ATLANTIKA COLLECTIVE: APPROACHING EVENT HORIZONS
/Approaching Event Horizons:
Projects on Climate Change by Atlantika Collective
Curated by María Alejandra Sáenz
August 24 - October 1, 2022, Mason Exhibitions Arlington
Exhibition Catalog
Atlantika Collective Artists: Gabriela Bulisova, Todd R. Forsgren, Billy Friebele, Mark Isaac, Katie Kehoe, Yam Chew Oh, and Sue Wrbican.
An event horizon alludes to a boundary in space around a black hole beyond which nothing, including light, can escape. Acknowledging the current climate crisis of our planet, Approaching Event Horizons: Projects on Climate Change by Atlantika Collective understands that we are headed towards a point of no return, but resists the idea that a cataclysm is inevitable.
Through sculptural explorations, photography, video, and sound, the seven artists in this exhibition address the growing consumerism culture and raise awareness about the current consequences of the environmental crisis—polluted and contaminated waters, intense variations in temperature, increasing deforestation, and wildfires.
Sue Wrbican questions today’s surreal era and the voracious cycle of consumer culture in Before the Ghost and in Party Popper / Plague Tower she conveys her response to political deal-makings regarding the climate crisis during the ongoing Covid-19 virus. Todd R. Forsgren’s photographic series A Field Guide to Pelagic Plastic Bags warns about plastic pollution in the oceans as he captures numerous images of plastic bags floating in the water. Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac present The Second Fire and A Tree for the Forest, two projects that trace the effects of global warming and the climate crisis in different regions of the world—the Baikal region located in Eastern Siberia, Cyprus, and the Czech Republic.
In A convenient matter, a 13-foot sculpture, Yam Chew Oh instigates a conversation about the rapid consumption of plastic bottles in contrast to their slow degradation and long-term permanence on Earth. Continuing his research on rivers, Billy Friebele uses digital tools to explore the submerged life of these bodies of water, capturing scenes above and below the water in Machines Learn from the River and Inversion/Submersion. Finally, Katie Kehoe presents Superimpositions: Wildfires In My Landscape, a series of animated photographs that reveal the ecological emergency of wildfires. Kehoe also reflects on the absence of trees in her work 200 Trees, part 1, where she documents planting over 100 native trees in rural areas of Nova Scotia, Canada.
Accompanying these works are three large-scale videos presented by Gabriela Bulisova and Mark Isaac (Embers and Effluents), Billy Friebele (Inversion/Submersion), and Sue Wrbican (Ocean Extrusion), and a socially engaged performance experience of planting 100 trees native to Northern Virginia by Katie Kehoe (200 Trees, part 2).
These works not only illustrate the environmental emergency but extend an invitation to relearn our ways of relating with nature and inspire actions to help mitigate the critical consequences of climate change and be in communion with the environment. Actions such as planting and caring for native trees and reducing the consumption of single-use plastics and shipment materials are some proactive steps we can take.
As art historian T.J. Demos writes, “I’m convinced that art, given its long histories of experimentation, imaginative invention, and radical thinking, can play a central transformative role here. In its most ambitious and far-ranging sense, art holds the promise of initiating exactly these kinds of creative perceptional and philosophical shifts, offering new ways of comprehending ourselves and our relation to the world differently than the destructive traditions of colonizing nature.” (T. J. Demos, Decolonizing Nature: Contemporary Art and the Politics of Ecology (Berlin: Sternberg Press, 2016), 19.)
Approaching Event Horizons is a call to action to prevent us from approaching an event horizon. This exhibition encourages all to take steps forward to establish an equitable relationship with nature and calls for building new horizons in search of a better ecological future for the Earth.
Exhibit Images
Exhibition Videos
Katie Kehoe, 200 Trees, 2022
In June of 2022, Kehoe undertook planting 100 trees in her hometown in rural Nova Scotia, Canada. This video documents that action and is projected on the floor of the gallery to call attention to the ground we are situated on and its absence of trees, which results from urbanization.
200 Trees: A Performance Action, is a socially engaged performance that will take place on Saturday, October 1 and is companion piece to Kehoe's video projection. Additional details with an invitation to participate will follow.
A floating waterproof camera system gathers video in the Anacostia River, a river threatened by pollution and high levels of bacteria. Inversion/Submersion 1.2 (2022) reveals an interconnected ecosystem above and below the water surface. Friebele then trains the AI on a set of images collected by the camera. He then uses the processing power of the AI, to see the river in an expanded way, as if through the senses of another being. Friebele uses digital tools to explore the space between technology, nature, and humans in an effort to elicit empathy for the larger web of life that depends on the river.
Billy Frieble, Inversion/Submersion 1.2, 2022
Event Recordings
MAKING CLIMATE CHANGE ART: A virtual artists’ talk with the seven artists of the Atlantika Collective (Sept. 10, 2022).
Intersectional Climate Justice: Collective Calls to Action
On September 24, Mason Exhibitions Arlington hosted “Intersectional Climate Justice: Collective Calls to Action” featuring Mason faculty members. Speaking to a range of issues and opportunities including water security, Indigenous rights, and climate communication, these Calls to Action are organized here in a sharable PDF.
200 Trees: A Socially Engaged Performance Action
On October 1, Mason Exhibitions hosted “200 Trees: A Socially Engaged Performance Action” in partnership with the Office of Sustainability. Katie Kehoe, an artist in the Atlantika Collective, led the two-part event. The first part was a performance art piece inspired by the act of planting trees by Kehoe and supporting performers at Mason Exhibitions Arlington. The second part included planting 100 native hardwood tree saplings on the Fairfax campus. This was sponsored by the Office of Sustainability’s Patriot Green Fund, and made possible by the Greenhouses and Gardens Program staff and volunteers, Jenn Ashworth of Mason Exhibitions’ Green Studio, and artist Katie Kehoe. To get funding for your own sustainability project, visit pgf.gmu.edu
ABOUT ATLANTIKA COLLECTIVE
Atlantika is an international creative collective of artists, writers, curators, educators, and thinkers. We focus on sharing ideas, making connections, and building collaborative relationships in an “open circle” model that engages others and strengthens support for the arts in society. We embrace transparency in the creative process, from idea to development to result. We believe in social responsibility, community, and nurturing a contemporary humanism through art. Go to atlantika-collective.com to find out more.
ABOUT THE CURATOR
María Alejandra Sáenz is an independent curator from Bogotá, Colombia. She holds an MA degree in Curatorial Practice from the School of Visual Arts (NYC) and a BA degree in Architecture from the University of Los Andes (Colombia). Her curatorial work focuses on contemporary art concerning memory, language, cultural heritage, migration, and the environment. María is a founding member of Se Habla Español, a curatorial collective working on interdisciplinary artistic and social projects, and recently became a member of Atlantika Collective. She has worked at the Museum of Modern Art of Bogotá (Colombia) and the Feria del Millón (Colombia) and has collaborated with the Contemporary Arts Center (Spain) and the Museum of Art of the National University of Colombia. She is currently based in Connecticut.
EXHIBITION BOOKSHELF
ABOUT MASON EXHIBITIONS
With galleries in Arlington, Fairfax, and Manassas, Mason Exhibitions offers a multi-venue forum for the presentation of contemporary visual artists who advance research, dialogue, and learning around global social issues.