Natalie Jeremijenko: The Declaration of Interdependence
June 13 - October 3, 2023
Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade
Australian environmentalist, engineer, and artist Natalie Jeremijenko uses her public platform to advocate for environmental health, biodiversity, and the role of the natural world in human neurological development. Jeremijenko’s work explores design’s potential at the intersection of natural ecologies and human technologies. Her façade installation, the first living artwork in this space, presents the Gardner Museum’s signature flowering nasturtiums within a wider web of interspecies interdependencies found in the urban ecology surrounding the Museum.
Natalie Jeremijenko, Declaration of Interdependence, 2023, installation view.
A large, vertical, white, rectangular piece hangs on the outside of a building. At the top of the piece are the words, "The Declaration of Interdependence" in typed cursive lettering. Above the title is a row of six plants jutting out from the background. Below the title are four more evenly spaced rows of 12 plants each, with blocks of text interspersed across each row. The text and plants continue through the entirety of the piece.
ABOUT THE EXHIBITION
Natalie Jeremijenko: The Declaration of Independence is part of Presence of Plants in Contemporary Art, an exhibition featuring work by contemporary artists who practice with living plant material. The exhibition features established works and site-specific installations from British team Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey; Los Angeles based conceptual artist Piero Golia; Swedish artist Henrik Håkansson; American multi-media artist Rashid Johnson; and Welsh conceptual artist Cerith Wyn Evans in the Hostetter Gallery. A film by Hong-Kong based video artist Zheng Bo is featured in the Fenway Gallery, and works by the remaining artists are located in the Hostetter Gallery.
The Anne H. Fitzpatrick Façade on Evans Way has been dedicated to rotating commissioned site-specific new works since 2012. The fabric scrim serves as an outdoor canvas that extends the gallery space beyond the Museum's interior walls and serves as public art in the city of Boston. The Artist-in-Residence program is directed by Pieranna Cavalchini, Tom and Lisa Blumenthal Curator of Contemporary Art, and is supported by the Barbara Lee Program Fund.
Contemporary art projects at the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum are supported in part by the Barbara Lee Program Fund.
The Museum receives operating support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, which is supported by the state of Massachusetts and the National Endowment for the Arts.
