Borgeson Artist in Residence 2017

Nancy McCormack

Out of Nature
De Pree Gallery, Hope College, Holland, Michigan
August 24–September 22, 2017

Exhibition Statement

In this exhibition of prints, paintings and sculpture, there is a line drawn between artifact, nature, pattern and constructed culture.

This body of work was initially inspired by a recent study published by University of California, Santa Barbara and Columbia University where a connection was drawn between climate change, the drought that plagued Syria and the onset of the Syrian civil war. It is noted that in a country such as Syria, marked by an unstable government, unsustainable agriculture and irresponsible environmental policies, the drought had a catalytic effect and directly contributed to the political unrest and now a refugee crisis.

This study stands as proof of the connection between disrupted natural patterns and cultural conflict. This exhibition asks what would we leave behind if the same were to happen in our own community. Sadly this has already started to happen with the droughts, hurricanes, wildfires, etc.

This work imagines our daily lives full of brightly colored devices, plastic containers and insignificant identifiers all to be objectively analyzed years later, objects taken out of context and reimagined into a new narrative — patterns suddenly revealed and our neglect for nature seeming so obvious in hindsight.