Diasporic Gardens Gallery Show

This gallery showing is a part of a yearlong participatory arts project, Multispecies Relations Across Diasporic Landscapes, that experiments with collage and conversation as ways of weaving multispecies narratives from members of diasporas.

In a world of science-based environmental policy making, we need more ways of challenging the limits of established scientific frameworks and values. Particularly when addressing issues of climate adaptation and conservation, the myth of the “pristine wild” undergirds much of the logic in pursuing conservation science research. This myth imagines nature’s ideal state as one untouched by humans–erasing the knowledge and practices of indigenous peoples and often draws boundaries around legitimate environmental knowledge on colonial lines. While there is work being done to understand how indigenous ways of knowing can be integrated with science in environmental decision making, I am interested in how a diasporic lens could also contribute to this conversation.

This show traces the beginnings of an artistic exploration into how diasporic ways of understanding landscapes through multispecies relations can offer ways of caring for and connecting to places in a world of shifting climates.

Support for this event has been provided by the Sachs Program for Arts Innovation.