Abstract
Aesthetic engagement in communal space is a powerful way to connect with ecological issues that might otherwise be daunting and individually paralyzing – climate change, biodiversity loss, and, in my home region, severe environmental degradation caused by mountaintop removal coal mining and fracking. Lavish! is an immersive installation sculpture with a long-term social engagement element, that focuses on exceptionally biodiverse old growth forests in the Appalachian region of southeastern Kentucky. I work to cultivate reverence for wild places in several ways – by opening my creative process to include artists, students, and the general public as active collaborators; by sharing completed artwork (exhibitions, readings, performances, talks and guided walks) in diverse venues / locations; by making available a variety of documentation of the artwork and of the places that inspired it to people who cannot access remote natural sites, due to physical, geographic, or economic limitations; and by including essential scientific information about biodiversity and solutions to climate change in various engaging forms throughout the project. Additionally, I work with academic colleagues to teach interdisciplinary undergraduate courses with similar goals and I collaborate with a regional land trust partner organization to run retreats and group exhibitions that engage other artists in responding through their own practices. This study provides an overview of these projects and invites questions about improving and expanding this type of work.
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
Technical, Political, and Social Responses
KEYWORDS
Immersive sculpture, Climate Change, Community Engaged Art, Biodiversity, Regenerative Culture
