Whitney Lewis-Smith

June 10th- July 25th, 2021

Thursday, June 10th- 5-8pm, Saturday, June 12th 2-5pm with artist in attendance

Globalization, commodity accessibility, and humanity’s relationship with nature have been constant themes in my studio practice for some time now. Living in one of the world’s largest megacities continually magnifies for me just how complex and fragile our urban ecosystems have become.

All of the sets for the Threshold photographswere built using materials found, purchased, or borrowed within Mexico City during the SARS-CoV-2 lock downs. The much diminished selection of flora and fauna I’ve had access to this year has provided a glimpse into what parts of nature we deem essential or assign great value to, be it culturally, historically, or otherwise. Included in these tableaus are also the hangers-on; those plants and animals that have found ways to thrive within the humanscapes of today and perhaps suggest what will survive in an increasingly curated world.

This body of work was an opportunity to let my mind wander into a future we can only vaguely hypothesize about, and to ask what fingerprints we might place there. How will the creativity of the human mind affect change, intentionally or not, of future evolution and ecosystems? Which living things will humanity work to preserve and which will slip into history, redefining these photographs as ephemeral images of what has passed.