Rooted in Soil at the DePaul Art Museum
|Jan 29 – Apr 26, 2015 : Chicago|
|Sept 23 – Nov 29, 2015 : Kansas|
Rooted in Soil was on exhibit at the DePaul Art Museum in Chicago from January 29 – April 26, 2015 and traveled to The Salina Art Center in Salina, Kansas (also home of the Land Institute) from September 23 – November 29, 2015.
Rooted in Soil was curated over the course of two years by Laura Fatemi, assistant director of DePaul Art Museum, and her daughter Farrah Fatemi, an environmental scientist and assistant professor at Saint Michael’s College, Vermont, who combined their knowledge of art and science to explore the underappreciated role of soil in human life. Rooted in Soil draws from the fields of visual art and environmental science to promote a deeper understanding of the life-sustaining ecosystem that lies beneath our feet.
Soil is omnipresent: a life-sustaining but overlooked medium whose cycle of decomposition and regeneration forms the very basis of life itself. Yet human activities such as large-scale farming and deforestation are compromising the health of soil on a global scale. This exhibition will bring together works by contemporary artists that explore multiple aspects of soil, documenting natural processes and human interventions, and proposing radically innovative solutions that combine leading-edge scientific approaches and fresh artistic and philosophical perspectives.
Artists include: Jane Fulton Alt, Vaughn Bell, Edward Burtynsky, John Gerrard, Julia Goodman, Jenny Kendler, Jae Rhim Lee, Sally Mann, Vik Muniz, Claire Pentecost, Justin Rang, Arthur Rothstein, Linda Swanson, Sam Taylor-Johnson, Chicago Wildsounds, and 15th century Flemish painter Adriaen van Utrecht.
