Tag Archives: ecology

Celebrating the 2019 Seasons: Longitudinal Installation Spring Equinox performance

Welcoming the 2019 Seasons…

Xavier Cortada. “Longitudinal Installation,” South Pole (2007) and North Pole (2008).

 

Please join us for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season

Spring Equinox

LONGITUDINAL INSTALLATION
Xavier Cortada

Wednesday, March 20, 2019 at 10:30am

at

Pinecrest Gardens
11000 SW 57th Avenue
Pinecrest, FL 33156

The participatory art piece captures voices from 24 individual across the globe who have been impacted by Climate Change.

The event is free and open to the public.
For more info call 305-669-6990 or visit

Learn more at www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

 

Longitudinal Installation

The Longitudinal Installation at In the Garden Pinecrest Gardens:

Cortada created the Longitudinal Installation in the South Pole in 2007 and in the North Pole in 2008. During both visits, Cortada placed 24 shoes in a circle, each aligned across 24 longitudes. He stopped in front of each of his longitudinal shoe markers and read a quote aloud that revealed a person’s experience with climate change from that part of the world. His artistic ritual illustrated how everyone in the world has been profoundly impacted by climate change.

The South Pole’s Longitudinal Installation has been replicated as a ceramic sculpture on permanent exhibit at Pinecrest Gardens. This participatory art installation invites visitors to recite the 24 quotes, as Cortada did at both ends of the world.

To perform the ritual, stand behind the show marked with zero degrees and face the red and white pole as you read the first quote. (You can find the quotes online at www.longitudinalinstallation.org.) Then, move clockwise, stopping at each marked shoe to read its respective quote. Upon completion, stand just to the left of the 75 degree West shoe (if you live in Florida) and recite a 25th quote: Your own quote!

How has climate change impacted your environment?

If you perform the ritual, we invite you to document the performance with photos and video, and upload it to www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

Xavier Cortada, The Longitudinal Installation (at the South Pole), 2007

Greeting each new season

Please join us In the Garden at Pinecrest Gardens for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season:

Aside from his ongoing Florida is Nature project and the Longitudinal Installation, Pinecrest Gardens artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada is creating other permanent participatory art projects and ritualistic installations onsite at Pinecrest Gardens, South Florida’s Cultural Arts Park.  To schedule an environmental art-based field trip for your classroom or co-op, please contact Lacey Bray, educational programs coordinator, at lbray@pinecrest-fl.gov.  Pinecrest Gardens is located at 11000 SW 57th Avenue, Pinecrest, FL.

Celebrating the 2018 Seasons: Longitudinal Installation Winter Solstice performance

Welcoming the 2018 Seasons… Winter Solstice

Xavier Cortada. “Longitudinal Installation,” South Pole (2007) and North Pole (2008).

 

Please join us for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season

Winter Solstice

LONGITUDINAL INSTALLATION
Xavier Cortada

Friday, December 21, 2018 at 10:30am

at

Pinecrest Gardens
11000 SW 57th Avenue
Pinecrest, FL 33156

The participatory art piece captures voices from 24 individual across the globe who have been impacted by Climate Change.

The event is free and open to the public.
For more info call 305-669-6990 or visit

Learn more at www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

 

Longitudinal Installation

The Longitudinal Installation at In the Garden Pinecrest Gardens:

Cortada created the Longitudinal Installation in the South Pole in 2007 and in the North Pole in 2008. During both visits, Cortada placed 24 shoes in a circle, each aligned across 24 longitudes. He stopped in front of each of his longitudinal shoe markers and read a quote aloud that revealed a person’s experience with climate change from that part of the world. His artistic ritual illustrated how everyone in the world has been profoundly impacted by climate change.

The South Pole’s Longitudinal Installation has been replicated as a ceramic sculpture on permanent exhibit at Pinecrest Gardens. This participatory art installation invites visitors to recite the 24 quotes, as Cortada did at both ends of the world.

To perform the ritual, stand behind the show marked with zero degrees and face the red and white pole as you read the first quote. (You can find the quotes online at www.longitudinalinstallation.org.) Then, move clockwise, stopping at each marked shoe to read its respective quote. Upon completion, stand just to the left of the 75 degree West shoe (if you live in Florida) and recite a 25th quote: Your own quote!

How has climate change impacted your environment?

If you perform the ritual, we invite you to document the performance with photos and video, and upload it to www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

Xavier Cortada, The Longitudinal Installation (at the South Pole), 2007

Greeting each new season in 2019

Please join us In the Garden at Pinecrest Gardens for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season:

Aside from his ongoing Florida is Nature project and the Longitudinal Installation, Pinecrest Gardens artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada is creating other permanent participatory art projects and ritualistic installations onsite at Pinecrest Gardens, South Florida’s Cultural Arts Park.  To schedule an environmental art-based field trip for your classroom or co-op, please contact Lacey Bray, educational programs coordinator, at lbray@pinecrest-fl.gov.  Pinecrest Gardens is located at 11000 SW 57th Avenue, Pinecrest, FL.

“Water Paintings” science art works created at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest on exhibit at MNMF

 

 

 

 


New Media Festival, Editions XIII
presents

“Water Paintings”
an exhibition of works created at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest by
Xavier Cortada

at

Concrete Space
3400 NW 78th Avenue
Doral, FL 33122
(305) 219-0811

opening on

 Saturday, November 10, 2018
4pm

Water Paintings will be presented as part of the WaterViz installation by Dr. Lindsey Rustad and the Hubbard Brook team at the 13th edition of the Miami New Media Festival: www.waterviz.org

 

Xavier Cortada’s “Water Paintings” exhibition at Pinecrest Gardens in 2018.

 

img_3703

Xavier Cortada works with Hydrologist Mark Green to create “Water Paintings” at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.

WATER PAINTINGS

“Water Paintings allowed me to give water at Hubbard Brook’s nine watersheds a voice.  In the work, I made water the protagonist.  In June 2016, I placed nine pencil drawings and nine pieces of watercolor paper inside nylon mesh.  I then tied the mesh bags to a rope at each of the nine weirs at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and left them there for a period of 16 weeks in 2016.  The water flowing through the mesh stained the paper inside.  Water samples and water data were collected by scientists over the same 16-week period from the same nine weirs.  The final work included water samples, data, even the residue in filters.  I wanted audiences to see the water, what the water did, and what it painted as it flowed and transported materials down the stream.”

Xavier Cortada

 

img_3740

Xavier Cortada, “Water Paintings: Hubbard Brook,” paper and residue captured from water flowing from each of the 9 weirs at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest LTER in New Hampshire, 2016

Xavier Cortada, “Water Paintings: Hubbard Brook,” paper and residue captured from water flowing from each of the 9 weirs at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest LTER in New Hampshire, 2016

 

Hubbard Brook scientists pioneered the small watershed approach, which transformed the study of forests by using whole watersheds as living laboratories. This ground-breaking approach fostered many new discoveries beneficial to both science and society.

Small first-order watersheds can show us how ecosystems respond to environmental change. Chemical concentrations combined with stream flow provides data on stream-water element flux for each watershed.

Water samples and data collected by scientists over a 16-week period from all nine watersheds hang on the walls CLIMA.

Nine sets of “Water Paintings” hang from the ceiling. Cortada created each using the same water scientists study. He placed watercolor paper in mesh and tied it to a rope in each of the nine weirs. The works depict 4 months of streamflow.

 

About the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and LTER

The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is a 3,160 hectare reserve located in the White Mountain National Forest operated by the USDA Forest Service, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. The on-site research program is dedicated to the long-term study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems. It has produced some of the most extensive and longest continuous data bases on the hydrology, biology, geology and chemistry of a forest and its associated aquatic ecosystems.

Hubbard Brook scientists pioneered the small watershed approach, which transformed the study of forests by using whole watersheds as living laboratories. This ground-breaking approach fostered many new discoveries beneficial to both science and society.

Hubbard Brook scientists discovered acid rain in North America by taking meticulous, long-term measurements of rain and snow. Scientists continue to document acid rain’s damaging effects and track recovery linked to pollution reduction efforts.

Learn more at http://www.hubbardbrook.org

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

 

https://lternet.edu/sites/hbr

Overview: The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is a 3,160 hectare reserve located in the White Mountain National Forest operated by the USDA Forest Service, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. The on-site research program is dedicated to the long-term study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems.
 
History: The HBEF was established by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station in 1955 as a major center for hydrologic research in New England. In the early 1960’s, Dr. F. Herbert Bormann and others proposed the use of small watersheds to study element cycling. In 1963, the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES) was initiated by Bormann and Drs. Gene E. Likens and Noye M. Johnson, then on the faculty of Dartmouth College, and Dr. Robert S. Pierce of the USDA Forest Service. They proposed to use the small watershed approach at Hubbard Brook to study linkages between hydrologic and nutrient flux and cycling in response to natural and human disturbances, such as air pollution, forest cutting, land-use changes, increases in insect populations and climatic factors.
 
Research Topics: Vegetation structure and production; dynamics of detritus in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; atmosphere-terrestrial-aquatic ecosystem linkages; heterotroph population dynamics; effects of human activities on ecosystems.
 

Special thanks to the entire Hubbard Brook team, the USDA Forest Service, Dr. Lindsey Rustad, Hydrologist Mark Green, Sr. Researcher Tammy Wooster, Amey Bailey, and Mary Martin.

 

 

 

MNMF Organizations Sponsors and Partners

With the support of the Miami-Dade County Department of Cultural Affairs, the Cultural Affairs Council, the Mayor, and the Miami-Dade County Board of County Commissioners.

 

LTER All Scientists’ Meeting | Next Generation Synthesis: Successes and Strategies

LTER All Scientists’ Meeting | Next Generation Synthesis: Successes and Strategies

Workshop: Integration of the Environmental Sciences, Arts, and Humanities Across the LTER Network

 

Xavier Cortada, Diatom, archival ink on aluminum, 36in x 18in, 2014 (edition 1 of 5).

 

The integration of environmental science, arts, and humanities (eSAH) is flourishing across the LTER network, where it is being applied to enhance outreach/education activities as well as fundamental inquiry with the aspirational goal of helping society overcome the social-ecological grand challenges of today.

During this workshop organized by Bonanza Creek LTER’s Dr. Mary Beth Leigh ( University of Alaska Fairbanks), scientists will:

a) share examples of varying eSAH activities from across the LTER network through brief presentations from artists, scientists, and organizers,

b) report on research assessing the impacts of eSAH activities on audiences and their value to LTER,

c) analyze the range and extent of interdisciplinary integration currently being achieved through different programmatic models, and

d) develop an action plan for organizing, communicating, and expanding the growing network of LTER eSAH programs.

Xavier Cortada will serve as special guest artist/speaker to present on his work as artist in residence at the following LTER sites:

  • Florida Coastal Everglades LTER (Florida)
  • H J Andrews LTER (Oregon)
  • Hubbard Brook LTER (New Hampshire)

 

Welcoming the Seasons: Longitudinal Installation Fall Equinox performance

Welcoming the 2018 Seasons… Fall Equinox

Xavier Cortada. “Longitudinal Installation,” South Pole (2007) and North Pole (2008).

 

Please join us for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season

Fall Equinox

LONGITUDINAL INSTALLATION
Xavier Cortada

Sunday, September  23, 2018 at 10:30am

at

Pinecrest Gardens
11000 SW 57th Avenue
Pinecrest, FL 33156

The participatory art piece captures voices from 24 individual across the globe who have been impacted by Climate Change.

The event is free and open to the public.
For more info call 305-669-6990 or visit

Learn more at www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

 

Longitudinal Installation

The Longitudinal Installation at In the Garden Pinecrest Gardens: Cortada created the Longitudinal Installation in the South Pole in 2007 and in the North Pole in 2008. During both visits, Cortada placed 24 shoes in a circle, each aligned across 24 longitudes. He stopped in front of each of his longitudinal shoe markers and read a quote aloud that revealed a person’s experience with climate change from that part of the world. His artistic ritual illustrated how everyone in the world has been profoundly impacted by climate change.

In the Garden:
The South Pole’s Longitudinal Installation has been replicated as a ceramic sculpture on permanent exhibit at Pinecrest Gardens. This participatory art installation invites visitors to recite the 24 quotes, as Cortada did at both ends of the world.

To perform the ritual, stand behind the show marked with zero degrees and face the red and white pole as you read the first quote. (You can find the quotes online at www.longitudinalinstallation.org.) Then, move clockwise, stopping at each marked shoe to read its respective quote. Upon completion, stand just to the right of the 75 degree West shoe (if you live in Florida) and recite a 25th quote: Your own quote!

25th quote: How has climate change impacted your environment?
If you perform the ritual, we invite you to document the performance with photos and video, and upload it to www.longitudinalinstallation.org

 

Greeting each new season

Please join us In the Garden at Pinecrest Gardens for the performance of the Longitudinal Installation as we greet each new season:

Aside from his ongoing Florida is Nature project and the Longitudinal Installation, Pinecrest Gardens artist-in-residence Xavier Cortada is creating other permanent participatory art projects and ritualistic installations onsite at Pinecrest Gardens, South Florida’s Cultural Arts Park.  

To schedule an environmental art-based field trip for your classroom or co-op, please contact Lacey Bray, educational programs coordinator, at lbray@pinecrest-fl.gov.  Pinecrest Gardens is located at 11000 SW 57th Avenue, Pinecrest, FL.

Cortada’s “Endangered World: BNP & 80.15W” exhibition celebrates 50th anniversary of our “Underwater” Park!

 

Endangered World: Biscayne National Park

and

80.15 W

a solo exhibition by

Xavier Cortada

at

Hibiscus Gallery
Pinecrest Gardens
11000 S. Red Road
Pinecrest, FL 33156

 

Join us in welcoming special guest Gary Bremen, Biscayne National Park Ranger during our opening reception on Sunday, August 12, 2018 from noon to 2pm.

Exhibition runs through August 8, 2018 through September 3, 2018

 

 

 

Xavier Cortada (with the participation of 359 collaborators), “Endangered World: Biscayne National Park,” 360 individually painted flags flying along a mile-long, site-specific participatory art installation across the national park, 2010. (http://endangeredworld.org/biscayne-national-park/)

Exhibition celebrates the celebrates the 50th anniversary of Biscayne National Park

Endangered World: Biscayne National Park: Conceptualized by Cortada, the outdoor installation features 360 brightly colored flags lining Convoy Point’s roads and trails for over a mile. Each flag represents one degree of the planet’s longitude, and 360 individuals and organizations from throughout South Florida decorated the flags with an image of an endangered or threatened animal that lives at that longitude. Participants also committed to an “eco-action” that directly or indirectly mitigates the plight of that animal. (Learn more at http://endangeredworld.org/biscayne-national-park)

80.15 W: In contrast to the exuberance of the outdoor installation is 80.15 W inside the Dante Fascell Visitor Center Gallery. Here, Cortada has created 17 somber works on paper that feature the 17 threatened and endangered species that call Biscayne National Park home. The exhibit is titled for the longitude where the Visitor Center sits to tie it in to the larger installation outside. The pieces were created using reused carbon paper, a metaphor for the impact (or “carbon footprint”) that humans have had on that animal. (Learn more at https://cortada.com/2010/80.15W)

Biscayne National Park:

In 1968, plans for southern Biscayne Bay included a major petrochemical plant necessitating digging a 40-foot deep channel across the bay for 7 miles in an area that naturally averages 6-8 feet deep. That channel was to conyinue beyond the northern Keys, through the shallow coral reefs, out to deep water. At the same time, plan were afoot to establish the City of Islandia, consisting of the northernmost islands of the Florida Keys (those north of Key Largo). The city was to include single-family and high rise living, bridges, streets, an amusement park and more. A small, but vocal and incredibly persistent, group of citizens fought these plans, and proposed the creation of a national park unlike any other…one covered mostly by water. Fifty years later, Biscayne National Park celebrates its Golden Anniversary as the largest marine park in the National Park System, protecting mangrove forests, shallow bay waters, the undeveloped Florida Keys, coral reefs and evidence of 10,000 years of human history, all within sight of downtown Miami.

The park preserves Biscayne Bay and its offshore barrier reefs. Ninety-five percent of the park is water, and the shore of the bay is the location of an extensive mangrove forest. The park covers 172,971 acres (69,999 ha) and includes Elliott Key, the park’s largest island and first of the true Florida Keys, formed from fossilized coral reef.  The park is home to an incredible diversity of animals and plants including over 600 native fish, neo-tropical water birds and migratory habitat, and threatened and endangered species including sea turtles, manatees, the Schaus’ swallowtail butterfly and Florida semaphore cactus. Some animals and plants are in the northern limits of their ranges.Biscayne National Park is a very diverse place. Four distinct ecosystems melt into one another creating rich edge communities or “ecotones.” These edges support an incredible array of wildlife, including hundreds of species of colorful fish, plants found nowhere else in the United States, and visitor favorites like pelicans, manatees and sea turtles. Winds, currents, storms and the park’s close proximity to one of the nation’s largest urban areas means that the entire park is in a constant state of flux — ever-changing in the face of new challenges posed by the constant cycle of building and destruction. (Learn more about Biscayne National Park at https://www.nps.gov/bisc/index.htm)

 

 

Xavier Cortada “(80.15 W:) Hawksbill Sea Turtle” Archival ink on paper (generated from drawings created on 11” x 8.5” carbon paper) Signed, numbered, limited edition (edition of 5), 16” x 12” 2010

 

Titled for Biscayne Bay’s longitude, “80.15 W” features the 17 threatened and endangered species that call Biscayne National Park (in Miami, FL) home. In 2010, Cortada created the drawings on carbon paper, a metaphor for the impact (or “carbon footprint”) that humans have had on that animal, even across the boundaries of protected nature preserve. The carbon paper originals were premiered at the national park’s gallery and are in the permanent collection of NSU Art Museum Fort Lauderdale, Ft. Lauderdale, FL.

Creative Pinellas presents “As the Arctic Melts …,” an artist’s talk by Xavier Cortada

90N:     Main | Event | Gallery | Press
Galleries:     Arctic Ice Paintings | Native Flags | Endangered World | Longitudinal Installation | North Pole Dinner Party

 

 

 

Creative Pinellas 
presents

As the Arctic Melts …

an artist’s talk by
Xavier Cortada

on
Thursday, July 19th, 2018
7:00 – 8:30 pm

at
Pinewood Cultural Center Auditorium
12211 Walsingham Road
Largo, FL 33778

 

 

 

The lecture is presented in conjunction with the presentation of the artist’s 
90N: North Pole Installations exhibition across the way at

Gallery Creative Pinellas
12211 Walsingham Road
Largo, FL 33778

 

Exhibition runs June 29, 2018 through September 2, 2018 

 

 

Ten years ago, Cortada’s ice breaker easily pushed through the then-thinning polar ice, surprising the crew at its early arrival in the North Pole. Arctic warming has since continued melting sea ice at frightening speed:   “Within two decades” stated the artist, “I will be able to repeat the journey on a sailboat, because scientists tell us the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free during summer. Global Climate Change will not just melt the Arctic, it will irrevocably change the world below.”

“I bring this exhibition to the people of Florida to draw the alarming connection between the Arctic and our peninsula,” said Cortada. “Melting ice will have catastrophic effects across our state and weaken the Gulf Stream. Arctic warming will lead to sea level rise, more coastal flooding, prolonged heatwaves, relentless rain, stalled tropical storms, extreme weather and more intense fire seasons.”

 

About the Artist

Xavier Cortada created art installations at the North Pole and South Pole to address environmental concerns at every point in between. He’s been commissioned to create art for CERN, the White House, the World Bank, Miami City Hall, Miami-Dade County Hall, Florida Botanical Gardens, Port Everglades, Florida’s Turnpike, the Museum of Florida History, the Frost Science Museum and Miami-Dade Children’s Courthouse. Locally, his work is in the permanent collection of the Frost Art Museum, PAMM and the NSU Art Museum of Ft. Lauderdale. Cortada has also developed numerous collaborative art projects globally, including peace murals in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, child welfare murals in Bolivia and Panama, AIDS murals in Geneva and South Africa, and eco-art projects in Taiwan and Holland. His studio is located in Pinecrest Gardens. For more information please visit www.cortada.com

 

About Creative Pinellas

At Creative Pinellas our mission is to facilitate a vibrant, integrated, collaborative and sustainable Pinellas County Arts Community and cultural destination. We strive to be the premier Local Arts Agency, recognized locally and globally for our contribution to arts and culture. We are focused on creating vibrant communities; supporting artists, arts organizations and the creative community; supporting economic development; showcasing Pinellas County as a cultural destination, and making arts and creative expression and experience available to all. As the County’s Local Arts Agency, Creative Pinellas and the programs we deliver are funded by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, Visit St Petersburg / Clearwater, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and by sales of the State of the Arts specialty license plate in Pinellas County.

 

Creative Pinellas and Arctic Cycle present “90N,” a solo exhibition of works created by Xavier Cortada at the North Pole in June 2008

90N:     Main | Event | Gallery | Press
Galleries:     Arctic Ice Paintings | Native Flags | Endangered World | Longitudinal Installation | North Pole Dinner Party

 


Creative Pinellas and Arctic Cycle present

90N:

North Pole Installations

by

Xavier Cortada

at

Gallery at Creative Pinellas
12211 Walsingham Road
Largo, FL 33778

Exhibit runs  June 29, 2018 through September 2, 2018

 

 

Ten years ago, Cortada’s ice breaker easily pushed through the then-thinning polar ice, surprising the crew at its early arrival in the North Pole. Arctic warming has since continued melting sea ice at frightening speed:   “Within two decades” stated the artist, “I will be able to repeat the journey on a sailboat, because scientists tell us the Arctic Ocean will be ice-free during summer. Global Climate Change will not just melt the Arctic, it will irrevocably change the world below.”

“I bring this exhibition to the people of Florida to draw the alarming connection between the Arctic and our peninsula,” said Cortada. “Melting ice will have catastrophic effects across our state and weaken the Gulf Stream. Arctic warming will lead to sea level rise, more coastal flooding, prolonged heatwaves, relentless rain, stalled tropical storms, extreme weather and more intense fire seasons.”

 

 

 

 

 

 

About the Artist

Xavier Cortada created art installations at the North Pole and South Pole to address environmental concerns at every point in between. He’s been commissioned to create art for CERN, the White House, the World Bank, Miami City Hall, Miami-Dade County Hall, Florida Botanical Gardens, Port Everglades, Florida’s Turnpike, the Museum of Florida History, the Frost Science Museum and Miami-Dade Children’s Courthouse. Locally, his work is in the permanent collection of the Frost Art Museum, PAMM and the NSU Art Museum of Ft. Lauderdale. Cortada has also developed numerous collaborative art projects globally, including peace murals in Cyprus and Northern Ireland, child welfare murals in Bolivia and Panama, AIDS murals in Geneva and South Africa, and eco-art projects in Taiwan and Holland. His studio is located in Pinecrest Gardens. Learn more at www.cortada.com

 

About Creative Pinellas

At Creative Pinellas our mission is to facilitate a vibrant, integrated, collaborative and sustainable Pinellas County Arts Community and cultural destination. We strive to be the premier Local Arts Agency, recognized locally and globally for our contribution to arts and culture. We are focused on creating vibrant communities; supporting artists, arts organizations and the creative community; supporting economic development; showcasing Pinellas County as a cultural destination, and making arts and creative expression and experience available to all. As the County’s Local Arts Agency, Creative Pinellas and the programs we deliver are funded by the Pinellas County Board of County Commissioners, Visit St Petersburg / Clearwater, the State of Florida, Department of State, Division of Cultural Affairs and by sales of the State of the Arts specialty license plate in Pinellas County.  Learn more at www.CreativePinellas.org.

About The Arctic Cycle

The Arctic Cycle uses theatre to foster dialogue about our global climate crisis, create an empowering vision of the future, and inspire people to take action. Operating on the principle that complex problems must be addressed through collaborative efforts, we work with artists across disciplines and geographic borders, solicit input from earth and social scientists, and actively seek community and educational partners. We manifest this mission through our ongoing initiatives, including Artists & Climate Change. Through the publication of essays, interviews, and editorials, the blog and international network Artists & Climate Change creates community and promotes the inclusion of the arts in the global climate change conversation. Since its launch in 2013, A&CC has become an educational resource for art, environment, and social change classes.  Learn more at www.arcticcycle.org.

 

About the NYFA 

Cortada implemented his “90N” installations at the North Pole in 2008 as an NYFA sponsored-artist.New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA) is a nonprofit service organization that empowers working artists and emerging arts organizations across all disciplines at critical stages in their creative lives and professional/organizational development. NYFA Fiscal Sponsorship increases the funding opportunities of individual artists and artist-run organizations by allowing them to raise funds using NYFA’s tax-exempt status.  Learn more at www.nyfa.org.

 

 

Artistree Gallery: “Water Paintings,” an exhibition of works created at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest by Xavier Cortada

 

“Water Paintings”

an exhibition of works
created at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest
by


Xavier Cortada

at

Artistree Gallery
2095 Pomfret Road
South Pomfret, VT 05067

Closing reception: Saturday, July 14th, 5-7pm with Cuban inspired appetizers and drinks.

Exhibit Dates: June 26th – July 14th

This exhibit is part of Artistree’s Cuban Cultural Festival on July 14th.

 

Xavier Cortada’s “Water Paintings” exhibition at Pinecrest Gardens in 2018.

 

img_3703

Xavier Cortada works with Hydrologist Mark Green to create “Water Paintings” at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest.

WATER PAINTINGS

“Water Paintings allowed me to give water at Hubbard Brook’s nine watersheds a voice.  In the work, I made water the protagonist.  In June 2016, I placed nine pencil drawings and nine pieces of watercolor paper inside nylon mesh.  I then tied the mesh bags to a rope at each of the nine weirs at Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and left them there for a period of 16 weeks in 2016.  The water flowing through the mesh stained the paper inside.  Water samples and water data were collected by scientists over the same 16-week period from the same nine weirs.  The final work included water samples, data, even the residue in filters.  I wanted audiences to see the water, what the water did, and what it painted as it flowed and transported materials down the stream.”

Xavier Cortada

 

img_3740

Xavier Cortada, “Water Paintings: Hubbard Brook,” paper and residue captured from water flowing from each of the 9 weirs at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest LTER in New Hampshire, 2016

Xavier Cortada, “Water Paintings: Hubbard Brook,” paper and residue captured from water flowing from each of the 9 weirs at the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest LTER in New Hampshire, 2016

 

Hubbard Brook scientists pioneered the small watershed approach, which transformed the study of forests by using whole watersheds as living laboratories. This ground-breaking approach fostered many new discoveries beneficial to both science and society.

Small first-order watersheds can show us how ecosystems respond to environmental change. Chemical concentrations combined with stream flow provides data on stream-water element flux for each watershed.

Water samples and data collected by scientists over a 16-week period from all nine watersheds hang on the walls CLIMA.

Nine sets of “Water Paintings” hang from the ceiling. Cortada created each using the same water scientists study. He placed watercolor paper in mesh and tied it to a rope in each of the nine weirs. The works depict 4 months of streamflow.

 

About the Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest and LTER

The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is a 3,160 hectare reserve located in the White Mountain National Forest operated by the USDA Forest Service, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. The on-site research program is dedicated to the long-term study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems. It has produced some of the most extensive and longest continuous data bases on the hydrology, biology, geology and chemistry of a forest and its associated aquatic ecosystems.

Hubbard Brook scientists pioneered the small watershed approach, which transformed the study of forests by using whole watersheds as living laboratories. This ground-breaking approach fostered many new discoveries beneficial to both science and society.

Hubbard Brook scientists discovered acid rain in North America by taking meticulous, long-term measurements of rain and snow. Scientists continue to document acid rain’s damaging effects and track recovery linked to pollution reduction efforts.

Learn more at http://www.hubbardbrook.org

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest

 

https://lternet.edu/sites/hbr

Overview: The Hubbard Brook Experimental Forest (HBEF) is a 3,160 hectare reserve located in the White Mountain National Forest operated by the USDA Forest Service, near Woodstock, New Hampshire. The on-site research program is dedicated to the long-term study of forest and associated aquatic ecosystems.
History: The HBEF was established by the USDA Forest Service, Northeastern Research Station in 1955 as a major center for hydrologic research in New England. In the early 1960’s, Dr. F. Herbert Bormann and others proposed the use of small watersheds to study element cycling. In 1963, the Hubbard Brook Ecosystem Study (HBES) was initiated by Bormann and Drs. Gene E. Likens and Noye M. Johnson, then on the faculty of Dartmouth College, and Dr. Robert S. Pierce of the USDA Forest Service. They proposed to use the small watershed approach at Hubbard Brook to study linkages between hydrologic and nutrient flux and cycling in response to natural and human disturbances, such as air pollution, forest cutting, land-use changes, increases in insect populations and climatic factors.Research Topics: Vegetation structure and production; dynamics of detritus in terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems; atmosphere-terrestrial-aquatic ecosystem linkages; heterotroph population dynamics; effects of human activities on ecosystems.

Special thanks to the entire Hubbard Brook team, the USDA Forest Service, Dr. Lindsey Rustad, Hydrologist Mark Green, Sr. Researcher Tammy Wooster, Amey Bailey, and Mary Martin.

 

 

 

About the artist:

 

Xavier Cortada:

Xavier Cortada serves as Artist-in-Residence at FIU School of Environment, Arts and Society and the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts.

Cortada often engages scientists in his art-making: At CERN, Cortada and a particle physicist created a permanent digital-art piece to celebrate the Higgs boson discovery. Cortada has worked with scientists at Hubbard Brook LTER on a water cycle visualization project driven by real-time data collected at a watershed in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

He has collaborated with a population geneticist to explore our ancestral journeys out of Africa 60,000-years ago, with a molecular biologist to synthesize a DNA strand from a sequence 400 museum visitors randomly generated, and with botanists to develop multi-year participatory eco-art eff orts to reforest mangroves, native trees and wildflowers across Florida.

The Miami artist has created environmental installations (North Pole and South Pole) and eco-art (Taiwan, Hawaii and Holland) projects, and painted community murals addressing peace (Cyprus and Northern Ireland), child welfare  (Bolivia and Panama), AIDS (Switzerland and South Africa) and juvenile justice (Miami and Philadelphia) concerns.

 

{in water} exhibition at Pinecrest Gardens

 

Xavier Cortada’s “Diatom Court,” the site-specific ceramic installation Pinecrest Gardens

 

Xavier Cortada, “{in water}: (P),” 12″ x 16″, archival ink on paper, signed, numbered, limited edition print / edition of 5, 2018..

“{in water}”

a solo exhibition of works
by

Xavier Cortada

at

Hibiscus Gallery
Pinecrest Gardens
11000 S. Red Road
Pinecrest, FL 33156

Exhibit runs from May 3 through August 3rd, 2018

 

Summer Hours:
In the gallery (main entrance): Weekends only
Please call 305-669-6990 to see when the gallery is open to the public

In the studio (cottage): Weekdays 11 am to 2 pm and, as of 6/23, Sundays 9 am to 2 pm.
Please call Amanda Delaplaine at 305-858-1323 or email her at info@hibiscusgallery.com to schedule an appointment

Opening reception
May 4th, 2018
7 to 10 pm

 

{in water} 

Diatoms are water-bound, single-celled symmetrical organisms encapsulated in silica.  They harness the power of the sun to convert carbon dioxide into oxygen and are responsible for generating for one-third of the air we breathe.

Its shell, all that remains from the diatom that lived in the past, is used by scientists today to see what was as they research crucial environmental issues in the century to come.  Scientists—and artists—can determine the past salinity of water by examining the glass shells of diatoms preserved in sedimentary core samples.

Each diatom species has a different salinity preference, so changes in the mixture of fresh and sea water (driven by sea level and changes in water management) can be inferred from past diatom remains.

Xavier Cortada collaborated with Florida Coastal Everglades Long Term Ecological Research (FCE LTER) scientists to better understand the impact of global climate change on our ecosystems. The works in the {in water} exhibition are inspired by their scientific research.

“Diatom,” (2014), is his first work ever depicting a diatom: Using a microscope, Cortada captured the image of a diatom from samples used by Florida International University FCE LTER scientiststo study the ecology of the Everglades and sea level rise.  In the art, Cortada’s diatoms hover over a layer of images (Cortada captured using Google maps) showing the artificial canals and lakes created to develop parcels of developable land where the River of Grass once flowed.

His latest diatom-themed work, “Diatom Court” (2018), is outside the Hibiscus Gallery in the gardens. On Earth Day 2018, it was unveiled as a permanent, site-specific, ceramic installation on the grounds of Pinecrest Gardens.

 

Xavier Cortada, “Diatom,” archival ink on aluminum, 36in x 18in, 2014 (edition 1 of 5).

About the artist:

Xavier Cortada serves as Artist-in-Residence at FIU School of Environment, Arts and Society and the College of Communication, Architecture + The Arts.

Cortada often engages scientists in his art-making: At CERN, Cortada and a particle physicist created a permanent digital-art piece to celebrate the Higgs boson discovery. Cortada has worked with scientists at Hubbard Brook LTER on a water cycle visualization project driven by real-time data collected at a watershed in New Hampshire’s White Mountains.

He has collaborated with a population geneticist to explore our ancestral journeys out of Africa 60,000-years ago, with a molecular biologist to synthesize a DNA strand from a sequence 400 museum visitors randomly generated, and with botanists to develop multi-year participatory eco-art eff orts to reforest mangroves, native trees and wildflowers across Florida.

The Miami artist has created environmental installations (North Pole and South Pole) and eco-art (Taiwan, Hawaii and Holland) projects, and painted community murals addressing peace (Cyprus and Northern Ireland), child welfare  (Bolivia and Panama), AIDS (Switzerland and South Africa) and juvenile justice (Miami and Philadelphia) concerns.

His studio is located at Pinecrest Gardens.