Floatant
No Longer Available
Completed
2020
Medium
metal, sugarcane, disposable plastic waste, soil, living plants, iron oak gall ink, ink made from shells
Dimensions
76” x 48” x 34”
Description
This sculptural drawing is a living ecosystem that explores what the future of this landscape might look like if we don’t change course. The paper, made from sugarcane and plastic, is shaped over a welded structure embedded into a planter also made from sugarcane and plastic. Pipelines that alternate between metal and paper weave into fantastical configurations in and out of the planter form, and living plants grow around and over these structures, referencing how enmeshed this oil infrastructure is with our landscape and how complicated but necessary the issue of divestment and shifting to other forms of energy is. As Southern Louisiana sinks and sea-levels rise, this sculpture imagines what our entangled biomes might look like down the line if the status quo goes unchanged.
About this Artist
Hannah Chalew
Hannah Chalew is an artist and educator from New Orleans. Her artwork explores what it means to live in a time of global warming with a collective uncertain future, and specifically what that means for those of us living in Southern Louisiana. Her practice explores the historical legacies that got us here to help imagine new possibilities for a livable future. She received her BA from Brandeis University in 2009, and her MFA from the Cranbrook Academy of Art in 2016. Chalew has exhibited widely around New Orleans and has shown around the country at Popps Packing, Hamtramck, MI, Dieu Donné, New York, NY; Asheville Museum of Art, Asheville, NC; Acadiana Center for the Arts, Lafayette, LA; and other venues. Her work is held in the collections of the City of New Orleans and the Ogden Museum of Southern Art. Her work is included in two creative atlases by writer…
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