Reimagining Progress Exhibit Poses Alternative Modes For Sustainability

This year the David Brower Center, a Berkeley-based nonprofit community center devoted to environmental and social justice art and education, presents its third juried exhibition with the works of 18 Bay Area artists selected from more than 440 local submissions.

Reimagining Progress: Production, Consumption, and Alternative Economies is an exhibition that focuses on the notion that society’s current consumption patterns outstrip the planets available resources. Through a variety of media, including, paintings, performance art, video and much more, the exhibition offers critiques on the unsustainability of society while providing alternative modes for progress.

“All of the Brower Center exhibitions relate to environmental or social justice themes, which are often topics looked at by Bay Area artists,” Jackie Hasa, development manager at the Brower Center, says. “The exhibition offers a Bay Area perspective. Some pieces show a state that is clearly unsustainable, while others ask the question, ‘How do we move forward?'”

In a photographic documentation of Patrick Lydon‘s piece What is Food: Burger and Cabbage, Lydon depicts a contrast in the energy of plant and animal food sources. The image shows a burger resting on soil in a planter with a sprout stemming from the center. Another by artist Paul Taylor is documentation of his art installation in Davis titled FOOD (Help Yourself), which appears to be a sewage hole in the middle of a grassy field. But instead of the lid reading “Sewer” it reads “Food,” revealing the hole that contains a plethora of canned goods.

Reimagining Progress will commence with an Opening Reception Thursday, May 22 at 6:30 p.m. that will include the debut of FAIR // SHARE // FARE, artist Sara Kraft‘s newest multimedia performance that examines the experiences of Bay Area rideshare users and drivers. Kraft blends looped voices and imagery to drape a hypnotic background on screens that she performs in front of creating her own brand of visual storytelling. The reception is free, as well as a host of other events to follow.

“Generally our juried shows are pretty popular because it’s free and, or, low-cost programming,” Hasa says. A few film screenings may be added come August, and Hesa expects admission to be around $10. The Brower Center first offered a juried exhibition in 2011. According to Hasa, the juried exhibitions will now occur annually.

Reimagining Progress runs Thursday, May 22, 2014 to Thursday, Sept. 4. The exhibition is open Monday through Friday between 10 a.m.-5 p.m., and Sundays, 10 a.m.-1 p.m.

For a full list of events and times visit the Reimagining Progress events page.