Cross-campus Exhibit Bridges Art and Science

‘Embodied Pacific': An intercultural approach to sustaining our oceans

A PST ART: Art and Science Collide partnership between UC San Diego Visual Arts and Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, EMBODIED PACIFIC is an intercultural platform of exhibitions, workshops and programs devoted to exploring the art and science of oceanographic and Indigenous maritime design and engineering through work by 30 artists working with researchers and knowledge keepers in laboratories, field sites and archives in Southern California and the Pacific Islands. Embodied Pacific's organizers invite immersive engagement in the art of oceanography, Indigenous design and critical craft at six venues throughout campus and in the San Diego community. 

Presented by UC San Diego’s Department of Visual Arts and Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, visitors are invited to explore projects by 30 artists created in partnership with scientists and local Indigenous communities. The project is curated by Professor of Visual Arts Lisa Cartwright with Birch Aquarium’s Senior Director of Strategic Partnerships Nan Renner and Director of Exhibits Megan Dickerson.

Exhibitions, workshops and programs will be held at six venues: 

Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen

Birch Aquarium at Scripps | Opens Oct. 4

“Embodied Pacific: Ocean Unseen” invites you to explore Scripps Institution of Oceanography and Indigenous science through the eyes of contemporary artists. These installations offer guests the chance to engage in scientific exploration through immersive, interactive experiences. Collectively, the exhibition asks us to consider how ocean science technology is not just about “high-tech” but also very much about the tools we use to shape our understanding of the ocean’s unseen mysteries. Eighteen artists across 10 projects come together in one immersive exhibition.

Embodied Pacific: Three Lives

The Gallery at Geisel Library | Opens Sept. 23
Gallery QI | Opens Sept. 26

Inspired by writer Gertrude Stein’s modernist trilogy “Three Lives” (1909) and Professor of Visual Arts Amy Adler’s “A Woman of No Importance” (2002), the works in this exhibition approach the subjugated histories of three groundbreaking oceanographers: Easter Ellen Cupp, Anita Smith Hall and June Pattullo—women who would have remained unseen in the history of oceanography but for a handful of archival materials held by family members and the Scripps Institution of Oceanography Archives, part of UC San Diego Library’s Special Collections & Archives.

Embodied Pacific: Seaways

Visual Arts Gallery at SME | Opens Sept 27

“Navigating Seaways” focuses on the art and science of Indigenous canoe-making and navigation methods. Long a symbol and tool of survival and sovereignty, the canoe is a vessel through which tradition, identity and sustenance have been navigated for millennia. Visitors can explore the design and impact of “ha kwaiyo” (tule canoes) made from bundles of tule reeds gathered from the shores of inland lakes and rivers that were used for fishing and transportation on Southern California waterways. 

Embodied Pacific: Through a Porcelain Cast

The Nest at Geisel Library | Opens Sept. 12

An artist, working with ocean scientists, creates works inspired by the Zooglider, an autonomous vehicle that carries oceanographic sensors onboard and can sink to a depth of ~ 400 meters where it collects biological samples. These findings have been rendered into sounds and images of zooplankton, which are made tangible in a porcelain cast. The resulting porcelain dinnerware invites contemplation about our food chain and the possibilities for tactile engagement with scientific data. 

“Embodied Pacific” off-campus sites include the Kosay Kumeyaay Market in Old Town and the Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve at Mission Bay. At Kosay, an augmented reality installation by Kumeyaay artist Gloria Montes Crosthwaite and the Indigenous technology collective Our Worlds presents the botany and design of Kumeyaay basketry with traditional weaving and pottery of Indigenous artists of the region. The works are presented by artist and community leader Ana Gloria Rodriguez, Kosay's director, representative of the Kumeyaay Nation to Mexico, and founder of Tipey Joa Native Warriors. Titled “Weshow” (to weave a basket), this installation opens Sept. 27.

The Kendall-Frost Marsh Reserve at Mission Bay is the site of “Mural-Canoe,” an outdoor display featuring seven canoes by Sakman Mario Borja and the UC San Diego Speculative Design Major Class of 2023, fabricated from the upcycled panels of the historic Kendall-Frost trailer mural by artist Celeste Byers. The Reserve will also be the site of a new mural designed and produced later this fall by Visual Arts alum Oscar Magallanes and the 3B Collective in collaboration with Gloria Crosthwaite. 

Learn more about all the "Embodied Pacific" exhibitions. 

‘Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work’: Pioneers of ecological art

The expansive PST ART regional series also includes a multi-site exhibition of the work of pioneering ecological artists Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison. The dynamic husband-and-wife team joined UC San Diego in 1967—Newton as one of the founding faculty members in the Department of Visual Arts and Helen as director of Educational Programs at UC San Diego Extension (now known as Extended Studies).

The Harrisons resided in San Diego for nearly four decades, where they developed their original concepts of ecological art. They collaborated with biologists, ecologists, architects, urban planners and other artists to spark dialogue and uncover ideas to support biodiversity and community development. Responding to growing environmental awareness, the Harrisons pushed conceptual art in new directions, from their efforts to make topsoil—endangered in many places—to their transformation of a Pasadena debris basin into a recreational area.

This fall, the exhibition “Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work” will present nearly 20 projects produced between the late 1960s to the 2000s—the first exhibition to focus on their work in California. Curated by UC San Diego Department of Visual Arts alumna Tatiana Sizonenko, Ph.D. ’13, the show spans four sites across San Diego, including the La Jolla Historical Society (primary organizer), the university’s Mandeville Art Gallery, California Center for the Arts Escondido and San Diego Central Library Art Gallery.

Mandeville Art Gallery will present “Future Gardens,” which speaks to the Harrisons’ hope of saving the planet in the face of the crisis posed by climate change and its threat to Earth’s many ecosystems. Audiences will enjoy original drawings, phototext panels, photographs and conceptual design proposals. “Future Gardens” will reveal the Harrisons’ concept of Force Majeure and their adaptive responses to the pressure on planetary systems that are negatively impacted by industrial processes as global warming accelerates.

“Future Gardens” will open at Mandeville Art Gallery on Sept. 28 with a free opening reception from 2-6 p.m. Additional public programs will be held, including a keynote talk on “Thinking with the Harrisons: Re-imagining the Arts in the Global Environment Crisis” on Nov. 19 and a panel discussion on “Future Gardens as Eco-Cultural Collaborations” on Nov. 23.