In Dialogue: the map is not the territory

In Dialogue​ is an occasional series of interdisciplinary, discussion-based seminars that explore art on view at the Museum in relation to works in the humanities, social sciences, and sciences. Over the next three months, we will take inspiration from ​the map is not the territory​ to consider timely and key exhibition themes and will be led by the facilitators below.

Wood is the Mother of Matter
Facilitated by Sasha Archibald

As the works in the map is not the territory suggest, art has the power to shape new relationships between culture and nature. In its darker moments, however, art can also reinforce arrogance and chauvinism. Taking its title from an essay by the twentieth-century minimalist Carl Andre, this seminar will question the ways in which art history has been complicit in patterns of thinking that suggest the natural world exists only for human use and consumption.

Facilitator Bio
Sasha Archibald writes about shipwrecks, light, failed careers, renegade women, indexes, cats, and many other things. Her non-fiction essays about twentieth-century aesthetics and visual culture have appeared in magazines including Cabinet, The Believer, East of Borneo, Smithsonian.com, Rhizome and The Los Angeles Review of Books.  Archibald also works as a curator and arts worker, most recently as Director of Public Programs at Clockshop in Los Angeles. She teaches critical studies and art criticism at Pacific Northwest College of the Arts and Portland State University.  An essay by her will appear in the exhibition catalog for the map is not the territory.

The In Dialogue series is cosponsored by Portland State University–University Studies.

Space is limited. Registration required. Cost per session: $10 Members/$20 non-member and includes Museum admission.