Climate Conversations: All we can Save

Travelling Exhibition

22 North Gallery, Ypsilanti, MI:

July 2 – August 22, 2021

Janice Charach Gallery, Bloomfield Hills, MI

January 16 – March 9, 2022

Nurture / Nature Center, Easton, PA

March 25 – TBD, 2022

Curatorial statement

Climate Crisis. Global Warming. Resilience. Sustainability. These issues are so complex and the outlook at the precipice so dire and urgent, they cannot be ignored. No longer a distant threat to obscure plants and animals, the climate crisis that we ourselves have created has put us on the endangered species list.

There is hope, if we can work together in this moment. 80% of Americans agree that environmental issues are important to address, but 55% are still on the sidelines, passively hoping someone else will solve it for them.

Real solutions for a healthy planet require all of us, whatever the métier, medium or experience, especially our corporate citizens and governments. It’s clear we cannot continue business as usual and expect that our civilizations will survive intact. Knowing where to begin is challenging, especially for average global citizens.

Solid resources to educate ourselves are out there.

In the fall of 2020, Leslie Sobel learned of the book All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis, edited by Ayana Elizabeth Johnson & Katharine K. Wilkinson. She was instantly captivated by the idea of exploring a resilient response to the climate crisis from a feminist perspective. She subsequently signed up to lead a circle of readers and started reaching out to artist friends with the idea of reading and discussing the book together. The group evolved organically—all women—several suggesting other artists whose work resonated and was also focused on climate and environmental issues. Very early on in our weekly meetings Laura Earle asked: “We’ll develop a show out of this discussion, right?” Both Sobel and Earle have worked on several such curatorial projects and most recently Earle had facilitated a group exhibition in response to Drawdown: The Most Comprehensive Plan Ever Proposed to Reverse Global Warming—also edited in part by Katharine Wilkinson. 

The readings from All We Can Save offered many diverse perspectives and provoked lively discussions within our group of eight artists. Some of us are seasoned environmentalists, others have only recently left the sidelines, abandoning spectator status to become educated and actively work to secure a brighter future for our planet, our families and ourselves. These artworks reflect our conversations and thoughts. 

Ultimately, we drew multiple conclusions from the book and our responses. The climate crisis is just that—its urgency propels us to make work, to make change and to live that change. We don’t despair. The changes required to address the climate crisis are changes that can lead to a more equitable, more beautiful and healthier life for everyone. As artists we found that making work in response to this crisis is an opportunity to explore our relationships with the planet and how we can deepen those connections in beauty and creativity. Working in a collective, collaborative manner meant we were embodying change in our work process in ways that we believe society must change in order to save the planet and ourselves. This project has truly been a supportive, resilient process that we hope will lead to many more conversations on climate. This exhibition invites you into our exchange of ideas, and our hope is that you’ll influence your corner of the world to become greener, more resilient and sustainable.

Climate Conversations: All We Can Save has been partially funded by curatorial grants from the Puffin Foundation West and the Puffin Foundation.

—Leslie Sobel and Laura Earle

PROJECT HISTORY AND OVERVIEW

In 2020, biologist, writer and climate activist, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, & author, strategist and teacher, Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, published a seminal book entitled All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis. Shortly after the book’s publication, artist and curator, Leslie Sobel convened a group of eight female, mid-career artists to read and discuss (online) the collection of essays on the climate crisis, written by dozens of women leaders in the United States who are working in a diverse range of scientific, academic, legal, political, social service and arts disciplines. On the basis of the group’s enthusiasm for the information and approaches conveyed in the book, Leslie Sobel and group member/curator/artist Laura Earle agreed to curate an exhibition of the members’ work, which would be created in response to All We Can Save. It is the intention of the curators that the exhibition will travel to a number of sites in the U.S. and include interactive, community programming, a catalog and a dedicated website. As of this writing, three exhibition sites have been confirmed: 22 North Gallery in Ypsilanti, Michigan (July – August, 2021); Janice Charach Gallery in Bloomfield Hills, Michigan (January – March, 2022); and The Nurture/Nature Center in Easton, Pennsylvania (April – May, 2022). The exhibition is funded, in part, by a grant from the Puffin West Foundation.

PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Climate Conversations: All We Can Save addresses a diverse range of topics relating to the climate crisis, including climate refugees, species extinction, water pollution, sea level rise, overconsumption, erosion, river ecology and environmental myths. Participating artists include sculptor and mixed media artist, Nancy Cohen; installation artist, Kate Dodd; painter, designer and sculptor, Laura Earle; mixed media artist Tracey Easthope; mixed media artist, Liz Fall; painter, public artist and writer, Susan Hoffman Fishman; multi-media artist and designer, Gina R. Furnari; and printmaker, mixed media and installation artist, Leslie Sobel. Of the eight artists, four are residents of Southeast Michigan, one is from Connecticut and three live in New Jersey. Each artist is represented by several works of art. Over the year-long period of bi-monthly meetings conducted during the pandemic, the group has coalesced into a collaborative and cohesive unit. 

COMMUNITY PROGRAMS

Although one or more community programs related to the exhibition will be developed specifically for each site, one on-going project will be conducted at all of the sites. “Dear Earth” is a participatory activity for individuals of all ages, ability levels and backgrounds. Participants coming to the exhibition sites will be asked to write a letter to Earth by completing writing prompts on stationary provided by the exhibition team, in which they express their feelings and questions related to the climate crisis. Prompts include the following: Dear Earth: I am sorry for…, Dear Earth: I hope in the future…, Dear Earth: I am grateful for…, and Dear Earth: I wish… Each participant will deposit their letters in a mailbox within the gallery space and will have their pictures taken with their letters, all of which will become a gallery of images called “Faces of the Earth,” The images will be played in a continuous loop displayed on a video monitor in the gallery. The goal of “Dear Earth” and of the exhibition itself is to provide an accessible opportunity for individuals to think about, personalize and physically respond to climate change. 

BRIEF BIOS OF THE CURATORS AND ARTISTS

Nancy Cohen's work examines resiliency in relation to the environment and the human body. Recent solo exhibitions include “Atlas of Impermanence” at the Visual Arts Center of New Jersey and “Liasons” at Kathryn Markel Fine Arts in New York City. Cohen has a BFA in Ceramics from Rochester Institute of Technology and an MFA in Sculpture from Columbia University. She teaches Drawing and Sculpture at Queens College.

Kate Dodd uses visual metaphors to acknowledge the acceleration of climate change and the sense of loss and anxiety that results.  Her site-specific installations include multiple stations for NJTransit, and most recently, Summit Public Art, the Lewes Public Art Commission, and the Jersey City waterfront. She was a recipient of the NJSCA Fellowship in Sculpture award in 2020, and has been teaching art in public and private schools for 30 years.

Laura Earle is a Metro Detroit artist and independent curator who explores interactivity, making exhibits and artwork that invite people into a larger narrative, to consider pivot points. She's interested in how art starts a conversation and becomes a catalyst for building community and shifting meaning. Her sculpted conversations focus on social justice issues such as gender equality (Dear Womanhouse), racial equality (Unraveling Racism: Seeing White) and reversing global warming (Drawdown) with an inclusive, community-building approach.

Tracey Easthope is an Ann Arbor-based artist who explores the ecology of perception and the process of humans coming to terms with their interconnection to the natural world in her multi-media work. Trained in sculpture, and with a 30 year career as an environmental health activist with a specialty in toxic chemicals, Tracey’s work is informed by bearing witness, and working for change. Recent shows include Project Drawdown: Pathways out of Global Warming, in 2020. 

Elizabeth Barick Fall works in photography, mixed media assemblage and installation. Inspired by the intent observation of her environment and the objects within it, she explores themes of nature, loss, nostalgia, memory, growth/decay, tension/harmony, and the female experience. Liz has a BFA from the University of Michigan and an MFA in metalsmithing for Cranbrook Academy of Art. She is also the founder and Director of trustArt studios, a community art studio and gallery space in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

Susan Hoffman Fishman is a painter, public artist and writer. Since 2011, her paintings, installations and writing have focused on water and the climate crisis. She is the co-creator of a national, interactive public art project, The Wave, which addresses our mutual need for and interdependence on water. As one of the core writers for the international blog, Artists and Climate Change, her series “Imagining Water” is published monthly.

Gina Rafaella Furnari is a painter, and process artist focused on investigations of place, community, and belonging. Her work consists of independent and collaborative projects including “A Place for Us” (2020)—which collects visual and audio references from areas where land and water meet along New Jersey’s waterways, and explores the idea of habit as habitat. She has exhibited in the United States, Iceland, and Ireland and is currently artist-in-residence with Cape May Whale Watch and Research. 

Leslie Sobel is an artist and curator whose work focuses on climate change and watersheds. She frequently partners with scientists and conducts fieldwork in locations both remote and nearby including ice fields in Yukon Territory, the Arctic Circle, deserts in the southwest and the Great Lakes. Sobel works in multiple media, including printmaking, painting, mixed media, assemblage and photography.