Affinity to Water: Mapping Tides, Forest, Estuary, and Shell Middens, the artists featured in this exhibition visited the 165 acre island of Seahorse Key. The University of Florida established a marine laboratory research facility on the island in 1952 as part of the Nature Coast Biological Station. This research facility hosts field-based courses, public outreach, and collaborative research regarding the conservation and sustainability of the Nature Coast. This exhibition represents artistic production that ranges from poetic performances to a didactic figurative ceramic sculpture. Many of the artists in this exhibition searched inward to speak about feelings of alienation, memory, and home while others examine the island’s ties to scientific research. Their engagement with the fieldwork conducted on the island ranged from researching the local botany and geology, to cartography and ecology. This rhizomatic melody led to a comprehensive exhibition focused on a local place facing the ever-changing tides of the sea.
Featured artists: Devlin Caldwell, Cameron Doby, Setareh Ghoreishi, G.V. Kelley, Kevin Mahoney, Elham Masoudi, Sue Montoya, Melissa Nunez, Robert Perez, Christina Singer, Minah Shim, Benyue Wei, Ernie Williams, Erxuan Xu, Jingyan Yu