ERICA DABORN
Biography
Erica Daborn was born in England and received her MFA from the Royal College of Art, London. Daborn's first solo show was at the Arts Council of Great Britain's AIR Gallery in 1981. In 1984, she received a Welsh Arts Council Grant in support of a residency at the MacDowell Colony and subsequently moved to the U.S. Exhibitions include Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum; Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy; National Museum of Wales; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; the Royal Academy of Art, London and the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. She received fellowships at Virginia Center for Creative Arts in 2005 and 2006, Yaddo in 2018 and MacDowell in 2020. From 1995 to 2015, Daborn taught drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dialogues With Mother Earth has received support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The project is supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship program and has been exhibited in eight museums in the U.S. and Mexico.
www.ericadaborn.com
Project Description
Dialogues With Mother Earth: Drawing to Save the Planet
I began Dialogues With Mother Earth in 2010 in response to accelerating and irrefutable evidence of climate change. Catastrophic climate events have now become increasingly frequent world-wide leading to agricultural failure and the displacement of whole societies.
The project consists of thirteen mural-sized drawings that record fictitious historical events related to climate change as seen from the perspective of a future world, circa 2055 (now fourteen years nearer than when I started). The murals explore, in a non-alarmist, story-book manner, those aspects of contemporary living that have impacted the environment, consumerism, depletion of natural resources, the ravages of the meat industry, disposable plastics, genetic modification, etc. The work aims to reach a broad audience including one that has been resistant to the subject.
Since 2016 the drawings have been exhibited at eight museums in the United States and Mexico. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. However, the size of the work demands a large space. Museums plan several years ahead and so it is difficult to find openings. Despite the success of the exhibitions held to date, it seemed clear that producing a book would continue the project’s mission of raising awareness through a more democratic vehicle.
I have embraced the opportunity to work in collaboration with an organization actively engaged in mitigating one of the major results of climate change: water pollution and scarcity. Caminos de Agua a non-profit based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico works in response to the disastrous results caused by depletion of regional aquifers due to extensive agribusiness enterprise (which provides vegetables not locally, but for the U.S.) These extreme levels mean a lack of clean water for local communities and serious health issues in children, especially from arsenic located in the lower levels of the aquifer
The book is already designed. It consists of 98 pages where all thirteen drawings are reproduced alongside their captions. Essays give context for the work and expand on the scientific reality of the warming planet. Included are text and photography about Caminos de Agua’s work. When published, the book will be sold with all profits to this organization, bringing with the dissemination of the images, physical assistance in fighting the ravages of climate change.
The book will document this thirteen-year project and so continue to educate beyond the limitations of the museum world. For me the impetus to continue with Dialogues With Mother Earth comes not from a personal need to advance my career but to do what I can with the tools I have to raise awareness about the dire consequences of climate change.
Biography
Erica Daborn was born in England and received her MFA from the Royal College of Art, London. Daborn's first solo show was at the Arts Council of Great Britain's AIR Gallery in 1981. In 1984, she received a Welsh Arts Council Grant in support of a residency at the MacDowell Colony and subsequently moved to the U.S. Exhibitions include Santa Barbara Museum of Art; Los Angeles County Museum; Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Bologna, Italy; National Museum of Wales; Institute of Contemporary Art, London; the Royal Academy of Art, London and the Pennsylvania Academy of Art. She received fellowships at Virginia Center for Creative Arts in 2005 and 2006, Yaddo in 2018 and MacDowell in 2020. From 1995 to 2015, Daborn taught drawing at the School of the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. Dialogues With Mother Earth has received support from the Massachusetts Cultural Council, the Berkshire Taconic Foundation and the Pollock-Krasner Foundation. The project is supported by the New York Foundation for the Arts Fiscal Sponsorship program and has been exhibited in eight museums in the U.S. and Mexico.
www.ericadaborn.com
Project Description
Dialogues With Mother Earth: Drawing to Save the Planet
I began Dialogues With Mother Earth in 2010 in response to accelerating and irrefutable evidence of climate change. Catastrophic climate events have now become increasingly frequent world-wide leading to agricultural failure and the displacement of whole societies.
The project consists of thirteen mural-sized drawings that record fictitious historical events related to climate change as seen from the perspective of a future world, circa 2055 (now fourteen years nearer than when I started). The murals explore, in a non-alarmist, story-book manner, those aspects of contemporary living that have impacted the environment, consumerism, depletion of natural resources, the ravages of the meat industry, disposable plastics, genetic modification, etc. The work aims to reach a broad audience including one that has been resistant to the subject.
Since 2016 the drawings have been exhibited at eight museums in the United States and Mexico. Response has been overwhelmingly positive. However, the size of the work demands a large space. Museums plan several years ahead and so it is difficult to find openings. Despite the success of the exhibitions held to date, it seemed clear that producing a book would continue the project’s mission of raising awareness through a more democratic vehicle.
I have embraced the opportunity to work in collaboration with an organization actively engaged in mitigating one of the major results of climate change: water pollution and scarcity. Caminos de Agua a non-profit based in San Miguel de Allende, Mexico works in response to the disastrous results caused by depletion of regional aquifers due to extensive agribusiness enterprise (which provides vegetables not locally, but for the U.S.) These extreme levels mean a lack of clean water for local communities and serious health issues in children, especially from arsenic located in the lower levels of the aquifer
The book is already designed. It consists of 98 pages where all thirteen drawings are reproduced alongside their captions. Essays give context for the work and expand on the scientific reality of the warming planet. Included are text and photography about Caminos de Agua’s work. When published, the book will be sold with all profits to this organization, bringing with the dissemination of the images, physical assistance in fighting the ravages of climate change.
The book will document this thirteen-year project and so continue to educate beyond the limitations of the museum world. For me the impetus to continue with Dialogues With Mother Earth comes not from a personal need to advance my career but to do what I can with the tools I have to raise awareness about the dire consequences of climate change.