Confluence Ecologies
Last fall, Kayla Anderson (alum Berlin ’19) collaborated on the project Inheritance, as part of HKW’s Anthropocene Curriculum Confluence Ecologies show at Southern Illinois University’s Museum. Inheritance was part of Field Station 4 in “confluence territory” where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet (in Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky). A multimedia artwork to uncover the sublime beauty of fossilised forests.
The field of geology has long been intertwined with extraction of coal and petroleum. This project contemplates the two sides of geology through the voices of paleo-geologists who read the earth’s layers to construct a history of our planet, and miners who have visited the earth’s ancient records in the process of extraction.The resulting installation asks what we have inherited–and what we bequeath to the future. – Anthropocene Curriculum
FIELD STATION 4: CONFLUENCE ECOLOGIES
As a central axis through both real and mythic America, the Mississippi designates a particularly heterogeneous space in which the natural, cultural, and historical intersect in a unique way. Located in “confluence territory” where the Mississippi and Ohio Rivers meet (in Southern Illinois and Western Kentucky), Confluence Ecologies aims to bring a regionally focused lens to the globally entangled Anthropocene condition. The undertaking of this Field Station is one of intensive engagement with the juxtaposition of opioid addiction and our dependencies on coal and nuclear power, issues of native species loss and invasive replacements, animal labor, and ethical questions about future terraforming and historical geoengineering initiatives.
Confluence Ecologies aims to bring a regionally focused lens to the globally entangled Anthropocene condition. The undertaking of this Field Station is one of intensive engagement with the juxtaposition of opioid addiction and our dependencies on coal and nuclear power, issues of native species loss and invasive replacements, animal labor, and ethical questions about future terraforming and historical geoengineering initiatives.
About Kayla Anderson
Kayla Anderson is an interdisciplinary artist, writer, and organizer based in Chicago, IL. Per has participated in artist residencies and incubators at the Chicago Artists Coalition and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago, IL; Elsewhere, Greensboro, NC; ACRE, WI, and Les Laboratoires d’Aubervilliers, Paris. Per is a Visual Arts Fellow of the Luminarts Cultural Foundation. Per’s studio is located at Mana Contemporary Chicago.
Per’s work has been exhibited in venues throughout the United States and abroad including Currents International New Media Festival, Santa Fe; Urban Institute for Contemporary Art, Grand Rapids; Detroit Center for Contemporary Photography; West Virginia Mountaineer Short Film Festival; Regis Center for Art at the University of Minnesota; Grey Projects, Tiong Bahru, Singapore; Nối Projects, Hanoi, Vietnam; Johalla Projects, Tritriangle, Comfort Station, Woman Made Gallery, The Nightingale Cinema, Efrain Lopez Gallery, Roman Susan, and LVL3, Chicago, IL.
*“per” (from “person”) was a non-gendered pronoun proposed by Marge Piercy in the 1976 novel “Woman on the Edge of Time.”