Art and Science Discussion Series

“Vanishing Green”

Thursday, March 2, 2017 at 6:30 PM

Admission $5

Moderator: Aviva Rahmani

Panelists: Mary Mattingly, Anne Percoco, Patricia Watts, Greta Zarro

The panel is in conjunction with The Wasteland?, Part II of our Haber Space exhibitions on endangered species, with a particular focus on plant life and woodlands. The sixth extinction is affecting plants as well as animals, punching holes in all levels of the ecosystems humans depend upon for our survival. The threat extends from the most delicate wildflower or lordly oak, to the food we might put on our plates. As green fades to gray, what is our world becoming and what might we do about it? Dr. Aviva Rahmani continues the probing discussion of individual and collective engagement, this time joined by artists Mary Mattingly and Anne Percoco, curator Patricia Watts and activist Greta Zarro.

Aviva Rahmani holds a PhD from Plymouth University, UK, is an Affiliate with INSTAAR, University of Colorado at Boulder, and a visiting professor at Stony Brook University. Her project, The Blued Trees Symphony was awarded a 2016 Fellowship from the New York Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). Rahmani’s “Trigger Points/ Tipping Points,” project on global warming premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale, as part of Gulf to Gulf (2009- present), a NYFA sponsored webcast project accessed from 85 countries.

Mary Mattingly is an American visual artist living and working in New York City. She explores the themes of home, travel, cartography, and humans’ relationships with each other, with the environment, and has been recognized for creating photographs and sculptures depicting and representing futuristic and obscure landscapes, and her ecological installations including “Swale,” and “wearable homes.”

Anne Percoco is a Jersey City based artist who studies the interface between nature and culture, re-contextualizing overlooked places, plants, and materials. For the past 10 years she has produced public artworks, exhibitions, web-based projects, and publications.  She cofounded the Next Epoch Seed Library with Ellie Irons two years ago. Stocked with seeds gathered from vacant lots, street verges and superfund sites, NESL champions a gene pool of tough, adaptable plants most likely to survive and thrive in a landscape dominated by human excess.

Patricia Watts is founder/curator of ecoartspace. She has curated over fifty art and nature exhibitions and programs, and has worked with hundreds of artists who engage the human-nature interface. From 2001-2004, she worked as the Topanga Creek Watershed Coordinator on a citizen science program removing invasive species.

Greta Zarro is a New York Organizer for Food & Water Watch, a non-profit environmental organization dedicated to championing healthy food and clean water for all. Food & Water Watch stands up to corporations that put profits before people, and advocates for a democracy thatprotects our environment. Greta assists with field organizing campaigns, statewide coalition-building, and volunteer engagement in support of Food & Water Watch policy goals. She graduated from St. Michael’s College with a bachelor’s degree in Sociology/Anthropology.