Tree Talk: Artists Speak For Trees
Thursday, February 24
United States: 3pm PT, 4pm MT, 5pm CT, 6pm ET
Europe: 23:00 GMT Australia: 10am AEDT, Friday, February 25
Kaitlin Bryson, Keith D. Buswell, Gloria Florez, Emmy Mikelson
The entanglements of a forest are vast, complex and mysterious. Today artists seek to understand and express the interconnectedness of trees with all living beings. Members included in the online exhibition and book Embodied Forest will share their diverse artworks and ideas about our human relationship with trees and forests.
For our February 2022 Tree Talk, Kaitlin Bryson will share Trans(re)lations, an installation that makes the invisible visible, by scaling up and illuminating the unseen forces and communicative potentials of mycorrhizal networks. Keith D. Buswell will present That Which Connects Us..., his series of etchings that examine the network of fungi underground connecting the roots of trees as an analogy of our interpersonal relationships. Gloria Florez will discuss Forest Ambassadors, an ongoing environmental/collective/artistic project that explores endangered ecosystems and transforms biomaterials into an ever-growing interactive installation. Emmy Mikelson will speak about her imagery that slips between microbial landscapes and dense forest ecosystems exploring how changes in scale and detail can reveal newness that challenge our expectations.
Tree Talk is moderated by Sant Khalsa, ecofeminist artist and activist, whose work has focused on critical environmental and societal issues including forests and watersheds for four decades.
Co-sponsored by Joshua Tree Center for Photographic Arts
Members and one guest are free. General Public can attend for $10. Capacity is 100 participants. All participants MUST REGISTER.
Gif Images: ©Kaitlin Bryson, Trans(re)lations, 2020; ©Keith D. Buswell, [T ≡ (S • B)] ∨ A, 2019; ©Gloria Florez, Forest Ambassadors, 2021; ©Emmy Mikelson, Blind Forest, 2019.
Presenters:
Kaitlin Bryson's Trans(re)lations is an artwork that makes the invisible visible, by scaling up and illuminating the unseen forces and communicative potentials of mycorrhizal networks. We know so little of the world below our feet. By creating an above-ground mycorrhizal network, layered with projected imagery and electrical signals, this work begins to break down the communication barrier between humans and the more-than-human world. Bryson is an ecological artist concerned with environmental and social justice. Her art practice and activism are focused on biological and metaphysical applications of healing, responding to the pervasive persistence of harm in the world. Bryson primarily works with fungi as collaborators, materials and metaphors for her artworks. Bryson has received support from the Lannan and Andrew W. Mellon Foundation(s) to create ecologically, remediative artworks nationally and internationally. kaitlinbryson.com
Image: ©Kaitlin Bryson and Matea Friend with sound by Ian Nelson, Trans(re)lations, 2020, site-specific installation and weaving made out of organic cotton rope, video installation projection mapped onto woven sculpture, UCLA Botanical Garden, 18 x 5 x 13 feet
Keith D. Buswell is a printmaker whose work delves into the imagined world of root systems and how they relate to community based on recent discoveries of a network of fungi underground connecting the roots of trees. The mycelia not only relay information to each other, but also provide nutrients for young and dying plants. This discovery is an embodiment of community. His copper plate etchings act as tree portraits for members of arboreal residents. Buswell graduated with a BFA in art from the University of Nebraska - Lincoln. He works with various printmaking processes such as screen-printing, intaglio and mono printing and dabbles in drawing and multimedia. His work has been shown in the United States, Mexico, Egypt, Dubai, France and Italy. Originally from Council Bluffs, Iowa, he currently lives in Lincoln with his husband Brad and his dog Max. keithdbuswell.art
Image: ©Keith D. Buswell, [T ≡ (S • B)] ∨ A, group of etchings.
Gloria Florez, the selected artist for the 2019 Northern Beaches Council & Eramboo Residency, was inspired by the endangered Pittwater’s Eucalyptus Spotted Gum Forest to create her Forest Ambassadors installation. Since then, FA has morphed into an ongoing environmental/collective/artistic project that explores endangered ecosystems and transforms biomaterials into an ever-growing interactive installation aiming to inspire future generations to protect our natural world. Currently, as winner of BigCi Environmental Award Florez has continued developing FA in the Blue Mountains of Australia. Colombian-Australian artist Gloria Florez’s practice has a continuing interest in the connection between science, natural phenomena, conservation and sustainability. Her practice focuses on working closely with First Nations, children, scientists, artists and writers from diverse communities developing sustainable/ collective projects, to bring Nature’s power and ephemeral beauty to the centre of our life. Florez has a BVA and an MFA by research from the University of Sydney and a BVA Honours from the National Art School Sydney. gloriaflorez.info
Image: ©Gloria Florez, Forest Ambassadors, 2021, Clay, charcoal, eucalyptus leaf and bark, variable sizes. (Photo by Camellia Taylor)
Emmy Mikelson works with imagery that slips between microbial landscapes and dense forest ecosystems exploring how changes in scale and detail can reveal newness that challenge our expectations. Her repetitive line work and shifting layers of color highlight the perceptual "noise" reveal the novelty inherent in any space. Familiarity with our environment can distort our perceptions of it. Our attention is quickly grabbed by new things, but soon, the novelty wears off and we habituate to our surroundings. Emmy Mikelson is an interdisciplinary artist living in New York City who has exhibited nationally and internationally. She has participated in residencies including a research residency at the Adolpho Ducke Rainforest Reserve in Manaus, Brazil. She co-curated the exhibition And Another Thing: Nonanthropocentrism and Art for the James Gallery at the Graduate Center (CUNY) and co-authored its resulting publication. She is pursuing a master’s degree in psychology at The School for Professional Studies (CUNY). emmymikelson.net
Image: ©Emmy Mikelson, Blind Forest, 2019, installation detail, mixed media (photo, drawing, screen prints).
