thinking of all the things that drank me

Works by CALCIUM

Marlene and Spencer Hays Gallery

September 2-October 29, 2022

Exhibition Statement:

‘thinking of all the things that drank me’ is a geographical meditation. This exhibition posits questions around ecological memory, sustainability, materialism, and fragility. This immersive installation is comprised of projected videos, audio field recordings, and sculptural objects that offer a micro-narrative of humankind’s relationship to nature and the ways both subjects anthropomorphize each other. The idea of permaculture is a major tenant of this project. In permaculture there is a sub-concept called “the edge.” A location for collapse and reinvention, the edge is the place where two ecological communities meet, and where there is often the most biodiversity. This exhibition explores the creative and critical edge of human and nature. Of intuition and tactility. Language conditions our experience, and it is vital to challenge the ways we listen, read, or interpret on a daily basis. Through the lens of eco-poetics we translate an environmental experience—a geographical meditation.

Artist Statement

Part Poet / Part Sculptor. CALCIUM is a collaborative duo exploring entangled ecosystems and embedded narratives within nature. 

Laura Neal is a poet, greatly influenced by social and environmental narratives. She earned an MFA from the University of Maryland College Park and a BA from Bowie State University. Her work is published in Academy of American Poets, Boston Art Review, and Appalachian Review, among others. She has received fellowships from the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), CALLALOO (Providence, RI), Juniper Writing Institute (Amherst, MA), Hambidge Center for Creative Arts (Rabun Gap, GA), the Oak Spring Garden Foundation (Upperville, VA) and the Juanita Craft Artist-in-Residence Program (Dallas,TX). She teaches creative writing at the University of Texas at Dallas and is a contributing writer for Southwest Contemporary magazine. Her poetry has been nominated for a Pushcart Prize.

SV Randall is an interdisciplinary artist from Buffalo, NY. He received his MFA in Sculpture + Extended Media from VCU and his BFA from Alfred University. His work has been exhibited at David & Schweitzer Contemporary, Brooklyn, NY; the El Paso Museum of Art, El Paso, TX; Ditch Projects, Eugene, OR; and the Museo de Arte de Ciudad Juárez in Mexico. SV is the recipient of the Toby Devin Lewis Fellowship Award and has most recently participated in residencies at the Skowhegan School of Painting and Sculpture (Skowhegan, ME), Sculpture Space (Utica, NY), the Fine Arts Work Center (Provincetown, MA), the Vermont Studio Center (Johnson, VT), and the Roswell Artist-in-Residence Program (Roswell, NM). He is currently an Assistant Professor of Visual and Performing Arts at the University of Texas at Dallas.