BARBARA BENISH

For many years, my art has invoked systems of water-- oceanic, lentic, and riparian-- as echoing connectors of human life. But more than that, "water is life", as the Lakota expression sings: "mni wiconi". In 2020-22 the work explored the theme  of the River Styx: how it could translate into a contemporary story of the death of our water systems, induced by human indulgence and neglect. Where once was Charon, bringing the dead across the River to the other side, now is the water itself, poisoned, as predicated in the Styx legend.

Invited by the alternative space, Pluto Gallery, near Bonn on the Rhine River in Germany, I created a river walk with students and locals to address the waterway and celebrate it's history. Directly present out the gallery windows, flowing through Bonn towards the North Sea,  named "Renos" by the ancient Celts, it has since Roman times been one of the major transportation routes, and continues until this day to carry major shipping cargo across the European continent. This has resulted, in the 20th century, of the river becoming home to one-fifth of the world's chemical manufacturing plants, as it's geographical axis made coal, then oil, transportation easily transportable. Today, over 6000 toxic substances have been identified floating in the waters of the Rhine. Due to a defining environmental disaster in 1986, when a fire exploded a chemical warehouse in Basel, Switzerland, turning the entire river red and lighting it on fire, governments paid attention and made some changes. 

This series of drawings and paintings directly reflect the 'body burden' of chemicals now present in other life forms, including humans, due water pollution, and specifically micro-plastics. Thanks to Dr. Jeremy Wasser and Jane Brucker for bringing their students and engaging this project with the University of Bonn, Germany. See accompanying interview with Dr. Claudia Benz, curator at  HERE, 

Dr. Claudia Banz, Kuratorin des Kunstgewerbemuseums der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin und die amerikanische Künstlerin Barbara Benish sprechen im Rahmen der digitalen Vortragsreihe "In the Nature of Materials – Nachhaltiges Gestalten in Kunst, Design & Architektur".   Alle Infos und Termine auf https://www.hochschule-trier.de/gesta... Vortrag vom 09.06.2021 Moderation: Prof. Theo Smeets/ Prof. Jörg Obergfell  "Earth, Water, and the Clothes we Wear: Environmental Installations" Barbara Benish, Artist in Los Angeles  As artists, we have the responsibility to create works that inspire, inform, and address contemporary issues. The climate crisis is such an issue which includes vast perspectives of our species’ future on this planet: things like social justice, health, and even the food we eat. The lecture will show works from my early studies in kapa bark cloth designs in ancient Hawai’i to West African textiles and sculptures, and end with a current project on the Rhine River in Bonn, that seeks to connect textile production with clean waterways. Indigenous knowledge and respect for the earth, is echoed in artworks that responded to the pipeline protests at Standing Rock, Dakotas, USA in 2017. If “water is life”, then how can we continue to pollute our rivers with micro-plastics and other chemicals that are changing our very DNA? Other installations address the phenomenal “Body Burden” we all carry since my generation began to inherit toxins in the fetus. The newest installation, of 12 stacked washing machines filled with running water, will presented to the German public information and ideas about how to prevent household toxins from leaching into our water systems. This brings up issues of “fast fashion”, environmental justice, and consumption practices of the developed world.  "The Museum as resonating space of sustainability" Dr. Claudia Banz, Curator Design Kunstgewerbemuseum der Staatlichen Museen zu Berlin  Museums have a responsibility to position themselves on current societal issues. Through special exhibitions such as Fast Fashion. The Dark Side of Fashion or Food Revolution 5.0, the Kunstgewerbemuseum Berlin addressed key topics on the way to a sustainable consumer society. In parallel, a discursive platform was established with the Design Lab series founded in 2018, to which international designers and research teams are invited to critically examine and negotiate topics ranging from the 'future of work' to 'participatory urban planning' and ‘disposing of electronic waste‘ to 'circular materials'.  Claudia Banz is an art historian, exhibition maker and author and curator of design at the Kunstgewerbemuseum – Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. Previously, she was head of the Department of Art and Design at the Museum für Kunst & Gewerbe Hamburg. She realized numerous exhibitions, outreach formats and fairs at the intersection of design, fashion, craft and art. With projects like Fast Fashion. The Dark Side of Fashion, Food Revolution 5.0. Design for Tomorrow's Society or Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion x Hair x Design she focuses on sustainability, resources, responsibility, consumption and decolonial design. For the Kunstgewerbemuseum, she established the Design Lab series to open the house as a platform and experimental space for multidisciplinary design approaches and critical discourse on societally relevant design issues, most recently "Design Lab #8: Material Loops. Paths to a circular future” Recent publications include: Connecting Afro Futures. Fashion x Hair x Design (2019, Kerber Verlag, Bielefeld), Design Lab #7. Talk to me! Questioning the Collection. (2020); Atmoism. Designed Atmospheres. (2020, Verlag der Kunst, Vienna); Design Lab #8. Material Loops. Paths to a circular future.