1st Edition
Artists and the Practice of Agriculture Politics and Aesthetics of Food Sovereignty in Art since 1960
Artists and the Practice of Agriculture maps out examples of artistic practices that engage with the aesthetics and politics of gathering food, growing edible and medicinal plants, and interacting with non-human collaborators. In the hands of contemporary artists, farming and foraging become forms of visual and material language that convey personal and political meanings.
This book provides a critical analysis of artistic practices that model alternative food systems. It presents rich academic insights as well as 16 conversations with practicing artists. The volume addresses pressing issues, such as the interconnectedness of human and other-than-human beings, the weight of industrial agriculture, the legacy of colonialism, and the promise of place-based and embodied pedagogies. Through participatory projects, the artists discussed here reflect on the links between past histories, present challenges, and future solutions for the food sovereignty of local and networked communities.
The book is an easy-to-navigate resource for readers interested in food studies, visual and material cultures, contemporary art, ecocriticism, and the environmental humanities.
Framing the field: An Introduction
The Matter of Artists and the Practice of Agriculture
The Visual and Material Language of Agriculture as Art: The Example of Hunger by Ghada Amer
Contributions, Scope, and Disciplinary Perspective of This Book
Chapters’ Overview, Author Positionality, and Writing Process
Acknowledgements
Section I
Chapter 1: Experiences of Human and Other-Than-Human Interconnection through Agriculture in Contemporary Art.
Preparing the Terrain: Historical Contexts and Theoretical Lens
Becoming Plant: Giuseppe Penone
Energy Flows and Non-Hierarchical Interactions. Bonnie Ora Sherk
The Healing and Spiritual Power of Agriculture: Joseph Beuys
Agricultural Knowledges and Economies: Global Tools and Gianfranco Baruchello.
Fluidity against Binaries: Fritz Haeg
Beyond Utopia: Adaptation and Community for Kamin Lertchaiprasert and Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Artist as Family
Place-Based Knowledges and Interconnectedness in Contemporary Indigenous Art: Jolene Rickard and Elizabeth James-Perry
Conversation with Bonnie Ora Sherk
Conversation with Fritz Haeg
Conversation with Artist as Family (Meg Ulman and Patrick Jones)
Conversation with Jolene Rickard
Section II
Chapter 2: Confronting Technology in the Field: Reimagining Agriculture for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Remediation.
Dialectics, Tautology, and Paradox: Agnes Denes
DIY Technology and the Power of Agribusiness: Critical Art Ensemble
Biopolitics, Biopiracy, and Sexuality: Ines Doujak
The Agency of Plants: Li Shan, Natalie Doonan, and Maria Thereza Alves
Climate Change Adaptation, Historical Technologies, and Gardens: The Harrisons and Nida Sinnokrot
Conversation with Maria Thereza Alves
Conversation with Natalie Doonan
Conversation with Nida Sinnokrot
Section III
Chapter 3: Colonial Legacies in Agriculture and Art: Labor, Memory, and Healing
Extraction, Exploitation, and Colonial Trades
Honoring Diversity through Plants and Food in Australia: Lauren Berkowitz
Colonial Histories and Today’s African Diasporas: Binta Diaw
Connecting Cuba, China, West Africa and North America: Edible and Medicinal Plants in María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s Practice
Food Security and Artistic Cross-Pollination at Yinka Shonibare’s Ecology Green Farm in Nigeria
Abolition, Imagination, and Community Gardening in the USA: jackie sumell and Seitu Jones
The Politics of Urban Agriculture in Hong Kong
Conversation with Lauren Berkowitz
Conversation with María Magdalena Campos-Pons
Conversation with jackie sumell
Conversation with Seitu Jones
Section IV
Chapter 4: Embodied Pedagogies and Knowledges Exchange through Art Farming. Health, Nutrition, and Sense of Place
Awareness and Social Equity through Food-based Pedagogy: A Theoretical Framework.
Hydroponic Systems and Community Care in Response to the AIDS Crisis: Haha
Cycles of Learning: Sensorial and Spiritual Resilience in Tattfoo Tan’s Experience
Floating Ecosystems: Mary Mattingly
Civic Fruit and Public Art: Participation for Fallen Fruit and Lisa Kyung Gross
Being with Bees: Juan William Chávez’s Creative Pedagogy Against Racist Histories
Queer Ecologies and Cross-Species Interaction: Eli Brown
Making with Fungi: Urbonas Studio and Mycelium
Ever-Changing Traditions: Unlearning and Experimenting for the Scuola delle Agricolture
Conversation with Haha (Richard House, Wendy Jacob, Laurie Palmer, John Ploof)
Conversation with Tattfoo Tan
Conversation with Lisa Kyung Gross
Conversation with Juan William Chávez
Conversation with Eli Brown
Biography
Silvia Bottinelli (PhD University of Pisa) is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Visual and Material Studies Department, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Dr. Bottinelli's scholarship focuses on contemporary food-based art as well as twentieth and twenty-first-century Italian art. With Margherita d’Ayala Valva, she co-edited the volume The Taste of Art (2017) and a special issue of Public Art Dialogue on "Food and Activism in Contemporary Art" (2018). Dr. Bottinelli also co-edited Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art with Sharon Hecker (2021), and single-authored the book Double-Edged Comforts: Domestic Life in Modern Italian Art and Visual Culture (2021). Dr. Bottinelli’s research has been widely published in edited volumes and scholarly journals such as Art Journal, Modernism/modernity, Public Art Dialogues, Food Studies, Palinsesti, Predella, and Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte. Her scholarship was supported by grants of the Italian Art Society, the Center for Italian Modern Art, the American Philosophical Society, and the Tufts Tisch College Faculty Fellowship, among others. Dr. Bottinelli received an International Award for Excellence from the Food Studies Research Network.
"Climate action alarm bells have been ringing for decades and while some people are only now hearing the call, countless artists have been engaged in environmental arts for decades. Through this book, Bottinelli brings critical awareness to a group of artists who have been working through the lens of agriculture. With perceptive essays and a collection of in-depth artist interviews, Bottinelli takes a serious look at how the arts can contribute to understanding and adapting to the challenges our food systems face in a rapidly changing global environment."
-Cameron Cartiere, Professor of Public Art and Social Practice, Emily Carr University of Art and Design
