The Sky is Falling (Too)
Thursday, May 28, 2020
Detail above: Observational Findings placeholder: untitled (Hope) in the series, The Sky is Falling (Too) May 2020
The Cottage, open air studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime
Colonial Curio Cabinet owned by Samuel L. Parrish installed at (1897) Art Museum at Southampton gifted (2012) by Southampton Historical Museum where Sandrow exhibited (re)collecting an American’s Dream to Sandrow for Platform Genius Loci: Observational Findings 2020, H Oak, Mirrors; Two Stereoscopes (left) photograph of William Merritt Chase with students (1900, Shinnecock Hills Summer School of Art) by Albert Chittenden recreated as a stereoscope by Sandrow and Skogsbergh, 2012; (right) mirror 23.75 " W x 69" L x 35"
the sky is falling (too), a study that looks to the future through the lens of America’s social and cultural Colonial past from the perspective of “this land was made for you and me.” (Note 1)
Photograph: Observational Findings placeholder: untitled (Hope) is a work that is part of that series.
In response to the Corona virus19 pandemic (WHO, March 11) in conjunction with climate change and the remarkable protests for gender and racial justice that took place at the end of the stay-in-place mandates, the question leads somewhere new; we don’t know what it looks like, or is it a return to the past, hindering change.
“The Sky is Falling” is the central phrase in the folk tale "Chicken Little" aka “Henny Penny” selected by Sandrow as her title for a series of artworks intended to reveal the socio, cultural, and ideological policies of the Bush Administration (2009) hand in hand with anti-science and conservative ideologues. Re-presented by many of those same players presided over by the Trump administration (2016 - 2020) that place in doubt life as we know it. Coupled with profound changes on Earth from human impact described as the “Anthropocene” that “intensified significantly since the onset of industrialization, taking us out of the Earth System state typical of the Holocene Epoch that post-dates the last glaciation.”
(Too) references the absence of meaningful actions by local, state, and federal governments to address a myriad of pressing issues. Including an anti-science stance to rationalize not recognizing the equal rights of women (Note 2). Considering if this critical point in history presents a unique opportunity for new voices to emerge - free from the confines of colonialist-minded gatekeepers. To somewhere new, unknown.
Sandrow proposes a reconsideration of our relationship to nature and the natural world as we follow the unfolding story of Shinnecock’s descendants in her “living” art installation. Illustrating the central premise of Michael Pollan’s seminal book The Botany of Desire “demonstrating how people and domesticated plants (and animals) have formed a similarly reciprocal relationship.'“
May 8, 2020 Stay-In-Place open air studio Shinnecock Hills spacetime.
Running time: 2 min.
Written, filmed, and directed by Hope Sandrow.
Included in The Parrish Art Museum’s "East End Artists in Quarantine" curated by Senior Curator of Arts Reach and Special Projects, Corinne Erni, The Lewis B. and Dorothy Cullman Chief Curator of Art and Education, Deputy Director of Curatorial Affairs.
Note 1: A lyric excerpted from “This Land is Your Land” (1944) composed by Woody Guthrie. Guthrie was married to Martha Graham dancer Marjorie Greenblatt, the daughter of renowned Yiddish troubadour Aliza Greenblatt considered Guthrie’s “Jewish” muse. A first cousin to Sandrow’s beloved grandfather Morris, Aliza memorialized their family history in poems and essays. Sandrow follows in the spirit of generosity of her and Morris’s grandmother, Rivele, who inspired and influenced her art-making and social practice. Read more about Sandrow’s early influences and work.
Note 2: The ERA passed the Senate and was sent to the State Legislatures for ratification in 1972 while Sandrow was in art school. This past January (year?) the 38th State (Virginia) adopted the law necessary for a constitutional amendment: but now a joint resolution by Congress is required to extend the original time limit assigned to its passage.