Exploring Ecofeminism: Leah Wisener

Agnes Denes

Wheatfield: A Confrontation

1982

Budapest-born, New York-based artist Agnes Denes began working in the 1960s, exploring multiple subjects including science, female artists' rights, and politics. Her most widely known work- Wheatfield: A Confrontation, stood in New York City for less than a year. On a plot of high-valued land near Battery Park, Denes planted and cultivated wheat, later touring it across the globe with the “The International Art Show for the End of World Hunger.” The lush wheat field sits juxtaposed with the skyscrapers and city that surrounds it. The piece aims to question the value of land and agriculture as it relates to capatilist, materialistic society.

Dominique Mazeaued

The Most Precious Jewel

1998-

“Heartist” Dominique Mazeaud was born in France and has spent most of her artistic career working in Santa Fe, New Mexico. Her work has focused on the Rio Grande, rivers, spiritual experience, and interconnected performances. In her piece the most precious jewel, Mazeuad, wearing a white mask, beads a cloth globe and invites viewers to stitch three symbolic beads along with her. Mazeaud aims to inspire gratitude and reflection of the Earth with this piece through a symbolic medium. Beading is traditionally a feminine task, and the beads can represent the valuable places and experiences each person brings to the piece.

Lynne Hull

Scatter

1987

Lynne Hull, a Wyoming-based artist, has worked across the world creating sculptural habitats and resources for wildlife. Scatter, located in Moab, Utah, acts as a watering hole for the native species in the area. By creating functional works of art, Hull becomes a source of social change and a real impact on the conservation of biodiversity. An example of a “trans-species" piece of art, Scatter  welcomes animal and human viewers alike and challenges their relationship with each other.

Mierle Laderman Ukeles

The  Social Mirror

1983

After becoming a mother, New York-based artist Mierle Laderman Ukeles became interested in the idea of maintenance, an often unappreciated, undervalued job in society. Ukeles became the Artist in Residence for the New York City Department of Sanitation in 1977 working on multiple projects and performances since then. The Social Mirror, a reflective sanitation truck, highlights the relationship between the viewers' and the sanitation workers in New York. The sanitation truck becomes the highlight of the streets and viewers have to acknowledge the need for sanitation and other maintenance workers in society.

Jackie Brookner

Prima Lingua

1996

Jackie Brookner spent most of her career in New York City working as an ecological artist. Focusing on bronze sculptures in the early part of her career, Brookner soon shifted to “living sculptures.” Prima Lingua, made out of volcanic rock and moss, is a giant tongue that filters the water it stands with. Prima lingua draws the connection between body and water, a vital and endangered relationship.

Aviva Rahmani

Blued Trees Symphony

2015-

Aviva Rahmani is an ecological artist that has worked in New York City and Maine. Inspired by the ever-impending oil and gas companies, Rahmani's Blued Tree Symphony takes a stand against the seizure of land through copyright laws protecting the right of public art. In Blued Tree Symphony,  each tree works as a musical note and each 1/3 mile is a measure. The project has expanded across multiple states, intending to protect forests and give trees their own voice.

Betsy Damon

A Memory of Clean Water

1985

Starting as a performance artist in the 1970s, Betsy Damon slowly shifted her focus to water- a symbol of life and connection. In 1985, A Memory of Clean Water was created by casting paper in a dried riverbed near Castle Valley, Utah. The paper picked up the texture, color, details, and story of the creek which had been dried up due to the installation of a dam. Since then Dmaon has created the Keepers of the Water, a nonprofit, and continues to draw focus to the value of water on life and society.

Bonnie Ora Sherk

Public Lunch

1971

New York and San Fransico-based artist, Bonnie Ora Sherk created "A Living Library", an organization dedicated to creating safe spaces that combine ecology, education, and community. Before founding the organization, Sherk worked as a performance artist in the 1970s. Public Lunch consisted of Sherk eating lunch in a zoo cell whiLe a rat and tiger sat in adjacent cages. The performance questioned the idea of captivity and cages while highlighting the relationship between humans and animals.

https://vimeo.com/420122632?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=110676477

Fern Shaffer

Nine Year Rituals

1995-2003

Chicago native Fern Shaffer works as a painter and performance artist rising to fame in the 1980s. Inspired by Shamanism, Shaffer and her collaborator Othello Anderson traveled across North America to perform healing rituals for endangered ecosystems in her project Nine Year Rituals. Inspired by a multitude of African cultures, Shaffer creates the costumes and acts as a motherly healer to the earth during these rituals.

Mary Mattingly

Pull

2013

Mary Mattingly, a New York-based artist works in sculpture and performance art based on the value of objects. In 2013 Mattingly started to document each of her belongings highlighting the consumer and materialistic values of society. In Pull, Mattingly gathers her belongs into one bundle and pulls the interconnected ball throughout the city to draw attention to consumer waste and the impact of the manufacturing systems.

https://vimeo.com/419710646?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=110676477

Jessica Segall

Say When

2021

Jessica Segall is an interdisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn. She examines fragile environments working alongside scientists, animals, and activists. For her project, Say When, Segall visited the sites designated by the U.S. Government for solar panels, most of which are still unused. Segall carried a mirror- a symbolic item representing historical tools used for harnessing the sun's energy. Say When questions the values of the government and incites passion for alternative energy.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WqC7qzH3ShQ&t=1s

Ana Mendieta

Untitled: Silueta series

1976

Cuban-American artist Ana Mendieta worked in sculpture and photography, but she is best known for her art where the natural environment acts as the main medium- “earthworks.” In her Siluetas series, Mendieta carves herself into the ground in a symbolic pose representing Mother Earth. Mendieta allows the natural environment to influence the piece and adds colored pigment to highlight the figure. The series creates a physical connection between the female body and the natural environment, showing the impact they have on one another.

Susan Leibovitz Steinman

Cartwheels

2002-2010

Californian artist Susan Leibovitz Steinman worked in ceramics for 18 years before shifting into found object installations and sculptures. She is also the co-founder of the Women Eco Artists Dialog. In her work Cartwheels, Steinman combines wheels and shopping carts with river rocks. The river rocks add weight to the piece holding the otherwise unbalanced sculpture down. Cartwheels responds to the relationship and balance between the natural world and industrial society. The river rocks symbollically add hope to the precarious sculpture and ecological situation.

Rachel Ignotofsky

A Great Barrier Reef Ecosystem

2018

California Designer Rachel Ignotofsky is a New York Times best-selling author publishing books about ecosystems, science, and historical women. Her books cater to children and teens with the goal of education and activism. In The Wondrous Workings of Planet Earth, Ignototofsky highlights each of the Earth's major ecosystems with a message of preservation and interconnectivity.

The Harrisons

Peninsula Europe

2000-2003

Working collaboratively for over three decades, the Harrisons consist of husband and wife Newton and Helen Harrison. They began their careers in politics but slowly transferred into the eco-art scene, although they called themselves “instigators.” In Penisula Europe, a multi-part, multi-year project, the Harrisons combine maps, sketches, and photographs of the natural topography of Europe void of any political boundaries. The piece adds value to the natural environment shaping society and cultural areas. Peninsula Europe inspires social change and interconnectedness by eliminating borders. 

Erica Fielder

Salmon Skin Cape

1998

 Erica Fielder works as an eco-artist creating public educational displays and worked in performance and installation art in her career. Salmon Skin Cape incorporates the lines of a salmon's bloodstream and the path of the Metkuyaki watershed salmon live in. The piece was inspired by native traditions of salmon hunting that value a symbiotic relationship between humans and animals. By memorializing the salmon and showing an interconnected relationship through a wearable piece, Fielder inspires more sustainable fishing practices.

Lisa Reindorf

Rising Seas

2016-2018

Mexican-American architect and environmental artist Lisa Reindorf prioritizes research and activism in her artwork and writings. She paints bright pieces made of multiple panels focused on the relationship between natural landscapes and structural cities. In Rising Waters, the panels shift between geometric aerial views of cities to flowing representations of sea shores and their chaotic relationship with one another. Using her architectural background and interest in research, Reindorf brings a new perspective to the climate crisis through her paintings.

Danielle Eubank

Antarctica I

2019

California Native Danielle Eubank works as a painter and activist, mostly focusing on the subject of water. Eubank has dedicated twenty years to the work “One Artist Five Oceans” where she travels across the globe working as an “Expedition Artist” capturing the variety of color and texture of each of the world's oceans. This body of work aims to bring attention to the state of the world's oceans and to capture the natural beauty of the seas. Antarctica I was one of the final pieces in the series, coming from a rare expedition to the Southern Sea.

Annie Sprinkles and Beth Stephens

Green Wedding

2008

Partners Annie Sprinkles and Beth Stephens have been working together as performance artists and environmental activists for 20 years. Their works center around the idea of ecosexuality, loving the earth as a partner instead of as a motherly figure. In their Ecosex Wedding Performances the couple “marries” a certain aspect of the earth and has a public ceremony correlating with colors and themes. Their work aims to change the way people interact with nature, inspiring a more equal, loving, and interconnecting relationship to hopefully create a more sustainable future.

Cecylia Malik

Polish Mothers on Tree Stumps

2017

Polish artist Cecylia Malik works in performance art and environmental activism. Her most widely known work, Polish Mothers on Tree Stumps, began in 2017 and has had many different iterations. In this performance, a group of Polish mothers organized by Malik, come together and breastfeed their children while surrounded by cut trees and stumps. They are protesting the “Szyszko’s law" that makes it easy for private landowners to cut down trees. The piece uses juxtaposing actions- the motherly, caring action of breastfeeding and the destructive action of deforestation to incite social change.

Raheleh "Minoosh" Zomorodinia

Sensation III

2016

Iranian artist Raheleh "Minoosh" Zomorodinia, works as an interdisciplinary artist with an interest in performance and the relationship between body and nature. In her series Sensation, Zomorodinia uses an emergency blanket- an item associated with the refugee crisis- and allows the winds and natural environment to shape the mylar around her body. The series focuses on the acts of human resistance, showing nature's chaotic and powerful responses to human forces, inspiring a more collaborative relationship with nature.

https://vimeo.com/419715835?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=110676477

Jenny Kendler

Offering

2017

Chicago-based artist Jenny Kendler has worked as an environmental activist and artist for 20 years creating sculptures, performances, and missions to help create environmental change. In her performance Offering, Kendler stood next to a hummingbird feeder for two hours with her ear painted red mimicking the feeder. Despite offering the hummingbirds nectar, Kendler remained relatively untouched during the two-hour performance. Offering displays the idea that humans and animals can have an interconnected but distant relationship, one where the animals don’t owe anything to humans. Offering values listening and experiencing nature rather than taking control over it.

https://vimeo.com/423033828?embedded=true&source=vimeo_logo&owner=110676477

Cherie Sampson

Her Blue Sea Fire

2009

Cherie Sampson has been an environmental performance artist and sculptor for over 25 years, working in the United States, Finland, and multiple other countries. In her work, Her Blue Sea Fire Sampson uses found natural materials in the sculptures including native wood for the ladders. Her Blue Sea Fire was based on the Finnish epic poem The Kalevala which describes the creation of the Earth. Sampson's piece inspires viewers to symbolically connect to the Earth and Universe in a spiritual reflective way.

Shana Robbins

The Other

2016

Atlanta-based artist Shana Robbins works in performance and video art focusing on ritual and spiritual experiences based on her involvement with the Butoh movement. In her performance The Other, Robbins wears a vibrant costume and performs a symbolic ritual in the Montana landscapes. This performance displays the desire for connection and relationships beyond self with other people, animals, and nature. The Other and more of Robbins' performances respond to the beauty, gift, and responsibility of life.

https://vimeo.com/428537335?embedded=true&source=video_title&owner=110676477

Basia Irland

Riverberations

2015

New Mexiso-based artist Basia Irland has dedicated her career to exploring and protecting water. In her performance, Riverberations, Irland collaborated with percussionists and composers to create a musical performance incorporating the Rio Grande River and instruments made out of the natural environment and books. Riverberations explores the natural beauty and collaboration humans can experience with water and water ecosystems, inspiring support to protect the Earth's water. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9IvMn9w132o