January 9, 2018, for immediate release
Contact Howard Oransky, Director, Katherine E. Nash Gallery
612-624-6518 (office) horansky@umn.edu
High-resolution representative images and press release available at:
01_Zheng, Bo Zheng, Socialism Good, 2016, plants (Alternanthera and weeds), 4 x 16 meters
What
An experiential exhibition that sparks conversations and shares ways of knowing that center community and cultural relationships with plants that question the politics of the weeds.
Artists and Creative Catalysts
Bo Zheng, Artist and Assistant Professor, City University of Hong Kong, Socially and Ecologically Engaged Art
Diane Willow, Artist, and Associate Professor, University of Minnesota, Interdisciplinary Art + Participatory Culture
Where
Katherine E. Nash Gallery | Regis Center for Art | University of Minnesota
405 21st Avenue South, Minneapolis, MN 55455
(612) 624-7530 | https://z.umn.edu/14tk
All events are free and open to the public unless noted otherwise.
When
February 20 – March 24, 2018
Gallery hours are 11:00 AM - 7:00 PM | Tuesday - Saturday
Related Events
Public Talk with Bo Zheng
Thursday, February 22, 2018, | 7:00 PM
InFlux Space | Regis Center for Art
Public Reception
Friday, February 23, 2018 | 7:00 – 10:00 PM
Participatory Welcoming Reception with the artists and creative collaborators
Description
(Minneapolis) – Politics of Weeds is an experiential exhibition that sparks conversations and shares ways of knowing that center on community and cultural relationships with plants that question the politics of weeds. Artists and scholars Bo Zheng (City University of Hong Kong) and Diane Willow (University of Minnesota) are collaborating to present this month-long experiential exhibition at the University of Minnesota. Conceived as a participatory, social catalyst, the exhibition presents the work of SEACHINA (Socially Engaged Art in Contemporary China), the emergence of a Weed Party collective in Minneapolis/St Paul, and the cultivation of a series of participatory and interdisciplinary collaborations, conversations, teas, actions, performances, readings, and future imaginings. Guided by questions, debates, and embodied knowledge, Politics of Weeds becomes a creative catalyst to explore: how we work with plants to transform politics; how we propagate cultures of resistance, resilience, and re-imagination; and how we form and transform our relationships with plants.
Creative Collaborators
Cante Suta-Francis Bettelyoun, Sayge Carroll, Reb L Limerick, Lisa Philander, Koua Yang, Marcs Young
02_Zheng, Bo Zheng and Chao Jiang, Pteridophilia, 2016, digital video (4K, color, sound), 17 min.
Bo Zheng Artist Statement and Biography
Bo Zheng is an artist and teacher committed to socially and ecologically engaged art. He investigates the past and imagines the future from the perspectives of marginalized communities and marginalized plants. He has collaborated with a number of museums and art spaces in Asia and Europe, most recently Hong Kong Museum of Art, Power Station of Art (Shanghai), TheCube Project Space (Taipei), CASS Sculpture Foundation (UK), and Villa Vassilieff (Paris). His website: http://zhengbo.org/.
03_Willow, Diane Willow, A walk across time, 2015, video object, digital video still with exhibition title overlay, (4K, color), 40 min.
Diane Willow Artist Statement and Biography
Diane Willow is a multi-modal artist and creative catalyst. By any medium necessary best describes her process. She invites people to participate as choreographers of their experience of art as she tunes our attention to ephemeral experiences, common places, and all forms of life. Diane has been an Osher Fellow at the Exploratorium, artist in residence at MIT, visiting professor at the MIT Media Lab, and guest professor of New Media Art at the Beijing Film Academy. Her website: dianewillow.net
Sponsorship
This event is associated with the consortium, Mapping Transitions through the Vehicle of Arts, funded with the generous support of the Henry Luce Foundation, with additional funding from the University of Minnesota through the Provost’s Imagine Fund Special Events Grant, Institute on the Environment Mini Grant, and research support from the Undergraduate Research Opportunities Program, and the CLA Dean’s Freshman Research and Creative Scholars.
Katherine E. Nash Gallery Mission
The Katherine E. Nash Gallery is a research laboratory for the practice and interpretation of the visual arts. We believe the visual arts have the capacity to interpret, critique and expand on all of human experience. Our engagement with the visual arts helps us to discover who we are and understand our relationships to each other and society. The Katherine E. Nash Gallery will be a center of discourse on the practice of visual art and its relationship to culture and community -- a place where we examine our assumptions about the past and suggest possibilities for the future. The Nash Katherine E. Gallery will play an indispensable role in the educational development of students, faculty, staff and the community.