Susan Smith

Oostanaula River, Calhoun, Georgia

Cyanotype with river water
December 2022

Part of a series created as I travel the country researching sites identified as having significant levels of industrial soil and water contamination from PFAS.

This location is downstream from the world’s center for flooring and carpet manufacturing. The PFAS levels and effects are some of highest in nation. I bear witness, collect these soils and waters, and create art I consider “evidence.”

I connect this work to the course’s emphasis on the effects of flow of capital and creation of insatiable consumer appetite.
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202
  • Susan Smith

Working with, instead of on top of

First, Earth castings of plants considered invasive are created on sites with known soil and water contaminants, using that soil and water. Second and third images use textiles rescued from landfill to host prints from the most polluted spot in my home state.

View Gallery
“Resilience building usually tries to maintain the basic function and structure of a given system in the face of disruption. But transformational efforts are purposefully disruptive to the system…”

Collaborating with the more/than-human has been the focus of my practice this fall, working with the fellow botanical, soils and water inhabitants.

Offering this to whatsnextforearth as a hope for reimagining our relationship and a deterritorialization of place. A working with, instead of on top of. Transforming by disrupting the mode of economics that sees everything as resource. Art can be more than just window dressing for science- it can point to solutions.

Part of building resistance is having courage- and for me, that means showing up, witnessing places near and far, and forgotten communities.
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2022
  • Susan Smith

Participatory Weaving

Participatory weaving of locally sourced fiber imbued with soil, water, and plant color, gathered from local sites with known PFAS contamination.

An offering for the exhibition What's Next for Earth: Community Resilience. An attempt to create community-based sustainable practices while acknowledging the land and calls for stewardship.
©
2022
  • Susan Smith

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