Arts and sustainability

The Nuovi Arrivi [New Arrivals] exhibition synthesizes research and artistic production conducted by Jeannie Simms over seven years in Calabria Italy, exploring the intersections of economic injustice, community, identity and ecology. On display in the Coulter Gallery are a cyanotype textile, as big as a tree that was exposed by sunlight along the coast of the Strait of Messina, a large batik, a short single-channel video, and a kinetic sculpture. The cyanotype was created in collaboration with poet Karamo Barrow, and Hawa Sima, both of whom emigrated separately to Italy from The Gambia. The textiles include phrases from Barrow that refer to open air travel with descriptions of the natural world and economic power structures. The short video Nuovi Arrivi incorporates fragments of flora, fauna and tales of migratory movement and exchange in Reggio Calabria, an area simmering with environmental, economic and cultural change. Artificial aliveness is a kinetic installation of rising and falling water inside plastic bottles gleaned from ocean shores and waste piles around the world.

This exhibition is related to Simms' forthcoming film, Vivo Qui, a series of moving image portraits of new residents, long-term residents and care workers in Reggio Calabria, Italy who reflect on their lives, communities and talk back to historic sites and monuments with wishes, statements and demands. Simms will work on the project during the Holt Visiting Artist Program.