glass is an incredible medium for this because you can embed metals into molten glass. Burnish gold and fine silver onto the surface of hot-glass, or fume metals onto glass, grow metal onto the Glass through Electro-forming; there are a lot of potentials. Incorporating living fungi adds yet another reactive element.

(An UnNatural History, Metal and Glass)

There are a lot of potentials. Incorporating living fungi adds yet another reactive element.

In the video “Nanopod”, you talk about your dreams and relationship to death. What do you decide to bring into this world from those dreams and what are some of your hopes for the work?

When I was a child, I had recurring nightmares that involved a family member that would transform (not be who I had thought they were) and try to take my life multiple times every night I went to sleep. These nightmares began and lasted from ages 3 to late teens. The family member in my nightmares was similar to a vampire yet, not a vampire. These were also flying dreams; armies of flying skeletons would arrive to take me away. Much later in life, I would learn that this person showing up in my nightmares suffered from postpartum depression, heard voices, and had considered taking my life. That is a lot to carry, both for myself and definitely for the person being my mother. As a young person and artist, I wanted to understand the "darker" aspects of nature, psychological, mythical, occult and these ideas and nightmares made their way into my work.

(Still from Nanopod, Pascal Perich)

As a young person and artist, I wanted to understand the "darker" aspects of nature, psychological, mythical, occult and these ideas and nightmares made their way into my work.

Later in life, I had two near-death experiences from ectopic pregnancies. A particular work that truly manifested "Motherhood" for me was, Inside Incubus. Inside Incubus was a web narrative and a physical work I built to combat sorrow, poor self-image, and dragons, if you will. The metal-made physical version was interestingly very popular with people; it received fan mail and poems! The web narrative began with an animated paper doll version of myself, which divided into twins after a while and led visitors deeper into the forest (mind) through visuals and sounds. Visitors traveled either the left-hand path or the right. With the virtual death of fabulous flash-based websites, Inside Incubus was archived. I've considered revisiting it and creating an updated VR version that would now, I suppose, start venturing into the Crone

Thank you for sharing, your story is incredibly touching. You have such a unique and magical perspective on the world. How have your multiple cultural influences (Mexican, German, Canadian, etc) helped form this perspectice?

Dia de Los Muertos always held an appeal to me. My grandfather would bring me marionettes from Mexico; skeletons, animals, strange characters, along with chocolate-covered ants! I have learned a lot about my father's family later in life. My paternal grandparents wanted me to learn Spanish and more about their culture/my culture, while unfortunately, my father lived through a lot of racism that his parents did not experience. So, I did not grow up speaking Spanish at home. My grandparents and father also did not practice Catholicism. There's a long story regarding family name changes during the Spanish inquisition and a great-great uncle's head being removed. Fidel Castro is (was?) a relative. So, there certainly is a lot to draw from, familially and culturally speaking.

Science Fiction and Fantastical worlds inspired me, and now I guess my love of SciFi and electronic and classical music continues through more bio-art explorations.

I look at Scandinavian, Germanic, Celt land-wise on my maternal side, but I feel more connected to my father, and everything unsaid. But how any of this informs my work, I am uncertain. Childhood dreams of transforming into different shapes; machine and animal. I would then describe driving vehicles with windscreens like televisions (it was the '70s, and I was 5). I was visiting different worlds, both extraterrestrial and subterranean. Unlike my peers, I repeatedly listened to Klaus Schulze, Tomita and experiencing films like Planet Sauvage, Silent Running, Heavy Metal magazine, and Giger's Necronomicon had a significant impact. Science Fiction and Fantastical worlds inspired me, and now I guess my love of SciFi and electronic and classical music continues through more bio-art explorations. My musical tastes have remained constant; only now, along with my partner, I create the electronic soundscapes.

Lastly, in “creating artwork to raise awareness,” what do you want your audience to take away from interacting with your spaces? What are the most pressing issues of today for you and the work that you create?

There is seemingly more awareness and sensitivity towards your particular interests and focus when you are an artist. In my instance, this involves the shared environment through nonhuman kinships and entanglements. Human communication is tricky. People often do not tell the truth or hide, or worse, they blame other people for their problems. I am not feeling better or more aware than other folks by sharing this. It is simply vital to know who you work with and their motivations. The COVID-19 Pandemic certainly affected all life, and bringing more awareness to this remains essential. It is unfortunate to be shouting at the air.

(Jokulsarlon Chopines Beast, Metal and Glass)

I am creating spaces and object-based experiences that open memories, that perhaps ground people into the now, that make slight adjustments to human-centric beliefs and movement.

When I wrote, creating artwork to raise awareness, this is multi-faceted because it also pertains to myself as a human. Over the years, I have met people utterly moved to tears by my work, by spaces I have created and shared. Over the Pandemic, I have had time to reflect on this and ask what moved them, what brought on the emotional response? I would like to believe that I am not merely creating more content. I am creating spaces and object-based experiences that open memories, that perhaps ground people into the now, that make slight adjustments to human-centric beliefs and movement. Maybe this is what brings on the empathic responses. When I am conceptualizing, I am not thinking how the work might affect people or make money or anything other than simply creating the work, which is the prime objective.

I am devastated by all the hate and trolling. How Indigenous and Black identifying people are treated, disrespected and killed. Perhaps naively, I believe sharing immersive experiences of how connected and entangled we all are might offer a course correction or, at best, a reprieve from the doom scrolling.

Thank you so much for your time, Tosca. This has been a truly touching and inspiring interview!

Interview with Juniper Harrower via Berkeley News

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 22:28:53 GMT

When ecology meets art, you get a dating site for trees

by Anne Brice, Berkeley News

November 19, 2021

In 2015, as a Ph.D. student at UC Santa Cruz, Juniper Harrower was planning to go back to Costa Rica, where she’d been working in the cloud forests to study patterns of forest regeneration. But then she learned something — something heart-wrenching — that would change the path of her research.

“Scientists had just found out that Joshua trees were really impacted by climate change and could be gone from the National Park within 100 years,” said Harrower. “When I read that, it was such a gut punch.”

Harrower grew up in Joshua Tree National Park — a vast, protected area in Southern California, home to thousands of twisted, spiky Joshua trees. And hearing that the iconic species was in jeopardy, Harrower felt she had to do something.

“It started this whole trajectory of thinking about what species were really crucial for Joshua trees and how those interactions might change with the changing climate,” she said.

Berkeley News spoke with Harrower, now a first-year master’s student in UC Berkeley’s Department of Art Practice, about the power of art and science to spur social change and why she started a dating site for Joshua trees.

Berkeley News: You got your Ph.D. in environmental studies with a focus in ecoart from UC Santa Cruz in 2019, and now, you’re a first-year master’s student in the Department of Art Practice at UC Berkeley. What brought you to Berkeley?

Juniper Harrower: My background is in ecology, and I’ve spent the last eight years working as an environmental artist. I got my bachelor’s degree in plant biology from Berkeley, where I talked my way into some art classes. I was kind of jumping between science research and having a really visible art practice. I continued to have a very present art practice at UC Santa Cruz, where I created and still teach science art classes. I left Santa Cruz with a Ph.D. in environmental studies, but madly, madly in love with art.

At Berkeley, I’m thinking about how an arts practice that is connected to ecological research can impact social change.

Berkeley has such an incredible art department. There’s a very strong post-colonialist framework that people are working from, and I’m looking forward to having those conversations and dismantling some of my science background. To have the incredible privilege of making art for two years with the support of an art practice committee is such a dream.

Continue interview with Juniper Harrower here

Interview with Hannah Chalew by Louis Bury for BOMB magazine

Tue, 30 Nov 2021 17:06:35 GMT

Documentation of moving the installation Becoming with: A rizomatic solar cart through the streets of New Orleans, 2019. Photo by Claire Bangser.

Message and Method: Hannah Chalew

Interview by Louis Bury

In her short documentary video The Push (2019), artist Hannah Chalew, her mother, and four other women artist friends wheel Chalew’s approximately 11 × 5 × 8-foot mobile artwork, Becoming with: A rhizomatic solar cart (2019), from her New Orleans studio to her residency at Longue Vue House and Gardens, a three-mile trip. The cart resembles a lean-to whose sloped solar panels serve as a roof beneath which lies a functional water tank atop a bench-like platform. The group hauls the plucky cart across lots and fields, past intersections and cemeteries; but most of the trip takes place on roads in the midst of car traffic, which makes their cheerful caravan appear as out of place as a horse and buggy would on a highway.

This incongruous image is apt for an artist whose practice explores what it looks like to be partially alienated from the place in which you live while also having deep connections to it. Chalew’s dazzling maximalist drawings of southern Louisiana environs depict vistas in which realistic, above-ground terrain (trees in a park; a quiet suburban street) possess surrealistic, below-ground roots (an inverted petrochemical plant; a dense network of pipes in a toxic landfill). Her uncanny sculptures—sci-fi entanglements of plants, pipes, and plastics—also estrange the viewer’s perspective by positing a future in which abandoned human structures have yielded to debris-strewn flora. Through her community-oriented activism and art, and with a DIY ethos, Chalew makes past and present injustices visible so that the future might become something other than more of the same.

—Louis Bury

Go to BOMB interview here

Member Spotlight: Vaughn Bell

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 18:02:51 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 29, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Vaughn Bell.

Featured is her project "All the Rivers in the World, Tacoma," from 2019, awarded by the Washington State Arts Commission in partnership with the University of Washington, Tacoma.

Members of the UWT community participated in this public art piece with the following prompt:

Think about rivers: the rivers you know, remember, and are connected to. Where has the water flowed in the places of your childhood and your current home? What is the name of your river? Write it in the language most meaningful to you.

After drawing and writing the name of their river, community members were invited to make objects using clay mixed with sediment from the Puyallup River. This tactile activity was meant to encourage a peaceful, meditative moment and sense of connection to the local landscape.

Before the railroad cut the “prairie line” across this stretch of land, other lines coursed this way: the paths of creeks, streams and rivers leading to Puget Sound, footpaths and game trails. The Puyallup River, our local river, is the original line and continues as life-line. Its name is also the name of the original people of this place.

“All the Rivers in the World, Tacoma” is a public art project that reflects on the Puyallup river as life line and connector. It also emerges from the current life of Tacoma and the University: as a cosmopolitan place, home to many immigrants, people from all over the world. This idea has a precedent even before this site was a university. According to the historic assessment of the Prairie Line Trail, “More than half of Tacoma’s residents were immigrants by the early 1900s.” These immigrants came from all over the world and many worked in the buildings that now house the university. Now, students, faculty and staff continue to come from many places to be part of this community.

All of the river names included in the piece were given to the artwork by members of this community. The design of the river form itself is based on the shapes of real rivers. The resulting shapes reflect actual shapes of some of the rivers named in the piece. This hybrid river combines many river forms and shapes.

The Lushootseed words were included in the work with the approval of the Puyallup Tribal Council and the collaboration of UWT faculty member and Tribal Liaison Danica Miller. The typographers who collaborated on the design of the work used a specially designed Lushootseed typeface for these words. Upon the advice of Danica Miller, the Lushootseed words were not capitalized in keeping with the proper way of writing place names in this language.

Vaughn Bell is an artist whose work focuses on the complexities and paradoxes of human interactions with places, natural forces and other species. Recent exhibitions have included installations in London, Brussels, Buenos Aires, and Paris. Since 2018, she has been working with horticulturalists at Kew Gardens on the exhibition Plantscapes for Summer 2021. In addition to exhibiting works at museums and institutions, she often works in the public realm on artworks rooted in local communities and ecologies. Bell is a part-time faculty in the School of Interdisciplinary Arts and Sciences at the University of Washington, Tacoma, where she teaches and has developed curriculum on public art, ecological art and creative practices. vaughnbell.net

Striking Back by Aviva Rahmani - Book Review

Mon, 29 Nov 2021 16:44:30 GMT

BOOK REVIEW

Striking Back by Aviva Rahmani

What is fascinating, informative, and important to ecoart about Laura Raicovich’s recent book, “Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest” (Verso Press 224 pages / June 2021), is that it is a thoughtful meditation on the paradoxical power relationships between disparate groups and values: museum personnel, business leaders, and activists representing disenfranchised groups. At a number of museums in recent years, that relationship has been tested, as, with British Petroleum, from whom the Tate, UK, was successfully pressured by Liberate Tate to divest in 2016, or with the Sackler family, which produced OxyContin, from the Metropolitan Museum of Art. What is significant about her meditation for the field of ecoart is that even though good ecological art can set the wheels in motion, we need more than one wheel to move the vehicle of change forward in mainstream consciousness before we all perish from ecosuicide. The museum world, despite caveats, may still house one of those wheels.

Critics maintain that the museum world is held hostage to figures whose financial success cannot be held up to scrutiny. Therefore, the museums’ ethical accountability cannot be assured. That is where art activists have stepped into the breach to demand that accountability. Raicovich’s insightful gaze on these relationships is cool but not cold. Her conclusions seem implicit: the wheel is broken but perhaps not irreparably. She analyzes several complex situations, including a frank examination of her high-profile resignation as President and Executive Director from the Queens Museum of New York, where she advocated a radical public commons, to show how a small, strategically minded, and determined group can effect change. The most careful investigation of that dynamic is in her deconstruction of events at the Whitney Museum of American Art, which ended with the reluctant resignation of Warren B. Kanders on July 19, 2019, then vice-chairman of the museum, whose company, Safariland, supplied tear gas used at the Mexican American border and in Palestine. Kanders' statement at the time was, “I joined this board to help the museum prosper. I do not wish to play a role, however inadvertent, in its demise.” Before he resigned, five prominent artists announced they would withdraw from the Biennale led by Michael Rakowitz, then Korakrit Arunanondchai, Meriem Bennani, Nicole Eisenman and, Nicholas Galanin. They were later joined by other artists from the Biennale. It is worth mentioning that the honorarium for the artist’s participation was $1500., which they did not forfeit. Clearly, that modest figure is evidence that finances were not a consideration for the artists. The organization most responsible for pressure on the Whitney was Decolonize This Place. The formal statement from the latter ended by celebrating, “… a process of reformulating our museums to be responsive to the constituencies they claim to serve.”

Whether or not that optimism is justified today is arguable. But the dynamics Laura Raicovich so carefully and honestly dissected are worth close consideration. Raicovich’s deconstruction of museum accountability represents a deconstruction of the same dynamic the world recently witnessed in the denouement of COP26 in Glasgow. COP26 came to no practical solutions to the scale of devastation occasioned by fossil fuel corporations. The caveat to that comparison is that no one resigned after COP26. Nor did anyone implicitly express regret for any threat to institutions caused by their bad behavior.

And the caveat to that is that the art world often reflects attitudinal shifts on the broader culture. The outstanding question Raicovich leaves hanging is whether it is possible to work as an ethical museum director in our current culture. And the corollary to that question is can we find any respite to our climate crises in any powerful institution, or is the whole world held hostage to greed with impunity? What are the limits of our personal and professional boundaries, and where, when, and how can we exert pressure to change how Western cultural institutions function? If, as many believe, the museum is still the agora for public discourse, if as many believe the most critical discourse we must engage in now is how to end behaviors that result in ecocide, of which climate change is one devastating symptom, can we take space in museum culture to force that discourse and effect change? Can we hope for a horizon of accountability for the rich and powerful? As she writes in her conclusion about the challenge ahead, “… the single most important thing is to begin … by looking inward.” She has offered us that beginning.

Member Spotlight: Linda Gass

Tue, 23 Nov 2021 06:23:36 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 22, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Linda Gass.

San Francisco Bay Area multimedia artist Linda Gass creates stitched paintings and works in glass to question the relationship between humans and their environment. Informed and inspired by her extensive research on the impact of changing waterways, sea-level rise, fire and drought in California and the American West, her work uses beauty to shed light on difficult issues. "I am inspired by the relationship between humans and the water and land that sustain them. My work explores how landscapes change over time focusing on those places where destruction and renewal, wounding and healing, absence and presence overlap."

Dogpatch, the sea is rising: 0, 3 and 6 feet, 2019

Sea level rise, caused by the thermal expansion of warming ocean water and the melting of land ice, is a significant climate change threat to coastal. From 1900 to 2016 global sea level has risen by 7-8 inches and the rate has increased to a rate of about 1/8” per year. The most recent scientific estimates for San Francisco Bay were released in 2018 by the California Ocean Protection Council (a State Government appointed council). Projections for 2050 are relatively modest with a likely increase of 1-foot. However, by 2100 the likely projection puts sea-level rise at between 3 to 6 feet. The range of projections is affected by whether carbon emission levels fall significantly or if they continue at current levels.

"Using sea-level rise maps published by the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association (NOAA), I have created a triptych of artworks showing the present day and the impact of 3 and 6 feet of sea level rise on the Dogpatch neighborhood of San Francisco. If you are familiar with this are, you may recognize familiar features such as the new Chase Center in Mission Bay and Oracle Park to the north."

San Joaquin Merced Revival, 2012

San Joaquin Merced Revival is part of a series about confluences of bodies of water that no longer exist due to human impact. The artwork shows a birds-eye view of where the confluence of the San Joaquin and Merced rivers once was, paired with endangered Chinook salmon. Before the San Joaquin was dammed and heavily diverted for agriculture in the 1940s, the river was the largest in Central California and supported spring and fall salmon runs of over 300,000 fish. The completion of the Friant Dam in 1942 and the diversion of water into the Friant-Kern Canal left little more than a trickle below the dam in most years, drying up the San Joaquin before it reaches its confluence with the Merced. As a result, the count of Chinook salmon fell to zero by the 1950s and the spring and fall salmon runs became extinct.

Although this situation may seem hopeless, there is an effort underway to restore the river and the Chinook salmon runs. In 1988, 13 plaintiffs filed a lawsuit and successfully proved that the Friant Dam's diversion of water from the San Joaquin River violated the Endangered Species Act and California's public trust policies. Eventually a settlement was reached in 2006, requiring the river flow and the salmon runs to be restored. Restoration efforts are currently underway.

Some day there may be no more snow: California snowpack 1960 – 2019

This data visualization artwork shows the average annual snow water equivalent for the state of California for the years 1960 – 2019. The snow water equivalent is a critical measurement: the state’s water delivery system of dams and reservoirs was designed to rely on the snowpack’s natural reservoir. The mountains store vast quantities of winter precipitation as frozen snow until late spring when it begins melting, slowly releasing water throughout the summer to replenish the human-made reservoirs.

The artwork shows that California has very few “normal” years; for as long as humans have kept track, it never has. Flood and drought are the normal, however the data shows the water content is on a downward trend. The decrease is caused by warmer winter air temperatures where less precipitation falls in the form of snow. The delicate thread-lace columns evoke the shape of the tubes used by snow surveyors to measure the snow pack and their shaded gradation help the viewer see the extremes in the data.

Some day there may be no more snow: California Snowpack 1960-2019, 2019 (detail)

Linda Gass is best known for her intricately stitched paintings about climate change, land use, and water issues in California and the American West. She graduated from Stanford University with a BS in Mathematics and MS in Computer Science and has been creating art for more than 20 years after a decade-long career in software. Her work has been exhibited throughout the US, in Europe and Russia, and at venues including the Museum of Craft and Design, Oakland Museum, the Bellevue Arts Museum, and the US Embassy in Moscow; and has been written about in National Geographic’s All Over the Map: A Cartographic Odyssey, and American Craft as well as other publications. Gass's work is held in several public and private collections including the International Quilt Museum, San Jose Museum of Quilts and Textiles, and Zuckerberg San Francisco General Hospital. lindagass.com

Featured Images: ©Linda Gass, Dogpatch, the sea is rising: 0, 3, and 6 feet, 2019, silk painting, digital scanning , digital image manipulation (Adobe Photoshop), digital printing on silk, machine quilting, 35.5 x 60 x 1.5 inches (Top); San Joaquin Merced Revival, 2012, silk painting and machine quilting, 30 x 45 x .5 inches; Some day there may be no more snow: California Snowpack 1960-2019, 2019, cotton, rayon and clear polyester, monofilament thread, dissolvable stabilizer, fabric stiffener, magnets, nails, 58 x 90 x 1.25 inches (bottom). Portrait of the artist at the Museum of Craft and Design, San Francisco, 2020 (Below).

Member Spotlight: Beverly Naidus

Tue, 16 Nov 2021 05:00:34 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 15, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Beverly Naidus.

EXTREME MAKEOVER: Reimagining the Port of Tacoma Free of Fossil Fuels is a community-based art project. The Port of Tacoma is an industrial port built on tribal land in violation of the Medicine Creek Treaty of 1854. The soil and water have been contaminated by years of dumping and now host several designated superfund sites. In recent years, the community has been fighting the installation of new and dangerous fossil fuel projects in the Port and Extreme Makeover arose out of that resistance.

MAP OF THE 3-MILE BLAST ZONE (CREATED BY THE PUYALLUP TRIBE)

"Extreme Makeover has been hosting art workshops (most recently with the support of Tacoma’s 350.org) to engage the public in a reconstructive visioning process. The questions we ask participants are: what would the Port of Tacoma look like if the toxic superfund sites are healed as much as possible via permaculture design and the port becomes a showcase for green, renewable energy? What would happen if the Puyallup Nation's vision for a restored estuary is made tangible through multidisciplinary art projects so that the public will get behind it? How can this project help the community prepare, both emotionally and pragmatically, for the impact of rising sea levels on the Port of Tacoma and the local ecosystem?"

"After some meditation exercises, participants make collages, digital images and drawings as part of their visioning process. Our art making can be powerful medicine. It can awaken people to their power and motivate them to take action. It can be the glue that brings together strangers when they sit in workshops making art together. Participants have come to various public locations and community centers to discuss the questions above and create images that will be eventually projected onto walls in their neighborhoods, captured on social media, and shared virally."

"Scientists, activists, artists, and members of the Puyallup tribe have been developing performance interventions for different public events. Those events will eventually be videotaped and shared online. The goal will be to awaken a typically uninformed citizenry and help them become stakeholders in their shared future.

We want to reach people who have given up hope and have succumbed to dystopic views of the future. This is an intergenerational project so that stories about getting through hardship, healing from trauma, and recovering from depression and difficult circumstances will help younger participants believe that we can shift things."

Beverly Naidus's art and life have straddled the art world's socially engaged margins, artful activism collaborations, and community-based art projects. Much of her work deals with ecological and social issues that have adversely affected her and those around her. Naidus has taught art as a subversive activity at NYC museums, the Institute for Social Ecology, California State University, Long Beach, where she had tenure, Goddard College, Hampshire College, and Carleton College. She’s been a tenured member of the UW Tacoma faculty for the past 16 + years, where she's shaped an innovative, interdisciplinary studio arts curriculum in art for social change and healing. She is the author of Arts for Change: Teaching Outside the Frame (a book that is shifting studio arts curriculum around the world) and has written & published many essays on eco-art and social practice, as well as a few works of speculative fiction. She recently published a limited-edition artist’s book, Not Just Words: A 30-Year Exhortation to Love & Resistance. faculty.washington.edu/bnaidus

Featured Images: ©Beverly Naidus, EXTREME MAKEOVER: Reimagining the Port of Tacoma Free of Fossil Fuels, 2018-2020.

Member Spotlight: Mark Brest van Kempen

Tue, 09 Nov 2021 04:17:19 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 8, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Mark Brest van Kempen.

Brest van Kempen has created a variety of artworks using the landscape itself as sculptural material. From the Free Speech Monument on the UC Berkeley campus to Land Exchange at the National Academy of Art in China, his work explores the range of emotions and issues that are embodied in our complex relationship to the environment. He has spoken around the country and abroad on the possibilities of creating artwork that functions outside the museum /gallery context and that bring aesthetic and symbolic meaning to everyday situations.

Living From Land

"This thirty day performance consisted of living within a five square mile area of wilderness and bringing no food with me. I ate only the plants and animals from the site. The project was an inversion of landscape painting that reoriented the artist’s relationship with land. Instead of standing outside of the landscape and taking it in with my eyes, I stood inside it and took it in with my mouth. The performance was documented in a video installation that was exhibited at the Richmond Art Center and the Armory Center for the Arts in California and Exit Art in New York."

Ravenna Creek Drop

"This project sculpts the land and city infrastructure itself in a mile-long artwork that traces Ravenna Creek as it flows under the streets and sidewalks of Seattle. The project has a number of components along the corridor that includes a blue line that traces where the creek flows in a pipe under the city. Text of cast aluminum spelling out “Ravenna Creek” is embedded in the sidewalk along the line, creating a life-sized map embedded in the landscape itself. This maps traces where the creek flows underground. Pedestrians can follow the path of the creek from Ravenna Park to Lake Washington.

The daylighted section of Ravenna Creek ends in a small pond before flowing to a pipe under the city. I designed a steel and glass sculptural outfall that creates an 11 foot long wedge-shaped void in the water as the creek disappears into the city’s infrastructure. Two sides are blue, visually connecting the water with the blue line described above. The other two sides are glass and reveal a cross section of the pond bed.

Three Viewing vaults located along the pipeline allow pedestrians to see the creek flowing eight feet beneath the city. This subterranean creek is lit and complete with boulders and ferns.

Fifteen plaques mark the locations of glass capsules buried beneath the sidewalk. Each capsule contains seeds of a plant found on the site before the city was built. The capsules are designed to break and scatter the seeds during any future construction projects."

Leona Quarry Earthwork

"This large scale, multi-faceted project brings together land art with community activism, environmental art and land use on a one hundred fifty-acre urban riparian site. After documenting numerous violations of local and federal clean water laws on the site of a large new development, I worked with a small group of community activists to sue the developer and the city in federal court. This lawsuit resulted in altering the design of their developments to protect the watershed. I see this endeavor as a large-scale earthwork that was the result of a political struggle played out on the landscape.

Several interventions in the landscape frame the site as a large-scale artwork including legal text from the lawsuit stenciled onto drainage channels. The text continues in pipes underground and extends beneath the development itself. Several sites have become habitat for animals such as Pacific Tree Frogs, Western Fence Lizards and the endangered Alameda Whipsnake. Also, the creek itself was temporarily sculpted into a large inverted fountain that alters its legal standing from 'groundwater' to 'creek'."

Mark Brest van Kempen has received numerous commissions for public art projects including the San Francisco Art Commission, the City of San Jose, the City of Seattle and the Haas Foundation. His work has been presented in several books including Lucy Lippard’s The Lure of the Local and Peter Selz’s Art of Engagement as well as Time Magazine, The New York Times, Art in America, and the LA Times. He has received a California Arts Council Fellowship and has taught at the San Francisco Art Institute, Stanford University and California College of the Arts. mbvkstudio.com

Above: Mark Brest van Kempen, image courtesy of San Francisco Art Institute

A New Monograph Catalogues the Career of Eco Artist Christy Rupp

Tue, 02 Nov 2021 23:22:18 GMT

Christy Rupp, “Social Progress” (1985), Broadway and 5th Ave, NYC; mixed media and steel (photo by Peter Bellamy, sponsored by the Public Art Fund)

Noisy Autumn: Sculpture and Works on Paper, which publishes November 16, includes essays by Carlo McCormick, Amy Lipton, Nina Felshin, Bob Holman, and Lucy R. Lippard.

Posted on Hyperallergic by Insight Editions

November 2, 2021

Ever since her emergence as an artist and activist in Manhattan in the late 1970s, eco artist Christy Rupp has used art to understand the human definition of “natural.” Wielding commodified materials to construct three-dimensional sculptural pieces that examine our perception of nature, her work has been noted for its dynamic ability to deconstruct the harsh divisions that separate us from our environment. Noisy Autumn: Sculpture and Works on Paper, a new career-spanning monograph from Insight Editions, shows the precision, scale, and enduring power of this work.

Christy Rupp, “Dodo” (2007), welded steel, fast food chicken bones, wood, 33 x 16 x 29 inches

Through her artwork, Rupp directly addresses the intersection of geopolitics, culture, and economics as they impact the vulnerabilities of ecosystems. “Foundational in my art practice is the intersection of animal behavior and the environment. As I started to learn more about how the science of economics impacts habitat, pretty much everything I’ve made since then flows from the waste stream, the creation and persistence of garbage, and how that waste has defined the world we live in today,” Rupp says. “I study economics as if it were a natural system which has been corrupted. The ravages of oil spills, industrial pollutants, pesticides, and climate chaos have made me an eco artist.”

Noisy Autumn — its title celebrating Rachel Carson’s groundbreaking Silent Spring upon the forthcoming 60th anniversary of its publication —includes essays by Carlo McCormick, Amy Lipton, Nina Felshin, Bob Holman, and Lucy R. Lippard, who writes, “This book displays the extraordinary variety of Rupp’s work over the years and the increasing urgency of her wide-ranging concentration on the cultural framing of nature… Amid today’s rapid slide into uncaring obsolescence danced to the drumbeats of war and ecological disaster, Rupp’s work becomes prescient. While many “climate artists” focus on our own fears of loss rather than empathy for others, she goes to the heart of the crisis. Caring about wildlife for its own sake, on its own grounds, she is a voice for scientific and aesthetic reason.”

Christy Rupp’s sculptures and works on paper alike leave readers pondering human engagement with the natural world amid rampant consumption — and how they may take action.

Noisy Autumn is available to preorder now on Bookshop and Amazon, and you can pick up a copy wherever books are sold on November 16.

Continue reading HERE

Flow and Integration in the River Basin: Interview with Basia Irland

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 22:33:07 GMT

Molybdenum Mine Vol. 1, Hydrolibros

Flow and Integration in the River Basin: Basia Irland on her Career Inspired by and Alongside the Rivers of the World

Olivia Ann Carye Hallstein

Fulbright Scholar, Basia Irland, creates international water projects featured in two books, “Water Library” (University of New Mexico Press, 2007) and “Reading the River: The Ecological Activist Art of Basia Irland” (Museum De Domijnen, 2017). Through her work, Irland oﬀers a creative understanding of water while examining how communities of all beings rely on this vital element. She is Professor Emerita, Department of Art and Art History, University of New Mexico, where she established the Arts and Ecology Program. Her art is featured in over 70 international publications.

Hello Basia, thank you so much for your time. It is such a pleasure to speak with you. Since your work has revolved around the major theme of rivers but has allowed for incredible depth and diversity in practice, I want to dig into several aspects of your career.

Hydrolibros series. Retrospective, Museum de Domijnen, The Netherlands

You have worked so closely with these soils, waters and riverbeds; often using close observation to determine and drive your artwork. Yet, many of these ecologies have experienced drastic change. Over the course of your career, climate-related disaster and water mismanagement has increased drastically. How has this affected your work? What have you noticed in the field?

Good question because these two areas affect my work every day. My global river projects have investigated climate disruption for decades. “Icefield” was created twenty-one years ago in 2000. When this installation, (in the collection of the Colorado Water Center), was reshown last year in 2020, at a Denver exhibition, the curator wrote: “Ice Field anticipated by many years the more recent alarm over glacial melting. Twenty years ago, when climate disruption was rarely discussed in most of the world, Irland spent time hiking on a number of glaciers, including those in Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada. Inspired by these hikes across glaciers and her observations of meltwater, Irland began thinking about a future when there would be no more glaciers on the planet and the runoff from the ice would be the only relic remaining for scientists to study. Knowing that meltwater contains microbial populations, nutrients and metals that escape from glaciers and feed downstream ecosystems, Irland developed an installation entitled Ice Field. She used some of the instruments of scientific research–petri dishes, vials, test tubes and flasks filled with water as both an artistic interpretation of a future scientific study set in a pristine lab and an ode to the melting glaciers themselves. Ice Field was also installed in 2015 as part of a major retrospective of Irland’s work at the Museum De Domijnen in the Netherlands.”

No matter how dire the situation for rivers seems to be these days, there are plenty of thoughtful humans along riverbanks everywhere who work tirelessly to envision a better future for their community waterways.

We have seen how pollution, dams, channelization, climate disruption, over-exploitation, habitat destruction, uncontrolled urbanization, floods, and drought are drastically affecting our waterways. However, it is also important to reflect on some of the positive ways local groups are actively addressing the problems. No matter how dire the situation for rivers seems to be these days, there are plenty of thoughtful humans along riverbanks everywhere who work tirelessly to envision a better future for their community waterways. Numerous restoration projects are happening thanks to local governmental, environmental, and health organizations. Residents and businesses, nearby schools, and universities all pitch in to assist. Globally, concerned people are stepping up to take care of degraded streams, but obviously there is continually more to be done.

Icefield. Detail of installation.

What a hopeful message! Your work has followed riverways all over the world. They are symbols of this global interconnectedness, yet each experience is individual. What are some similarities and differences that you have discovered in the stories the river ecologies have to tell? What do the rivers want us to know?

I have written twenty-four essays for National Geographic about international rivers, written in the first person, from the perspective of the water. Cultural critic Lucy Lippard writes, “The genius of these National Geographic posts is the fact that they are written in the first person, the persona of the river herself. This unorthodox viewpoint removes the distanced objectivity expected of journalistic criticism and delivers the writing into direct experience – not the experience of someone simply rafting and hiking and researching a river, but the experience of being a river.”

We are not separate from the waters of the world.

Almost all global rivers I have visited share similarities because they are in peril, but in different ways. The Bagmati River, Nepal is a dumping site for thousands of cremated bodies. The Narmada River, India, is sacred and yet has one of the largest dams in the world. Lake Tana is the source of the Blue Nile, Ethiopia, and is rampant with the water-borne disease, schistosomiasis. The Portneuf River is completely encased in concrete as it flows through Pocatello, Idaho, so it can no longer breathe and meander naturally.

On a brighter note, Singapore recycles almost all of its wastewater into clean drinking water using a rigorous treatment process. It was fascinating to visit one of their plants with a biologist and see the various technologies being utilized. I think rivers would want us to deeply understand that they are alive. They have a body called a watershed with a mouth at the delta; organs of wetlands and riparian zones; cells, molecules of water; and like us, a circulatory system. We are not separate from the waters of the world.

Your symbolism between humanity and waterways is deeply touching! And your work is very collaborative between disciplines and people. For example, you work closely with scientists and with large local communities. What have been some important moments related to these interdisciplinary and global collaborations?

I could not do the work I do without the collaboration of scientists from many disciplines, including parasitologists in Nepal; a restoration biologist with the Nisqually Tribe, Washington; an algal scientist in Georgia; a biogeochemist in Colorado. I have partnered with dozens of hydrologists, and when invited to create Ice Book projects, I work closely with stream ecologists and botanists to determine the best native riparian seeds. There were nine different departments and institutes at Antioch College and the University of Dayton, which invited me to create an Ice Book project in Ohio. This included the Rivers Institute and even the physics department.

Launching Book XXXI into Rio. Photo by Ben Daitz.

The Gathering of Waters, which establishes cooperative relationships between people, and connects diverse cultures along the entire length of rivers, emphasizes that we all live downstream, and how imperative it is that we work together to face water challenges. During the five-year long Gathering of Waters; Río Grande, Source to Sea, over a thousand people participated along the entire 1,875 mile-length of the Río Grande. A canteen and logbook traveled the route of the río by boat, raft, canoe, hot-air balloon, car, van, horseback, truck, bicycle, mail, and on foot -- always handed person to person the entire distance. Many of the nineteen Native American Pueblos in New Mexico along the Río Grande were involved by performing relays of running with the canteen from pueblo to pueblo escorted by Tribal Police cars. At each pueblo the arrival of the canteen would be greeted with a delicious home-cooked meal.

During the five-year long Gathering of Waters; Río Grande, Source to Sea, over a thousand people participated along the entire 1,875 mile-length of the Río Grande... Connections were made that have been lasting, and groups are working together that never would have met otherwise.

After five years, the project reached the Gulf of Mexico at Boca Chica where we held a grand ceremony with participants from Mexico and the United States, and the upper and lower basins celebrating together. Connections were made that have been lasting, and groups are working together that never would have met otherwise.

The sculptures accompanying these projects are Backpack/Repositories constructed from local materials, which contain artifacts and research from the Gatherings. They hold the scientific data, canteens, logbooks, maps, water samples, photographs, video documentaries, and other relevant art objects and information. Through an encompassing ethic of inclusion, we witness the diversity of life along the river being celebrated again and again as the container passes downstream, hand to hand. Lucy Lippard, writes; “A Gathering of Waters is a major model for eco-art. Irland takes the journey herself, swimming upstream against the currents of a society not yet convinced that our comforts are worth sacrificing for our resources.” As with the Ice Book projects, each participant is presented with a handmade gift, often sculpted from river clay, to express appreciation for their help. Reciprocity.”

Saskatchewan River Delta Backpack-Repository. Canada

To participate in both of the Gathering and Ice Receding/Books Reseeding Projects, you have to physically be at the river and interact with others. Being aware of the plight of flowing water that is always asked to give more than it has, is a call for action from each of us.

In addition to the Río Grande, Gatherings have occurred along numerous other rivers. To participate in both of the Gathering and Ice Receding/Books Reseeding Projects, you have to physically be at the river and interact with others. Being aware of the plight of flowing water that is always asked to give more than it has, is a call for action from each of us. In the video documentary about the Gatherings, my son, Derek, stands in the middle of the Río Grande on a small sandbar and tweaks a famous quote; ‘Ask not what this river can do for you, but what you can do for this river.’

Boulder Creek Repository (worn), Colorado (center). Retrospective, Museum de Domijnen, The Netherlands.

Just last week I received an email inquiry about the Gathering Projects from an ecologist in the UK who wrote, “In particular, I am in love with your log-book idea in A Gathering of Waters: The Río Grande, Source to Sea – how it meanders down-stream from person to person, community to community. I am considering how I might adapt that as a means to connect people in a similar way and be a participatory method to create knowledge to inform my research into how people feel – relational and intrinsic values, and wellbeing - about their temporary chalk streams in southern England.”

You mentioned your ice books. And I wanted to ask you specifically about, Ice Receding/Books Reseeding, how they function as seeding depositories supporting biodiversity along river ecologies and bring awareness to melting glaciers. What is your process in deciding what seeds to include in which spaces?

The Ice Book projects emphasize the necessity of communal effort, scientific knowledge, and artistic expression to address complex environmental issues and watershed restoration by releasing seed-laden ephemeral ice sculptures into rivers.

The idea for the Ice Books began in 2007 when I was invited to do a project along Boulder Creek in Colorado as part of an exhibition focused on the climate crisis. Each of the artists was paired with a local scientist. I have often collaborated with scientists from a variety of disciplines throughout my career, and it was wonderful to work with a biogeochemist on this project. A primary water source for Boulder is Arapaho Glacier, and that glacier, as with most others in the world, is melting so drastically that it may soon disappear entirely. Creating a sculpture out of ice makes this idea visible, so we tangibly sense the loss of glaciers. Simultaneously, positive action is promoted by implanting seeds within the ice. The seeds present both a practical and poetic possibility for repair and renewal.

Creating a sculpture out of ice makes this idea visible, so we tangibly sense the loss of glaciers. Simultaneously, positive action is promoted by implanting seeds within the ice. The seeds present both a practical and poetic possibility for repair and renewal.

The seeds embedded in the ice form a universal ecological language, a restoration text, a poem to the river. I work closely with stream ecologists and botanists to ascertain the best native seeds for each riparian zone. Sometimes other natural materials are used instead of seeds. Deckers Creek in West Virginia is highly polluted with acid mine drainage. At this location the pH level drops from a healthy 7.7 to a problematic 4.2. Instead of seeds, we used limestone because of its ability to neutralize acidity. On False Creek in Vancouver, Canada, krill was used rather than seeds to provide food for small fish with the hope of luring salmon back into the area.

Most of these projects are highly collaborative and could not occur without the effort of many people working together along rivers where I am honored to be invited. With the help of local communities, the Ice Books are launched into the water. The calligraphic sentences of seeds slide from the melting pages of the volumes into the water to be carried to shore and begin planting themselves along the banks of the river.

In the years since the first Ice Book project, I have been invited to create over one-hundred hand-carved time-based sculptures to bring attention to rivers and how we might help with restoration efforts. These projects are not about abstract theorizing while sitting indoors; rather, they are about connecting diverse, multi-generational communities directly to their local waterways and taking tangible action for river repair. The Ice Books are replicable, ephemeral, use non-toxic materials, leave behind only native plants, and present a lyrical way to restore streams.

Tome II being read beside the Río Grande, New Mexico. Photo by Claire Cote.

These projects are not about abstract theorizing while sitting indoors; rather, they are about connecting diverse, multi-generational communities directly to their local waterways and taking tangible action for river repair.

Recently I have been working with people from around the world who want to create their own Ice Books to make connections to their waterways and initiate restorative actions that address local ecological issues. The results have been inventive, educational, and inspiring, with examples coming in from Spain, France, the Netherlands, Canada, Ireland, and many parts of the United States, including Hawaii.

A professor in China organized a two-day workshop with adults and children who launched Ice Books into the confluence of the Jailing and Yangtze Rivers. An Ice Book in England focuses on species loss and the collapse of amphibian populations. A frozen volume in Sydney, Australia is embedded with mangrove seedlings. An indigenous artist in the U.S. carved the words for “Water is Life” in his native tribal language and placed sacred corn within the text. The book was planted in the red desert earth of the Navajo Nation. Dutch Ice Books witness a river that has been dredged to help alleviate flooding. Imbedded in an Ice Book from Mexico are plants important to the ancient Lake Xochimilco and the historic canals of Mexico City. If you visit your local river today, what would you add to an Ice Book to bring attention to ecological issues faced by your watershed?

What a fantastic call to action! Your related work, Hydrolibros, accentuates local ecologies through bound books using materials from the riverbeds you explore. Through these materials you tell stories. What is your approach to telling these stories through materials?

One example of the numerous stories told in a Hydrolibros sculpture is Molybedenum Mine, Vol. I that commemorates a huge scar gaping across acres of abused wilderness in northern New Mexico caused by the Chevron Questa molybedenum mine (formerly the Molycorp Mine). Wandering illegally among the heaps of discarded mining equipment, I found the text for this hand-carved wooden book, which was fool’s gold and rust – poetic justice for this site, the tailings of which historically killed aquatic habitat for over ten miles downstream in the Red River and contaminated the soil. The mine began operations in 1920 and was officially closed in 2014. An image of Molybdenum Mine, Vol. I was included in the 2020 book, Extraction, Art on the Edge of the Abyss (pp. 480-48, CODEX Foundation).

Speaking of literature, in your scrolls you explore waterborne diseases and present them in beautiful ways and yet they are deadly…

Yes, I am very interested in the notion of a terrible beauty. When isolated and viewed through a microscope, the pathogens look incredibly beautiful, and yet, the tragic reality is that waterborne diseases kill millions of people around the world every year. According to the World Health Organization, a child dies from a water-related disease every eight seconds. A BBC reporter phrased it this way: “The number of deaths due to water pathogens is the same as twenty jumbo jets crashing each day.” The dark, destructive side of water is as fascinating and rich in history as its more sanguine side. Many households around the world, including here in the United States, do not have clean water, and this must be considered one of the most serious public health crises facing us.

For more extensive writings on The Terrible Beauty of Waterborne Micro-Pathogens, see chapter six “Polluted Waters” in Water Library, Basia Irland, University of New Mexico Press, 2007.

Waterborne Disease Scrolls. Retrospective. Museum de Domijnen, The Netherlands.

As well as your awareness work, you have created spaces for people to contemplate the river in meditation with it. You describe your Contemplation Stations as places to “repose by yourself and view a flowing stream that has the ability to quiet the mind, relax the body and feed the soul.” What was your inspiration for this work and how has the need for this developed during the past few years?

In our overly frenetic, busy lives, I enjoy creating spaces where one can visit and experience a sense of tranquility and peace – away from the work-a-day world. Contemplation Stations are woven river plants constructed around a sturdy outdoor wooden chair placed on a site near the river so the viewer can be cocooned within and be quietly attentive. The overhead dome-shape frames the view so a person's perception is focused intently on the river. All the senses are heightened when in this type of setting. The smell of nearby plants, the sight of the current flowing downstream, the call of birds, are all brought into perspective and can be more deeply appreciated.

All the senses are heightened when in this type of setting. The smell of nearby plants, the sight of the current flowing downstream, the call of birds, are all brought into perspective and can be more deeply appreciated.

I created seven of these sculptural forms on the River Maas, which is the border between Belgium and the Netherlands when I had a large retrospective at the Museum de Domijnen, the Netherlands. Recently, I built and located three of the Stations along the Río Grande in New Mexico as a way for people to contemplate and focus on the importance of this major artery of the Southwest. During this time of Covid, I have heard from many people who seek out the (“socially distanced” -- ha) Stations as a site to be alone in a quiet, beautiful setting.

So, the viewer is integrated into the flow and tide of the river itself? Much of your work involves ephemeral pieces that reintegrate with the chosen ecology as if in keeping with the flowing natural cycles of life. What has drawn you toward the ephemeral as a process?

Translator, David Hinton describes ancient Chinese poets who, as a form of spiritual practice, would write on rocks and trees with water-soluble ink that would wash away in the rain, so the poem was complete only when it vanished. Just as the prayer flags I photographed strung near sacred sites and hanging from temple trees throughout Nepal and India transport blessings on the wind, the rivers of the world need all the reverence and protection we can provide.

In my art, the process of creation is as important as the sculptures, which in the case of the Ice Books (described previously), are impermanent, only existing after the event through documentation and plants. Part of the significance of these time-based sculptures is that they melt away. Time and energy, which have gone into the carving of the Books vanish in the current of a stream. Everything we know is in existence for only a period of time. Instead of dust to dust, here we have water to water. A marble or steel sculpture will also eventually, over millennia, go back into the earth, but the process is speeded up drastically in melting ice. Ways of knowing later about an ephemeral object or event is through documentation. I utilize writing, filming, photography, and drawing, which are shown in museum installations.

Instead of dust to dust, here we have water to water. A marble or steel sculpture will also eventually, over millennia, go back into the earth, but the process is speeded up drastically in melting ice.

Lastly, you recently had a retrospective of your life’s work thus far. How does it feel to see it all come together? And what are you planning to do next?

I was invited by the amazing Dutch curator Roel Arkensteijn to have a large retrospective at the Museum de Dominjnen in the Netherlands, which was the most wondrous experience! The museum hired eight preparators who helped with anything that I wished to create, including installing a long reflecting pool of water with stepping-stones within the museum. My work took up seven enormous galleries and filled the entire museum. We even projected images of flowing water, entitled Below, onto the façade windows to indicate that this building might someday be underwater since the Netherlands lies so low.

It was fantastic to see older work side by side with brand new work created specifically for the space. We constructed seven Contemplation Stations (discussed previously) out of natural local materials that were sited along the River Maas. Within the museum was a location map of these Stations.

I feel totally fortunate to wake up each day and do the work I love to do!

The primary focus right now is representing the United States in the upcoming Biennale, Cuenca, Ecuador, curated by the brilliant Blanca de la Torre. All the work I am creating for the museum is being produced on site (instead of shipping art) to keep our ecological footprint to a minimum, including video installations translated into Spanish and projects focused on the four major regional rivers. I am also creating collaborative aquatic projects with an artist in Xochimilco, Mexico and a scientist in the UK. I feel totally fortunate to wake up each day and do the work I love to do!!

Thank you so much for your time, Basia! What amazing messages and inspiration our readers can take from your experience!

To see more of Irland's work go to basiairland.com

Contemplation Station VII before being moved to the River Maas.

Member Spotlight: Marion Wilson

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 19:27:49 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

November 1, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Marion Wilson.

Greening the Red Line began with art classes taught at Urban Ministries’ drop-in art room which is one mile from the national headquarters of Bank of America and Wells Fargo. Heated conversations ensued about the historical practice of red-lining, which denied mortgage loans based on race, and the ways that artists both resist and participate in urban development. Participants shared memories of neighborhoods that have changed; and wrote poems about what it feels like to be a person who “travels by foot."

"As the Environmental Artist at the McColl Center in Charlotte, North Carolina during Fall 2016, I used the 'southern landscape' to talk about issues of housing and rapid-fire development of Charlotte’s city center; and the historically racist practice of red-lining where banks restricted housing loans to people of color. My community engagement project was held in partnership with the Urban Ministries Center art program where I led a Drop-in Drawing Clinic in a renovated RV art and botany lab called MLAB that I brought down from Syracuse, New York."

"Within the first two weeks, with the assistance of McColl Center, I was able to sit down with a developer who owned a 2.5 acre abandoned lot next door to Urban Ministries and get permission to use 900 North Tryon Street as a platform for my work. In collages, I imagined blanketing the lot with a large bed of a red — creating a metaphoric red stop sign to slow down and look at what we are doing with all of this development. I ran drawing clinics in the RV, both looking closely through jewelers loupes at species of urban mosses and grasses found on the lot; but also turning our viewfinders to the panoramic view of the city to re-imagine through sketches what we as artists, people who are served by the Urban Ministries and already use the lot; or anyone who feels resistance to development."

"In my own studio practice I brought back barrels and bags of the red clay soil and rocks from a lot being developed near Alexandria Park – along the River Creek walk. In glass planters I grew three 'cover crops': crimson clover, winter rye and winter cow pea. Crimson Clover blooms a brilliant red in the spring and all of the cover crops add nutrients to the soil and help with erosion in time that farmers use to grow crops in the spring. I began making larger and larger containers and raised beds for the crops and eventually turned to the church pew fragments that I had brought down with me from a previous project. In a thin layer of local soil I grow these three crops as if they were paintings of the Southern landscape."

Marion Wilson's art investigates landscape to foster a connection to self and place. Through paintings, photographs, and installations, she interrogates our relations to nature at a time when extreme climate change threatens ecosystems, livelihoods, and communities. The artist builds partnerships with botanists, architects, and urban communities, reflecting collective skill sets. She founded MLAB and MossLab, a mobile eco/art lab in a student renovated RV — driving from Syracuse to Miami examining moss species, and 601 Tully — the renovation of an abandoned 1900 residence into a neighborhood art center in upstate NY. Wilson re-finished a houseboat in Vineyard Haven, MA, during the pandemic, which she named 100 Lagoon Pond, providing her with an art studio and a public platform towards collective lagoon health. marionwilson.com

November 2021 Newsletter

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 16:56:38 GMT

The ecoartspace November 2021 e-Newsletter is HERE

Extraction: Artists Raise a Ruckus by Jean Arnold

Mon, 01 Nov 2021 03:37:04 GMT

Jean Arnold, Kennecott: Deep Pit (UT, copper)", 2020, acrylic/mixed media on paper, 18” x 36

Posted by

on the Association for the Tree of Life Blog
October 31, 2021

A ravenous, yet decrepit cyborg – part machine, part zombie – lurches onward as it is programmed to do. Its hunger is so insatiable that it eats its own flesh; it eats its offspring; and it eats the future. The catabolic effects are inescapable and its death rattle reverberates for miles. An entire city lives inside this beast. Yet in this late hour, inhabitants put their heads down and carry-on as usual, for they are all dependent upon this monster for their very own food, water, and shelter. No one dares utter a stray word, until the day one brave soul holds up a mirror that reveals who they have become.

A decade ago, I attended a series of contentious activist meetings with Rio Tinto, the mega-mining corporation that owns the massive Kennecott copper pit in the Salt Lake Valley. Rio Tinto planned to expand the mine, and activists were pushing back. The meetings foundered and collapsed upon the lack of viable possibilities for avoiding local impacts and for making operations more sustainable. Activists’ proposals were considered impractical and unprofitable. Ultimately, Kennecott got its expansion and activists got nothing.

Jean Arnold, Civilization, 2012, oil on canvas, 42 x 42 inches.

An early Egyptian pyramid is seen with the gaping hole of the Kennecott copper pit. As civilization builds up monuments to itself, it must tear down into Earth for her treasures.

As a visual artist, I took my angst to the studio and captured eviscerated earth in a series of paintings and drawings, depicting large-scale mining operations that are rarely seen or considered by the public. What better way to reveal our civilization's insatiable hunger for resources?

I realized that the mining industry cannot be greened, intrinsically by its very nature. Mining casts a long shadow: habitat loss, land theft, worker exploitation, local health impacts, and groundwater contamination, to name just a few issues. Without mining and other forms of extraction, Industrial Civilization could not exist. Yet we rarely ponder our Wonder-World’s material basis and its extraction costs.

Turns out I’m not the only one working in this vein – far from it.

This year a broad panoply of photographers, painters, poets, and printmakers are raising a ruckus in a four-continent constellation of almost fifty exhibits, installations, performances, and events under the rubric “EXTRACTION: Art on the Edge of the Abyss.” When EXTRACTION originator Peter Koch announced the project, it took off like wildfire. Creators are shining lights on all forms of the omnivorous extractive industry, “from mining and drilling to the reckless plundering and exploitation of fresh water, fertile soil, timber, marine life, and innumerable other resources across the globe.” The project’s broad definition begs the questions: In our civilization, what isn’t based on extraction? What isn’t affected by extraction?

Continue reading HERE

Diane Burko: On Bearing Witness and Embracing Beauty

Sun, 31 Oct 2021 17:57:36 GMT

Diane Burko: On Bearing Witness and Embracing Beauty

Susan Hoffman Fishman (posted on Artists & Climate Change, October 25, 2021)

For over fifty years, Philadelphia-based painter, photographer, and activist Diane Burko has translated her love for large open spaces and monumental geological sites into powerful and alluring landscapes. Her current exhibition at the American University in Washington, D.C. (August 28 – December 12, 2021), titled Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change 2002 – 2021, contains 103 paintings, photographs, and time-based media depicting mountains, oceans, snow and ice, glaciers, volcanos, and fires that address the growing impact of the climate crisis.

Installation view of Diane Burko: Seeing Climate Change 2002 – 2021 at the American University, Washington, D.C., 2021.

Continue reading HERE

Member Spotlight: Billy X. Curmano

Mon, 25 Oct 2021 16:04:47 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 25, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Billy X. Curmano.

In Swimmin' the River (1987-1997), Billy X. Curmano swam the length of the Mississippi River as a political gesture to advocate for the freedom from toxicity. Spanning from the headwaters to the Gulf of Mexico (2,367.4 miles), Curmano used the river as an artistic medium and political landscape to discuss environmental issues. He waded in the Mississippi as the sunlight glistens and the wind shapes the tide. Each stroke the artist took was an attempt to reclaim the river under the banner of art and to work toward a more progressive agenda for climate justice. The ecology of Curmano’s swim can be seen as an extended metaphor of pollution—one in which our existence has become contaminated by the effects of eco-capitalism.

"I love the concept of life simply as art – it runs through me. But what if the reality of my life is confused by dreams and fantasies? What is life? What is real? What is not? I think my take on live art is sometimes akin to automatic writing or a painter painting a fantasy. I seem to be compelled to live out my fantasies. Life as art morphs into a life in peculiar circumstance: in the Mississippi River, the Arctic, or Death Valley, or wherever. Or maybe it’s life as art, as life takes a turn. Then again, maybe I’m simply bored when trapped inside walls, even walls made of glass. I take great solace in nature.

I’ve tried to balance urban life and nature. I’ve been a tree planter. I’ve lived in the woods. I’ve slept in a hammock near the crown of trees. In a fit of artistic isolationism, I moved to a farmhouse on a minimum maintenance road. My work has allowed me to be intimate with the Mississippi for thousands of miles. It’s taken me to the beauty of the desert and the deep seated spirituality of a 40-day juice and water fast. It lets me step out of what eventually always becomes the everyday."

Mississippi River Water Vial, 1987, edition of 110, signed and numbered, hand-etched glass vial with Mississippi River source water collected at Lake Itasca, MN. (click on the image to go to Fundraiser Gallery)

Billy X. Curmano is an award-winning artist/adventurer and former McKnight Foundation Interdisciplinary Art Fellow. He was trained as a painter and sculptor. His more traditional objects have been exhibited here and abroad since a first solo show at the University of Wisconsin Milwaukee in 1970. Notably, some of his paintings represented the USA in the “III Vienna Graphikbiennale” (Austria). His works have also found their way to the Museum of Modern Art in New York and other prestigious collections. Billy X. came to music through the back door using soundscapes in “live art” and is probably best known for edgy performances. His more eccentric pieces include a 3-day live burial, 2,000 plus mile Mississippi River Swim, 40-day Death Valley Desert Fast, and a sojourn to the Arctic Circle on public transport. He’s won awards for performance and film as well as a solo CD. Billy X. has toured every way imaginable, including 6,200 miles and 15 cities in 45 days on a Greyhound Bus and intrigued audiences from the Dalai Lama's World Festival of Sacred Music in Los Angeles to New York City's famed Franklin Furnace. He's been a "Pick of the Week" in the L.A. Weekly and on the City Pages "A-List". Journalists have dubbed him the court jester of Southern Minnesota. He has been fortunate to study briefly with John Cage, Rachel Rosenthal, Babtundi Olatunji, and Joseph Shabalala. billyx.net

Featured Images: ©Billy X. Curmano, Swimming the Mississippi, 1987-1997. Top image: “Sun Hat”, Mississippi River near Oquawka, IL, Photo by Darlene Hlidek. Center image: “As Far as the Heart Can See,” installation including "Swim" video at Elizabeth foundation for the Arts, New York. Above: “Mr. Ambassador,” Mississippi River near Palisade Minnesota, Photo by Andi Shankle. Below: “St. Paul Landing,” Photo by David Florian Heinz.

Member Spotlight: Meridel Rubenstein

Mon, 18 Oct 2021 15:04:08 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 18, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Meridel Rubenstein.

The Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden Project (2011-present) is a humanitarian water remediation project, expressed through wastewater garden design and environmental art, that provides environmental and cultural regeneration to a desiccated region of southern Iraq. This project is a collaboration between co-directors artist/photographer Meridel Rubenstein and environmental engineer Dr. Davide Tocchetto, with environmental engineer Dr. Mark Nelson and engineer and managing director Nature Iraq NGO, Jassim Al-Asadi.

The Garden will provide urgently needed health and clean water for southern Iraqis, their children, and future generations to come. This project, sponsored by NGO Nature Iraq in Iraq and the Institute of Ecotechnics in both the UK and USA, is a response to decades of conflict in this region and continued tension due to climate change, external water rights violations, and social upheaval. Initial support since 2011 spans from Iraqi municipalities, the region and State, to international sources; most recently, the Eden in Iraq Wastewater Garden Project was chosen as one out of 100 grassroots projects for UNESCO’s Green Citizens Initiative.

The wastewater garden will feature locally significant design details, making it an engaging public site that emphasizes cultural heritage, while restoring health and offering ecological education. It will provide a sanctuary for reflection and relaxation in a continuously unsettled time. The garden design will engage with local craftspeople, local materials, and ancient crafts e.g. reed structures, earthen brick, ancient cylinder seal patterns for ceramic tiles, and a floral design layout that is inspired by Mesopotamian embroidered wedding blanket patterns (now being revived locally).

Eden in Iraq offers a solution to contaminated water through the utilization of simple and sustainable wastewater recycling technology to support a garden that embodies the rich cultural heritage and tradition of the marshes and the Marsh Arab community. For those millions of migrants afloat in Europe today, the Marsh Arabs of the Mesopotamian marshes in Southern Iraq offer a stunning example of a violently displaced people returning home to heal and restore their desertified land.

Meridel Rubenstein began her career as a photographer in the early 1970s, and slowly evolved from taking single photographic images to becoming an artist of extended works and multi-media installations. She studied with noted photographer Minor White at MIT and received her MA and MFA in photography from the University of New Mexico. From the start, her art has urged awareness of how we are connected to place. Rubenstein has been an active arts educator for over thirty years, having headed the MFA Photography Program at San Francisco State University. She has exhibited widely, including at Brian Gross Fine Art in San Francisco, Chan Hampe Gallery Singapore, and the Louvre in Paris. Rubenstein has received fellowships from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Bunting Institute at Harvard University, and awards from the National Endowment of the Arts, the Pollock Krasner and the Rockefeller Foundations. meridelrubenstein.com

Featured Images Above: ©Meridel Rubenstein, Eden in Iraq, 2011-present. IMPORTANT: The Eden in Iraq team recently signed an agreement with the Center for Restoration of Iraqi Marshes and Wetlands (CRIMW) to implement the first stage of the Wastewater Garden. Meridel Rubenstein in Iraq below.

Member Spotlight: Kelly Richardson

Mon, 11 Oct 2021 18:28:19 GMT

MEMBER SPOTLIGHT

October 11, 2021

This week we recognize the work of artist Kelly Richardson.

HALO I, II and III are sequels to Camp, a video which presented a cliché of outdoor life filmed in 1998. The full moon on a summer evening is distorted by the heat rising from a crackling campfire. On the fire, popcorn bursts. With each burst, the moon dances.

Twenty-three years after producing Camp, the promise of what summer brings has changed. HALO I presents a full, partially red moon distorted once again by heat rising from something burning and crackling out of shot. Embers float around and smoke swirls.

Past, present and future, the HALO trilogy references the significant feedback loop we are now in after decades of warnings. Campfires are now banned in the summer in British Columbia. With severe, extended droughts being the new normal, the risk of wildfire is extreme. Compounding the threat, 2021 produced record temperatures reaching a staggering 49.6C, smashing the previous record by 4.6C. It is set to be the 3rd worst fire season on record, all of which were recorded within the last 5 years. Simultaneously, the UN declared that it is code red for humanity as a result of climate change.

HALO I, 2021, 4k video, seamless loop, stereo audio HERE.

HALO II, 2021, 4k video, seamless loop, stereo audio HERE.

HALO III, 2021, 4k video, seamless loop, stereo audio HERE.

Embers and the Giants presents an endangered old-growth forest during last light, articulated by thousands of floating embers of light. Initial impressions may be that we are witness to a rare and exceptionally beautiful display of fireflies or the embers from a forest fire out of frame. The longer viewers look, the more evident it becomes that we are not witnessing a natural spectacle. We are witnessing human intervention through thousands of tiny drones mimicking a natural spectacle, suggesting a time when we will need to amplify the spectacle of nature in order to convince the public of its worth.

Embers and the Giants questions our calls for preservation at a time when large-scale environmental breakdown caused by climate change is not a case of if but when. The idea for the work was inspired by two news articles accessed in 2016 about threatened old-growth forests which, after the discovery of a natural spectacle (fireflies and giant trees respectively), successful cases for preservation were argued. Both areas are now extremely popular tourist destinations. In light of the terrifying fallout of continued, large-scale biodiversity loss worldwide, when are vital ecosystems worthy of preservation?

Taking cues from 19th-century landscape painting, 20th-century cinema, and 21st-century planetary research, Kelly Richardson crafts video installations and digital prints that offer imaginative glimpses of the future, prompting careful consideration of the present. From 2003-2017 she resided in northeast England, where she was a Lecturer in Fine Arts at Newcastle University. She currently lives and works as a visitor on the traditional territory of the WSANEC peoples of the Coast Salish Nation on Vancouver Island, Canada. Richardson is a Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria. kellyrichardson.net

Featured Images Above: ©Kelly Richardson, Halo I, II, III, 2021 (stills); Embers and the Giants, 2019, installation documentation.