Exploring Sustainability Through Earthship Living: A Summer in Area 52

When you think about environmentalism and sustainability, what comes to mind? Perhaps it's the image of lush green forests, solar panels glistening in the sun, or even the act of recycling. But, these concepts aren't just buzzwords; it's a practice and a commitment to sustain the use of materials and resources over time to reduce waste.

This summer, my family and I embarked  on an extraordinary journey to explore sustainability in one of the most unique ways possible – by living on the Earthship Biotecture campus in Taos, New Mexico. Our home for this adventure was none other than "Area 52," one of the oldest Earthship models. As we settled into this earthen haven, we were about to experience sustainability in a profoundly tangible way.

Earthships are constructed based on six design principles that help contribute to the goal of environmentally sustainable building design:

1. Building with natural and repurposed materials: Earthships utilize materials such as used tires, cans, bottles, wood, and mud.

2. Thermal or solar heating and cooling: Earthships heat and cool themselves using thermal mass and solar gain. They do not use of electricity or the burning of fuel to maintain temperature.

3. Electricity from solar and wind: Electricity is collected using photovoltaic panels and occasionally windmills. Additionally, the electrical requirements of the buildings are minimized through the use of energy efficient lighting and appliances.

4. Water harvesting: Water is collected from rain and snowmelt in the roof and is then stored in a cistern for future use.

5. Sewage treatment: Self-contained sewage treatment and water recycling.

6. Food production: In-home organic food production capability.

"Design Principles". Earthship Biotecture michael reynolds.

View of our small yet efficient kitchen, with neighboring plant cell which included a fig tree, parsley basil and non edible plants.

A Home Rooted in Sustainable Innovation

Earthships are not your typical homes. They are architectural wonders, where sustainability is not an afterthought but the very essence of their design. Imagine a home that doesn't rely on traditional heating or cooling systems, but instead harnesses the power of thermal mass. Earthships are built using natural and recycled materials like earth-filled tires, glass bottles and adobe walls, creating a structure that can passively regulate its temperature.

View of bathroom entrance, kitchen, and cistren(far right) a large pool of water that collects rain water. Once sent through a series of filtration systems, the mechanism provides water for the entire home.

Embracing Sustainability Daily

Our stay in Area 52 coincided with a severe drought and a relentless heatwave. In most circumstances, this would have been a dangerous situation for a family with a small child. However, Earthships are designed to thrive in harmony with nature. The thick walls, filled with earth(dirt packed used tires), act as a natural insulator, keeping the interior cool during scorching days and warm when the temperature drops at night. It was like living in a time-honored Southern grandmother's home – no air conditioning, but an entirely manageable climate.

Living in an Earthship is an immersive experience in resource conservation. Rainwater harvesting systems ensure every drop is cherished. Greywater (water used from the shower, kitchen and bathroom sinks) is recycled and used for watering plants that provide not only shade but sustenance. Within our Earthship, life flourished - two fig trees, two inca berry bushes, a banana tree, and an array of herbs became staples in our daily meals. 

The Lessons of Area 52

Overhead on the roof, solar panels captured the sun's energy, powering our lights and appliances with off the grid electricity. This experience instilled in us a deep awareness of resource consumption, fostering a profound awareness of our daily energy consumer habits. Details such as what products you wash your dishes with to what time of the day you charge your electronics, matter immensely to the function and vitality of this living home.

Solar panels and rooftop windows for air flow on top of the Area 52 roof.

This awareness carries tremendous significance for the energy consumers in the home, as it hinges on the fundamental workings of a solar battery system. These systems have finite storage capacities, and once they reach their maximum capacity during the day, the entire dwelling relies solely on the energy amassed until the sun's return. 

One of the biggest perks of living in an Earthship is its "off the grid" nature. It operates self-sufficiently, using thermal mass and solar energy to eliminate cooling, heating, and electric costs. This feature became increasingly significant as we observed the challenges faced by our home base of Atlanta, GA in recent months.

Challenges Back Home

Within just the past few months, Georgia has witnessed a steep increase in electricity costs. Metro Atlanta continues to grapple with the consequences of inadequate infrastructure, leading to citywide flooding, power outages, and pipe bursts during extreme weather, which is increasingly frequent. These events have underscored the vulnerabilities of conventional housing and utility systems.

Furthermore, the skilled trades industry is currently facing a labor shortage, making it increasingly difficult to secure professionals for essential home repairs and maintenance. The versatility and self-sufficiency of Earthships, which often require basic carpentry knowledge, offer an appealing alternative in these times.

Pele managing our grey water(water from the sinks and bath) filtration system, including pvc pipes and a panty hose that is used to filter solids before entering the indoor and outdoor planters that grow produce and plants, which help insulate the home.

Returning to a Self Reliant Culture

Amidst this immersive experience, I had the privilege of witnessing my partner, Pele, complete his book, "Beyond the Maafa, Reclaiming Our Bodies." This wellness protocol manual is a testament to his dedication, inspired by the health disparities experienced by descendants of the African diaspora, with a special focus on African Americans, capoeira, and the Orisha. It is a work born of passion and a commitment to improving the well-being of our community.

As he delved into the intersection of his trade skills and the wellness mission of this project, the vision behind his book became even more clear. The labor of revitalizing physical health and spiritual wellness within our community will require a change in culture in which introduces through four principles: train daily, pray daily, develop divine character and fast daily. It also struck me how these efforts harmonize with a profound cultural tradition of self-reliance as echoed by luminary Booker T. Washington.

Booker T. Washington was a pioneering educator and leader during the post-Civil War era. He advocated for the economic and educational advancement of African Americans in the United States. Washington founded the Tuskegee Institute (now Tuskegee University) in Alabama, a historically Black institution that emphasized vocational training and self-sufficiency, reflecting his philosophy of self-help and practical education for African Americans.

In the fusion of Earthships focus on biotecture and Booker T. Washington's philosophy of building self-reliant Black communities, we unearth an Afrofuturist vision that transcends time, a profound tapestry of innovation and self-reliance, weaving a sustainable future where our community's destiny is beautifully redefined.Our Earthship experience provided not just a shelter but profound inspiration, aligning our pursuit of wellness, self-reliance, and sustainability with a philosophy that transcends walls and roofs, offering a transformative vision for our community's future. 

Guy Gabon, Eco-Artist

Through the mounting issues of climate change, I cannot neglect to remember that I experience this realm of reality through the body of a Black woman. Therefore, this reflection of environmental art would not be complete without the representation of someone who represents this experience. The work and practice of Guy Gabon represents facets of environmentalism that are often overlooked by mainstream dialogues on climate change. The intersectionality of race, nationality, and gender as it relates to environmental art are often not considered in the present-day conversations or historical register of environmentalism as a social justice movement.  Environmental racism, however, is a critical component of systemic racism that will only be elevated with the mounting presence of climate change. “Over many decades, the discriminatory policies and practices that constitute environmental racism have disproportionately burdened minority neighborhoods with polluting facilities such as toxic waste sites, landfills, and chemical plants. Environmental racism concentrates disadvantaged populations in substandard housing and compromised communities, where hazardous exposures are much more likely”[i]. Gabon’s art-based response to environmental degradation, positions the faces, work, and histories of not only Black nations but Black environmentalists at the forefront of environmentalism. Her mixed media, multidisciplinary and social practice is a praxis on environmental art that elevates identity while positioning the invaluable vulnerability of Earth at the center.  

Upon reflecting on the disparate visibility of Black environmentalists, I came across the writing of Kimberly S. Compton. According to Compton, in her thesis Pro-Environmental Behaviors Among Black Environmentalists: A Critical Race Perspective, “environmentalist narratives have left out the labor of Black environmentalists, mischaracterizing Black communities as disinterested in environmental problems or solutions”[ii]. This narrative evolves beyond the scope of a thesis through the lack of leadership and representation in ecological and environmental organizations such as the Sierra Club. The erasure of Black representation in environmental efforts is a historical pattern, dating back to the Civil Rights era when organized Black efforts first emerged in the west. In a 2014 Mother Jones write up, journalist Brentin Mock highlighted the disparities of Black representation in ecological and environmental efforts. Mock declared Black people are often overlooked in these paid roles with established environmental organizations because of the assumption that “are too occupied with being black to be occupied in green organizations”[iii].These assumptions bleed over to a limited concept of “environment” when primarily white perspectives are the architects of environmentalism. “So, historically there’s been somewhat of a language barrier between the races in the environmental movement. We define nature by what we see when we look outside. What a black child from Southside Chicago sees through her glass will be different than what a white child sees from her window in South Burlington, Vt”. [iv]

Given the historical context of Black erasure in environmental activism, Gabon’s work is even more valuable in that it disrupts a historical narrative that has limited the scope of Black art. An eco-artist, Guy Gabon is a Guadeloupean mixed media artist who “draws inspiration from generous nature to question the links that man has with his natural and urban environment. As an eco-artist, Gabon uses art to encourage viewers to consider ways to build an environmentally friendly future” [v].Her exhibit at Clark-Atlanta University is a broad range of nature-based materiality that aesthetically draws upon the use of landscape, ecology, ceramics and sculpture made from organic materials. Her site-specific piece Reliance is an imaginative representation of women’s connection to nature. What immediately draws the viewer's attention is the dozens of white kites which have the faces of dozens of unknown or unrecognized women’s faces drawn on them, hovering above a mound of dried Georgia clay. The faces have no enclosure but are realistic in their interpretation with various facial expressions that all represent the phenotypes of Black women. Thick lips rounded or sharp eyebrows, almond shaped eyes creating a cloud of gestures above a terrestrial landscape that acts as a sharp contrast to the hardwood floors of this gallery space. The kites represent a popular pastime in her native country and is her way of symbolically elevating these women. Connecting these white kites to the mound of tan clay are brown or golden strings that don’t necessarily connect with the mound of clay but anchor the position of this installation into a site-specific observation of space and materiality. By connecting the smiling faces of women to the soil, she suggests that peace is achieved in those who live in harmony with nature. The installation casts a shadow on the back wall of this enclosed space creating a collage of grey scale shapes and colors against the white museum wall. Gabon’s work calls the viewer into varying degrees of connection to land and emotion through the representations of borderless portraits hovering above yet connected to the soil. Reliance reminds me of the many generations of women who came before me who expressed their lives and presence on this planet in all their uniqueness yet still maintained a connection to the land. 

“My path is that of a woman artist in nature, anchored in the earth who, like Glissant, "Act in her place and think with the world". A woman who rises to say no to predation, destruction, pollution, contamination of living things with her art as her only weapon. Sometimes alerter, sometimes denouncer, sometimes mediator, my art is resolutely poetic and political”[vi]. 

          Nature-based scenery and materiality are the key subjects for Gabon’s short films, specifically (Re)couture (Re)design or humanity. Made public in May 2020, Gabon’s work marks an era of ecological disaster, just two months after global lockdowns due to the COVID-19 global pandemic. The silent film centers on a feminine person’s relationship to a tattered manikin torso, in which the recurring character demonstrates a range of emotions towards. Demonstrating expressions of pity, longing and care; the main character transverses their relationship to the manikin with each scene progressively cleansing themselves. The character begins huddled in the fetal position covered in clay in their first appearance, cloaked in black linen the next and covered from head to toe in white the next scene. Possibly representative of stages of grief, the character shifts form and relation to the this tattered being, in the end attempting to patch it together.  The film’s description is as followed: 

“(RE) couture because healing and regenerating nature is the next chapter humanity needs to write. We can only build this new world when we have overcome the male-female dualities, when we will have reconciled male-female in the service of nature without domination of one over the other, nor of any of them over the world. nature. Then from the lived experience we will weave together the precious golden threads of our common destiny, we will weave together dreams and realities in a patchwork of all the nuances of a plural humanity. The time has come to move forward to a new world, a new consciousness ... The Other Side”[vii] Translated by Google Translate

(Re)couture, (Re)design, humanity

            Gabon’s work takes the form of social practice with her “interventions artistiques” or artistic interventions in which she provides trainings, workshops and internships to school personnel, students, and local businesses.  From November 2016-April 2017, she invited Guadalupe-based art students to participate in her installation “All Climate Refugees”, the installation was created as part of the International Contemporary Art Exhibition “Echos Imprevus/Turning Tide”. The installation includes both the live bodies of art students and an accompanying installation of figures that represent bodies seated at the base of a tiered dock. The figures positioning possibly represent how close society is coming to ecological disaster due to rising sea levels. During the performance, each student, dressed in blue rain jackets carries a sign around their neck representing islands across the globe including the Cayman Islands, Jamaica, and Manhattan. Each student recites a few lines of information regarding their assigned location’s vulnerability to rising sea levels. The installation is a response to the “wait and see” attitude that is evoked by global leaders who continue to ignore the signs of climate change. These signs, desertification, rising sea levels and coastal erosion to name a few, are a growing number of climate induced factors forcing those from developing nations to emigrate. The inclusion of western nations such as the UK and locations within the United States are vital to broadening global awareness of who’s vulnerable to climate change. “WE ARE ALL POTENTIALLY CLIMATE REFUGEES” Gabon proclaims in bold, capped letters.

“In response to the annual climate conferences, I highlight this artistic project, which calls on cultural and educational actors and civil society to mobilize and explore a new approach to ecological themes. My artistic and militant approach, far from discourse and numbers, is only intended to raise awareness and reveal the importance of the threat that climate change represents for our island territories”[viii]

            As demonstrated by Gabon’s range of works, eco-artists must embrace an intersectional and multidisciplinary approach to their work, as the intention of the work is not only medium based, but mission based as well. The intersectionality of Gabon’s work and existence as a Black woman environmental artist is an underrepresented voice whose work is vital to dialogue on climate change. Might her work be given the heightened platform of white peers; society would have a broadened perspective of eco-art as something accessible to everyone. Once the global majority becomes a more visible actor in the fight against climate change, art can move forward in fulfilling its purpose, to influence culture, in which culture influences policy.

[i] “Environmental Health Perspectives.” National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. U.S. Department of Health and Human Services. Accessed December 10, 2021. https://ehp.niehs.nih.gov/.

[ii] Compton, Kimberly S. “Pro-Environmental Behaviors Among Black Environmentalists: A                                Critical Race Perspective”. Virginia Commonwealth University, 2021

[iii] Mock, Brentin. “Are There Two Different Versions of Environmentalism, One ‘White," One ‘Black’?” Mother Jones, 31 July 2014, https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/07/white-black-environmentalism-racism/. 

[iv] Mock, Brentin. “Are There Two Different Versions of Environmentalism, One ‘White," One ‘Black’?” Mother Jones, 31 July 2014, https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2014/07/white-black-environmentalism-racism/. 

[v] “Guy Gabon Artiviste.” The Bridge of Beyond / L'autre Bord | Portfolio Category | Guy Gabon Artiviste. Accessed December 10, 2021. http://guygabon.com/portfolio_category/the-bridge-of-beyond-lautre-bord/. 

[vi] “Guy Gabon Artiviste.” 2021 : Le regard de l'artiviste Guy GABON – INTERVIEW | Guy Gabon Artiviste. Accessed December 10, 2021. http://guygabon.com/portrait/.

[vii] “(Re)Couture, (Re)Design Our Humanity - YouTube.” Accessed December 10, 2021.  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YnV8wLbJCx8.

[viii] “Guy Gabon Artiviste.” ALL CLIMATE REFUGEES | Guy Gabon Artiviste. Accessed December 10, 2021. http://guygabon.com/all-climate-refugees/.

Reflections on Mark Bradford

Mark Bradford b. 1961

The social landscapes of society are employed as a medium for multi-medium expression through the work of Abstract Expressionist Mark Bradford. His work stretches massive scale through his landscape mixed medium paintings and marks moments in human history that call the practice of memory and utility into awareness. Mark Bradford is a visual artist and philanthropist who engages discarded materials of modern, urban life. He has utilized the materials found around salons throughout his career, including the paper rectangles, bobby pins, and hair dyes, to create massive abstract and layered paintings. His work is a conscious effort towards the cultural conservation of urban landscapes through abstract visual storytelling. This recycling and reimaging art practice demonstrate a value towards re-telling narratives his way. Bradford discusses his work's casual and approachable nature pulls me in as an abstract artist, a Black abstract artist who attempts to reclaim the narratives of what it means to express their experience through non-figurative work. "For Bradford, abstraction is not opposed to content; it embodies it. Bradford renews the traditions of abstract and materialist painting, demonstrating that freedom from socially prescribed representation is profoundly meaningful in the hands of a black artist".

He is known for drawing inspiration from the world around him, "underground economies, migrant communities, or popular appropriation of abandoned public space—that emerge within a city". Bradford's large-scale paintings are manifestations of his interactions with the built space. He stands a towering 6'8, so naturally, he was very aware of space and architecture. With this additional awareness, Bradford's work considers scale as he's had to develop consciousness between himself and the built environment. His observation of physical environment shapes the way he physically engages it and his social response to it. 

Bradford's philanthropic practice also engages a concept of recyclable opportunities by expanding resources to impact the lives of colleagues and community. In 2010, during a partnership with the Getty Museum, Bradford created an educational program as part of the Getty Artist Program.Open Studio is an online resource featuring artist-designed lesson plans for K-12 teachers, with the goal of "making contemporary arts education accessible to teachers and classrooms across the nation and around the world. Authored by noted international artists, Open Studio is a collection of art-making activities that presents the unique perspectives of practicing artists. Each activity is presented as a free, downloadable PDF that includes an artmaking prompt, an artist biography, and images of the artist and works of art by the artist". As a part of his MacArthur Genius Award, the program aims to make contemporary arts education accessible to teachers in classrooms everywhere. Soliciting a cohort of established artists and colleagues to co-facilitate this effort he brought in artists such as Kara Walker to produce a curriculum that creates opportunities for introspection.  

In 2016, Bradford founded Art + Practice, a private operating 501(c)3 foundation based in the neighborhood of Leimert Park in South Los Angeles, which supports LA transition-age foster youth ages 18-24. Art + Practice collaborates with a nonprofit social service provider, First Place for Youth, providing the organization rent-free office space to young adults exiting the foster care system, transition into adulthood, by providing job training, housing. ​​Art + Practice differs from most other arts nonprofits in two other important ways: Bradford provides as much of the organization's $1 million annual budget as needed, generally declining grants so that the nonprofit can remain independent and flexible. Secondly, instead of assuming the role of cultural purveyor like many arts institutions and bringing underserved communities to their space, Art+ Practice serves the community through art within the neighborhoods in which the community resides. Leimert Park is also where Bradford worked as a hairstylist in the 1980s and eventually opened his first studio. Bradford's relationship to social location is a return investment on the environment that bred him. 

"A+P aspires to be a space where the social aspect of art—the practice of it—puts the art into a context of action."

Bradford's abstract paintings often remind me of future ancient maps of western society, a future retrospect of the ruined landscapes of American cities.In discussion with curator Thelma Golden, Bradford reflects on his series "End Papers' '. He discusses his use of abstraction to convey messages without directly engaging politics that may become associated with his work. "Oftentimes, I rely on the material and the memory of the material to do a bit of the work for me...I also rely on the subject matter to do a little bit of the political work for me. And I also give myself the freedom of abstraction to go wherever I need to go so that I'm not a spokesman for something". Bradford's resistance towards the limitations of defining his art through his experience as a gay Black man represents the unbound freedom of expression to define identity within his own terms. Layers are the context of both his being as an artist and individual. Using end-papers used in salons for perms, Bradford uses paper that he soaks in large tubs of water until the paper feels malleable enough to be manipulated and moved on the canvas. Next, he uses a paint roller to imbed into his grid-like canvas. The bases of his canvases are also significant documents or images such as maps or copies of the US Constitution. Using these documents as his base, he applies layers upon layers of colorful applications of paper in which he peels back once dry, sometimes by hand and other times with a power washer, sanders, drills or knives. This process simultaneously embeds and removes the paper medium, unveiling a collage of speckled distorted imagery. The excavation of this process for each painting rubs away at the surface to reveal the depth of Bradford's inner world.     

"I believe that the material I use is socially-it comes from lived use, it comes from a, a work and it comes from space and I pull it into my studio. … but you'll never be able to erase all the memory until it just becomes material”

Two Advances Two Retreats resembles a topographic map where incisions in the terrain appear to be marked by some striated material such as tires to create a grid-like landscape. The light blue hue of nearly uninterrupted space divides three areas: black and pink and blue, red and white, and a streak of yellow just below. It reminds me immediately of a landlocked bay, a landscape you may find in the midwest western US and Canada. 

"It's an amalgamation of materials that cling. To the city, you pass by on your way to the metro. While you're riding your bike by it's lodged in your memory. It's the memory once I collected and once I build it up, then oftentimes I tear it down. I create my own archaeological sites on the surface myself"

The scale of these paintings consumes the room but doesn't overwhelm the viewer. The tactile nature of Bradford's work draws the viewer in to understand the materiality and details of the work. I find this aspect admirable. To find the balance between massive scale and viewer intrigue to look closer. Bradford's paintings are analogous to modern society's large, complex issues; the items we cast away become fragments of unresolved social issues that grow larger in scale with each disposal. To abstract discarded items often found in "discarded" or underinvested communities reminds the viewer that they are a part of the wasteland of excess consumerism—making waste visible on the pristine walls of a gallery floor inverses the viewer's concept of trash. 

 Bradford describes his work as the quiet background within our societal consciousness: "Think about all the white noise out there in the streets: all the beepers and blaring culture—cell phones, amps, chromed-out wheels, and synthesizers. I pick up a lot of that energy in my work, from the posters, which act as memory of things pasted and things past. You can peel away the layers of papers and it's like reading the streets through signs." - Mark Bradford

 Through his massive reinterpretations of waste, Mark Bradford visually defines the present and future landscapes. I believe that Bradford's unconscious becomes the conscious driver in the development of these abstractions that expand space and time. 

_________________________________________________

“About A+P.” About A+P – Art + Practice. Accessed November 9, 2021. https://www.artandpractice.org/about/.

“Arts in Education: Mark Bradford's Open Studio.” Art21 Magazine. Accessed November 9, 2021. http://magazine.art21.org/2010/09/16/arts-in-education-mark-bradfords-open-studio/#.YYnvs9bMLzd.

“Artist Mark Bradford Is Tackling Social Justice in and out of the Studio.” The Washington Post. WP Company, October 10, 2019. https://www.washingtonpost.com/graphics/2019/entertainment/mark-bradford/.

“Mark Bradford.” Art21, May 19, 2017. https://art21.org/artist/mark-bradford/.

“Mark Bradford: Pickett's Charge - Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden: Smithsonian.” Hirshhorn Museum and Sculpture Garden | Smithsonian, October 8, 2021. https://hirshhorn.si.edu/exhibitions/mark-bradford-picketts-charge/.

“Mark Bradford in Conversation with Thelma Golden - YouTube.” Accessed November 9, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5NO7T6Zpj9I.

“Meet the Artist: Mark Bradford - Hirshhorn Museum - Youtube.” Accessed November 9, 2021. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qM5E3T-4U2A.

Enrico on. “VernissageTV Art TV - Mark Bradford: Tomorrow Is Another Day / U.S. Pavilion, Venice Art Biennale 2017.” VernissageTV Art TV - the window to the art world. https://vernissage.tv/2017/05/19/mark-bradford-tomorrow-is-another-day-u-s-pavilion-venice-art-biennale-2017/.

Abstract Expressionism in the age of climate change

Abstract Expressionism is a genre of art has historically been engaged to articulate the complexities of modern society. Those social complexities include but are not limited to war, pandemics, environmental degradation and political unrest. Such wicked issues are too elaborate to grasp within a figurative form; therefore, abstractionism forms the contextual themes of a post-2020 society.

Emerging from World War II and into the Cold War era, the history of Abstract Expressionism is densely white male dominated, at least in the United States. This narrowed identity has limited the contextual depth of this genre to a homogenous societal perspective that visually narrates that time in history from the white male gaze. Jackson Pollock, Mark Rothko, Franz Kline and a host of other white men continue to represent the classic defining artists of this genre. The expressions of Abstract Expressionism reflected a society processing the collective trauma of war yet the context of this work is void of emotion or deeper humanness, taking the route of ‘avant garde’ as the defining element of this emotive practice. “Anxiously aware of human irrationality and vulnerability, these young artists wanted to express their concerns in a new art of meaning and substance”[i]. When taken on through the bodies of the socially marginalized or the ‘global majority’ the bond between the human experience and art generates stories with greater depth.

DANIELA MOLNAR

Daniela Molnar is an American visual artist who attempts to draw attention to climate change and shape an often-abstract issue. Molnar’s process includes projecting images she obtains from NASA satellite images and data-based projections of melting glaciers in Greenland. The image projects onto her canvas, revealing obscure yet repetitive shapes and figures. She then paints using crushed rocks mixed with gum arabic—a binder—and water from the rain barrel in her garden[i]. Molnar envisions how climate change is reshaping our planet and our “embodied experience of it” through her work[ii]. In her latest series New Earth 2020-2021, Molnar paints, using her fingers, with translucent, often iridescent pigments that morph between shades of yellow, green, teal, indigo, purple and red. This 21 image series encompasses a range of translucent palettes appear as complex shapes and figures made from watercolor. The shapes are vibrant and beautiful 2D rendering of the glaciers themselves; she pulls from an archive of scientific studies and satellite images. To learn that these images are made from rainwater and a mostly organic homemade inventory of supplies brings New Earth full circle as she facilitates ecologically sustainability within her own practice. This ecological practice is a conscious effort in which the artist demonstrates her will to not only produce by do so responsibly. Does the practice of creating one’s own media create a deeper connection between the artist and her subject? Would her work and the message behind these fading landscapes she captures hold as much integrity if she did not practice this stewardship?

“The shapes in the paintings map newly exposed ground near glaciers. This is land that used to be permanently covered by a glacier that is now uncovered. This new earth is like a wound, or new, delicate skin that has formed over a wound and is now (ready or not) exposed to the world” ii. Molnar’s work is a mixture of site specificity, landscape painting, and Abstract Expressionism all in which she creates with natural or organic material. Molnar began New Earth as an attempt to explain climate change through sensory experience, to make it more real by making it visible. Taking on this challenge she discovered that this series generated a range of unexpected emotions providing both clarity and confusion. “The project isn’t just a way to convey information...It’s a way to confront grief ii.” In an interview with Los Angeles Times, the artist described her paintings of vanishing ice of glaciers as what it feels like to try to hold the daunting losses brought on by climate change [ii]. As the new era of climate crisis emerges, and more awareness around climate change builds, artists will likely engage this topic as a point of reference to one of the most pressing issues of our time. 

Through this exploration of environmental reflection, the genre of Abstract Expressionism articulates an emotive and subconscious response to change that is beyond human control. Daniela Molnar responds to this shift with visual grief that bleeds into the paper as colorful tears, creating disappearing landscapes that become ghostly representations of our near future. I’m reminded of Gillian Rose’s mention of psychoanalysis in Visual Methodologies with Molnar’s. “ Psychoanalysis argues that understanding emotional reactions to, let's say, visual images requires the recognition that not all of those reasons are working at wholly conscious level” [i]iv. The visceral nature of Molnar’s work evokes emotion for the creator, however; how does that translate into the mind of the viewer? The context of climate change within the practice of site-specificity defines the era of Molnar’s work, creating a relationship between her lived history and collective observation of modern history. This defining context, separates her from the male-dominated historical giants that defined Abstract Expressionism, who’s intentions were defined by institutions such as MOMA. Molnar’s work is archival in nature as it documents the gradually disappearing landscapes of modern society, she positions the viewer into a state of environmental consciousness that removes the cold, objectivity of climate change from politics and headlines into the creative realm of color, abstraction and visual collage. Perhaps there is beauty in this shift from one planet to the one just on the horizon of human disaster and geological evolution.

New Earth 1

Watercolor on paper

22 x 36″

2017

New Earth 9 (North American Coastlines)

Natural pigments and rainwater on paper

29.5 x 41”

2018[i]

New Earth 7 (Antarctica and The Arctic)

Natural pigment and rainwater on paper

29.5 x 41”

2018

[i] Molnar, Daniela. “‘Now, Here’: An Artist Talk.” Daniela Molnar. Accessed October 7, 2021.      

http://www.danielamolnar.com/writing/now-here-an-artist-talk/. 

[i] The Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Metropolitan Museum. “Abstract Expressionism .” Essay In

ART = Discovering Infinite Connections in Art History, 390–91. Berlin: Phaidon, 2020.

[i] Rose, Gillian. “Psychoanalysis.” Essay. In Visual Methodologies: An

Introduction to Researching with Visual Materials. London:
SAGE Publications Ltd, 2016.

[ii] Rosen, Julia. “An Artist Set out to Paint Climate Change. She Ended up on a journey through Grief.”

Los Angeles Times. Los Angeles Times, January 11, 2020.

https://www.latimes.com/la-sci-col1-climate-change-art-2019-story.html.

The Future is Always Present As a Seed| Black Quantum Futurism Time Camp 002, 2018

Sculpting space week 11+12

I was excited to learn at the beginning of this semester that we would be covering Black Quantum Futurism. I had the privilege of participating in their first Time Camp event Time Camp 001 in fall of 2017 when I drove 9 hours from Charlotte to Philadelphia to experience what I had never heard of; a community of thought leaders convening to "dismantle the master clock", a concept rich in reclamation of time and decolonization. I spent the entire weekend  deeply resonating to the concepts of entropy, thinking of Harriet Tubman as an afrofuturists, and just an overall thorough introduction to the real mechanics of time. The weekend moved me so much, I asked Rasheedah for her blessing to host the event in Charlotte, NC the following year; and over the next year I began to cultivate a relationship with her; acquiring grants through my fellowship at the time and nearly a year to the day I hosted Time Camp 002 at Goodyear Arts.

This entire experience still sits with me as something that felt like a dream, perhaps through understanding time differently, I was able to access or backcast the future. "When a possible future is envisioned, foreseen, or chosen by a BQF Creative, that future will instantaneously reshape it's relationship to the past"(BQF 19). It's a surreal feeling knowing what Time Camp did to shift my beliefs in time, transitioning my understanding from the linear view of time to the 3 dimensional wave length. The event mapping diagrams, have always visually articulated the overlap that time is in regards to events that are interrelated. The linear or Eurocentric forms of time only fit one narrative, often leaving out spiritual aspects that people like the Dogon and Zamani understand. The past, present and future all overlap. Again, everything about Time Camp 001 resonated so deeply, it's hard to look back and not see the correlations between time manipulation and the fact that I actually pulled off Time Camp 002, it's like I already knew what to do. "...the past and present overlap in an African conception of time, as the present swallows up the future and the past swallows up the present. Your activity is what determines how quickly or slowly time moves"(BQF 24).

Rasheedah Phillips, cofounder of Black Quantum Futurism. leading a Time Mapping workshop at Goodyear Arts in Charlotte,NC for Time Camp 002.

Art + Soul| MCA Chicago and the Conservative Vice Lords Partnership 1968

Sculpting Space Week 10+11

Rebecca Zorach's examination of the Art & Soul project peaked my interest in this week's reading because of its specific orientation towards curatorial social practice. Before this reading, I had no idea that the Vice Lords(or Conservative Vice Lords) and the MCA had a connection. Given recent controversy within the past year with Black artists and the MCA Chicago, the awareness of this history strikes a sharp contrast to what appears to be a point of contention today. To clarify, during a period of social reckoning last year, MCA Chicago was called out for a vastly imbalanced wealth and status disparity among staff. Most front-of-house and lower-wage stage were/are African American, where most of the upper managerial staff were/are white. Just as the time during the Art & Soul collaboration, the nation was shifting towards recognizing societal wounds of white supremacy; I find the parallel between these two events uncanny.
Under the umbrella of The Black Arts movement, Art & Soul functioned to amplify Black art in Black spaces, leveraging the communal support of neighborhood leadership. This may be naively ideal, but I love the idea of gang reunification with Black-led movements. We often forget that at some point, gangs were established to offer protection and unity for Black communities against the violence of outsiders. As American society examines its current relationship with policing, I think it's worthwhile to look into previous efforts to merge the world's community restoration and existing neighborhood entities such as gangs.
Another connection I enjoyed seeing in Zorach's writing was the mention of Tania Bruguera's Arte d Conducta. The similarities in which MCA, CVL, and westside businesses merge and blur lines represent what Bruguera accomplished in Cuba. This form of socially engaged art essentially works to decolonize space by bringing in people who typically would never have access. Gatekeepers are removed, and the notion of "art" is redefined by new participants.

Art & Soul exterior with Rainbow mural by Sachio Yamashita, 1969 (mural now destroyed) (mural artwork © Eileen Petersen Yamashita, all rights reserved, used with permission; photograph © Ann Zelle)

Haptic Connections through Earth based art

Sculpting Space| Week 8+9

First, let me say that I love this notion of working with Earth to create one's work. In fine art, I believe there's too much emphasis on mastering a technique and not enough focus on connecting with the mediums we manipulate to create our expressions. If you couldn't tell by now, I'm an Earth sign, Taurus to be specific. There's this theme of women's work that emphasizes domestic ritual that I also appreciate about this course. American society doesn't put enough appreciation on a Sunday/Easter/Christmas/Thanksgiving/New Years' dinner for me. These rituals are performances of familial commitment that have lasted for generations due in part to society's patriarchal influence, but I also think women understand the power of working with heat, as in the case for Odundo. Symbology and function are recurring themes within this context of ceramics, bleeding into notions of offering or providing. Odundo's travels throughout the Americas, Caribbean, Europe, and her native Nigerian + Kenyan roots informed me of her flexibility in incorporating various techniques for her practice. As someone who also works with the Earth, I'm interested in using this multi-national knowledge acquisition technique to build my encaustic practice. 

I was also impressed to learn that locals in Nigeria had caught on to western techniques for wheel-throwing and integrated them in their own indigenous practices. A true interdisciplinary practice. One of the most crucial takeaways from this reading was Odundo's personal reflection of her initial failed attempts at wheel throwing. "The only way you will learn is to complete the whole process, whether you succeed or fail" one of her instructors Peter Bako. Man, could I have used his words when I first began creating encaustic paint from scratch. I have since learned a simpler technique from master encaustic painter Elise Wagner, but during my first attempts a creating this medium, almost exactly a year ago, each batch felt like a failed attempt, although I rarely trashed my creations. Working with the Earth as your medium is hard, really hard. I am leaving this week, so grateful to have come across an artist who has been where I am and has since then mastered her craft.

Magdalene Odundo, Untitled, 1990, burnished and carbonized terracotta. Courtesy: Frankel Foundation for Art

Reflections on African Canvas by Margaret Courtney-Clarke| Diaspora Connections

Sculpting Space Week 6+7

African Canvas is a collection of photos and text documented by documentarian photographer Margaret Courtney-Clarke. In this text, she captures the ancient tradition of wall painting, done primarily by women within four countries of west and central Africa. The most intriguing in that I recognized several overlapping values within my own practice in public art curation. Although I initially felt skeptical of Courtney-Clarke’s work, being a white westerner exploring the sacred spaces of the continent after centuries of European exploitation, I eventually found her work's genuine nature. As mentioned by the author, Western influences had diminished the value of wall painting, making both the women who perform this tradition feel that the work was undervalued. An outsider’s interest may have been needed to provoke the passion of this work that had begun to become forgotten. The images from African Canvas were also very moving in that I found connections in my work in public art curation. I've always worked with Black female muralists to visually illustrate the historic narratives of Black communities in danger of cultural erasure due to gentrification. This diasporic connection that I felt while reflecting on the images of perhaps some distant relatives from long ago is for me, an opening to a parallel universe to my mural projects with other Black women. Through this communal art form, women's sacred kinship in the Ndebele, Mauritian, and Southern African regions creates a rare and beautiful offering to their tribes. Unlike other forms of African art covered in this course,

African Architecture

Sculpting Space: Design, Architecture, and Sacred Systems in Africa and the Diaspora

Week 4+5

Architecture is considered a formal art within in this week's reading and with good reason. The concept of form and function within the west African vernacular of architecture is shaped in response to sustainability, usefulness, and symbolic gesture. Mosque that resembles are termite mounds such as the Kwaara in Ivory Coast are a minor representation of what I understand within African architecture's fullness. Most of it is a response to the environment. Attempts to collect rainwater such as the case of the impluvium courtyard palace at Efon Alayes or in the Makoko Floating School's plastic tanks, are built for structure and a reflection of the cultures embodied in the physical habitats of the spaces occupied by their builders and users. Beginning with the interview witgh Okwui Enwezor and Andres Lepik in Architecure That Can Truly Be Owned by the People, I am most struck with the notion of restructuring the post colonial west Africa nations. " Architecurnur in many ways represents the one way that many countries can signal their leap"; that leap being a transition separate from colonizer's influence into an identity of their form. I heard many stories before this reading of the presumed chaos of Lagos; what I understand after this week's readings is that the infastructure and organization of this city's system's is not soley an issue of faulty development but perhaps western/global north responses to cities that far surpase the typical population of western nations. "Except for London, there is hardly a European city that has more than ten million inhabitants." ( Lepik 62). With this social construct as a measurable consideration for understanding architecture's function, I recognize Enwezor's thoughtful consideration for an influence outside the "formal" western tradition. They do not have appropriate responses to the populus issues faced in African and Asian nations. "In order to think about architecture in Africa, we need to create a balance between architecture as work made by trained, professional technical practitioners and architecture that is made based on real everyday needs" (Lepik 65). I feel this statement may also hold a spotlight on the United State's growing housing inequity issue. The number of single-family homes built daily from incredibly fragile material, creating more and more waste, is not a response to the physical environments that impact or daily lives but or economic bottom lines. These frail homes can and will not sustain the test of time that climate change is vastly presenting us. The Makoko Floating School however, does. Using waste material in growing abundance like plastic to keep it afloat, the Makoko school, much like Kenyan woman, Nzambi Matee (Links to an external site.), is not mentioned in this week's readings; who created a brick from recycled plastic. 

Returning to the influence of termite mounds on the mbari's construction reminds me of my work in encaustic paints as a beekeeper and painter. The work of changing the form and function of one compound to another represents a relationship to the earth. I feel my work as an encaustic painter and paint maker as a beekeeper is also spiritual work, which is why the reading of mbari struck me most this week. " Twice processed by sacred termites and by sacred workers, the clay is both spiritually charged and an excellent medium" (Visona 293). There's honestly no better way to articulate my work with my bees to create my work.           

Of Water and Spirit

Sculpting Space: Design, Architecture, and Sacred Systems in Africa and the Diaspora

Week 3+4

This week I had the pleasure revisiting Of Water and the Spirit by Malidoma Patrice Some, an autobiographical narrative of a West African who’s identity is both molded and shifted by the rifts of western imperialism and ancient tradition. Some’s story feels all too familiar for all colonized people, which is a partial acknowledgement that defeat is eminent however, some aspects of identity are too precious to lose. For Some, these precious composites are his tribe’s connection to the real yet ethereal spiritual realm. Dozens of profound statements throughout Of Water and Spirit remind us of the importance of participation in the spiritual world through ritual and that this intuitive gauge is accessible through one’s bloodline. Malidoma’s father is a fitting example of how removal from ancestors' spiritual practices can create tragedy and inescapable despair. 

Documentation of communal histories mentioned in Slowly Becoming, Grandfather’s Funeral, and In the Arm of the Green Lady were details that I missed last summer but noticed this second reading. These tools are always represented in nature, a natural technology that creates relationships between the people, the environment as well as the spiritual world showing a deep contrast between the western world and the simplistic mysticism of village life.

 A concept I feel pairs Of Water and the Spirit along with another text visited this week, Aesthetic of The Cool by Robert Farris Thompson; is the notion of alchemy. Through spiritual practice in alignment with relationships to the natural world, humans are understood as stewards of their environment; to restore balance or “cool” through ritual. Whether through symbolism or restorative justice, the conjuring of alchemy- transforming substance (the physical) from one form to another; is informed by knowledge of spiritual tradition, never science or religion or technology alone.

Sculpting Space

I finish my first year of the Low Residency MFA program at School of the Art Institute of Chicago with an interesting course exploring African architecture, design, and technology- Sculpting Space: Design, Architecture and Sacred Systems in Africa and the Diaspora led by Denenge Duyst-Akpem.

I’ll be highlighting elements that stand out to me most from this class in my studio blog. This semester, I expect to make personal and professional connections with subject matter from this course, informing elements of my past and introducing me to new concepts. Students were asked to introduce themselves for the opening week by describing a memorable place we’ve visited. I could think of no other place than the historic district of Pelourinho in Salvador, Bahia.

The historic district of Pelourinho, in Salvador, Bahia, is the home of all Brazilian folklore and cultural heritage brought to life with vivid color, vibrant of incomprehensible energy. The energy in the curly afros of locals, energy in the percussion vibrations from street baterias, energy in cobblestone streets. Each corner, every door, every scent has a historical moment. I was blessed with the opportunity to visit Brazil for the first time in spring 2019 for my birthday and post-exhibition opening celebration. As a practicing capoeirista and sambista, this marked a turning point in my practice of these Afro Brazilian artforms. It was a spiritual pilgrimage that each (American) student of these art forms must engage in developing an experientially informed narrative of the people, cultures, and conditions that created capoeira and samba. I've never been anywhere where I recognized myself in the art like I did Pelhorino. Murals by the visual artist Carlos Kahan felt like whispers to other dimensions, the gaze of his subjects were like mirrors into lost parts of my ancestry. I'm not sure what exactly draws me to Pelhorinho, but my visit made me realize it was probably more than just the art forms that drew me there.

Abstract and Conceptual Practice- My Kind of Protest

Within the course work and lecture topics of my first semester with the LowResidency MFA program, I have found unexpected direction and inspiration with my work as a conceptual artist. When I first began engaging in creative practice, many who I sought guidance from referred to me as a conceptual artist. I never understood what this meant, I however, considered this belief under the assumption that I wasn’t an artist who actively produced for commercial reception. Along this path I continue to discover mediums, experimenting with all forms of art, a continuum of work that I’ve always wanted to live beyond a canvas. 

I, however, have found a new canvas and new medium with encaustic paints. This journey has led me to practice in abstraction, a cathartic expression that allows me to create my form. My interest in using abstraction as a form of visual narrative connects my social practice as a beekeeper to the visceral nature of raw materials such as beeswax. This process begins with my relationship to each hive I harvest wax from, meditative in practice, this work channels meaningful connections and messages. The privilege of caretaking for this endangered species offers additional opportunity to reimagine the use of comb given the rare occasion of swarming or colony collapse. Encaustic paint making is alchemy; transmutation initially appeared in my practice of harvesting honey; however, the transformation evolved in January 2020 during my residency at Sweet Water Foundation, where fellow artist Tanya Scruggs Ford taught me this process. Luckily quarantine offered additional time to refine this practice resulting in the production of over 20 colors varying in composition with lighter pigments creating a smooth texture and darker ones having a rougher texture. So far I have collection of 11 10x12’ wooden panel abstract pieces that I am preserving by sealing these with clear acrylic, which is producing mixed results. Abstraction is a strange ever evolving process in which narratives are not always apparent. Current events however are planting seeds of inspiration.

During a lecture on public art with my graduate seminar professor, Hamza Walker; I began to understand the value of conceptual work. In response to a global calling for statues of significant figures in history who share oppressive narratives of slavery, genocide and colonization; Donald Trump has proposed a statue garden. “Mr. Trump’s order, which does not put a price tag on the project, says only that it should be located near a population center “on a site of natural beauty that enables visitors to enjoy nature, walk among the statues, and be inspired to learn about great figures of America’s history.” It also notes that all statues in the garden “be lifelike or realistic representations of the persons they depict, not abstract or modernist representations,” echoing prior efforts within the Trump administration to reject modernist designs for federal projects.” This notion that history must only be represented in “realistic” representations as this person fails to acknowledge the very real tragedies brought on by figures white supremacy have long labeled heroes; fall into ironic alignment with the dystopian reality that is 2020. I foresee abstraction and conceptual art contested in the coming era of far-right tyranny. And it is with this reckoning that I have discovered my form of protest. 

Interview with Charlotte Based artist and Neighbor John Nickerson

I recently had the opportunity to connect with Charlotte based photographer John Nickerson, a former board member at the Light Factory. John interviewed me about my work as a social practice artist, here I share a few of the driving forces that influence my practice and current experimental studio projects.

Summer 2020 Curatorial Studio: Alchemy C3 Gallery

My work seeks to strike a balance between curation and art making and this summer I have the privilege of showing in my very first commercial gallery.  H2O/20 Elemental Retribution, is a group exhibition featuring 11 Charlotte based and national artists at Alchemy C3 Labs. This new space is an operational artist studio, coworking lounge, fine dining restaurant and arts gallery in the South End neighborhood of Charlotte, NC. This group exhibition was originally inspired by the water crisis in Flint, Michigan; a crisis that began the same day as my birthday and originally scheduled for opening in April. However the unique occasion of being met with a pandemic shifted by focus for this project to integrate a wider scope of disasters born out of the natural world. As a social practice artist, I’m also interested in focusing on an emphasis on social justice as it applies to contemporary works that reflect the times and heighten awareness of social narratives that visually narrate the impact societal disparities have on human lives. The following paragraph is taken from my curatorial statement: 

The original intention H20/20, Elemental Retribution was to spotlight one of many major social-political controversies of the modern-day American society; water. The world’s focus has since shifted towards another universal crisis; COVID-19. The objective of this show remains focused on the conflict between humans and catastrophic disasters born out of the natural world. The collective experience of sanitizing self and space, social distancing and economic hurdles are all humbling reminders of the scale of our vulnerabilities. Featuring the work of 11 Carolina, Chicago and California based artists who traditionally share visual narratives of a society that struggles with equitable existence; this collection marks a moment in history where artists have had to forge through the chaos of a new reality, to create work that reflects the pandemic era. 

From a curatorial approach, the focus of how I “studio” is a conscious effort to tell the story of each exhibiting piece through weekly guided private tours with featured artists from the show. These weekly, socially distanced, masked small gatherings are not only helping me develop the chops for how to discuss art with a diverse audience but is also  a grime reminder of just how much the access to public/private space has changed due the nature of this novel virus and the impact it is having at a state, local and federal level in addition to awkward adjustments towards new social norms. In addition to all the new forms of navigating these external factors affecting this industry, commercial galleries are a new territory for me. As a social practice artist, my support has traditionally come in the form of grants, fellowships or other foundation/institutional endeavors however working in commercial space, I’m discovering that my focus needs to adjust towards aesthetic valuation.I’m developing a better understanding of how to engage audiences in conversational settings surrounding not only featured work but the wider scope of mediums, disciplines and stories behind the work by scheduling formal meetings with other curators and gallerists to better inform my understanding of how to I attract potential buyers. I recognize that this focus veers slightly off the path of curatorial practice into art dealing; however I feel that the two are closely related and I’m interested in engaging both areas of practice.  

Art as a Verb

I am interested in observing how my use of time, culture, and social alchemy are embodied as conceptual themes within my artistry. This at times requires that my roles within this practice shift for the sake of capacity. These shifts from vision catalyst to performer are necessary to contexualize the full meaning of work that manifest as avant garde. The intention of my art is impact and a measure of aesthetic driven acumen that calls attention to sources for healing, recovery and atonement.

I: I do art: I don’t necessarily do art in the sense that I am continuously producing products. My art is a continuum of process. This constant state of experimentation with mediums that crosses genres and shifts form while being used to conceptualize the evolution of identity. Traditional formats only seemed to perpetuate the issues I've previously worked to dismantle ; art as a social practice has allowed me to chart familiar and new territory through analysis of social justice.

II: I make art: Art describes the context in which I wish to be understood. What I make varies from mediums including photo, collage, abstraction, performance, digital, 2D, and 3D productions. I make art not purely for the purpose of creating content, this intentional attitude towards my activities directs a level of participation with not only the self but others.

III: I Am an Artist: Intention. I believe that art informs culture and cultures create society; using this technique as a tool for social evolution, artist have the capacity to transmute divisive ideology into precious composites for humane social thought. Art is a platform for framing critical dialogue not just through words but through designed action. Art is a verb.

“Artists must create at the same scale society has the capacity to destroy” Lauren Bon