Around About explores our relationship with the environment and encourages us to think about how our actions affect the world around us. The exhibition reflects on shared human experiences shaped by climate change, natural cycles, technological advancements, and personal loss.
Contrasting the enduring rhythms of nature with the rapid pace of technological change, the exhibition highlights the environmental consequences of our digital age. Kelley O’Leary investigates how seemingly intangible concepts like the internet and cloud computing have tangible effects on our planet, from resource depletion to habitat destruction.
Grief, whether arising from personal loss or environmental shifts, weaves throughout the exhibition. By creating literal vessels that hold memory, Helia Pouyanfar points to the transient nature of identity, the ephemerality of home, and the continuous search for belonging. In her self-portrait, Tricia Rainwater makes eye contact with the audience, which shows her openly confronting grief. In the background, a different piece showcases her body obscured and hidden by nature. These works reveal how our physical presence can express both vulnerability and strength, using the body as powerful political statements.
Mark Baugh-Sasaki and Alicia Escott offer complementary perspectives on the cyclical nature of life. Baugh-Sasaki captures the rhythms inherent in our environment through contrasts of light and dark, day and night, and the passage of time, while Escott examines the intricate balance between growth, decay, and renewal. Together, the works of Escott and Baugh-Sasaki deepen our understanding of temporality and our pace within it.
tamara suarez porras’ practice centers on the act of searching and discovery. With visible traces of their hand, suarez porras’ work reveals the process of probing and unearthing new perspectives.
At its core, the works in Around About enhance our awareness of our interconnectedness and encourage us to seek more balanced ways of living. By fostering a deeper connection to our surroundings, it aims to cultivate a more harmonious coexistence with the Earth and ourselves.
Alongside the physical pieces installed in the interior of the truck, the video works in the screening further explore how our physical environments inform our internal landscapes as well as our connections to each other and our communities, while simultaneously reconciling the constant presence of technology, perpetually mediating our experience of nature. Artists in the screening include Andrew Brehm and Jennifer Lauren Smith, Alicia Escott, Sun Park, Helia Pouyanfar, Kelley O'Leary, and Nicole Shaffer.
