Breath(e): toward climate and social justice

Abstract

The exhibition considers environmental art practices that address the climate crisis and anthropogenic disasters and their inescapable intersection with issues of equity and social justice. Breath(e) features works by more than 20 artists, including works by Mel Chin, Ron Finley, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Garnett Puett, and Lan Tuazon, commissioned specially for this exhibition. Breath(e) was conceived during the height of the global COVID-19 pandemic and America's racial reckoning in 2020, and as such explores pressing issues related to the ethics of climate justice, while proposing pragmatic and philosophical approaches to spur discussion and resolution. The exhibition strives to challenge and deconstruct polarized political attitudes surrounding climate justice in America and offers new perspectives around land and indigenous rights of nature.

Contents

Director's Foreword / Ann Philbin -- Curatorial Acknowledgments / Glenn Kaino and Mika Yoshitake -- Breath(e): Point of No Return / Mika Yoshitake -- A Breath Within a Breeze / Glenn Kaino -- VOICE. Why I Do What I Do and Why You Shoul Do What I Do Too! / Ron Finley -- Object Descriptions / Jennifer Buonocore-Nedrelow -- LIFE CYCLES. Futures of Breathfulness / T. J. Demos -- King Philip Chewed Old Fish Gut Soup / Lan Tuazon -- LIVING KNOWLEDGE. Until All of Us Can Breathe / Leah Penniman -- Apisculptures / Garnett Puett -- BALANCE. Indigenous Cultural Continuity = Survival of the Human Species / Sherri Mitchell, Weh'na Ha'mu Kwasset -- Through the World Line / Cannupa Hanska Luger -- RADICAL PRESENCE. Alchemy for Our Times / Kimbery Bain -- Potential Energy / Mika Tajima -- VISIBILITY. A Letter to the Sky: On Breath(e) / Chus Martínez -- IOV / Mel Chin -- The Book We Didn't Make & The One That We Did / Brian Johnson and Silas Munro -- Artist and Contributor Biographies -- Exhibition Checklist.