On Sunday, November 17th, I will be hosting a salon entitled Will Plants Save Us? It will be a panel discussion featuring three artists whose practice addresses our relationship to plants in the Anthropocene: Donna Cleary, Alexandra Hammond, and Heidi Norton. If you are interested in finding out more, please contact me at hoveyb@gmail.com.
About the Artists:
Donna Cleary is a descendent of Irish herbalists. A profession made illegal under British occupation, she has reclaimed this familial heritage as her own. She worked as a registered nurse for 13 years. Cleary has exhibited at Petzel Gallery, Freight and Volume, The Knockout Center, Trestle, Chashama, Art in Odd Places in both NY and Orlando. Residencies include MASS MoCA, Mildred's Lane, chaNorth and Cill Rialaig in Kerry, Ireland. Her research at Cill Rialaig uncovered her ancestral legacy of herbalism, affirming her studies in plant medicine. She founded Spiral Herbal Remedies as social practice in 2018. Cleary also writes the blog Chronicles of a Witch in Training, sharing insights about herbalism and life.
Alexandra Hammond was born and raised in rural Northern California and now lives and works in Brooklyn. Hammond’s multidisciplinary practice spans painting, installation and conversational performances. Hammond believes that the imagination has the power to transform reality. She also believes that all things, including perception, arise from a common ground of being and are therefore in constant relationship with what is and what has been. In addition to her art practice, Hammond has a branding business that serves sustainable ventures in the fields of conservation, food and agriculture, knowledge production and the built environment.
Heidi Norton is an artist and writer whose 1970s upbringing as a child of New Age homesteaders in West Virginia resulted in a strong connection to the land, plant life, and nature. Norton is a professor at the International Center of Photography. She has had solo exhibitions at the Museum of Contemporary Art Chicago, Elmhurst Art Museum, Northeastern Illinois University, among others. Recent publications include Art21, BOMB magazine and Journal for Artistic Research. Her work is in the public collections of the Museum of Contemporary Photography Chicago, the Art Institute of Chicago, the Joyce Foundation, Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago, and numerous private collections.
Recent Brooklyn Rail reviews, October 2019 Soft Fascination: Heidi Norton, Jolynn Krystosek & Erin LaRocque at Elijah Wheat Showroom.
Another World Lies Beyond at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Fifth Avenue.