Ellen Kochansky

We artists are not gathered here to paint pretty pictures, though that may be a side-effect. We are here to encourage the world to see things in a new light, and to sing loudly about what matters to us. This chorus of international voices is raised on the most important crisis of our human history, and we sing with urgency and fervor. No innocent creature will escape the effects of man's plunder of the planet's gifts.

We must echo with grace and subtlety nature's rich compost, and bring to all our works, art and engineering and farming and politics, the clarity and vision that is humanity's squandered potential. When Adam's shame, blame, and greed bow to nature's healing forces, we may recover our right to share this blessed green marble.

In the pieces I've sent for this show, Endangered, I refer to the power of global communication to restore our balance. Suggesting folded signatures common to book forms, their language is universal: fragmented maps, text and hot peppers. Misunderstood words have gotten us into trouble, but a new Rosetta Stone can help.

As we learn to honor the random debris we thought valueless, and to see in its frugal beauty what we once plowed into landfills, so can we germinate another season.