Abstract
As a maker, educator, and wildlife biologist, I study and collaborate with other species in order to naturally dye substrates on which I create drawings in ballpoint pen. I investigate death, decay, growth, and the parallels I see between the exploitation of the natural world and female bodies. Specifically, I’m fascinated by interrelationships among species in the Anthropocene, an era in which we’re closer to one another than ever before as humans invade all corners of the planet. Distances have collapsed and the world is more rhizome than structured subject-object dichotomy. Despite this, we continue to commoditize other species and other humans. I see the Earth and its inhabitants ravaged by man and feel a deep, shredding, hideous pit inside because I too know what it is to be raped, bought and sold. Spurred by shared experience, my work seeks to flatten hierarchies, embrace radical care, and explore making kin in our modern era. In all my work, from banding birds in Ecuador to studying cognition at the Duke University Lemur Center to teaching at Colorado State University, I embrace the notion of belonging with and thriving together. This in-person showcase includes a presentation of artwork and research surrounding my need to eschew the uniquely human desire to neatly categorize and contain life forms. I suggest that in our current state of affairs in which division and hate are spewed forth from those in power, making kin is not only artistically productive; it is vital to our very being.
Presenters
Katie SimmonsInstructor of Drawing and Fibers, Department of Art and Art History, Colorado State University, Colorado, United States
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2025 Special Focus—The Art of Hospitality
KEYWORDS
Care, Anthropocene, Species, Drawing, Fibers, Nature, Environment, Kin
