A compelling new show at the MassArt Art Museum centers on the human consequences of climate change, including “the forced migration so many people experience in the wake of either immediate disaster or slowly shifting climates,” writes Kelly Presutti in the August 2, 2024 issue of Art in America. “Displacement,” which will be on view through December 8th, features textiles, sculptures, film, and scents in an investigation of the historic and current relationships between industrial civilization and the natural world.
Artist Imani Jacquiline Brown’s installation asks, “What remains at the ends of the earth?” Presutti writes, “Tracking the spatial intersections between plantation slavery and extractive capitalism demonstrates the systemic and ongoing exploitation of both people and place in a region so polluted that it is colloquially known as ‘Cancer Alley.’ Brown’s video installation moves between the cold precision of aerial photography, the swirling iridescence of oily waters, and a graphic plotting of oil and gas networks that resembles the constellations that guided enslaved peoples out of these very sites. The shining stars evoke resistance in the face of disaster, a resistance Brown also finds in the roots of magnolia and willow trees planted by enslaved peoples.
Such roots are what hold the fragile, constantly eroding soil in place. Brown, like many artists in ‘Displacement,’ promotes attention to the human realities and resiliencies that accompany living through a time of constant change.”
Read Presutti’s review in full.
Top image: Sandra M. Sawatsky’s “The Black Gold Tapestry, 2008-2017” uses silk and wood threads to depict human evolution and adaptation.
Images: MassArt
