Earth Day Reception - opening of three new shows that relate to adaptation, climate change, sea-level rise, the ocean, and our relationship to Mother Earth

Written by Celeste Viana, 2022 Summer Intern

Images from Opening Night on Earth Day April 22

On Earth Day April 22, 2022, Locust Projects celebrated the opening of the three new commissioned exhibitions featuring a new immersive installation by Taiwanese-American artist Jia-Jen Lin; a two-channel video installation by Austin-based artist R. Eric McMaster; and a video series guest-curated by Italian-born, Miami-based curator and climate activist Ombretta Agró Andruff, featuring videos by Ursula Biemann, Atul Bhalla, Tania Candiani, Shezad Dawood, and Miguel Sbastida. Together, all the shows relate to adaptation, climate change, sea-level rise, the ocean, and our relationship to Mother Earth.

Jia-Jen Lin’s Treading On Thin Ice is an enveloping display that draws upon landscape features to touch upon contemporary issues such as climate change. Lin melds sound, sculpture, and video installations together to create a faux-backyard swimming pool visitors could experience. This work investigates the relationship between our bodies, our environment, and all the direct or indirect collisions they experience.

R. Eric McMaster explores themes of loss, inevitability, and nature in his two-channel video installation Drift. In the video, two musicians perform a duet while riding rafts on the Florida Keys. These musicians slowly drift apart, leaving them incapable of performing in harmony. This drift represents not only a sense of human loss, but of nature’s losses as well. 

Locust Projects welcomed Ombretta Agró Andruff, Miami-based freelance curator and environmental activist, as guest curator for the video exhibition The Sea was walking the earth with a heavy heel. Although the videos come from a variety of different filmmakers, they all share a seminal theme: water. These videos come together to send a message that comments upon the power of water over human beings from the past up until the present-day. Included in the exhibition are Acoustic Ocean by Ursula Biemann, Dvaipayana by Atul Bhalla, Sireny by Tania Candiani, Jamila by Shezad Dawood, and High Tide by Miguel Sbastida.

Our visitors also enjoyed perusing the Bookleggers Library, a nonprofit mobile library with selections specifically chosen to correlate with the oceanic themes of the exhibition.

 Attendees had the opportunity to meet the artists and be the first to see their exhibitions, while enjoying conversation over drinks from Locust Projects’ Exhibitions Beer Sponsor, Tripping Animals Brewing and Drifter Spirits. We would like to extend a special thanks to them for providing us with wonderful drinks for our opening.

Locust Projects 2021-2022 exhibitions and programming are made possible with support from: The John S. and James L. Knight Foundation; The Miami-Dade County   Department of Cultural Affairs and the Cultural Affairs Council, the Miami-Dade County Mayor and Board of County Commissioners, The Children's Trust; The Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts; The National Endowment for the Arts Art Works Grant; Susan and Richard Arregui; Hillsdale Fund; the   Albert and Jane Nahmad Family Foundation; VIA Art Fund | Wagner Foundation   Incubator Grant; Diane and Robert Moss; Elizabeth Bailey; Cowles Charitable Trust; Diane and Werner Grob; Kirk Foundation; Diane and Alan Lieberman;  Artis; and the Incubator Fund Supporting Sponsors and Friends.