Armagardden, An installation by Jeff Schmuki
Including collaborative works by Wendy Deschene
Exhibition Dates: Sept. 7-27, 2012
Artist Lecture: Friday, Sept. 7, 5 p.m., ARTS 113
Opening Reception: Friday, Sept. 7, 6-8 p.m.
Artist Statement:
Not Far Into the Future…. The year is 2045. Failure to control unbridled consumption, resource depletion, insensitive development, and booming human numbers has undermined the environmental resource base resulting in a food shortage. Radical changes in sustainable food production are undertaken in urban centers worldwide. New designs, technologies, and social innovations are developed. Innovative tools, models, and ideas centering on sustainable food production become necessary to feed the masses.
2045 is not that far into the future. Knowing we are headed down that path, how can we creatively address issues of sustainability through art now in 2012?
Sustainability, the marginalization of nature in city life, and the confrontations between architecture and natural systems within the built environment must be addressed. I am interested in using existing spaces and creating disruptions by placing horticulture in unexpected locations. These indoor/outdoor works create temporary green spaces that require care and supervision from the community. Such works demonstrate that nature can take on a new role in affording the community an opportunity to engage in a constructive solution to sustainability, one that leads to consensus building and empowerment.
Biography:
Jeff Schmuki was born in Phoenix Arizona. His installations, interventions, and collaborations combine activism, research, and science in order to foster discussion and generate action in the area of ecological awareness. By linking environmental issues to a diverse array of creative operations and tactics, Schmuki extends the “knowledge of the moment”, demonstrates the fragile connection between the natural world and personal action, and offers simple, positive changes that can be enacted to increase sustainability — an activity that can be replicated long after the artist has moved on.
Recently, Schmuki has completed projects at the American Academy of Rome, Seoul Art Space Geumcheon in South Korea, and the Goethe Institute of Cairo, Egypt. Schmuki’s work has also exhibited in many group exhibitions including, Terra-Cotta, Primitive Future (2011) at the Clayarch Museum in Gimhae, South Korea; Lift Off: Earthlings and the Great Beyond (2011) in the Paul Robeson Galleries at Rutgers University in Newark, New Jersey; Work Makes the Work (2011) in the Eisentrager-Howard Gallery at the University of Nebraska – Lincoln; and The Edge of the Universe (2010) at the Shepparton Art Gallery in Victoria, Australia. His work can be found in collections of the Smithsonian Institution in Washington, D.C., Incheon World Ceramic Center in Incheon, South Korea, and the Museo Internazionale delle Ceramiche in Faenza, Italia. Schmuki is the recipient of grants from the Pollock-Krasner (2007) and Joan Mitchell (2006) Foundations and is currently installing a GSA, Art in Architecture Commission at the Federal Courthouse in Jackson, Mississippi.
For additional information on the artist, please visit www.jeffschmuki.com