The Roswell Museum
proudly presents 

Regenerative Actions
A Group Show Featuring Artwork by 6 Artists, Curated by Aaron Wilder



Tintawi Charaka Kaigzaibiher
Ashere for Praying to Osun (detail), 2024
Organic Materials, Beads
Photograph by Faridah Ndaiye, Courtesy of the Artist

April 20-October 13, 2024

Opening Reception: Friday, April 19, 5:30-7 p.m.
 

The Roswell Museum

Russell Vernon Hunter Gallery

1011 North Richardson Avenue

Roswell, NM 88201

A regenerative action is a gesture, movement, or effort to achieve a reversal of human-led environmental destruction through adaptive strategies of regrowth and revival engendering a renewed existence of all species on this planet. The exhibition Regenerative Actions is the first of its kind collaboration between the Roswell Museum and the Santa Fe Art Institute (SFAI). The exhibition will take place at the Roswell Museum and will include the work of regionally based SFAI resident artists Paula Castillo, Esha Chiocchio, Gabriel Fries-Briggs, Tintawi Charaka Kaigziabiher, the Submergence Collective, and Jessica Zeglin.

For the past several years, SFAI has selected an annual theme of critical importance and has invited residents whose work intersects with that theme. The 2023 theme was “Changing Climate” prompted by the question “Do we believe we can curb carbon impacts or even reverse the current carbon trajectory and subsequent climate devastation?”. Invited 2023 residents were pursuing projects connecting human to environmental health, imagining a future with reduced or eliminated reliance on fossil fuels, affirming the rights on all species, and/or supporting the land stewardship and community building inherent in Indigenous traditions. In a Mellon Foundation-supported Massachusetts Museum of Contemporary Art Foundation report, Alexander Cavaluzzo identifies the origin of the term regeneration in biology as “the process by which damaged or missing cells, tissues, and organs are restored to full functionality in plants and animals.”

For those familiar with the term “sustainability,” but not “regeneration,” the distinction lies in how each is pursued. Those focused on sustainability are essentially treating the symptoms of climate change whereas those focused on regenerative actions seek to reverse human-caused environmental devastation while also pursuing alignment between the needs of humans with the needs of all other species. One of the major perspective shifts advocated for by regeneration activists is the recognition that Indigenous communities around the world have regeneration built into their cultural traditions. As such, these communities need to be listened to, learned from, revered for their wisdom, and protected from extinction. Regenerative actions need to be both addressing place-specific challenges while also cognizant of how endeavors at the local level relate to and impact the global ecosystem.

The exhibition Regenerative Actions spans from Earth Day 2024 to the fifth annual Roswell Science & Art Festival on Saturday October 12, 2024. Earth Day was first celebrated in the United States on April 22, 1970. Earth Day was conceived as a consciousness-raising event about the importance of protecting the fragile ecosystem we all depend upon. The first Earth Day saw twenty million people across the US taking part in what many estimate to continue to be the largest single-day protest in our nation’s history. In what has become an annual call to action to address pressing environmental challenges, Earth Day since its inception has included countless activities ranging from environmental disaster cleanups to recycling programs to tree planting to pressuring elected representatives to pass stronger environmental protection laws. A hallmark of Earth Day has been its inclusivity embracing every volunteer-organized action from the smaller and less confrontational (such as litter removal from a neighborhood street) to the larger and openly confrontational (such as gas mask-wearing protestors uniting to block freeways).

As time progressed, Earth Day became more global in scope and adapted to addressing the most recent environmental challenges. As such, Earth Day has promoted a range of actions to protect our fragile ecosystem through themed events, fundraising and lobbying for environmental protection initiatives, and ever increasing the sound of the alarm as the impacts of climate change have accelerated. Despite all these initiatives by Earth Day and other organizations world-wide, we as human beings collectively (based on our consumption, waste, and overall inability to convince ourselves and policymakers to drastically change in order to preserve a future for our planet) have created a scenario where we are very close to a point of no return when it comes to climate change.

In April 2022, the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (UNIPCC) issued a nearly three thousand page report (written by hundreds of scientists and agreed by 195 governments) on the urgent action needed to Mitigate Climate Change. Reflecting on the impact of this report, António Guterres, United Nations Secretary General (UNSG), indicated in an online press statement on April 4, 2022 (news.un.org) that “harmful carbon emissions from 2010-2019 have never been higher in human history, [and it] is proof that the world is on a fast track to disaster.” The report ultimately states our planet will be uninhabitable over the course of the next century unless all governments globally not only commit to, but actually achieve significant reductions in fossil fuel usage and significant increases in alternative fuel production and consumption/distribution, electricity access, energy efficiency, and renewable energy production and consumption/distribution. The results of not taking considerable new climate mitigation actions, according to Guterres, would very soon amount to coastal cities being under water as well as “unprecedented heatwaves, terrifying storms, widespread water shortages and the extinction of a million species of plants and animals.” Will human beings who are mostly to blame (collectively) be a species that goes extinct in the next one hundred years as a result of climate change? That will likely depend on how we respond to our current crisis. The exhibition Regenerative Actions celebrates a number of artistic projects providing models for a better future.

Paula Castillo, based in Belén, explores how notions of home apply to New Mexico and the surrounding region and uses allegorical narratives to expose the historical and ecological origins of contemporary issues and to identify solutions. Santa Fe-based visual artist Esha Chiocchio is a National Geographic Explorer who uses her combined knowledge of visual storytelling, anthropology, and sustainable communities to weave narratives about land, culture, and climate solutions. Gabriel Fries-Briggs is a designer and architectural educator whose work explores connections between architecture, the environment, labor, land, and technology. Tintawi Charaka Kaigziabiher is an Olorisa of Yemoja (a Priest in the Lukumi tradition) working as an interdisciplinary artist making ceremonial vessels, instruments, and sacred talismans out of organic materials like gourds and adorned with beads, clay, and other materials for the purpose of individual and communal healing. The Submergence Collective is an art and ecology research collaboration that began in 2019. Comprised of Kaitlin Bryson, Hollis Moore, Mariko Oyama Thomas, and Rachel Zollinger, the Submergence Collective employs education, interactive workshops, performance, visual art, and writing to imagine and facilitate the realization of a more balanced future where the goals and actions of humans are aligned with the thriving of all other species. Jess Zeglin creates research- and process-based drawings and installations examining intimate patterns of intersection between social and ecological systems. 

Marking the close of the Regenerative Actions exhibition is the fifth annual Roswell Science & Art Festival organized by the Roswell Museum. The free community event is 10:00am-4:00pm on Saturday October 12 and will feature a number of educational and interactive activities relating to the intersections of science and art. More detailed information about the festival will be posted on roswellmuseum.org as we get closer to October 12th.

This exhibition was only possible due to the creativity, ingenuity, and generosity of the participating artists. May you continue to challenge and inspire us all to leave this world better than we found it, both individually and collectively! This exhibition is one small endeavor contributing to a number of other Roswell Museum initiatives related to its values of Connectedness and Stewardship:

• We concentrate on building bridges to and between the communities we serve, and value opportunities for community collaboration.
• We hold ourselves accountable in the stewardship of our financial assets, collections, and physical resources and strive to act responsibly to ensure a future better than today.

Curated by Aaron Wilder