Why is art needed in times of crisis? Art has the power to generate new understandings of our relationship to the earth in this time of pollution and global warming. Avoiding distanced representations of nature, Blanca Botero’s work involves coming into attunement with unusual viewpoints, not necessarily human, in order to critique the way humans use everything we share with the rest of the living creatures on the planet. In this presentation, Botero explained how her work arises from four creative concepts: attunement, membrane, travel, and scale. She presented each concept within its context, the thought process behind the concept, and the creative process that led to these installations, drawings, and photography. Michael Scott, director of the Future of the Humanities Project, provided opening and closing remarks, and Kathryn Temple moderated a Q&A session following the presentation.
This event was sponsored by the Future of the Humanities Project; the Georgetown Humanities Initiative; the Georgetown Master’s Program in the Engaged and Public Humanities; Campion Hall, Oxford; and the Las Casas Institute (Blackfriars Hall, Oxford). It is part of the one-year-long series: A Bent but Beautiful World: Literature, Art, and the Environment.
Photo courtesy of Blanca Botero
