Extreme weather and its destruction, such as the devastation brought this past September by hurricane Fiona, has become common, and its unpredictability leaves many feeling anxious and uncertain.
UWinnipeg Gallery 1C03’s current art exhibition Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief explores 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.
Worried Earth features the work of artists Connie Chappel, Laura Findlay, Natalie Goulet, Maureen Gruben, Jenine Marsh, Kuh Del Rosario, and Xiaojing Yan. It is curated by Erica Mendritzki with assistant curator Melanie Zurba.
In the lead to her essay for the show, Mendritzki writes: “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.”
Worried Earth includes several affiliated events, including a panel discussion on October 20, 2022 with curators and co-moderators Mendritzki and Zurba, and speakers including UWinnipeg forest ecologist Dr. Andrew Park, Anishininew Knowledge Keeper Byron Beardy, artist Connie Chappel, and artist/curator Seema Goel.
The group will share 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.
This exhibition is part of a multi-disciplinary Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) funded research project entitled “Creating Vocabularies and Rituals for Climate Grief Through Multiple Knowledge Systems and the Artistic Process.” Dr. Andrew Park is a collaborator on the project, which is led by Co-Principal Investigators Dr. Melanie Zurba of Dalhousie University and Erica Mendritzki of NSAD University.
GALLERY HOURS + AFFILIATED EVENTS
Monday – Friday between 12:00 and 4:00 p.m. | September 12 – November 10, 2022
October 20 at 2:30 p.m.
Panel discussion at The University of Winnipeg’s Convocation Hall
October 20, 4:00 – 6:00 p.m.
Reception with refreshments at Gallery 1C03. The exhibition curator and assistant curator, as well as some of the artists, will be present.
October 21 at 6:30 p.m.
Free film screening at Cinematheque (100 Arthur Street): Feature-length documentary film “The Magnitude of All Things” (2020, directed by Jennifer Abbott), alongside a selection of short experimental films.
October 22 at 2:00 p.m.
Forest walk: Participants should meet at Assiniboine Forest parking lot at the corner of Grant Avenue and Chalfont Road (at the western end of the forest).
