Jane Tingley’s rethinking the world’s relationship with plants and other vegetal life
Tingley brings together academics, scientists, Indigenous thinkers, artists, and the community to rethink ways of engaging with “vegetal more-than-human Other.”
With re-situating: more-than-human, Jane Tingley asks audiences to rethink their relationship with the world of plants and other vegetal life – also referred to as the “vegetal more-than-human Other”. From panel discussions to projection mapping poetry nights, Tingley and Dr. Roberta Buiani (ArtSci Salon, University of Toronto) developed the program to foster dialogues across disciplines and world views.
“Art has a tremendous capacity for telling stories about the experiences of others, drawing the viewer into these stories and encouraging the development of empathy,” says Tingley. “Art at the intersection of science and technology is uniquely positioned to tell more-than-human stories as the artists repurpose and reorient the scientific and technological tools of “visualizing” complex, invisible phenomena operating everywhere yet beyond human sensory perception.”
The exhibition featured the works of six Canadian-based artists/artist duos and two international artists/artist duos (established and emerging). Participating artists include AMPD’s Mary Bunch and Joel Ong as well as change-making scholars like Ursula Biemann, Dolleen Tissawii’Ashii Manning, Lindsey French, Grace Grothaus, Susan Morrissette, Rasa Smites & Raitis Smit, Faadhi Fauzi and Ilze (Kavi) Briede.
Re-Situating: more-than-human is a complementary program to Tingley’s group exhibition more-than-human curated in 2022. The new program brings together scientists/technologists, artists, and Indigenous thinkers to discuss, share knowledge, and create together. Through scholarly discussion and hands-on experiences, attendees worked to develop an ethics of inclusion and care that considers the rights of nature through the interdisciplinary lens of Indigenous and non-Indigenous experts in diverse fields.
re-situating: more-than-human was a collaboration between the University of Toronto’s ArtSci Salon and AMPD’s Slolab. Programming occurred at the Fields Institute for Mathematical Sciences in Toronto and the rare Charitable Research Reserve in Cambridge, ON.
For more information on re-situating: more-than-human, visit akimbo.ca.
