Oct 26 2023
Conversation | Nature Thinking with David Brooks, Sagarika Sundaram, Michael Wang & Art Switch
Thurs | 7PM
Swiss Institute is pleased to collaborate with Art Switch on the occasion of their programming series, Nature Thinking. Join us for a conversation between artists David Brooks, Sagarika Sundaram, and Michael Wang on the exchange and interdependence between nature and art. By going beyond the distinctions of culture and nature, this conversation will consider how artists are intra-acting with nature, inviting each other into the artistic process.
Brooks, Sundaram, and Wang will discuss their artistic explorations and how they have been formed and influenced by the forces of nature. Moving from creative theoretical investigations to physical adaptations, the discussion will explore how cultural concerns are inextricably linked to the natural world. By considering artistic practices conceived with, by or through nature, they will consider the different standpoints artists can take to create works that align with the concepts of nature thinking. In the words of the Wang’s Manifesto of Photosynthesis: “We aspire to think and create–in collaboration with photosynthetic beings–across the spans of deep time. The 20th century extolled expenditure. Now, we celebrate florescence.”
This event is part of Art Switch’s 2023 event series, Nature Thinking, taking place between October 21 – 27, 2023 in New York, made possible with the support of Teiger Foundation.
Please RSVP to rsvp@swissinstitute.net.
David Brooks’ work investigates how cultural concerns cannot be divorced from the natural world, while questioning the terms under which nature is perceived and utilized. He has had major projects at the Aldrich Contemporary Art Museum; Storm King; MoMA/PS1; Tang Museum; deCordova Museum; Nouveau Musée National de Monaco; Galerie für Landschaftskunst, Hamburg; and the Sculpture Center. In 2011 Brooks had “Desert Rooftops” in Times Square, an earthwork commissioned by Art Production Fund; in 2018 a large-scale geologic installation on Governors Island, and is a recipient of the 2020 Rome Prize.
Sagarika Sundaram creates textile sculpture, relief, and installation using raw natural fiber and dyes. The work observes and abstracts natural phenomena through handmade textiles that generate power and presence. In 2023, Sundaram exhibited at the Al Held Foundation, the Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University, the British Textile Biennial, and the Chicago Architecture Biennial. In 2024 she will participate in Bronx Calling: The Seventh AIM Biennial at The Bronx Museum of the Arts 2024. Sundaram’s debut solo exhibition will be presented at Palo Gallery, NYC from November 3, 2023 – February 4, 2024. She is currently a Visiting Assistant Professor at Pratt Institute, and a resident at Silver Art Projects, located at 4 WTC.
Michael Wang is an artist based in Rockland County, New York. His practice uses systems that operate at a global scale as media for art, addressing climate change, species distribution, resource allocation and the global economy. Wang’s work was the subject of solo exhibitions at Prada Rong Zhai, Shanghai (2022), LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island, New York (curated by Swiss Institute, 2019) and the Fondazione Prada, Milan (2017). His work has also been included in Elevation 1049 in Gstaad (2023), the 13th Shanghai Biennale (2021), Manifesta 12 in Palermo (2018) and the XX Bienal de Arquitectura y Urbanismo in Valparaíso (2017). In 2017, he was a recipient of the Joan Mitchell Foundation Painters & Sculptors Grant.
Art Switch is a NYC/Amsterdam-based nonprofit started in 2019 to mediate and accelerate a climate conscious shift in the arts. Art Switch functions as a knowledge center, organizing conferences, programming, and exhibitions on a global scale. By bringing together art professionals and academics, Art Switch stimulates resource sharing, networking, and publishing to collectively define the climate-forward strategies of tomorrow’s arts sector. Art Switch is a founding member of Partners for Arts Climate Targets (PACT), an international coalition of organizations within the visual arts, engaged in collaborative efforts to accelerate the sector’s broad adoption of collective climate action.
Swiss Institute is pleased to collaborate with Art Switch on the occasion of their programming series, Nature Thinking. Join us for a conversation between artists David Brooks, Sagarika Sundaram, and Michael Wang on the exchange and interdependence between nature and art. By going beyond the distinctions of culture and nature, this conversation will consider how artists are intra-acting with nature, inviting each other into the artistic process.
Brooks, Sundaram, and Wang will discuss their artistic explorations and how they have been formed and influenced by the forces of nature. Moving from creative theoretical investigations to physical adaptations, the discussion will explore how cultural concerns are inextricably linked to the natural world. By considering artistic practices conceived with, by or through nature, they will consider the different standpoints artists can take to create works that align with the concepts of nature thinking. In the words of the Wang’s Manifesto of Photosynthesis: “We aspire to think and create–in collaboration with photosynthetic beings–across the spans of deep time. The 20th century extolled expenditure. Now, we celebrate florescence.”
This event is part of Art Switch’s 2023 event series, Nature Thinking, taking place between October 21 – 27, 2023 in New York, made possible with the support of Teiger Foundation.
Please RSVP to rsvp@swissinstitute.net.