It’s the end of 2020, the year of the COVID-19 pandemic, and no one would blame you for turning your thoughts to the extinction of our species. Fifth in our series, the Extinction Holiday Salon on Tuesday, December 22nd took a look at that topic from the perspective of five artists who have made thinking about the Anthropocene and the climate crisis part of their practice: David Brooks, Rachel Frank, Jude Griebel, Elisabeth Smolarz, and Marina Zurkow. The salon took place over Zoom, and you can access the recording here, using this passcode: $485SK2B.
The artists touched on not just extinction but re-wilding (Frank), “nuisance” species (Griebel), the imperceptibility of climate change (Brooks), human-to-plant communication (Smolarz), and becoming other species (Zurkow). The answers, questions, and comments the artists and audience provided in the ensuing discussion were by turns funny, erudite, sad, and oddly up-lifting. As the discussion showed, the dilemmas we as a species face in the teeth of the sixth largest extinction now underway don’t have easy answers, but exploring them as happened that night created a sense of community.