MAPPING A GREEN FUTURE Center for Contemporary Arts October 9 - November 21, 2009 CENTER for CONTEMPORARY ARTS 1050 Old Pecos Trail, Santa Fe, NM 87505 505.982.1338 www.ccasantafe.org The Center for Contemporary Arts [CCA] was established in 1979 as a venue for the pursuit of cultural practices fostering ideas and collaborations in multidisciplinary contemporary art with a focus on the intersection between visual and media art, performance, and film culture. This project is made possible in part by New Mexico Arts, a division of the Department of Cultural Affairs, and the National Endow- ment for the Arts. ARTISTS Andrea Polli + Chuck Varga Jenny Polak Jenny Marketou Basia Irland Joan Myers Catherine Harris Bill Gilbert John Fogarty + Lea Rekow Beatriz da Costa Eve Andree Laramee Brooke Singer Claudia Borgna CLUI PRESENTERS Bioneers New Energy Economy AIA 516 Arts WITH SUPPORT FROM George and Fay Young Foundation Land/Art Vision: Shift Tyler Rogers Mapping a Green Future Curated by Lea Rekow October 9 - November 21, 2009 Muñoz Waxman Gallery, CCA Opening Reception - Friday, October 9th 5:00pm - 7:00pm To be opened by the Mayor of Santa Fe, David Coss Lecture by John Fogarty Performance by Little Globe CCA is proud to present Mapping a Green Future, an exhibition that looks toward the promise of sustainability, and the challenges we currently face. The connection between the automobile, life and air is explored through Andrea Polli and Chuck Varga’s Cloud Car. Polli’s weather station, Hello, Weather! attempts to de-mystify the collection and use of weather and climate. Bill Gil- bert documents walking the grid, as topography and legalities allow. Jenny Polak negotiates lan- guages of water politics through a sound installation made from conversations with local farmers. Joan Myers panoramic photography of power plants deals with industrialization’s impact on the environment. Eve Andrée Laramée displays documentation of her work with uranium. The Cen- ter for Land Use Interpretation’s [CLUI] Display Facility* draws people to a site-specific project located on the fringe of Albuquerque. Basia Irland documents her rainwater harvesting systems along rivers. Jenny Marketou gathers and disseminates aerial data from the region. Claudia Bor- gna creates a garden installation utilizing recycled shopping bags and showcases her new video in the Moving Image Lab. Catherine Harris, with support from Lee Montgomery, charts the water displacement of the gallery through use of sculptural hydrographs. Beatriz da Costa displays docu- mentation of Pigeonblog, an environmental monitoring device, and Brooke Singer exhibits her data collection on superfund sites. John Fogerty and Lea Rekow create a video booth to ask the public where their electricity comes from. The Bioneers presents their Dreaming New Mexico project. As well, CCA serves as a satellite for the 2009 Bioneers Conference, broadcasting to the CCA cinema- theque. The American Institute of Architects hosts a lecture and workshop by Marlon Blackwell. *CLUI projects in New Mexico for LAND/ART are presented by 516 ARTS, and are made possible by The FUNd at Albuquerque Community Foundation. Future Green An essay by Lea Rekow This exhibition invites a re-evaluation of the role of maps and mapping practices in cultural explora- tions of land use. Artists have contributed across a broad range of interdisciplinary fields, working in the visual arts and sciences, cultural studies, archi- tecture, experimental geography, and eco-studies, as well as those with interests in social and cul- tural memory, archival practice, and land use policy. While the trope of ‘mapping’ has remained a prominent fixture in the lexicon of recent cultural criticism, such as in the breathtaking photography of Joan Myers, the work of many of these artists go beyond exclusively metaphorical applications of mapping, and engage more actively with real world data, as in the GIS tech- nology used by Bill Gilbert, the aerial surveillance data gathered by Jenny Marketou, and the data-generating processes employed by Andrea Polli and Chuck Varga. Although the world’s consciousness has turned ‘green’ and ‘sustainable’ programs are emerging in every community, blurring these interdisciplin- ary boundaries is becoming commonplace within arts collaborations, such as in the advocacy work and actions presented by John Fogerty, Bioneers, and artists such as Basia Irland, who inspire greater involvement in protecting and critiquing the While the exhibition comments on the impact of human- use of our environmental and human resourc- ity on the environment, it also builds a dialog opening es through engagement with local communities. possibilities to change it. It’s the abstract dynamic found in these relationships, in the flow of information in signs, The exhibition also reflects on current develop- symbols and ideas that may bring with it the power to ments in other areas of mapping research and prac- influence an audience. Visual media can be used to tice, as in the pioneering work of the Center for visualize power itself, as a way of interpreting and un- Land Use Interpretation (CLUI); the work of Beatriz derstanding it. And this understanding can become a da Costa who enlists homing pigeons in scientific basis for challenging it. Art can be used to describe data gathering; Eve Andree Laramée’s collaborative and locate power, to pressure those who hold power, search within the scientific community for practi- and ultimately to facilitate and generate power by cal solutions to decontaminating radioactive sites; bringing people together - to map their own future. Jenny Polak’s struggle in the agricultural ethno- sphere; or Brook Singer’s database of toxic sites. These strategies and interactions present research ap- proaches that could be considered groundwork for eco- logical mapping protocols. And while Catherine Harris offers us the opportunity to ponder the lack of attention we give to our neglected resource allocation, Claudia Borgna’s work elegantly asks, if surrounded by plas- tic plants, are we merely cultivating plastic thoughts? Bioneers Dreaming New Mexico Founder Kenny Ausubel coined the term Bion- eers in 1990 to describe an emerging culture. Bioneers are social and scientific innovators from all walks of life and disciplines who have peered deep into the heart of living systems to understand how nature operates, and to mimic "nature's operating instructions" to serve hu- man ends without harming the web of life. Nature's principles—kinship, cooperation, diversity, symbiosis and cycles of continuous creation absent of waste—can also serve as metaphoric guideposts for organizing an equi- table, compassionate and democratic society. The Dreaming New Mexico project seeks to reconcile nature and cultures at the state level. Taking care of nature means taking care of people, and taking care of people means taking New Mexico will be hit hard with climate change. Al- care of nature. We seek systemic, collaborative ap- ready, rapid warming has occurred year-round since proaches toward a common vision of restoration. Our the 1960s and continues today and into the future. focus is on both practical and visionary solutions. Temperatures have increased roughly 2°F in the cold season and nearly 3°F in the warm. These increases The premise of this project is: Dreaming the fu- are more than twice the annual global average over ture can create the future. What would success the entire 20th century. Hotter, longer summers are look like? What are our dreams? These transfor- dramatic — increasing more than 15% since the be- mative questions have propelled a powerful pro- ginning of the 20th century. Climate change will di- cess of envisioning “do-able” dreams and map- minish water supply, soil moisture, and snowpack; and ping how to realize them in New Mexico, as a tool droughts will be more severe. All this will change the and template for place-based initiatives elsewhere. amount of hydropower, coolant for power plants and mine reclamation, as well as the demand for more The project’s centerpiece is “future maps” created by electricity. Winter heating needs have been decreas- project co-director Peter Warshall, a gifted polymath ing with warmer winters; and cooling needs have biologist, anthropologist, author and longstanding Bi- increased with hotter longer summers. Agriculture, oneer. Our first future map and an accompanying in- especially irrigated agriculture, will be hit hardest. depth pamphlet on “The Age of Renewables” were released in September 2008 to acclaim and interest in New Mexico, nationally and even globally. The maps are designed to serve as points of departure for conven- ings of cross-sectoral networks around a shared vision of restoration. They renewable energy solutions such as solar, wind, biofuels and geothermal, and address issues that keep New Mexico from adopting sustain- able practices by offering practical solutions, based on the collective wisdom of dozens of people and or- ganizations, such as transportation, governance, effi- ciency, environmental justice and energy distribution. About The state is responsible for almost twice the per cap- Bioneers fosters connection, cross-pollination and col- ita emissions of greenhouse gases than the American laboration by bringing together diverse people and proj- average (42 vs. 25 MMTCO2e) because of its inten- ects, linking strategic networks at the local, regional, sive gas, oil and coal industries. Because of distances, national and international levels. The bioneers are en- New Mexicans consume almost twice the US average gaged citizens from all backgrounds and fields who fo- gasoline per capita. New Mexico consumes 23.3 mil- cus on solving urgent problems within a framework of lion barrels of gasoline each year; 2 million more just interdependence, taking a "solve-the-whole-problem" to asphalt and oil its roads; and 2.4 million in avia- approach that is holistic, systemic and multidisciplinary. tion gas and jet fuel. About 20% of all greenhouse gas emissions come from transport.