At the ASU Art Museum, eight artists take on ‘the Earth’s increasing distress’

By Deborah Sussman and Amanda Urrea

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In the exhibition “New Earthworks,” ASU Art Museum curator emeritus Heather Sealy Lineberry and her co-curator for this show, artist Mark Dion, bring together eight contemporary artists who explore our interconnectedness with the planet.

“We are confronted with daily evidence of the Earth’s increasing distress,” said Sealy Lineberry. “The artists in ‘New Earthworks’ employ a range of strategies and approaches to help us better understand our interconnectivity with the Earth and the need for action now.”

Artists David Brooks, Carolina Caycedo, Desert ArtLab (April Bojorquez and Matt Garcia), Hope Ginsburg, Scott Hocking, Mary Mattingly, Sam Van Aken and Steven Yazzie take on issues of biodiversity and environmental equity, reassert indigenous knowledge and envision new systems to address climate change. 

Through experiential installations, sculpture, photographs, films, drawings, texts and objects, the “New Earthworks” artists ask us to rethink our understanding of the Earth and propose new methods at a time when it has never been more pressing to do so. 

“New Earthworks” includes a site-specific work by artist and pomologist Sam Van Aken, who planted a peach tree at the ASU Arboretum to map the rich history of stone fruit in the region and highlight the increasing loss of species and reliance on monoculture. The tree is a living sculpture of more than 10 historic and modern varieties grafted onto the desert tolerant peach tree. 

Also featured is a monumental new installation by Steven Yazzie, who combines current land acknowledgments with a hydroponic tower growing traditional native plants to explore ideas and perceptions of the land from the past, present and future. Yazzie, who is based in Denver, received his BFA from the School of Art, in the Herberger Institute for Design and the Arts.

The exhibition also includes a performance by local artists April Bojorquez and Matthew Garcia of Desert ArtLab. Their Mobile ECO-STUDIO, which began in Phoenix in 2013 and continues to evolve, is a portable lab that shows how to grow, harvest and eat traditional plants of the desert. Like Yazzie, both Bojorquez and Garcia are ASU alums: Bojorquez received a BA in anthropology and a certificate in Latin American Studies from the College of Liberal Arts and Studies in 2003, a certificate in Museum Studies from the Herberger Institute in 2010, and an MA in anthropology in 2011; Garcia received a BA in journalism in 2004 from the Walter Cronkite School of Journalism and Mass Communication and an MFA in intermedia from the Herberger Institute’s School of Art in 2012.

According to co-curators Sealy Lineberry and Dion, the artists in “New Earthworks” are not tethered to the historical definition of the Earthworks art movement of the 1960s and ‘70s. 

“A maverick group of younger artists are expanding Earthworks into increasingly urgent territory,” explains Dion, “adopting Earthworks strategies but with a contemporary vocabulary unavailable to previous practitioners. Current notions of ecological crisis, environmental racism, the culture of intentionality, queer theory and diversity are very much at the heart of this new group of Earth artists.”

“New Earthworks” is supported by the Diane and Bruce Halle Foundation and is sponsored by the Patti Parsons Foundation, Helme Prinzen Endowment and Joan D. Cremin. Additional support for artist installations was provided by Lettuce Grow, an initiative of The Farm Project, and the UrbanFarm Fruit Tree Program.

The exhibition was on view from April 9 through Sept. 25, 2022 at the ASU Art Museum at Nelson Fine Arts Center. 

“Current notions of ecological crisis, environmental racism, the culture of intentionality, queer theory and diversity are very much at the heart of this new group of Earth artists.”

Mark Dion, co-curator of “New Earthworks”

Exhibition photos by Craig Smith.
Carolina Caycedo, “Apariciones / Apparitions,” 2018, one channel HD video, 9:30 mins. color, sound. Commissioned by the Huntington Gardens, Library and Art collection. 
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