gallery images by: Anna Ryabtsov
Index Art Center presents: LANDHOLDINGS.
3.4.17 – 4.1.17
Reception Saturday, March, 4, 7 to 10pm.
LANDHOLDINGS is a multimedia exhibition focused on questioning the ownership and stewardship of the land we live on.
The exhibition explores these ideas through an ascension from soil composition to the broader scale of cartography and all of the human relationships in between.
“When you answer the question, Who really owns the soil? wrote George McBride, a pioneer of the Green Revolution in Mexico, you lay bare
the very foundations upon which its society is based, and reveal the fundamental character of many of it’s institutions.” – Andro Linklater Owning the Earth
Exhibiting Artists:
Nell Painter is an artist and historian. In her series “Composite Maps” (Odalisque Atlas), Painter examines the ancient and contemporary locations of slave girls through cartography.
Sara Fox has taken her photo journalism to North Dakota in an essay from Standing Rock. Fox gives the viewer a glimpse into the present-day struggle over a Native American territory with disputed boundaries dating back to the 1800’s.
Mike Belleme points his lens into a mysterious subculture of people living off the excess of a society they have left behind in his photo essay “Wild Roots”. Foraging, dumpster diving, and the occasional hunt brings food to their off-grid cooperative, hidden deep in the forests of NC.
Anne Percoco explores migrant peoples relationship to the land in her “Weather Shield for a Migrant Dwelling”. Percoco designed a protective outer layer for a one family dwelling using the waste of plastic food wrappers. The shelter reflects the landscape surrounding it, as well as creates a localized cooling system within.
Ellie Irons & Anne Percoco have created an ongoing library, “The Next Epoch Seed Library”. This seed bank focuses on weedy species most likely to survive and thrive in a landscape dominated by human excess.
Jamie Bruno has spent years in both the art and agricultural worlds. Her installation focuses on the urban gardener, and the cultivation of polluted land into nutrient rich soil suitable for growing food.
As the Earth changes and people continue to migrate, we explore our deepest relationships with the earth and to each other through LANDHOLDINGS.
Curated by: Colleen Gutwein