Ecoartspace NYC, Solar One and Ronald Feldman Gallery are pleased to present an Artist's Talk with collaborative team and Eco Art pioneers Newton and Helen Mayer Harrison. The Harrisons are two of the most influential living artists working today on ecological issues and they will speak in New York City at the Ronald Feldman Gallery on Tuesday, January 13th at 6pm in conjunction with their new exhibition which opens on January 10th 2009. The Harrisons have worked together for almost 40 years with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to initiate collaborative dialogues to uncover ideas and solutions which support biodiversity and community development.
The Harrison's concept of art embraces a breathtaking range of disciplines. They are historians, diplomats, ecologists, investigators, emissaries and art activists. Their work involves proposing solutions and involves not only public discussion, but extensive mapping and documentation of these proposals in an art context.
The exhibition at Feldman Gallery is titled Global Warming, The Rising of Waters, The Warming of Lands, The Upward Movement of Peoples and will include the Harrison’s recent project Greenhouse Britain, which toured the UK in 2007. The installation addresses Global Warming from an artist's perspective. The work proposes an alternative narrative about how people might withdraw as waters rise, what new forms of settlement might look life, and what content or properties a new landscape might have in response to the Global Warming phenomenon. It also demonstrates how a city might be defended.
Other works in the exhibition look at Global Warming from the perspective of Europe: The High Ground, The Tibetan Plateau and The Sacramento/San Joaquin Drain Basin.
Greenhouse Britain was exhibited in 5 venues, the final one in London City Hall and was created in collaboration with UK artist David Haley. The exhibition was produced by Chris Fremantle with architect Gabriel Harrison, and scientist Dr. Robert Nicholls.
Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison, who have collaborated since 1971, are Professors Emeritus at the University of California San Diego and have exhibited at the Feldman Gallery since 1974. Their work will be included in Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009 at the Barbican Art Gallery in London in 2009. www.theharrisonstudio.net
