Reseeding the City: Ethnobotany in the Urban
A project developed under the aegis of the Providence Biennial for Contemporary Art
Part of The Year of the City: The Providence Project
A Focused Group Exhibition Rhode Island State House, Lower Level Gallery
82 Smith Street, Providence, Rhode Island
October 25 – November 27
Opening Reception October 26, 5:30 – 8:00 pm
A Day-Long Forum Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University
Stephen Robert ‘62 Hall
280 Brook Street
Providence, Rhode Island
October 26, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm
The Project Team
Exhibition curated by Judith Tolnick Champa
Forum co-organized by Sam Coren, PhD student, American Studies, Brown University, Aja Grande, PhD student, History, Anthropology, Science, Technology & Society (HASTS), MIT and Alexandra M. Peck, PhD candidate, Anthropology, Brown University
Exhibition and Forum managed by Jennifer Dalton Vincent
ReSeeding the City
Ethnobotany in the Urban
EXHIBITION
The curated exhibition sparks new awareness of the never latent, yet often unrecognized, interconnections between nature and urban life, providing special attention to botanical nature’s many guises, roles and responsible cultivation.
Nuanced works, created by a large selection of contemporary artists practicing in Rhode Island and beyond, highlight a fascination with plants and other species. At times they posit a relationship of impasse regarding nature in the urban, at others, ways of reaching productive reconciliation.
The sense of argument inherent in the art shown is resonant with the historic venue of the State House—the Rhode Island people’s house—our fundamental civic site for re-seeding this productive debate.
Link to online Press Release
UPCOMING FORUM
The exhibition will be launched by a one-day public forum of the same name to be held on Saturday, October 26 at Brown University, 9:30 am – 5:00 pm. The forum venue is the Agora of Stephen Robert ’62 Hall, Watson Institute for International and Public Affairs, Brown University, 280 Brook Street, Providence.
The socially engaged program brings together various distinguished practitioners and residents to re-imagine the urban as a hub of more-than-human social worlds. It creates a space in which art and science might inspire activism, policy, and planning. The ReSeeding the City forum looks to plants as models, metaphors, and partners in urban place making, exploring what it means to embrace the rich assemblages of life forms that take root in our midst—whether in gardens, wood patches, brown fields or roadside margins.
The forum is organized by Sam Coren, PhD student, American Studies, Brown University, Aja Grande, PhD student, History, Anthropology, Science, Technology & Society (HASTS), MIT, and Alexandra M. Peck, PhD candidate, Anthropology, Brown University.
Invited speakers from across New England and New York will participate in the program, after which the audience is invited to the Opening Reception for the exhibition, to take place at the State House from 5:30 – 8:00 pm.