“Corals: Ocean Warming” by Ashley Rivers and Margherita Tibaldo from the “Sponge Exchange” exhibit at USF CAM. This diorama was a part of “The Coastorama Cooperative” that Hope Ginsburg, John Bryd, Maxwell Parker, and their students worked together on.
When people consider helping create environmental solutions, what often comes to mind is legislation, politics, and nonprofit organizations. One artist thought of other ways to support nature in a new form through her projects.
Hope Ginsburg is an artist, educator and associate professor at Virginia Commonwealth University. She has been working for years to find new ways for people to engage with life.
“I’m an interdisciplinary practitioner,” said Ginsburg. “I work in project-based art. I’m quite interested in creating conditions for teaching and learning, specifically about the environment and its changes.”
Ginsburg creates projects that bring awareness to environmental issues caused by the effects of climate change. She has actively observed coral fragments that were being tended to by Matt Flowers at the bottom of the ocean in order to be replanted on the reef and restored in her “Swirling” collaborative project. She focuses on projects that show the relationship between humans and nature.
Ginsburg was always drawn by nature. She is fascinated by other species and our relationships to them, feeling an “empathetic connection with the changing world.”
“I’ve always just been curious about the natural world from digging for worms as the child after it rained, to watching bees in a beehive, to spending time on a Christmas tree farm learning about organic farming, [to] later working in the textile industry on biodegradable materials,” said Ginsburg. “It’s just always been a fascination it has a very elegant logic that I find very inspiring.”
She does not have a background in science. She says her learning is pragmatic. She learns by doing and by working with others.
“I believe that artists can be useful,” said Ginsburg. “And I do want for my work to be catalytic in the space of thinking and action around climate.”
Her projects are based in her curiosity. Her focus in the ocean and climate change started with her fascination for sea sponges that she saw as “an analogy for teaching and learning.” She then earned a scuba certification to see sea sponges up close and alive.
“Once I started diving and making connections between breathing through scuba and activities on the bottom of the ocean, that was catalytic for generating new projects,” said Ginsburg.
In 2015, Ginsburg spoke at the Creative Time Summit about her fascination with the sea sponge cultivating her ideas for teaching.
She calls the sea sponge “a kindred species of ours,” “her muse,” and “a model of collectivity.” She informs the audience of how the sea sponge “is the only adult animals that don’t move.” She then discusses how the sea sponge became the inspiration for collaboration in the “Sponge HQ.”
From then on, she has created many projects based around sponges and the ocean including “Sponge,” “Land Dive Team,” “Swirling,” and “Sponge Exchange.” Each project has its own solutions ranging from how to react to climate change to coral restoration.
Ginsburg’s “Land Dive Team” project involves her traveling around the world to meet with other participants to breathe and mediate on land while wearing scuba gear.
Ginsburg called her latest project a dream to do, “Sponge Exchange” involved working with Sarah Howard and the University of South Florida. Her exhibit was showcased at the USF Contemporary Art Museum. It featured a collaborative project with Matt Flowers and Joshua Quarles “Swirling” that was based on coral restoration in the Caribbean. Excerpts from the video can be seen here.
Many of Ginsburg’s projects are collaborations. “Sponge Exchange” included dioramas from her own students, as well as help from her other peers.
She wants people to focus on compassionate connections. If she could solve something with her work, it would be that “creatures would love other creatures.”
“Every work in the show [“Sponge Exchange”] was collaborative and that felt quite special, given that the show was about climate and the idea of collaboration is ecological,” said Ginsburg. “It kind of frustrates the individualism that seems to be plaguing the planet right now.”
To learn more about Hope and her work visit her website, as well as these videos on Festival of the River and her ideas behind art studios.
