RESOURCED/response: The Art of the Justseeds Artists Cooperative & Syracuse University Fiber Arts

March 31, 2012 to May 19, 2012

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Poster Image © Justseeds artist, Tom Civil 2010

“For centuries now, industries have been mining the globe in search of raw materials that can be converted into profitable commodities, displacing innumerable communities and leaving in their wake toxic, hazardous, and ecologically devastated environments. While consumers experiment with greener lifestyles, the majority of the globe’s population is left to deal with the ecological fallout of industrial and technological “progress”. These are inequalities that only stand to increase as climate change and the unending capitalist pursuit of natural resources produce even more precarious ecologies.”    
-Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative

This exhibition was a look into the environmental devastation that plagues the earth and its beings. It was also a look into the environmental justice movement that works to correct and heal the destruction. RESOURCED is a portfolio of
hand-produced prints organized and created by the Justseeds Artists’ Cooperative in 2010, focusing on resource extraction and climate issues, which was used to help ask important questions about our environment.

At the beginning of the spring semester 2012, students from the Introduction to Fibers course at Syracuse University viewed images from RESOURCED. Students selected the poster of most significance to them, either for the visual content of the work or the environmental issue it addressed. Then each student created a hand-dyed textile in response to the original work, using a variety of dye techniques, relief printing techniques and methods of stitching. These techniques were both applied traditionally and adapted to suit the students’ intentions and individual visual language.

The art of the Justseeds Cooperative illustrates the transformative power of  personal expression in concert with collective action. The Cooperative is a decentralized network of 26 artists committed to making print and design work that reflects a radical social, environmental, and political stance. With members working from the U.S., Canada, and Mexico, Justseeds operates both as a unified collaboration of similarly minded printmakers and as a loose collection of creative individuals with unique viewpoints and working methods. For more information visit www.justseeds.org

As a special addition to this exhibition, ArtRage  featured the artwork of students from Clary Middle School in our gallery windows. We called it the Greening our Future Poster Project. The class was taught by Adam Simeon and they were mentored by teaching artist Diane Menzies. This project was made possible with public funds provided by the New York State Council on the Arts and administered through the Cultural Resources Council.

 

Thanks to our exhibition sponsors:

John & Dolores Brule, Dik Cool, Nancy Dock & Donald Blair, John & Virginia Felleman, Ed & Eva Galson, Kim & Steve Linkinhoker, Peter Waack & Maggie Maurer, Jessica Maxwell, Bruce Grannon & Melinda Matzell, Yvonne Murphy, Shirley & Larry Novak, Syracuse University Education Department, Ann Tiffany & Ed Kinane, Yolanda Tooley