Art Connects | Art and Climate Crisis

A Conversation with Sanaz Mazinani, Leigh Joseph and Glen MacDonald

Thursday, October 8  |  4:30 PM

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Stay home. Stay safe. Stay connected with our series of online gatherings, Art Connects!

Convened in conjunction with the exhibition Offsite: Sanaz Mazinani, this edition of Art Connects invites artist Sanaz Mazinani, ethnobotanist Leigh Joseph (Styawat) and climate scientist Glen MacDonald to discuss art, ethnoecology, resilience and reciprocity.

In this speculative conversation, the panelists will engage with Mazinani’s work to explore the possible futures of climate change from the contexts of traditional knowledge renewal, health and environment, as well as new forms of environmentalism, which incorporate nature, conservation, human well-being and the city as a nexus for change.

This event will include a brief introduction to Mazinani’s installation All that Melts: notes from the future-past (2018) at Offsite by Diana Freundl, Interim Chief Curator, and will be moderated by Stephanie Bokenfohr, Public Programs Coordinator.

Questions? Submit them during the Zoom presentation using the Q&A function. You can also engage with your fellow attendees and panelists during the event using the Chat function.

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ABOUT THE SPEAKERS

Sanaz Mazinani is an artist, educator and curator. Working across the disciplines of photography, sculpture and large-scale installations, Mazinani creates informational projects that invite a rethinking of how we see, suspending the viewer between observation and knowledge. She holds an undergraduate degree from OCADU and an MFA from Stanford University. Her solo exhibitions have appeared at the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the West Vancouver Museum and the Triton Museum of Art in Santa Clara, California. Her work has also been featured in venues across Canada, as well as in the United States, France, Germany, Guatemala, India, Iran, Switzerland, the United Arab Emirates and the United Kingdom. She currently lives and works between Toronto and San Francisco and is represented by Stephen Bulger Gallery in Toronto, Ab-Anbar Gallery in Tehran and Republic Gallery in Vancouver.

Leigh Joseph (Styawat) is a member of the Skwxwú7mesh (Squamish) First Nation. Her ancestral name is Styawat, and she is an ethnobotanist by training. Joseph completed her Master’s of Science in Ethnobotany at the University of Victoria under the guidance of Dr. Nancy Turner, Dr. Trevor Lantz and members of her Skwxwú7mesh family and community. She is currently completing her PhD studies in ethnobotany at the University of Victoria with Dr. Darcy Mathews and Dr. Alain Cuerrier. Joseph has been working in her home community, the Squamish Nation, to help design and teach ethnobotanical programs. She is currently part of a research team looking at the prevention and management of Type 2 Diabetes in Canadian Indigenous communities through the increased use of traditional medicinal and food plants, along with culturally related exercise. She has also been designing and teaching courses at Quest University in Squamish, BC, on ethnobotany, ethnoecology and local Squamish Nation culture and history. Find out more »

Glen MacDonald is a Distinguished Professor and the UCLA Geography Chair of California and the American West. He holds an A.B. in Geography from UC Berkeley, M.Sc. in Geography from the University of Calgary and a Ph.D. in Botany from the University of Toronto. He works on issues of long-term climatic and environmental change and the impacts of such changes on ecosystems, fire, natural resources and human societies. He has published over 180 peer-reviewed articles and an award-winning book on biogeography. He has also published op-eds in the Los Angeles Times, the San Francisco Chronicle and the Sacramento Bee. MacDonald is a member of the National Academy of Sciences, a Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences, Fellow of the American Geophysical Union, Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science and a Guggenheim Fellow. In 2019, MacDonald was elected a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada.