Tree Talk: Artists Speak For Trees
Thursday, June 23
United States: 10:00am PDT, 11:00am MDT, 12:00pm CDT, 1:00pm EDT
Europe: 19:00 CEST Australia: 3:00am AEST, Friday, May 27
Hannah Chalew, Hings Lim, Paula Pedrosa, Barry Underwood
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 June 2022 Tree Talk, Hannah Chalew will share her drawings of swamp flora created with ink from oak galls collected from live oak trees around New Orleans, which bridge past and present with visions of future ecosystems. Hings Lim will speak about his performance project Witness of Land that invites participants to maneuver the augmented reality application to bring forth the presence of witness trees. Paula Pedrosa will present her trajectory leading to the Diorama photographic series, which investigates boundaries between nature and culture in a time of ecological collapse. Barry Underwood will discuss his creative practice that stands at the intersection of staged photography, land art, and minimalist sculpture, and illuminates environments that hold rich ecological and cultural histories and are sites of destructive human behavior.
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: ©Hannah Chalew, Embodied Emissions, 2020, Iron oak gall ink and ink made from shells on paper made from sugarcane and shredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), 61 x 92 inches; ©Hings Lim, Witness of Land (Historic Palm Tree at Exposition Park), 2021, AR performance, mobile application, Full HD screen recording, duration 6 minutes 30 seconds.; ©Paula Pedrosa, Diorama, 2015, Photography, Variable size; ©Barry Underwood, Blue Line, 2010, Pigment print, 31.5 x 40 inches
Presenters:
Hannah Chalew produces ink from oak galls collected from live oak trees around New Orleans that she uses to create drawings where swamp flora and infrastructure are inextricably entangled, and these works often include oak trees. These trees can live for many centuries so by using ink from these trees she is also tapping into the history they have witnessed. Her work draws viewers into an experience that bridges past and present with visions of the future ecosystems that might emerge from our culture’s detritus if we fail to change course. Chalew is an artist, educator and environmental activist raised and currently working in New Orleans. She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2009, and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016. Chalew has exhibited widely around the country. Her work is held in the collections of the City of New Orleans and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. hannahchalew.com
Hings Lim's performance project Witness of Land invites participants to maneuver the augmented reality (AR) application to bring forth the presence of witness trees. Upon the arboreal survivor and landmark in a neighborhood, the absence of the past is summoned, and the incantations are performed to conjure the memories of land while recalling the human history that still haunts. Lim was born in 1989 in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, and is currently based in Los Angeles, United States. He received his Master of Fine Arts degree and the Performance Studies Graduate Certificate at the University of Southern California, Los Angeles in 2021, as a recipient of the USC International Artist Fellowship; and a Bachelor of Fine Arts degree from the Universiti Malaysia Sarawak, Malaysia in 2012. hingslim.com
Paula Pedrosa's artistic practice investigates boundaries between nature and culture in a time of ecological collapse. She uses photography to blend reality and fiction while questioning established notions about nature and the relationship between humanity, landscape, and other living beings. Her Diorama series investigates nature’s appropriation and confinement by mankind, where natural and artificial get together in such an intrinsic way that can no longer be distinguished, originating environments at the same time oddly cozy and freaking unreal. Pedrosa is an artist-biologist based in São Paulo using art as an extension of her formal training in natural sciences. Her projects investigate the contemporary concept of nature by interweaving science, history, and other disciplines in order to explore the boundaries between nature and culture. Her work has been exhibited in Brazil and abroad. Her first book, Diorama was published in 2019. pedpaula.com/en
Barry Underwood's creative practice stands at the intersection of staged photography, land art, and minimalist sculpture, and illuminates environments that hold rich ecological and cultural histories and are sites of destructive human behavior. By building and photographing sculptures of light, Underwood elucidates the ways humans intervene in the natural environment while highlighting how society normalizes these exploitations. His work points to cultural constructs of the environmental issues related to human use and abuse of natural resources. Underwood received an MFA in Photography from Cranbrook Academy of Art. Barry has been awarded an artist in residence at Headlands Center for the Arts, Banff Center for the Arts, The Center for Land Use Interpretation, The Josef and Anni Albers Foundation, and MacDowell. Selected exhibitions of his work include the Akron Art Museum, Photography Museum of Lishui, Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Center for Photographic Art, and the John Michael Kohler Art Center. barryunderwood.com
