John Doe
Aug 17
How can artists inspire us to think about new forms of life in the midst of toxic environments and within the ruins of capitalist worlds?
The panel brings together three artists to talk about working in and with toxic environments. For Dwelling, Breathing, Dreaming: The Afterlife of Waste, Henry G. Sanchez, Willow Naomi Curry, and Sindhu Thirumalaisamy will each present a project that helps us think about new forms of life within the ruins of capitalist worlds. The event was held in-person at the museum and also streamed virtually on zoom, view the edited recording below.
Henry G. Sanchez’s ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT is a socially engaged, bio-art project focusing on Newton Creek, a Superfund site in Brooklyn, NY. The project proposes community based strategies to introduce bio-remediation methods to a historically polluted waterway. Through art making and community workshops, the ENGLISH KILLS PROJECT employs ethical scientific practices and explores the use of soil cordgrass as man-made wetlands and mussels as water filtering agents and habitat creators.
Willow Naomi Curry is a writer and novelist. She is currently working on her debut young adult novel, Arcadia, set in the 1980s, based on her experience growing up in Kashmere Gardens, a ‘rurban’ neighborhood in Houston impacted by the creosote contamination from the nearby Union Pacific Railways. The book is an intergenerational mystery following one family's attempts to uncover the impacts of environmental racism on their historically Black Houston neighborhood.
Sindhu Thirumalaisamy will discuss her film, The Lake and the Lake, which considers life around a contaminated lake in Bangalore, India’s “silicon valley.” Sindhu’s film presents an alternative to conservative environmentalist visions of the lake, highlighting it as a site of sustenance and devotion for counterpublics.
