MACON – Mercer University Associate Professor of Art Craig Coleman curated the new art show, Lost in the Weeds: Climate Change and Human Nature, at Athens Institute for Contemporary Art (ATHICA), open to the public through May 22.
On display in ATHICA’s Leathers’ Building, Lost in the Weeds is an exhibition curated by Coleman and featuring the works of 11 individual artists and four collaborative artist teams from across the country and beyond. All use the stuff of nature to convey the beauty, mystery and inescapability of its rule, and perhaps, its ruin.
The technology-infused works on display take form through new approaches to sculpture, installation, video, interactive sound and video, virtual reality, animation, blown glass, weaving and more, and derive their substance from natural materials, the ecosystems of the world and data from natural phenomenon. Thought-provoking, energetic and urgent, these works both analyze our changing environment and substantiate a new way for art to express the effects of humanity on our small planet.
Coleman discusses the theme of the exhibition as: “Weeds serve as a metaphor for being lost or buried in complications in both a political and personal sense. The works in this exhibition make connections between climate change (weeds will thrive in a warmer climate – edible crops will suffer), our political climate (are we ‘lost in the weeds’?), the ambiguity of how we define a weed (a plant that is in the wrong place), and ecology. Are weeds harbingers of climate change, are they hyper-objects, are they beautiful, are they an eyesore, do they damage or assist the growth of wanted plants?”
The contributing artists are based in Alabama, Colorado, Florida, New York, Oregon, South Carolina, Tennessee, Texas and Germany.
Coleman will give a streaming talk for the exhibit on Using Nature in Alternative Photo Processes on Thursday, April 29, at 7 p.m. For more information on this show, visit ATHICA’s website.
