About this event

This presentation and conversation extends from some of the topics in the current art exhibition on campus “Without Mountains and Rivers Without End” in Sheppard Contemporary Gallery. The exhibition takes the focus of the geo-regions of the Eastern Cascades, Northeastern Sierra Nevada, and Western Great Basin, and presents work from these artists as they relate to ecology and society through their own layered dreams, visions, ideas of near futures, and deep pasts of this elusive and mysterious place.  

In this presentation and discussion, exhibition curator Austin Pratt introduces one of the artists in the show, UNR Assistant Professor of Photography Aaron Hegert of the artist group Everything Is Collective, along with UNR Department of Geography faculty, Associate Professor Jessie Clark, and Professor Adam Csank, Chair of Dept of Geography to talk about people, place, climate, and geography of the Intermountain West. 

EVERYTHING IS COLLECTIVE is an experimental art collective whose work addresses photography, subjectivity, and power. The group works collaboratively and across mediums and disciplines. The collective's work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, including exhibitions at Aperture Foundation (NYC), Royal Nonesuch Gallery (Oakland), Filter Space (Chicago), Nextart Gallery (Gothenberg, Sweden), SF Center for the Book (San Francisco), Utah Museum of Contemporary Art (Salt Lake City, UT), and the Museum of Contemporary Art Arlington (Arlington, VA). Publications by the collective have been acquired by the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) and the School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC), among others.  

Dr. Csank is a paleoclimatologist and paleoecologist with expertise in stable isotope geochemistry and dendrochronology. His primary research involves the use of stable isotope dendrochronology to reconstruct past climates and the impacts of climate change on trees over time periods ranging from the Pliocene to the present. Csank also works at the intersection of human and physical geography in the growing area of critical physical geography using historic timbers to study legacies of exploitation related to the timber trade. Csank also works to understand historic land use patterns and to find novel ways to use paleodata to inform climate adaptation by understanding risk, vulnerability and resiliency. Past projects include studies ranging from climate reconstructions to land use change to studies of drought and tree mortality. Ongoing projects include reconstructions of climate and ecosystems in the Arctic, the response of trees to climatic change, reconstructions of large-scale atmospheric patterns, streamflow and lake levels and reconstructing historic atmospheric pollution. In his research Dr. Csank has worked in diverse settings both locally and internationally including the Canadian Arctic, Greenland, throughout the western US, eastern Canada, Bermuda, Jamaica and Italy.   

Associate Professor Jessie Clark works in areas of feminist, political, and cultural geography and qualitative methods. She is broadly interested in research topics related to state-society relations, development-security relations, nationalism, ethnicity and gender, religion, migration, and the Middle East.   

Additional information

• Attendance type: In person
• Cost: Free
• Event type: Arts & Culture