CURATORIAL STATEMENT

Nothing in this living world has an independent existence. Relationships are our very essence, from romantic and communal bonds to the ecosystems that sustain us: the bees, the rainforests, the microbiomes in our bellies.… 

This show highlights an emerging movement of mostly Philadelphia-based artists who question the notion of human mastery and dominance over the rest of the natural world, and point instead to our vulnerable dependence within it.

Stepping back to view ourselves in the expansiveness of nature invites us to re-evaluate who is intelligent, who is aware, who has rights. Facing the climate crisis calls upon us to challenge the Western perspective of anthropocentrism – i.e., human supremacy.  

Building the vibrant iMPeRFeCT Gallery community is another important aim of this exhibit. All culture originally stems from our interconnection with the earth; sharing varied cultural practices and perspectives can root us in generative sources of meaning, and celebrate both diversity and commonality. This exhibit looks to trees as teachers of relationship: they are expert at getting along with those around them. Just as every being in the forest is the forest, even as their interests may be wildly different, this show suggests that everyone in Philadelphia is Philadelphia. We hope to grow many mycorrhizal webs.

Together, we imagine reverent ways of walking with each other and this planet.

– Vivian Lehrer, curator Vivian Lehrer

EXHIBITING ARTISTS’ WEBSITES

Matt Coombs, Troy Gibbs-Brown, andrea haenggi + Mugwort, Jacob C. Hammes, Robert James Haskell, Pat Hickman, Sarah Hirzel, Ellie Irons, Erik Kramer, Vivian Lehrer, Erik Linton, Marley Massey, Lucia Monge, Cindy Stockton Moore, Chantelle Norton, Rosalind Nzinga, Alex Schechter, Matthew Speedy, Elizabeth Shores, Maria Stracke, Kristen Neville Taylor, Kately Towsley

ephemeral partner curator Vivian Lehrer is co-founder of Eden Village Camp, a farm-and-arts sleepaway camp in the Northeast. Among other works, the artists in ephemeral partner will install a plant-listening station; rendered old-master-style portraits of dogs and chickens; incorporated functional habitat for plants and animals into sculptures; found beauty as well as tragedy in an oil spill; sliced organic forms down the middle just as our state lines do to many watersheds; and supplied flags for trees as sovereign nations.