Press Release for Ecology in Dystopia
By Anna Lussier
Exhibition dates: January 31 – March 3, 2022
ASIS Gallery
Sage Art Center
University of Rochester
ASIS Gallery is pleased to announce an exhibition of work by studio art major, Anna Lussier, Ecology in Dystopia.
Describing the work, the artist says:
Ecology in Greek translates to “the study of the home”. The scope of the home is broadened to the study of all the intricate environmental relationships the Earth facilitates but the boundaries of our “home” have always been set. Ecology in Dystopia looks at the relationships between contained spaces, the artist’s experiences growing up within the environmental movement, and the boundaries that these spaces create for growth.
The earth and its environment are confined to the surface area of the planet. Yet human growth is pushing further and further against the boundaries of earthly capabilities. A fact that the artist is all too familiar with having grown up with a mother embroiled in environmental activism since the mid-90s. Although the inspiration for the artists’ own environmental activism, the awareness of ecological collapse from a young age confines the idea of nature to one of imminent dystopia. The dystopian view of our “home” has only increased in academia where issues of environmentalism are often presented one-dimensionally. The containment of environmental education to statistical frameworks pushes complex intersectional issues into the margins of controlled spaces, a deeply ironic framework considering the vastness of the earth’s ecological relationships. Ecology in Dystopia takes the controlled spaces of contained and human-managed ecosystems and flips that aspect of control on its head to visually express the frightening limitations we as a species are developing.