Lichen Likers, an art research group of the Department of Art’s Living Art and Ecology Lab at The Ohio State University, is pleased to announce Sympoiesis. Show information can be found below. This page will be updated with photo and video documentation of the exhibition post-reception.
Opening Reception: Friday, October 24th 6pm-8pm at the Fort Hayes Shot Tower Gallery (546 Jack Gibbs Boulevard Columbus OH 43215)
Exhibition on view from October 24th through December 11th.
Exhibition Theme
Sympoiesis is a term derived from the Greek words for “together” and “creation”, coined by Canadian ecologist Beth Dempster in the late 1990s to describe the way in which organisms co-create their ecosystems. Philosopher Donna Haraway popularized the concept of Sympoiesis, extending it to highlight the deep interdependence of all life forms through the processes of “making-with” and “becoming-with” each other.
Haraway’s vision encourages us to see humans not as separate from nature, but as part of a web of mutual relationships with other species and environments. From this background we come to her concept of “natureculture”, the inseparability of the natural and the cultural, which asks us to rethink our place within the world. Topics explored within this vision for the Sympoiesis exhibition include interdependence, alternative relationships with other beings, posthumanism, macro/micros perspectives, and speculative engagement within art and ecology.
Juried and Invited Artists
- KS Brewer
- Marion Coe
- Emilie Regnier
- Anna Clowser
- Narendra Haynes
- Jennifer Willet
- Mai Tran
- Bettina Matzkuhn
- Fiona Bell
- Harper Lethin
- Ken Rinaldo
- Nicole Condon-Shin
- Diane Willow
- Monica Duncan
- Duy Hoàng
- Gene Felice
- Hye Yeon Nam & Brendan Harmon
- Patricia Sannit
- Anne Yoncha
- Dev Harlan
- Sarah Abdel-Jelil
- Erin Charpentier & Travis Neel
- Laleh Mehran
- Chris Coleman
- Lichen Likers (Metaverse team)
- Jiara Sha
About The Lichen Likers’ Research and Art Project: Since 2023, members of Lichen Likers have employed art as a creative research practice for learning from lichens’ symbiotic lifestyle. This process has centered around collaboration between artists and scientists as well as communal artmaking via public workshops, field excursions, exhibitions, and performances. More information on the group’s central project, Learning Lichens: A Symbiotic Co-creation, is shared on the website: https://u.osu.edu/lichen/.