All that you touch: art and ecology

Sept. 7-Nov. 7, 2021

Byron Au YongNicole DixonKatie DorameAlicia EscottFelicitas FischerBarnali GhoshConni McKenzieJaime Serra dos SantosLinda Yamane, and Minoosh Zomorodinia

All that you touch: art and ecology presents artists whose creative practices are informed by their personal encounters with the natural world.

Using whiteroot sedge and willow, Linda Yamane’s traditional Ohlone baskets reveal the inextricable link between culture and place. Katie Dorame’s collage prints indigenize iconographic Los Angeles landscapes with layered images of abalone and acorns. The meditations of California wildflowers in Alicia Escott’s installations and Barnali Ghosh’s South Asian fabric and dance-infused mirrored portraits further explore the tensions between native and invasive, organic and human-made. Nicole Dixon’s mixed-media paintings use natural elements, such as wood and gold, to reflect the cultural and spiritual qualities of her figures in order to lift up Black wisdom, while Minoosh Zomorodinia’s paintings use gold leaf to map her walks through urban landscapes. The compositional sketches by Byron Au Yong and the dance film co-created by Felicitas Fischer, Conni McKenzie, and Jaime Serra dos Santos serve as lamentations for nature devastated by climate change and geopolitical factors.

Working across the disciplines, these artists ask what can nature teach us about adaptation, regeneration, and healing? What can nature teach us about ourselves?

The exhibition will include a series of online conversations with the artists, tours, and additional events.

  • Byron Au Yong
    Forest Requiem Sketch
    Including:

    Sheet Music
    2021

    Sculpture Scores
    2021
    Found paper: rice cooker manual, yellow pad, Bloomberg Businessweek, Money Magazine, Chinese church pamphlet, calendar page, envelope

    Hugging Trees
    2020
    Digital photograph

    Burnt Circle
    2020
    Digital photograph

    Forest Requiem Sketch
    2021
    Digital video, 2 minutes 29 seconds


    Nicole Dixon
    The Snake And The Raffia Tree
    2018
    Acrylic, charcoal, watercolor, and gold leaf on canvas

    Nicole Dixon
    The Secret of Joy
    2021
    Acrylic, charcoal, wood, watercolor, fabric, and gold leaf on canvas

    Nicole Dixon
    The Axe Forgets But The Tree Re-members
    2021
    Acrylic, charcoal, wood, fabric, watercolor, pen, chalk pastel, and gold leaf on canvas

    Nicole Dixon
    Stardust Permutation
    2021
    Acrylic, charcoal, wood, fabric, watercolor, and gold leaf on canvas

    Nicole Dixon
    When You Climb a Good Tree, You Are Given a Push
    2021
    Acrylic, charcoal, watercolor, and gold leaf on canvas


    Katie Dorame
    Grinding Acorns Over You
    2019
    Inkjet print: digitized collage
    (Commissioned by SF MOMA’s Open Space)

    Katie Dorame
    Abalone, the Rock & Standing
    2019
    Inkjet print: digitized collage
    (Commissioned by SF MOMA’s Open Space)

    Katie Dorame
    Catalina Arrowhead
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Deep Dive
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Abalone Over LA
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    LA Overseer
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Hovering Basket
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Freefall
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Abalone in the Pool
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting

    Katie Dorame
    Fishing
    2020
    Inkjet print: digitized collage and watercolor painting


    Alicia Escott
    Disarticulated Production
    2021
    Handmade drawings on found industrial plastic shrink wrap used for construction and renovation of buildings melted to rejoin, burnt Apple phone charge, burnt pvc pipe found at the sight of a Sonoma wildfire, ibuds, Live Oak acorns, burnt electronics, used ipods, video, redwood and live oak branches

    Alicia Escott
    The Archive to Come: a letter to covid19 in a seed
    2020-2021
    Digital video, 3 minutes 58 seconds
    Wildflower seeds, local compost, found plastic packaging for rugs
    (Part of Metabolic Rifts and Domestic Interiors, a series of ongoing collaborations with local native wildflower seeds.)


    Felicitas Fischer, Conni McKenzie, and Jaime Serra dos Santos
    Lungs of the Earth
    2021
    Dance film, 8 minutes 22 seconds (loop)


    Barnali Ghosh
    Bleeding Heart...it's a Feeling
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    June 11: I saw them unexpectedly at Tilden Regional Park Botanic Garden. The native bleeding heart, Dicentra formosa, is more subtle than their more known counterpart, Dicentra spectabilis. The way they hang makes me feel as if they are at peace with the world, as if they feel safe. A feeling that we all long for. This sari was a gift to my mom-in-law from her father, and I love its retro style. The paisley motifs look to me like bleeding hearts multiplied.

    Barnali Ghosh
    Delicate Pink Delight
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    June 9: I've been waiting for the roses to bloom up here and keeping my eyes peeled for a native rose. I had no luck on the streets I walk on, but thanks to friends I finally found them at the Tilden Regional Park Botanic Garden. The photo captures my delight at seeing this blushing messy delicate beauty. The mudra/hand gesture is used to show flowers blooming.

    Barnali Ghosh
    This fairy has secrets
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    June 24: This mudra is called Samputa, and is found in both Odissi and Bharatanatyam dance. It indicates both treasures held carefully, and the holding of secrets. This re-creation would have gone more smoothly if they made clothes with plant prints, like they do with animal prints. How come this isn’t a thing?!
    (Photograph of the fairy slipper orchid in Butano State Park, San Mateo is by Amy Patten.)

    Barnali Ghosh
    Happy Poppy
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 15: Celebrating getting my first vaccine dose yesterday by embodying the beloved California poppy, our state flower.

    Barnali Ghosh
    For the love of the colors of lupin!
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 20: There’s a little patch of wildflowers in a parking lot near my home with poppies and lupin. I went out and took some photos this morning, and for the first time noticed the pink. My lupin is a little less shy about showing off its colors.

    Barnali Ghosh
    Wild Iris
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 21: I’ve been in a purple phase! And could not move on without re-creating Iris douglasiana, purple with a touch of gold. The saree is a cotton from South India, and the black and white patterned fabric is a raw silk with kantha embroidery from Bengal.

    Barnali Ghosh
    Making Eyes at Baby Blue Eyes.
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 22: These were found a few blocks from home while walking with friends. We marveled at the pretty blue petals and the pure white centers. I thought I might do an "earthier" color but our planet is mostly water, and water is life, so blue feels appropriate. Happy Earth Day!

    Barnali Ghosh
    Paean to the California Peony / Every Day is Earth Day
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 23: I was immediately drawn to the rich deep color of the California peony. The pose is inspired by the bhumi pranam that we do in Odissi dance right before we start a dance performance or practice, asking forgiveness from the Earth for stomping on it. I’m not a religious person, but I still find this ritual grounding, thoughtful, and love the intention of it. It’s a lesson I could use every day.
    (Peony photograph: Teddy Llovet • CC-BY 2.0 • flic.kr/p/4x56a9)

    Barnali Ghosh
    What’s for Brunch?
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    April 24: The Matilija poppy/Fried egg flower reminds me most of a dancer. This photo was taken on the nightly walks I took during the early days of the pandemic. I love the specks of gold/pollen on the petals, and have tried to evoke that here with the fabric choices. And sometimes dancers sit. This pose is inspired by Odissi, and also Kathak, another South Asian dance form.

    Barnali Ghosh
    Rare Beauty
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    May 14: I'm thrilled that I got to use one of my most favorite shawls for the re-creation of this striking flower, and wearing it will now always remind me of it. (Photograph of the endangered Springville clarkia (endemic to Kern & Tulare counties) is by Amy Patten.)

    Barnali Ghosh
    Drumming fairies
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    May 19: The white globe lily presents a still look, but I think these fairy lanterns dance and drum when we are not looking. The sari is the first one I ever bought for myself, back when I thought I liked subtle colors. It will always be special, but the color is not something I reach for often. The dancing drummer pose is inspired by Odissi dance.
    (Photograph of the white globe lily was taken in the Ventana Wilderness by Amy Patten.)

    Barnali Ghosh
    Fuzzy beauty
    2021
    Digital photograph and journal entry
    July 17: Who knew flowers could be so hairy!
    This flower is found only on one mountaintop in Marin.
    (Photograph of the Tiburon Mariposa Lily is by Amy Patten.)


    Linda Yamane
    Tiprin Tuupen (Basketry Ear Ornaments)
    2017
    Basket Disks: Three-rod willow foundation, whiteroot sedge weaving strands, and redwing blackbird/acorn woodpecker/ meadowlark feathers
    Neck: Brain-tanned deer hide, mallard duck scalp, dogbane hemp cordage Bone Tubes: Incised bird bone rubbed with pulverized wood charcoal from Soberanes fire in Carmel Valley, and filled with willow sticks
    Ornamentation: Abalone disk beads, abalone pendants, clam disk beads, olivella disk beads, glass trade beads

    Linda Yamane
    Ohlone Honoring Basket
    2012
    Three-rod willow foundation, whiteroot sedge weaving strands, olivella shell disk beads, and red-dyed chicken feathers (to simulate Acorn Woodpecker feathers used in the past), abalone pendants

    Linda Yamane
    Old-Style Ohlone Necklace
    2019
    Clam shell disk beads, abalone pendants, glass trade beads

    Linda Yamane
    Pechump Tiprin (Bottomless Hopper Basket)
    2015
    Willow foundation rods, whiteroot sedge weaving strands, bracken fern weaving strands for dark pattern, creek dogwood rim stick, tar at lower rim

    Bundled materials in Linda Yamane’s case included: Sandbar Willow (Salix Exigua), straight shoots (peeled) and Whiteroot Sedge Carex barbarae rhizomes (peeled)


    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    08/29/2018 16:29 0.45mi, 23’53.9 53’03/mi Headlands, CA
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper 

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    06/16/2018 12:48 59’28:3 0.54 mi, Felicita County Park, CA
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    5/08/2018, 16:23, 0.31mi, 27'38.7, 90'20/mi
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    2/25/2020, 11:44, 1.18 mi, 1:41’45, 85’53/mi
    2020
    Acrylic on MDF board

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    2/18/2020, 11:36, 1.70 mi, 1:42’35, 60’16/mi, Recology SF, CA
    2020
    Acrylic on MDF board

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    2/28/2020, 10:46, 1.67 mi., 2:06’48, 76’03/mi
    2020
    Acrylic on MDF board

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    01/04/2018 00:20 0.44mi, 32'14.6 73'43/mi, Kashan, Iran
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    01/03/2018 03:25 0.51mi, 14'58.9 29'20/mi, Kashan, Iran
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    01/04/2018, 03:43 1.50mi, 1:13'59 49'29/mi, Kashan, Iran
    2020
    Acrylic and gold leaf on paper

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    12/26/2018, 04:58 0.69 mi, 1:03’05, 91’16/mi
    2020
    Acrylic on MDF board

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    12/24/2018, 00:43, 0/17 mi, 09’22.2, 55’50/mi, Hormuz Island, Iran
    2020
    Acrylic on MDF board

    Minoosh Zomorodinia
    My Ziggurat
    2021
    Birch wood, MDF, gold leaf, acrylic, wood glue, and digital print on sand