CAW! CAW! It’s been a little over a month since our Screech exhibition, Murmarations: Playing in the Edge Habitat. Screech was The WasteShed’s first ever artist retreat. Concocted by our program directors Emily and Laura, Screech brought together 12 artists for 4 weeks, twice a week (plus some bonus meetups) to listen and learn from local ecology experts and artists. We had a special guest from the Ornithological Society, a scientist who studies Chicago’s urban wildlife, a broom making demo and sooo much more.
As a group we learned so much about the city and its wonderful wildlife. Emily and Laura are now wildlife biologists (just kidding). Did you know that there is a Black-Crowned Night Heron nest at the Lincoln Park Zoo in the wolf enclosure? Quantitative Ecologist Mason Fidino joined us to talk about his research on correlation between gentrification and urban wildlife. We learned that no matter where you live in the city, everyone reports rat sightings at the same rate!
Art was the other half to our Screech experience! Artist Katelyn Patton told us about invasive plant species in Illinois and how she uses them in her art practice. Katelyn’s practice reframes the idea that invasive plants are either bad or good, suggesting that they are neutral. After the talk, Katelyn walked everyone through hammer dying, where we took pieces of treated natural fiber and hammered plants into them to create an image. This artist talk influenced a few pieces for the final show!!
One of our bonus meet ups was to the Wild Mile, where Stephen showed us a ton of native plants and told us all about the pesky yet wonderful beavers! Graciously the Wild Mile took us out for some Kayaking where we were able to see a variety of Chicago’s wildlife- herons, native mussels, a raccoon and of course a BEAVER!
All of the Screech participants worked so hard on their final show pieces. We are really grateful to everyone for really putting their all into everything. We also are extremely grateful to Happy Gallery for allowing us to have our show in their space.
From left to right work by: Amanda Shirmer, Suzanne Makol Zamudio, Ashton Hicks, Maven Kennedy, James Hill, and Jordan Herzog
A special thank you to Snail Catalogue for giving a talk and printing materials for the show.
Thank you to Earl Mitchell, Eleanor Ray, Mason Fidino, Cristina Warnock, and Katelyn Patton for being a part of our program.
And finally thank you to all of our Screech Cohort ( We <3 y’all!!) :
James Hill, Emily Piff, Maven Kennedy, Ashton Hicks, Liv Koreman, Jordan Herzog, Morgan Latko, Shelby Mongan, Suzanne Makol Zamudio, Maddie Tucker, Micah Schaffer, Amanda Shirmer
