Rending, Mending, & Reusing at Kolaj Fest New Orleans 2024

SYMPOSIUM AT KOLAJ FEST NEW ORLEANS 2024

Rending, Mending, & Reusing: Art, Justice, & the Environment

Thursday, 13 June 2024, 12:45-2PM
New Orleans Museum of Art
Phil Irish, Naomi White, Madera Rogers-Henry, & Christopher Kurts

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Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 12-16 June 2024. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.

“New Orleans is on the frontlines of the climate emergency, as dramatic sea level rise exacerbates the risk of flooding in the low-lying hurricane-prone city–in addition to soaring temperatures, severe drought and super fog events from surrounding marsh fires that caused misery in 2023,” The Guardian reported in November 2023. Science has the capacity to tell us how to care for the planet, but those solutions are meaningless if humanity doesn’t care enough to evolve and change. A 2023 study by the Pew Research Center found the health and wellbeing of our planet to be a primary concern of a majority of American adults and yet that same study showed significant political disagreement about how to address the issue. The complex social, political, and economic dynamics that inform our discourse around the environment can often leave one feeling confused and powerless. 

Art is a unique technology that can distill complexity into simple human gestures that, when experienced, facilitate a deeper understanding of our world, perhaps one that can lead to a greater sense of agency around environmental issues. In this panel, artists will speak about the way they use collage as a tool to think through and think with climate justice issues and how we can use art to engage viewers around shared concerns.

From Los Angeles, California, feminist, artist, and educator, Naomi White works at the intersection of political ecology and photography. Her work asks “how we can shift our focus away from the current capitalist model of exploitation, to one of equity and collective voice, for all people, animals and the planet.” She invites us to consider rocks as an archive. “The socio-political ramifications of our species are ingrained in rocks. Like a camera, rocks record and bear witness to our collective past. In the gasses they trap, every environmental change is stored forever, cataloging the unending story of the destruction of our planet and its inhabitants by a dominant class. They hold an undeniable truth in a world of shifting disinformation. Rocks are alive.” White will speak about the way climate change is perpetuated by inequity, and how art can bring about inclusion, action and change.

In June 2023, Elora, Ontario-based artist Phil Irish joined other international artists, scientists, and educators for The Arctic Circle expeditionary residency to explore the high-Arctic Svalbard Archipelago and Arctic Ocean aboard a specially outfitted expedition vessel. The artwork made during that time “was a collaboration with landscape and weather, with the camera documenting the entire process.” He writes, “Cutting out my paintings of arctic animals, I joined them together with pins, clothes pegs and clips, upon a wooden frame. The camera, shooting through the frame, captured both the landscape and the hovering collage of fragile painted bits.” He will speak about how “Collage has, in its deep structure, processes that relate powerfully to the environmental transformations happening around us. It enables artists to bring disparate images into a web or ecosystem of interdependent relationships. Collage is fundamentally about transformation, and speaks clearly to this time of instability and change.”

New Orleans-based Madera E. Rogers-Henry will speak about her project, The Recycle Challenge Parade & Festival, during which popular craft-making using reclaimed materials promotes “sustainable practices and environmental awareness.” She writes, “The festival includes parades, exhibitions, and engaging activities designed to showcase the efforts of local communities and businesses in leading the way towards a more sustainable future.” Rogers-Henry will compère a fashion show of recycled costumes and speak about how the project uses social practice and crafting as a way of building community around environmental issues in New Orleans.  

Christopher Kurts will report on the Collage the Planet Artist Residency and the work Kolaj Institute is doing on this subject. 

ARTIST BIOS

Phil Irish holds an MFA from York University and a BA from Guelph University. He is a Professor of Art at Redeemer University in Ancaster, Ontario. His work has been shown at public museums, artist-run centres, and commercial galleries across Canada. His work was featured at the Quebec City Biennial, and three times shortlisted for the Kingston Portrait Prize. He has developed new work during residencies at the Symposium in Baie-Saint-Paul, Quebec, The Banff Centre, and the Vermont Studio Center. His journey with the Arctic Circle Residency is shaping new directions in his work. Irish has also curated numerous exhibitions, primarily at the Redeemer University Art Gallery and at The Elora Centre for the Arts. The artist lives and works in Elora, Ontario. www.philirish.art

Originally from El Paso, Texas, New Orleans-based artist Madera E. Rogers-Henry uses collage incorporating recycled materials to create large-scale canvases, masks, paper dresses, jewelry and hand fans. Her work has been shown around New Orleans and is in many private collections. She is the founder and director of The Recycle Challenge. Through community workshops and making events, including The Green Bean Parade, The Paper Parade, and the The Recycle Challenge: St. Claude Avenue Festival, the project addresses a serious global need to reduce waste, and transform waste into viable products or vibrant works of art. www.the-recycle-challenge.com and on Instagram @the1recyclechallenge.

Naomi White is an abolitionist feminist, artist, and educator, working on ideas at the intersection of political ecology and photography. White holds an MFA in Photography and Related Media from the School of Visual Arts in New York, a Post Baccalaureate in Photography from the San Francisco Art institute, and a BA in English Literature from San Francisco State University. White is the winner of Photo District News’s Objects of Desire award, and a finalist for the 2023 Hopper Prize. Her work has been published in PDN, The Brooklyn Rail, Cut Me Up, FAYN, and Uncertain States. White has lectured at the Center for Ethics at Cal Poly Pomona, Santa Monica City College, and UCLA Extension. She has exhibited her work throughout North America and Europe. She is the faculty chair of the photography department at the New York Film Academy in Burbank, California. www.naomiwhite.com 

From New Orleans, Louisiana, Christopher Kurts is a storyteller, artist, and co-founder and lead organizer of The Mystic Krewe of Scissors and Glue. In his capacity as Coordinator for Kolaj Institute, Kurts has been leading residencies and workshops around such topics as curating, illustration, poetry, street art, and politics. Kurts has shown his work in exhibitions in Ireland, Scotland and the US. He has also curated group exhibitions of collage at venues around New Orleans. His work is part of Schwitters’ Army in Sanquhar, Scotland and Postal Collage Project No. 10 at Berkeley Commonplace in California. He is the art director for Kolaj Institute’s PoetryXCollage initiative, was art director for the book, Oh, Money! Money!, and is the main researcher, curator and writer for Kolaj Institute’s International Directory of Collage Communities. www.christopherkurts.com

Kolaj Fest New Orleans is a multi-day festival and symposium about contemporary collage and its role in art, culture, and society, 12-16 June 2024. Visit the website to learn more, see an overview of the program, and register to attend.