Join us on April 27 for an introduction to our publication Odorant Peatlands / Turberas Olorosas: an edition representing the wetlands and peatlands of Karokynká, Tierra del Fuego; Bog Hollow, New York; Bogerudmyra, Oslo; and Minjerribah, Quandamooka Country. The edition includes four scent vials representing each location as well as a booklet with texts by Camila Marambio and…
Opening Friday March 22, 2024, 6 – 9pm Open March 22 – May 12 With exhibited works by Ingrid Bjørnaali, Fabian Lanzmaier & Maria Simmons, Ensayos, Søssa Jørgensen, Concordia Klar, Enn Kärmas & Villu Järmut, Kristina Norman, Randi Nygård and Laura Põld, in addition to a discursive program with a range of Peatland workers from…
Imagine something you know very well, like the trousers you put your legs into this morning. Imagine encountering them in an impossible form. The scale is similar to what you can imagine that your waist might fit into, but the legs are twisted, entwined and knotted. You want to put on your shirt or jacket,…
I contributed writing and images to Turba Tol Hol-Hol the book, which is available now. Edited by Carla Macchiavello Cornejo and Camila Marambio Turba Tol Hol-Hol-the book is a compendium of the extensive eco-cultural thought of Latin American and Caribbean authors who center their attention on struggles, ways of doing, and experiences of care from the…
October 4, 2023 at 5PM in the Perception Lab (VAB 1016) at SUNY Purchase in Purchase, NY Camila Marambio and Christy Gast of Ensayos will share their perspectives, expertise, and current work, and give insight into contemporary issues in their work with Ensayos.
Camila Marambio and Christy Gast of Ensayos presented a seminar called “Turba de Mangle” at the ICA in Miami for their Swamp Ecologies seminar. The seminar drew on the creative practices and research methodologies related to Ensayo #6 on peatland conservation. We spent three afternoons diving deep into tropical mangrove peatland ecology and sharing writing, mapping and movement methodologies…
Ensayos is proud to be an Anonymous Was A Woman (AWAW) Environmental Art Grants recipient, and excited to continue the work on Humedales Olorosos | Odorant Wetlands, which aims to create a scent-based publication that expands access to the smell of peatlands—offering a somatic immersion into their carbon-capturing depths. The project builds on the Gift of Scent that…
When: June 29–30, 1-5 pmWhere: Wassac Project / Maxon Mills, 37 Furnace Bank Road, Wassaic, NY 12592Who: Adults and teensCost: FreeRegister Here Fens & Friends is a series of workshops about art and ecology inspired by The Venice Agreement’s ethics of local wetland management. Fens & Friends combines walks with scientists and ecologists with hands-on…
Exhibition at the Deering Estate, Miami, FL April 15 – June 11, 2023 The Deering Estate’s Spring Contemporary exhibition Closer to Nature explores concepts of queer ecofeminism: intersections of queer theory, feminism, race, science, and nature. The exhibition shares works that deal with experiences of looking for/finding oneself in nature and expanding the environments for…
The Sappho Room hosted a residency with Ensayos collaborator Agustine Zegers of Agar Olfactory to develop a scented insert on paper produced with water, Sphagnum moss and phragmites from New York peatlands. The insert will be included in the forthcoming publication Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol the book.
Four Dozen Artists Explore Intimate Queer Relationships in Exhibitions at Two New York City Galleries Lehman College Art Gallery, February 14 – April 28, 2023 La MaMa Galleria, February 18 – April 6, 2023 The works featured in this two-part exhibition celebrating queer carnality,camaraderie, and passion—are not rigid interpretations of our existence culled from the heterosexual imagination, but…
Dear friends, Please join me in supporting Shandaken Projects’ on their 10th anniversary! I’m grateful for my residency with Shandaken, which opened new pathways in my thinking and my work. I donated a work to their benefit exhibition, opening with a ticketed reception on November 16, and on view through December 14. I hope you…
A Collection of Writings / by Jonas Mekas and His Friends EDITED BY: Charity Coleman PRINTED BY: Calipso Press PUBLISHED IN ASSOCIATION WITH: Center for Book Arts Risograph printed by Calipso Press. Saddle stitch (staple bound). Cover letterpress printed by Anne Muntges. Contributors: Jonas Mekas, Gabriela Galvan, Christy Gast, Luba Drozd, Nathlie Provosty, Lynne Tillman,…
A collection of writings from Jonas Mekas and his friends. Reading on October 8 from 3-5pm at Mana Contemporary on the 5th floor, book will be available. Accessibility info: Mana Contemporary has a wheelchair accessible entrance on the west side of the building. Service dogs are welcome. There are all gender bathrooms and ADA compliant…
I’ll be presenting on solo and collective work as part of this seminar hosted by the Institute for Post Natural Studies and the Institute for Queer Ecology during the fall of 2022. The speakers in this seminar series will consider the influence of mutability and mutualism on their work in the fields of visual art,…
Jarrett Earnest’s essay about my early work with Cloud Seeding Circus is out now in the journal public: Vol. 33 Issue 65, which is also available as a gorgeous hardcover book entitled Devotion: Today’s Future Becomes Tomorrow’s Archive.
Works that are a part of Ensayos ongoing inquiry into peatland protection can currently be experienced at University of Queensland Art Museum (Brisbane, Australia) as a part of a group exhibition Oceanic Thinking (19 July–17 December 2022). Ensayos works, including posters, scents and audio are exhibited alongside artworks by Amrita Hepi, Madison Bycroft and Angela Tiatia.…
Goldenrod Transect (2021) 15-minute performance commissioned for Cecilia Vicuña’s “Insectageddon” event on the High Line in New York, NY in September of 2021. The sculpture is canvas, latex paint, wool and Poly-fil, 15’x6’x8”.
Dr. Lisa Blackmore, Senior Lecturer in Art History and Interdisciplinary Studies, Director of Global Studies & Latin American Studies, School of Philosophy and Art History/Interdisciplinary Studies Centre at Essex University has just published an article in the Journal of Latin American Cultural Studies that considers Camila Marambio’s and my early Ensayos projects about beavers in Tierra del Fuego. The PDF…
Olga Korper Gallery is pleased to present The Formless Body, curated by Jarrett Earnest. On view from June 4-July 2, 2022, the exhibition invites artists, poets, scholars, and archivists to reflect on the process and materiality of archival work, and their dedication to the stories that archives enable. The focus was on the artistic, intellectual, emotional…
I spent most of March and April of 2022 in Venice, Italy weaving a 60-square-meter carpet of living Sphagnum as part of Ensayos’ contribution to “Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol” for the Chilean Pavilion of the 59th Venice Biennale. Read an account of the residency and project here.
Three-week residency at Greifswald Mire Centre in preparation for Ensayos’ contribution to “Turba Tol Hol-Hol Tol,” the Chilean Pavilion at the 59th Venice Beinnale.
Video presentation for MEANDER presents: Ecological Thinking and Artistic Practice By Caitlin Franzmann, Christy Gast and Randi Nygård Ensayos is a collective research practice initiated on the archipelago of Tierra del Fuego in 2010. Ensayos’ issue-based research methodologies arise from archipelagic delirium and are characterized by their sensuality and precariousness. In partnership with the existing ecological…
Goldenrod Transect performance at 4PM Saturday, September 25, 2021 from 3 – 6pm; film screenings at 3pm and 8pm LOCATION Various locations on and around the High Line Insectageddon is a collective performance and call to action presented by artist and poet Cecilia Vicuña. The event addresses the devastating loss of insect populations around the…
Loss and Wonder at the World’s End by anthropologist and writer Laura A. Ogden has been published by Duke University Press. In a chapter on “Speculative Wonder,” Dr. Ogden discusses collaborating with Ensayos on Ensayo #2: Asunto Castor. From Duke University Press: In Loss and Wonder at the World’s End, Laura A. Ogden brings together animals, people, and things—from beavers,…
Who Owns the Earth?This group show proposes fresh paradigms of land ownership and art making in contrast to the rugged individualism of much early Land Art. by Louis BurySeptember 8, 2021
Roots will take place at Granja Paraiso, a small herbal garden, farm and chicken coop where artist and curator Katiushka Melo Green resides, located in Germantown, NY. PRESS RELEASE + INFO ROOTS The exhibition, Roots, will feature more than 20 artists from around the world working in different mediums including on-site installation and performance art.…
Upstate Art Weekend 2021 Friday August 27-Sunday August 29, 11 AM to 6 PM Christy Gast and Rachel Owens are sculptors who both recently moved to Victorian houses two doors down from each other at the center of Amenia, NY. For UAW, they will team up to present open studios and group shows on their…
Para que haya fiesta tiene que danzar el bosque, un proyecto comisariado por Michy Marxuach en colaboración con múltiples voces transhemisféricas. Del 2 de julio hasta el 26 de septiembre de 2021 Esta exposición contiene una capa sonora de múltiples piezas a las que puede accederse a través de los móviles. Recomendamos que la visiten con…
Owning Earth at Unison Arts is a new outdoor exhibition in the Unison Arts Sculpture Garden. Duration: June 26, 2021 – June 1, 2022 Free and Open to the Public, Dawn to Dusk Daily Curator: Tal Beery Assistant Curator: Erin Lee Antonak Unison Arts Sculpture Committee Members: Matthew Friday • Sarah Warren • Eliza…
New Museum artists in residence Ensayos premiered Act I of their experimental ecofeminist drama Cucú and Her Fishes on September 1, 2020 at 6AM, 2PM, and 8PM EST. The 2PM screening was followed by a Q&A with Ensayos cast members.
Treetopping (Blake’s Hitch, Ladder Tie, Limb Loop). Denim, cotton, poly-fil, installed in a red oak tree with the assistance of arborist Dylan Walsh at Unison Arts in New Paltz, NY as part of the exhibition Owning Earth. The Arborist, a short story for Unison’s audio guide. An arborist is standing at the base of a…
New Museum artists in residence Ensayos premiered Act I of their experimental ecofeminist drama Cucú and Her Fishes on September 1, 2020 at 6AM, 2PM, and 8PM EST. The 2PM screening was followed by a Q&A with Ensayos cast members. The play begins at a country house partially submerged in a peat bog. As a group of…
As part of our residency at the New Museum, Ensayos has produced a listening series entitled Hydrofeminist METitations with episodes focusing on our work in Norway, Australia and the Americas.
As part of our digital residency at the New Museum, Ensayos produced three podcasts drawing from our transdisciplinary work. The podcasts focus on waters in different archipelagic regions, including Tierra del Fuego, New York, eastern Australia, and Norway. Journalist Catalina Jaramillo guides listeners through four acts that mirror different aspects of Ensayos’ field research: fiction, fact, somatic…
New Museum’s Department of Education and Public Engagement presents “Ensayos: Passages,” its first online artist residency, foregrounding the department’s year-round commitment to contemporary art and pedagogy centered on personal and social growth. The international collective Ensayos (translated as “inquiries,” “essays,” or “rehearsals” in English) will develop and present new work through this digital residency. Ensayos is…
Sappho Room is a poetry residency at my home in Amenia, New York, founded in 2018. Residents have included Candystore, Felecia Chizuko Carlisle, Charity Coleman, HH Hiaasen, Camila Marambio, Margaret Namulyanga, Paloma Barhaugh-Bordas, Aurelia Rohrbacker and Agustine Zegers. ———- The “Friends, Lovers and Friends and Lovers of Friends and Lovers” exhibition at the Sappho Room…
Workroom at Swale House, Governors Island, NYC Christy Gast brings her Mobile Tinctorium to Governor’s Island to extract color from goldenrod (solidago sp.), a native plant in the aster family. Gast’s process includes transferring color from plants to fibers (foraging, dyeing, felting), sculptural installations, and exploratory, poetic, performative and collaborative actions. She will work on-site…
It’s Necessary to Talk about Trees Polly Apfelbaum, Osi Audu, Julia Bland, Mary Carlson, Nicole Cherubini, Taylor Davis, Christy Gast, Tamara Gonzales, Zach Hadlock, Padma Rajendran, Halsey Rodman, Em Rooney, Arlene Shechet, Elise Siegel, Claudio Sebastian Stalling, Josh Tonsfeldt River Valley Arts Collective is pleased to present It’s Necessary to Talk about Trees, an exhibition…
Exhibition at CARPARK, Milani Gallery, Brisbane, Australia Opening: Saturday, 7 September 2019, 5-7pm Closing performance: Saturday, 28 September 2019, 2pm-4pm Taking a liquid, archipelagic approach to loosening the knot of the mystifying ways in which things come to matter, Everything is possibly an oracle unfolds the imaginative seeing techniques, languages and sensing practices that Caitlin…
Friday April 12, 2019 from 12-1pm at MoMAZoZo’s Lyric Theater. Visiting artist Christy Gast will host a Cari-blow-blow “singing practice.” Gast is a sculptor, performer and video-maker who incorporates singing (with others when possible) into her art making practice. Inspired by composer Pauline Olivaros’ deep listening exercises, we will listen to the wind and make an improvisational…
Visiting Artist Lecture at University of Rochester: 4 PM, March 5, 2019 in the Gowen Room Printmaking Workshop: 9:40 AM – 12:20 PM in Sage Art Center Printmaking Area, open to the public Supported by the UCIS Cluster Arts at UR and the Department of Art & Art History
This series of sculptures proposes poetic and tensile entanglements between human and tree limbs, with textiles as the intermediary. Behind this work is a desire to imagine and queer interspecies intimacy. Research includes a tree climbing course at Cornell University and studies of the tensile properties of arborists’ ropes and knots.
Creative Time Summit: COASTAL CURRICULUM BREAKOUT SESSION November 3, 2018, Museum Park Baywalk, Pérez Art Museum Miami (PAMM), 1103 Biscayne Blvd Ensayo #4 (Coastal Curriculum) research pods exist in Tierra del Fuego, Northern Norway, New York, and Australia. The artists, scientists, and scholars involved in each pod meet at irregular intervals to cross-pollinate and share…
Date: April 27, 2018 Time: 2:-00-4:00 PM (Friday) Location: VISTA Collaboratory, Carlson Library, University of Rochester Beaver Diasporas: Thinking with Lewis Henry Morgan Friday, April 27, 2018 2:00-4:00 PM VISTA Collaboratory, Carlson Library Computer Studies Building 160 Trustee Road River Campus A Multimedia Presentation: Laura Ogden, Associate Professor of Anthropology, Dartmouth College Christy Gast, Visual…
The inaugural issue of the River Rail includes my essay Admiralty Sound Expedition Report with an afterword by Dr. Bárbara Saavedra, plus essays and poetry from Ensayos collaborators Camila Marambio (The Go-Between) and Cecilia Vicuña (Con Cón, Chile, 1966 – 2006).
In the inaugural issue of the River Rail there are articles by four Ensayistas: Christy Gast and Bárbara Saavedra, Admiralty Sound Expedition Report by with an afterword by Dr. Bárbara Saavedra, Camila Marambio, The Go-Between, and Cecilia Vicuña Con Cón, Chile, 1966 – 2006. ___________ Note from the Publisher: The River Rail is a bi-annual, free publication that focuses solely on…