1150 25th St /
McEvoy Foundation for the Arts
MYR
Opening Reception | Saturday, June 4, 2022 | 5 pm
Curated by Elizabeth Thomas
Featuring Sophia Al Maria, Amy Balkin, Heather Dewey-Hagborg, Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Rhonda Holberton, Candice Lin, Cannupa Hanska Luger, Katie Paterson, Tomás Saraceno, Miriam Simun, Cauleen Smith, Jenna Sutela, & Sissel Marie Tonn.
Deep time—the vast stream of non-human history that has shaped our world—collides with timely and evident human crises in the multimedia exhibition MYR. The artists on view bring science and speculation together to explore how deeper visions of space and time relate to contemporary existential anxieties, particularly the imminent climate emergency. Taking its title from the unit of measurement equaling one million years used in earth sciences and astrology, MYR presents diverse creative approaches to depicting the intersection of time, space, and life. The result thoughtfully de-centers humanity and instead places Earth as the protagonist of its story.
MYR assembles artworks in a wide array of media that leverage science and technology to see through and beyond the Anthropocene—the current epoch in which humans have had dominant control over the environment. Speculative landscapes by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg and Candice Lin depict scenes of abundant flora and fauna—both on and beyond Earth—that might thrive in the absence of humanity. Tomás Saraceno’s floating sculpture Zonal Harmonic 1N 100/9 draws on a unifying gravitational model to offer the possibility of ecological harmony. Katie Paterson considers how the abstract essence of deep time can be envisioned through text, scent, and kinetic sculpture. These works and several others collectively complement and expand themes of metaphysics and the natural world found in the McEvoy Family Collection.