The Earth has existed for billions of years. Ice Ages have come and gone. Life forms have evolved and evaporated. During recent millennia, however, and particularly since the industrial revolution, Earth’s human inhabitants have increasingly shaped the natural history of our planet, through such factors as agriculture, construction, mining, and manufacturing. So profound have been the changes we have wrought that this epoch recently has been accepted as constituting a geological era, the Anthropocene. Today we suffer the accelerated effects of our impact.
Climate change is causing devastating hurricanes, droughts, fires, floods, and erosion. These affect the habitats of flora and fauna as well as human environments and productivity, migration and conflict. Toxins, pollutants, and trace elements contaminate ecosystems and food supplies. Humans have precipitated the Earth’s sixth phase of mass extinction. The artists in this exhibition respond to the ecological crises of our Anthropocene, which we ignore at the peril of our own ecocide.
Participating artists: Alma Collective (Christoph Both-Asmus/Owanto/Robbin Ami Silverberg/Andy Wengel/Hervé Youmbi), Thomas Baensch/Karin Dürr/Caroline Röckelein/Zoe Zin Moe, Sammy Baloji, Julie Dodd, Stephan Erasmus, Nuno Henrique, Daniel Knorr, Guy Laramée, Gideon Mendel, Barbara Milman, Heidi Neilson, Tara O’Brien, Sara Parkel, Susan Reynolds, Ian Van Coller, Shu-Ju Wang, Käthe Wenzel, Thomas Parker Williams, Michelle Wilson, Philip Zimmermann
Organized by Gary van Wyk, Ph.D., Curator, Axis Gallery
Roundtable Discussion with Artists: Friday, March 2, 2018, 6:30 pm
Artist Talk: Friday, March 23, 2018, 6:30pm
More about the exhibition HERE