Humane Ecology

Eight Positions

July 15, 2023–October 29, 2023

Kandis Williams

Genes, not Genius: The overlying purpose... (detail)

2021
Collage on artificial plant, fabric grow bag with moss, and plastic
Courtesy the artist, 52 Walker, New York, and Morán Morán

Humane Ecology: Eight Positions features artists who explore the inseparability of the natural and social. Each represents a distinct approach and place, or position, but all think in ecological terms—that is, about the complex relationships between living things and their environments. In doing so, they challenge ideas of “nature” as something separate from humans. They also center humans who have often been marginal in discussions of the environment. Through sculpture, video, sound installation, and plantings, these artists illuminate patterns of cultivation and care, migration and adaptation, extraction and exploitation that span historical, geographical, and species lines. This exhibition appears in both the Clark’s Conforti Pavilion and the Lunder Center at Stone Hill, indoors and out.
 
Humane Ecology: Eight Positions is organized by the Clark Art Institute and curated by Robert Wiesenberger, curator of contemporary projects. A catalogue by the same title accompanies the exhibition and is distributed by Yale University Press.
 
This exhibition is made possible by Denise Littlefield Sobel. Major funding is provided by Maureen Fennessy Bousa and Edward P. Bousa, with additional funding from Girlfriend Fund and Agnes Gund.