Our Crowdfunding Groups
Rachel Wilkins is a recent alumni of the University of Texas at Austin, currently living and working in Atlanta, Georgia. She confronts the power structures embedded in and exemplified by human-animal relationships through figural depictions of animals in domestic scenes. Through an unspoken but implicit human presence, she toys with possibilities of animal agency. Whether this agency is derived from, alongside of, or in spite of humans is unclear, causing the animals portrayed to teeter between subject and object.
Recommended Readings:
- Companion Species Manifesto, Donna Haraway
- Dogs That Know When Their Owners Are Coming Home, Rupert Sheldrake
- The Animal That Therefore I Am, Jacques Derrida
For this update, Rachel asked the Oozy Rat Team to reflect on their relationship to the categorization of animals and whether this creates understanding and/or distance between species.
Artist Spotlight: Brooke Johnson
Brooke Johnson is an artist living and working in Austin, Texas. She is expected to graduate in 2019 with a BFA in Studio Art, a BA in Art History, and a Bridging Disciplines Program Certificate in Museum Studies from the University of Texas at Austin. Her installation and image-based art practice utilizes the visual language seen in science and natural history museums to discuss aspects of the natural world ranging from the sublime to the banal. Brooke is a member of MASS Gallery and UT's student-led curatorial collective, Center Space Project. She has exhibited and performed in multiple art spaces within Austin, both individually and as a member of Fleet Performance Collective.
Tín Rodriguez is a Biology alumni from the University of Texas at Austin with a focus on zoology. Tín is a volunteer at the University of Massachusetts entomology department, and is a member of Fleet Performance Collective with Brooke Johnson. They are also the co-editor and co-founder of the art, comics, and literature magazine The Deadly Toxin with their friend and collaborator Seth Murchison.
Tín uses their background in the field of biology to explore how humans relate to nature, specifically animals. Utilizing performance, taxidermy, and new media techniques they explore how the human world parallels the non-human, animal world— rife with similarities, but also with irreconcilable differences. Despite being animals themselves, humans are afforded the privileged position of spectators to and controllers of much of the natural world, a role Tín investigates in the presentation of their work.
Recommended Content: Why Look At Animals? - John Berger Why Look At Fish? - Ginger Strand Oology and Ralph's Talking Eggs - Carrol Henderson The Monumental Impulse-- George L. Hersey Men, Women, and Chain Saws- Carol J. Clover Pioneers of the Human Adventure-- François Boucq Of Natural History- Sleepytime Gorilla Museum Isamu Noguchi Basil Wolverton
Each week we will be covering one or two artists in the show to shed light on their practice. If you are interested in the show and want to support us, there’s still time to donate! If you are unable to donate, sharing the fundraiser with people in your community is also helpful. A big THANK YOU to those who have already contributed to making our show possible!
Artist Spotlight: Seth Murchison
Seth Murchison holds a BFA in studio art from the University of Texas. He organizes his interests in biology, ecology, alchemy, animation, and art history through psuedo-abstract paintings and free associative multimedia sculpture. Often modest in scale, Seth’s paintings span a wide vocabulary always with an eye towards surface and enigma. Despite their variety, when viewed together the paintings become taxonomical or encyclopedic, grouped by some hazy or obscured principle.
Recommended viewing:
Thomas Nozkowski, Angela heisch, Cornelius Norbertus Gijsbrecht, Giuseppe Arcimboldo, John Newman- drawings, Richard Hull, Carrie Moyer, Gareth Sansom, Heraclitus's Unswept Floor
For our upcoming exhibition we will cover one of the artists to shed light on their practice. If you are interested in the show and want to support us, there’s still time to donate! If you are unable to donate, sharing the fundraiser with people in your community is also helpful. A big THANK YOU to those who have already contributed to making our show possible!
Artist Spotlight: Sasha Fishman
Sasha graduated from UT Austin with a BFA in Studio art in the Spring of 2018. She has been exploring raw materials such as tree resin & animal meat, and their processed counterparts like plastic and lab-grown meat. Through researching sanitation, trash/recycling, and synthetic biology to investigate sustainable and harmful matter, Sasha's practice investigates the organic in relation to the synthetic and our desire to preserve & synthesize entropic matter.
Sasha’s recommended readings/movies/resources:
Synthetic Aesthetics by Alexandra Daisy Ginsberg, Alistair Elfick, Drew Endy, and Jane Calvert
Blade Runner 2049
eXistenZ
Annihilation
She Has Her Mothers Laugh by Carl Zimmer
Poison Control - Radiolab
On Ketamine and Added Value by Dena Yago
Explained (Netflix) - Designer Babies episode
Plastic China
Your $10 donation will go towards purchasing printed promotional materials such as postcards and posters. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card.
Your $25 donation will cover the cost of one of Rachel Wilkin's 3D printed gypsum sculptures. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and a digital copy of 1/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $50 donation will help buy photography supplies for Brooke Johnson including infrared film and PhotoTex paper. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 2/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $75 donation will go towards buying installation materials for tín Rodriguez including AstroTurf and artificial landscaping decorations! Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 3/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $100 donation will help us purchase sculpture materials for Sasha Fishman including biomaterials and resin casting supplies. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 4/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $150 donation will cover the entire cost of a train set that will be transformed into a crawling insect by Seth Murchison. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 5/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $250 donation will cover the cost of one round-trip flight for an exhibiting artist included in the show. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 6/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $500 donation will allow us to host a special programming event in the gallery such as an artist talk or a collaborative soundscape. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card and digital copies of 7/8 artist-designed ecological trading cards!
Your $1000 donation will fund a special programming event featuring researchers involved in the natural sciences and a possible workshop for students. Along with your donation, you will receive a handwritten thank you card, a complete PRINTED deck of 8 artist-designed ecological trading cards, and an additional (ultra rare) custom-designed ecological trading card featuring your face artfully Photoshopped onto your selected biological body!
