Insurgent Environmental Art Takes Over The Gallery

Resistance After Nature, the latest show in the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery, opened Friday, March 17, with a talk by its curators and a reception.

The day’s headlines sprang to life at the opening of the Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery’s latest exhibit, Resistance After Nature, on Friday night. The show, which is curated by artists and writers Dylan Gauthier and Kendra Sullivan, asks viewers to consider the causes and effects of climate change, the entangled political and economic issues of indigenous sovereignty and water rights that have playing out over the Dakota Access Pipeline project, and the environmental ramifications of ocean shipping routes, among other ecological concerns, such as deforestation and ocean acidification. Over a dozen artists and artists collectives have responded to these crises using a wide range of media—from video and photographs to sculptures, installations, and performances—that flood the gallery with provocative imagery. (More after photo gallery.)

Among the many pieces on display in the Whitehead Campus Center’s gallery are Canupa Hanska Luger’s “Mirror Shields,” which were actually used by water protectors in Standing Rock, N.D.; Brazilian artist Maria Thereza Alves’ video “Time, Trade and Surplus Value,” which calls to mind forced migration as a result of climate change; and collective MORE&MORE’s hand-grown mushroom statuary in the shape of the world’s most commonly exported products, which illustrates the unseen ways in which products are brought to us from across the seas. The two curators discussed these pieces and many more at the opening talk and reception.

Resistance After Nature, which was organized in conjunction with the Hurford Center’s 2016-17 Faculty Seminar “Environmental Design, Sustainability, and Artistic Intervention,” will be on view through April 28 and includes two public workshops with artists featured in the exhibition: Mary Mattingly’s “Cobolt/The Objects” on April 3, and MORE&MORE’s “Investing in Futures” on April 13. For details: exhibits.haverford.edu/resistanceafternature.

Photos by Caleb Eckert ’17.