WILLIAMSTOWN, Mass.—The Clark Art Institute is opening its newest exhibit "Humane Ecology: Eight Positions" this Saturday, July 15. 

 

After entering the second entrance of the museum and a brief drive up the steep hill, passing a bridge, we enter the Lunder Center at Stone Hill parking lot, the first location of the exhibition.  

 

We were greeted by the curator and some of the artists who gave us a glimpse into the space that looked much different just hours before the press preview. 

 

"It looked very different just hours ago, so you're really getting a fresh, fresh glimpse of it, maybe even a fresh smell of the show," exhibit curator Robert Wiesenberger said. 

 

The show explores the inseparable bond of nature and society, exhibit curator Robert Wiesenberger said. 

 

The goal of the exhibition is to think critically, seriously, historically, and proactively about the land and the human relationship with the environment, he said. 

 

One of the many aspects that draw tourists and residents to the institution is its landscape, Wiesenberger said. 

 

The campus houses grassy woodlands with weaving trails and the still water of the reflecting pool that mirrors the greenery and blue sky which mingle with the museum's modern construction. 

 

The Clark has had a land acknowledgment with the Stockbridge–Munsee Community over the last few years and an exhibition like this is a substantive engagement that engages with the "question of land and what it obliges going forward," Wiesenberger said. 

 

The exhibition is presented in outdoor and indoor spaces at the Clark, including both the Clark Center and Lunder Center at Stone Hill. It is accompanied by a publication which is another way of thinking through ways that humans are interacting with their environments.

 

A group of eight contemporary artists brought their own completely different experiences, mediums, techniques, and expertise to inform this idea of the natural and social being intertwined. 

 

Exhibition artists include: Eddie Rodolfo Aparicio, Korakrit Arunanondchai, Carolina Caycedo, Allison Janae Hamilton, Juan Antonio Olivares, Christine Howard Sandoval, Pallavi Sen, and Kandis Williams. 

 

"Humane ecology is a bit more ground up, a bit more based on people and traditions and places. And "eight positions" refers to the eight artists in the show each of whom rather has their own approach,  their own position, but also comes from a place and is grounded in a place and speaks to a place and that is their position," Wiesenberger said. 

 

The show includes various mediums to explore this theme including sculptures, gardening, videos, paintings, immersive installations, woven artwork, and more. 

 

Each section of the tour examines a different aspect of the theme through different social issues or ideas including pollution, abortion, women’s rights, the lapse between the possibility of life and the "aloneness" of the universe, and more. 

 

There will be a free opening lecture tomorrow in the Clark Auditorium at 2 p.m. More information on the exhibit here.