Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief
September 12 - November 10, 2022
Curator: Erica Mendritzki
Assistant Curator: Melanie Zurba
Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief is an art exhibition exploring how worry about climate change and ecological collapse is seeping into our lives and dreams, mixing with other fears and anxieties, and entangling with personal experiences of loss. In this ecosystem of grief, art is a place for picturing and shaping bad feelings, including bad feelings about the very act of making art. Each gesture of making is weighed against the desire to do no harm—and the impossibility of a harmless human life within the context of our extractive capitalist system. We grieve our own existence, as well as our eventual demise.
The works in this exhibition sit with and in this grief. They also sing of the ways that grief can open us up. We become capacious, raw, and changeable. We can follow our grief towards wilder and deeper feelings, towards greater empathy for the other beings with whom we share the planet, and towards and into the rhythms of life and death.
Worried Earth features the work of artists Connie Chappel, Laura Findlay, Natalie Goulet, Maureen Gruben, Jenine Marsh, Kuh Del Rosario, and Xiaojing Yan.
READ THE EXHIBITION BROCHURE
GALLERY HOURS
Monday - Friday between 12:00 and 4:00 pm from September 12 – November 10, 2022 (closed September 30 and October 10).
AFFILIATED EVENTS
October 20 at 2:30 pm: Panel discussion at The University of Â鶹´«Ã½'s Convocation Hall
October 20, 4:00 - 6:00 pm: Reception with refreshments at Gallery 1C03. The exhibition curator and assistant curator as well as some of the artists will be present.
October 21 at 6:30 pm: Free film screening at Cinematheque (100 Arthur Street)
Featuring the feature-length documentary film "The Magnitude of All Things" (2020, directed by Jennifer Abbott), alongside a selection of short experimental films.
October 22 at 2:00 pm: Forest walk (meet at Assiniboine Forest parking lot at the corner of Grant Avenue and Chalfont Road (at the western end of the forest).
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
Gallery 1C03 is on Treaty 1 Territory. We are located on the territories of the Anishinaabeg, Cree, Oji-Cree, Dakota and Dene peoples, and the homeland of the Métis Nation. Our water is sourced from Shoal Lake 40 First Nation.
The exhibition is supported by the New Frontiers in Research Fund, and is part of an interdisciplinary research project on eco-anxiety and climate change-related grief. This research project is led by Co-Principal Investigators Melanie Zurba (Dalhousie University) and Erica Mendritzki (NSCAD University) with collaborators Andrew Park (University of Â鶹´«Ã½), Roberta Woodgate (University of Manitoba), David Busolo (University of New Brunswick), and Lisa Binkley (Dalhousie University). The work is also supported by Research Associate Polina Baum-Talmor, and research assistants and graduate students: Lily Barraclough, Sara Boyd, Morgan Brimacombe, Luke Fair, Natalie Goulet, and Bryanne Lamoureux.
GETTING HERE AND ACCESSIBILITY
Maps of The University of Â鶹´«Ã½ campus, including accessibility and parking maps, can be found at . The Gallery is located on the main floor of Centennial Hall at 515 Portage Avenue. Accessible, street level visitor entrances with auto door openers and ramps are via Portage Avenue, Ellice Avenue and Spence Street. The gallery doors are equipped with auto-openers. There is a gender-neutral, accessible washroom less than 100 feet from the Gallery entrance. The exhibition and affiliated events are free to everyone.