Botanical Entanglements: An Ecological Art Exhibit
UC Botanical Garden
March 12-18| 10 am – 4 pm daily | Free with Admission
Botanical Entanglements is a site-specific ecological art exhibition that explores embedded histories in plant form. With this work, artist and ecologist Dr. Juniper Harrower is interested in the ethnobotanical histories and localized ecologies of specific plants at the Botanical Garden, and in her Berkeley neighborhood.
Learn more at https://events.berkeley.edu/index.php/calendar/sn/bot.html?event_ID=145136&date=2022-03-18&filter=Event%20Type&filtersel=.
Botanical Entanglements: Performance + Art + Science Talk: Art exhibition closing event (in person)
Special Event | March 18 | 5-7 p.m. | UC Botanical Garden
Join us for a special performance and closing event for Botanical Entanglements: a site-specific ecological art exhibition that explores embedded histories in plant form (exhibit open March 12-18). With this work, artist and ecologist Dr. Juniper Harrower explores the ethnobotanical histories and localized ecologies of specific plants at the Botanical Garden and in her Berkeley neighborhood. She asks, how have colonialism and development fractured these human-plant relationships? What are the roles that plants play in constructing our identities and how do we in turn influence their ways of living?
This in-person event, held in the Garden’s historic Julia Morgan Hall, includes an introduction by Dr. Benjamin Blonder, an artist talk by Harrower, and a featured concert performance by South Side Symphony, presenting the world premiere of a cello concerto composed by internationally-recognized composer Marcus Norris. The concerto explores themes of resilience in human communities via inspiration from plants.
This exhibition and performance is supported by the National Science Foundation, as part of a project on biological resilience and resistance. The work is part of a collaboration with UC Berkeley faculty Dr. Benjamin Blonder’s plant ecology lab.
Bios:
Dr. Juniper Harrower
Specializing in multispecies entanglements under climate change, Dr. Juniper Harrower works at the intersection of ecology and art. She uses rigorous science methods and a multimedia art practice to consider the ways that humans influence ecosystems while seeking solutions that protect at-risk species and promote environmental justice. A founding member of the international arts collective The Algae Society Bioart Design Lab, she also founded and directs the environmental arts production company SymbioArtlab which contracts with national parks, universities, and the private sector. Her work has been exhibited nationally and internationally and her research and artistic products have received wide exposure in popular media such as National Geographic, the associated press, podcasts, music festivals and conferences. Harrower is the director of the art+science initiative at UC Santa Cruz where she also teaches art.
https://www.juniperharrower.com/
Marcus Norris
Marcus Norris’ first foray into making music came in the form of producing rap beats on pirated software, installed on a Windows 98 computer that he “Macgyvered” together from spare parts while laying on the floor of his childhood bedroom. Though he came to composing concert music later, he transferred that same imagination and ingenuity to writing music of all kinds. Marcus has been called a “New Musical Talent in our Midst” by Chicago’s N’digo Magazine, and has made a number of achievements, including being selected as an inaugural Composer-in-Residence for the Chicago Philharmonic from 2021-24, being awarded the prestigious Cota-Robles fellowship for pursuing his PhD in Music Composition at UCLA, and being chosen in 2020 for the LA Philharmonic’s National Composers Intensive. His violin concerto “GLORY” opened to three sold-out performances when premiered by the Jackson Symphony Orchestra in 2019, and then was subsequently performed in Guangzhou, China later that year. His Dance Suite “I Tried So Hard for You” premiered in Havana in 2018, closely following the Russian String Orchestra premiere of “My Idols Are Dead” in Moscow.
In 2020 Marcus founded South Side Symphony, which recently recorded the original score for the feature film “Honk for Jesus. Save Your Soul.” starring Regina Hall & Sterling K. Brown, written and directed by Adamma Ebo. South Side Symphony remains the only orchestra that would perform “Back That Thang Up” on the same concert as Beethoven.
For more information on Marcus and his music visit http://www.MarcusNorris.com