Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief

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Natalie Michelle Goulet, "a brief respite from fear," 2019

analog photography/aluminum print, courtesy of the artist.

Opening Reception: October 20, 4-6pm

Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief is an art exhibition and affiliated public program exploring how worry about climate change and ecological collapse is seeping into our lives and dreams, mixing with other fears and anxieties, and entangling with personal experiences of loss. In this ecosystem of grief, art is a place for picturing and shaping bad feelings, including bad feelings about the very act of making art. Each gesture of making is weighed against the desire to do no harm—and the impossibility of a harmless human life within the context of our extractive capitalist system. We grieve our own existence, as well as our eventual demise.

The works in this exhibition sit with and in this grief. They also sing of the ways that grief can open us up. We become capacious, raw, and changeable. We can follow our grief towards wilder and deeper feelings, towards greater empathy for the other beings with whom we share the planet, and towards and into the rhythms of life and death.

Worried Earth is curated by Erica Mendritzki with assistant curator Melanie Zurba and features the work of artists Connie Chappel, Laura Findlay, Natalie Goulet, Maureen Gruben, Jenine Marsh, Kuh Del Rosario, and Xiaojing Yan.

Panel Discussion: October 20, 2022, 2:30 - 3:45 pm: Talking about eco-anxiety, entangled grief, and life in an age of climate catastrophe

Join moderators Erica Mendritzki and Melanie Zurba, and panelists Byron Beardy, Connie Chappel, Seema Goel, and Andrew Park, for a frank and personal discussion of their experiences navigating eco-anxiety and climate-change related grief, within their lives and in their respective professional disciplines. The discussion will include an opportunity for audience questions.