Interdisciplinary art installation displays symbiosis of people, nature
Design Media Art student Maru García's work, “Vivarium: A Place of Life” at the Art|Sci Center
The UCLA Art|Sci Center is dedicated to facilitating the infinite potential of collaborations between contemporary artists and cutting edge scientists. Founded in 2005 in cooperation with the California NanoSystems Institute (CNSI), the UCLA School of the Arts and Architecture, and the Department of Design Media Arts, the center has organized over 200 events to date; including lectures, workshops, symposia, mixers, and screenings.
"The Art | Sci Center gallery replaced paintings and sculptures with mosses, plants and mushrooms Thursday.
The UCLA gallery housed “Vivarium: A Place of Life,” an art installation by graduate design media arts student Maru García. It consisted of two biospheres – one filled with plants and other natural organisms, such as mushrooms and mosses, and another featuring a performer interacting with the ecosystem, demonstrating activities such as drinking water and eating seeds. García said she wanted visitors at the exhibition to gauge the interconnectedness of humanity and the natural world as they walk through.
“I hope (the audience) can start thinking about our place in nature and how we can relate to it in a better way,” García said. “I have this interest in how we can be a part of nature instead of being opposites from nature.”
Unlike most other art installations, the mediums used in “Vivarium” consisted entirely of living organisms. García used biota like mushrooms and mosses to create artificial ecosystems that could continue to develop after their initial creation. The self-sustainability of the ecosystems was an important component of the installation’s message, which emphasizes the world’s network of plants and animals and the continuous flow of matter in and out of ecosystems, she said."— Deirdre Klena, May 10, 2018
This post is an excerpt, read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
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