ART JUROR STATEMENT:
CLIVE ADAMS


There has never been a time when there has been so much public interest in the origins of our food and so this exhibition is a welcome contribution to the debate. It demonstrates that the arts can raise eco-consciousness and touch people in ways that complement the message of science and conventional advocacy.

Within this selection one can find works that reflect upon many of the issues that concern us today, including food waste, genetic modification, 'junk' food, animal welfare, contamination of our soils and oceans, the decline in pollinators and the need to find 'future' foods to feed an fast growing world population.

Powerful artworks in many types of media are documented as 2D prints for this exhibition, from the sensitively drawn lithograph "Culled and Desensitized" by Andrea Baatz to the interactive "S.OIL" installation of Maria Michails, but perhaps it is the works which only exist by virtue of new digital technologies -- by such artists as Don Cooper and Michele Parliament -- that take greatest advantage of the opportunity this competition has created.

Clive Adams is a British art curator and Founder/ Director, Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World (CCANW) at Schumacher College, Devon, UK.  
What art-sci "FOOD" exhibition's reception would be complete without a robust food table! (photo by Gayil Nalls)


SCIENCE INSPIRES ART 

FOOD

18th Art-Science, Juried Exhibition
Organized by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)
at the New York Hall of Science
September 17, 2016 - February 26, 2017

Artists Reception: Sept.18 from 2-4pm


click for

ONLINE EXHIBITION



PARTICIPATING ARTISTS & SCIENTISTS:


Stefani Allegretti (United States), Andrea Baatz (United States), Pat Badani (United States), Myka Baum (England), Bereza & Fearnside (United States), Debra Bianculli (United States), Mary Ann Biehl (United States), Don Cooper (United States), Galina Dargery (United States), Carol Devine (Canada), Shoshanah Dubiner (United States), Lyubava Fartushenko (Canada), Gints Gabrans (Latvia), Hadley & Reynolds (United States), Mary Johnson (China), Ken Knowlton (United States), Juni Kusumanto (The Netherlands), Chantal Lefebvre (Canada), Maria Michails (Canada), Debra Olin (United States), Mariona Otero (England), Michele Parliament (United States), Pamela Parker (United States), Perea & Storm (United States), Ari Richter (United States), Kazuma Sambe (United States), Danling Xiao (Australia), and Timur York (United States)



The international Open Call for this 18th annual art-science exhibition produced by Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI), “Science Inspires Art: FOOD,” sought 2D images of original art executed in any media that reflect on the topic of FOOD from all angles: from the historical record to the elite haute-cuisine of today's "molecular gastronomy”; as a physical material for making or inspiring art, or as a vehicle for stimulating important community discussion.


The negative effects of climate change (rising sea levels and global temperatures, droughts, flooding, and extreme weather events) are challenging the sustainability and wisdom of our current agriculture and meat production systems. FOOD has become the central focus of an urgent global debate on how to feed our planet's projected 9-billion people by 2050 (World Health Organization) without increasing our greenhouse gas footprint.


Since FOOD is on the frontlines of our future sustainability, this exhibition reveals an intriguing variety of visual perspectives representing the face of this new complexity. We imagine you may recognize some of their artistic reactions to the science of food security and safety, nutrition, food health disorders or obsessions, edible front yards, eating insects or speculative new hybrids, however, others are thought provokingly out-of-this world.


~ Cynthia Pannucci, Founder-Director /Art & Science Collaborations, Inc. (ASCI)



Press Release

SCIENCE JUROR STATEMENT: 

Martha Crouch, M.S., Ph.D. 


I resonated with the statement in the Call for Submissions that “…FOOD is on the frontlines of our future sustainability.” Indeed, a life-long career of studying agriculture has shown me that every facet of life is greatly impacted by food practices.


Many people today are alienated from food production, and since we can’t mindfully change what we don’t see and feel, it is vital that complex connections between food and sustainability be made clear. 


In reviewing the exhibit entries, I was struck by how effectively the artists brought unseen connections to the surface, provocatively highlighting the web of interactions involved in eating. The “elephant in the room” was made real in "Roast Beef Dinner" by Don Cooper, and hidden lives of food animals exposed in "C.A.F.O." by Andrea Baatz. Invisible microorganisms that play outsized roles in both ecosystem and human health loomed large in the artworks "Bloom," "What You Get," and "Tuberculosis on the Horizon" by Debra Bianculli. Below and above were connected in "Rain" and "We Not Me" by Linda Storm and Pablo Perea. Several artists also brought pollinators into focus, cooperators that are out of sight and thus out of mind too often as in "Beets, Birds & Bees 2" by Debra Olin. And a bioengineered future was illuminated in "Lumen"™ by Pamela Parker..


These artists help us see and feel food connections. Now, can we more fully digest the global consequences and respond?



Martha (Marti) Crouch is a former plant developmental biologist at Indiana University, and a consulting science expert for nonprofit public interest groups with a focus on the relationships between biotechnology, agriculture, and the environment.


Marti served as a science expert on these important online reports:


~ AGRICULTURAL INSECTICIDES IMPERIL WATERWAYS


~ MONARCHS IN PERIL


~ GENETICALLY ENGINEERED TREES