“Our Fragile Planet”, a New Installation in Goldberg Building, Now on Display
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Olympia Artspace Alliance (OAA) announces “Our Fragile Planet” Climate Change Through the Artist’s Lens—a new exhibition by local artists that will be on view from August 31 through November 2023, in the windows of the Goldberg Building at Capitol Way at Fourth Avenue, downtown Olympia.
The exhibition features work from Cecily Schmidt, Carrie Ziegler, Quasar Surprise & Avanti High School Students, Jericho Moss, Juniper Jack, and Rick Perry “P. Calavara”.
OAA invited artists to respond to the Climate Crisis by creating artwork that galvanizes our community towards resilience, adaptability, and making a difference for our fragile planet. Proposals were selected through a jury process. They sought innovative work that would capture the attention of people walking through the streets of downtown Olympia.
The exhibition features works from the following artists:
Click on the images above for a gallery of photos.
Window A—Give Us a Fighting Chance, P. Calavara
In spite of what you may or may not have heard, the artist known as P. Calavara is definitely NOT a pair of highly trained raccoons masquerading as avant-garde artists living in Olympia under assumed names, conspiring to raid your garbage cans while you’re preoccupied with reading this statement. Follow on Instagram
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Window B—a million microscopic miracles, Juniper Jack
This piece features two components: a network and an individual. The glass bottle represents the fragility of life on an individual scale. Your cells are constantly decaying and being replaced, any single human life could end at any moment. That glass bottle could shatter at any moment and we could not remake that exact bottle. The fiber represents life on a grand scale. Entire ecosystems thrive for millenia because of an incredibly diverse set of organisms consuming one another. Fungal cells can be found growing in between the cells of plants and play a role in its food production. Even our bodies are comprised of a wide variety of organisms working in compromise. Are the necessary bacteria living in our bodies a part of us or apart from us just because they don’t have our DNA? Neither of us could live without the other. Every individual life is beautifully fragile, but life on the grand scale will persist. Humanity will carry on without us when we’re gone. Fungi will keep finding new ways to break things down for millenia. Earth has survived many great extinctions, and this piece will remain unchanged even if the bottle breaks.
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Window C—Plant Medicine for the Planet, Jericho Moss
This piece was born out of an exploration of how our fragile planet can heal and regenerate itself if given space and better tools.
This piece was constructed out of recycled Amazon boxes. Growing out of the head on the left, you will see forest trees, bamboo, wetland plants, grassland plants, peatland plants, and wind turbines (clean energy). All of these represent a selection of Natural Climate Solutions (NCS). These natural climate solutions actively draw CO2 out of the atmosphere and place it back into the soil where it belongs. Preserving, protecting and growing these ecosystems (most present here in Washington State) can balance out human CO2 emissions, reversing a human-caused climate crisis. These solutions make the Earth more beautiful and bio-diverse and actively draw CO2 out of the atmosphere.
Growing out of the head on the right is a food forest, representing all ways human food production can be conducted sustainably. Money doesn’t grow on trees, but food does. However, people are still starving, and most of the food in American supermarkets is over-processed and lacking in basic nutrients. This bouquet represents the important role that regenerative agriculture, food forestry, reducing food waste, and a plant-rich diet can contribute to a radiantly healthy and sustainable future for all. In these ways, humans and plants can work together to feed the people and animals of the world in a way that is in harmony with nature.
I hope to create this piece to inspire the people of Olympia and beyond to share this vision and consequently invest in simple ways to make our planet a harmonious and supportive place for all life on Earth.
Click on the images above for a gallery of photos.
Window D—Tears of Tahoma, Cecily Schmidt, Carrie Ziegler, Quasar Surprise & Avanti High School Students
This artwork is a collaborative piece between local artist Carrie Ziegler and the Avanti High School climate crisis and action class, co-taught by art teacher Cecily Schmidt and science teacher Quasar Surprise. This art piece represents climate change and how we can choose to change our future for the better. The work has visible ties to Avanti High School and Olympia as a whole. It draws inspiration from Mt. Tahoma and the indigenous knowledge of the tribes of this region. The words in the mountain were rewritten to fit Avanti; the original speech comes from the Haudenosaunee tribe, who reside in the area we know as New York. We strive to spread awareness of climate change and the impact we have on our planet.
The climate crisis is causing immense damage to our environment and ourselves. The snowpack on Mt. Tahoma is decreasing, we have to wear masks because of smoke from wildfires, and our city’s downtown is flooding. Despite this crisis, we choose to hold on to hope. Our title, “Tears of Tahoma,” was inspired by pollution's devastating effects on our environment. Even though the name might have a scary meaning, the raindrops have two sides to show the duality of a regenerative vs. an extractive economy and how we choose to make that shift. We choose to have a reciprocal relationship with our plant teachers and environment. We change the world by making these deep and personal internal shifts. We challenge you to find one way that YOU can make the shift. From extractive to regenerative. From a model of scarcity to one of abundance. From despair to hope. From crisis to action. What would the world look like…?
Who: Olympia Artspace Alliance
What: “Our Fragile Planet” Climate Change Through the Artist’s Lens
When: August 31, 2023 through November 2023
Where: The Goldberg Building at Capitol Way at Fourth Avenue, downtown Olympia