ACTIVATING THE SENSES
‘Geohaptics’ evokes major environmental issues through art
Bombarded by information about climate change and species decline, many of us prefer to look away in despair.
Open at 516 Arts, the exhibition “Geohaptics: Sensing Climate” seeks to activate the senses through the beauty of art.
The title stems from a madeup word, curator Daniela Naomi Molnar acknowledged. It combines “geo” for earth and “haptics” for the senses.
“It’s about how we are connected to the Earth through feeling,” she said.
The show is focused on artists working on major environmental issues.
The artworks range from investigations of the Arctic to New Mexico’s atomic bomb history, expressed through organic sculptural forms, video, performance, paintings and photography. The artists come from across the globe.
“Many of them work with scientists,” Molnar said. “They’re turning that scientific information into art. They’re not asking us to take in more information. They’re asking us to feel the grief, the anger and joy and love.”
Beili Liu’s “Shadows of Glacier Stones” features a suite of royal blue cyanotypes. Cyanotypes use the sun as a source of exposure.
The Austin, Texas-based, artist traveled to the Arctic to create her images.
“They’re photographic images just using the sun and the glaciers,” Molnar said.
Liu is a visual artist who has exhibited extensively across the globe. She has been a magnet for numerous awards, including the Andrew Carnegie Fellowship (2022-2024) and the Fulbright Arctic Chair, Norway (2021-2022).
Canadian artist Ella Morton regularly travels to the Arctic. In “Iceberg at Paradise Harbour,” she turned to an old photographic process using silver and glass.
“She breaks the images and repairs them using gold,” Molnar said. “The prints have this remarkable intensity. It conveys brokenness, but she’s repairing it.”
Atlanta-based Jason Francisco recently completed a Fulbright scholarship in Greece. His work focuses on new directions in the art of witness. His “The Elements” reflects on the memory of water and the memory of earth.
Francisco uses an old 4-by-5 camera, as well as old processes.
Jonathan Marquis is a multidisciplinary artist and mountaineer. He travels between Tucson and Montana.
“Every few years, he’s taken on this expeditionary artistic process to draw every glacier in Montana,” Molnar said. Marquis seeks to bear witness and draw each glacier before a warming climate melts the ice beyond recognition.
His “Earth Eater” is an acrylic painting and collage on canvas.
“The painting’s much more abstract,” Molnar said.
The glaciers are sliding into the earth like shards of glass.
“There’s a lot of beauty and a lot of violence in these images,” she added.
The Utah-based artist Mitsu Salmon will create an installation and performance at the gallery.
“A lot of her work has to do with the history of Japanese Americans and the internment camps,” Molnar said.
Her work will be a combination of painting and mundane objects.
“You can sense the gestures in the paintings,” Molnar continued. “It’s also exploring the history of Japanese labor in the U.S., especially the railroads.
Salmon’s grandparents were interned in New Mexico camps.
“The work in this show is very intentionally beautiful,” Molnar said. “You’re not going to see starving polar bears.”
Molnar is an artist, poet and pigment worker. She is also a wilderness guide. An entry into the Oregon Encyclopedia reads, “Molnar pioneered the notion that art can speak to climate change.”