SciArt Magazine - All Issues December 2015 | Page 29

ON VIEW

Exhibition site: University
of Minnesota/Institute on the
Environment, Learning and
Environmental Studies
Building, October 22, 2015–
January 15, 2016. Open
weekdays 8AM-7PM.

SAMEE

Sustainable Acts: Mother Earth’s Embrace

PRESS RELEASE
“Sustainable Acts: Mother Earth’s
Embrace/SAMEE” examines the
shared common ground of artists and
scientists to discover ways to understand
and advance ideas to sustain and preserve planet earth.
Art has the capacity to reveal information and materiality as relational rather
than academic. It is the emotional dimension which art
adds to the scientific and environmental mix which the
public can relate to. For example a work by Joel Carter, a
physician/sculptor, installed a balanced rock piece, Hope,
a work that expresses the healing power of the stone
archetypal of the human soul as revered by indigenous
peoples; Tanya Gravening, mixed–media artist/environmentalist, installed Toy Totem, a 9 foot construction of
recycled plastics gathered by people in her community—
a reminder that innocent commodities can cause environmental damage; Sean Connaughty, sculptor/environmentalist, with his team created Ark of the Anthropocene,
a model for preservation and survival in a changing
climate. Another “SAMEE” artist, further demonstrating the diversity in the arts, Diane Willow, identified as a
multi–modal artist, brings together nature and technology in her video works. These artists, among the forty

featured in the “Sustainable Acts” exhibition, demonstrate the intersection
of social, scientific, and technological
connections and a collaborative necessity to pay attention to environme