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In the Summer of 2019, a small family forest fell victim to a spruce bark beetle plague. Unusually mild winters caused larvae numbers to explode, and extreme drought weakened the otherwise more resilient trees. Expanding patches of dead forest can be found from the North Sea coast to the Baltics. The cleared forest became The Plot: a witness to climate change, and a gateway to dealing with ecological grief.

My own eco-anxiety is utilized as a case study: how to deal with this new kind of loss? What is The Plot telling us? How do we move forward without losing hope? The exposition presents The Plot as fertile ground for artistic and collaborative research, including a contribution by Lisa Jeannin, a custom made font, moving image, and an audio work.

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Sommaren 2019 blev en liten, familjeägd skog ödelagd efter angrepp av granbarkborre. Ovanligt milda vintrar har inneburit en explosiv ökning av mängden barkborrar samtidigt som perioder av extrem torka har försvagat de annars betydligt mer motståndskraftiga träden. Hela vägen från Nordsjöns kust till Baltikum finns nu växande områden av död skog. Den ödelagda skogen blev The Plot: ett vittnesmål om klimatförändring och en plats för bearbetning av ekologisk sorg.

I projektet använder jag min egen eko-ångest som fallstudie. Hur hanterar vi dessa nya typer av förluster? Vad kan vi lära oss av The Plot? Hur kan vi gå vidare utan att förlora hopp? Expositionen introducerar The Plot som bördig mark för konstnärlig och kollaborativ forskning. Den omfattar ett bidrag av Lisa Jeannin, ett skräddarsytt typsnitt, rörlig bild, och ett ljudverk.

Publication data

type	research exposition
keywords	ecology, plague, ecological trauma, artistic research, science fiction, intermedial practices, visual art
date	23/11/2020
published	19/10/2021
last modified	19/10/2021
status	published
share status	private
affiliation	KU Leuven/LUCA School of Arts
copyright	Alexandra Crouwers
license	CC BY-NC-ND
language	English
url	https://www.researchcatalogue.net/view/1057314/1273089
doi	https://doi.org/10.22501/vis.1057314
published in	VIS – Nordic Journal for Artistic Research
portal issue	6. VIS Issue 6

SAR Prize for Excellent Exposition 2021

The Plot, The Compositor, and Mourning Mistakes was awarded second place of the Annual Prize for Excellent Research Catalogue Exposition 2021. The prize aims to foster and encourage innovative, experimental new formats of publication and to give visibility to the qualities of artistic research artefacts.

The exposition Plot, the Compositor, and Mourning/Mistakes by Alexandra Crouwers represents a speculative and non-linear design approach to the concept of exhibition. It creates an intricate network between visual pieces of evidence of the ecological collapse of a forest and a reflexive review of the artist’s grief.

Crouwers’s work thesis immediately resonated with the pandemic times experiencing virtual dislocation and complex mimeticism of nature in response to lockdowns. The work presented is timely as virtual workers and artists experience the technological takeover as physical communal spaces become increasingly rare. Alexandra’s background in virtual and technical art vibrates on the Research Catalogue platform as items that function to deliver information on the topic often also serve an aesthetic purpose supporting their thesis.

Works included in the exposition

Ips typography.

The Compositor / Composing.

Commemorative plaquettes.

3D scans of The Three Trees (later: Totems) and Grief, displayed as .gif animations.

Chapters from Mistakes. The artist talk (video, 2020), including The Five Stages of Grief (debunked), Complicit, and The Thanos Solution.

A short essay, Lament for the loss of a particular taste.

Elixir for Solastalgia by Lisa Jeannin.

Gate.