Climate Change Cohort
Climate change is more than just weather patterns- it connects and affects every aspect of life and ECOCA is pleased to present 5 artists whose work examines these many avenues. From social and racial justice/injustice to the use of natural and recycled materials to interrogating our relationship with the ecosystem.
My work is about a contemplation of topography, land relations and dreaming of cohabitation beyond colonialism. In order to focus on issues around climate change I plan to infuse my work with motifs from the Caribbean which speaks about my own identity and relates to the identities of the colonized.
My sculptures reference a serene atmosphere of blue tones. They are layered with utility liners, filled with air filters, transforming everyday utilitarian materials of indoor climate control into visual metaphors. In creating these sculptures, I sought to memorialize the very atmosphere that surrounds us, the ephemeral nature of our air. I aim to prompt viewers to reconsider the boundary we often impose between the indoors and outdoors, artificial and organic.
My work deals with contemporary issues that should help deepen the thoughts ["Cogito, ergo sum," René Descartes's first principle] related to being alive on this planet will lead us to a viable solution.
I worked on a farm this last season in Fair Haven and have yet to find the time and place to digest. I grew up farming alongside my dad in South Carolina as a form of survival. What SNAP and Food Pantries couldn't cover, my dad grew in our backyard. I want to develop a solo performance, that can stand alone as an installation, that echos memories that flooded back as I had my hands in the dirt, weeding, growing, educating.
The investigation/documentation of this project began in 2021 after an uncharacteristic ice-storm wiped the landscape while I was living in Texas, then massive overhaul of industrial construction started deforestation in my backyard, a forest fire in Florida and more. With these collected remains from destruction I am in the process of rebuilding -repurposing the fragments into new forms that reference vehicles of survival and resourcefulness and integration of the landscape with care and resilience.