Interconnected

Opening Saturday, March 1st, 6-9pm

Interconnected: Clare Hirn, Laura Klopfenstein, Edwin Ramirez

As our natural world continues to be ravaged by natural disasters, intensified beyond previous imagination by the actions of humans, we are reminded over and over just how our collective decisions impact the earth. Although politicians might try to negate the science of climate change, our natural environment is deeply and irrevocably connected to humans. The artists in Interconnected are considering our connection to nature on a more elemental level: we are bound together by the calcium that comprises both human teeth and coral reefs. We are linked by the sprawling web patterns that make up mycelial networks connecting and feeding trees underground and the systems of blood vessels and nerve fibers that carry nutrients and information throughout our human body. We are yoked by the same fate, one of death and decay that will take the trees, the reefs, the animals of the earth and our bodies and scatter us back as the elemental puzzle pieces that comprise our planet. From dust, to elements, to new life, we are part of the circle. We are Interconnected. This exhibition brings together the works of three artists, Clare Hirn, Laura Klopfenstein and Edwin Ramirez, each considering the ways in which we are part of our natural environment and how the natural environment is a part of us. 

Klopfenstein created her Deep Water series in response to the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010. The oil rig explosion, which claimed the lives of eleven oil rig workers, sent 135 million gallons of crude oil into the ocean and took 87 days to close the fissure. The environmental impact was widespread, devastating wildlife and delicate ocean and wetland ecosystems, and crippling the livelihoods of the people who depend on the Gulf economy. At first glance, her paintings look serene, like portraits of coral floating in space, almost posing; but on closer inspection, the coral holds human teeth, some draped like pearls or a necklace of precious stones. The same calcium that makes up our teeth and bones, comprise the rigid structure of the coral, the literal backbone of two unique, complex organisms. Reefs are also extremely delicate, dying or “bleaching” as they react to warming or contaminated water. The human teeth in Klopfenstein’s paintings suggest a warning for the future, a stand-in perhaps for human bones. We neglect to see our impact on the planet at the steep cost of our own lives.

Clare Hirn’s Weathered series began as experiments. The artist draws on unprimed, unstretched canvas with charcoal and other drawing materials and wraps them around trees, lodges them under rocks or stakes them to the ground on her family-owned property in rural Kentucky. Over the following three to twelve months while the canvases are in situ, Hirn returns to these sites to work on the canvases, adding marks of her own in response to those that time and the elements had left. Hirn might notice how the landscape changed with each visit. Previous drawings might be muted by mildew or even erased by wind and rain or, with the changing seasons, a ray of light might now be visible where it was absent before. Upon returning to the studio with the canvases, Hirn adds color and details, creating balanced compositions from her collaborations with nature.

Edwin Ramirez’s work is literally woven from the materials he finds in nature. The artist’s wearable, fashion forward art works are explorations based on his deep love for the natural world and his experiences within it. The artist combines collected natural materials like lichen, seed pods, dried flowers, fruit and leaves, human teeth, agate and mica, deer fur and coyote bones with synthetic materials like lacquer, acrylic paint, PLA and sculpted bioplastic polymers. The combination of the naturally fragile and slowly disintegrating materials combined with the manmade, long-lasting materials creates a beautiful tension, mimicking the stasis of our everyday lives where we, as humans, are both a part of and apart from the natural webs of life. 

Couchpotato would like to thank Katy Delahanty and the Portland Museum for lending us a pedestal, Aaron Kicklighter for lending us his ladder, and Deanna Taylor and Melanie Tapp for their timely installation assistance. Our community makes Couchpotato possible and we are so grateful to you all.