A.S.T.: Intertidal

Intertidal
A.S.T. (Diann Bauer, Felice Grodin, Patricia Margarita Hernández and Elite Kedan)
January 20–April 8, 2018 

On view through April 8, ArtCenter/South Florida’s latest exhibit, Intertidal, is a multi-disciplinary experience that uses speculative urbanism to envision what Miami might look like as the seas continue to rise.

Created by A.S.T., a collective of artists, architects and curators, the exhibit imagines Miami as an intertidal zone, an area above water at low tide, yet flooded at high tide. How could Miami adapt to live with water? How could the city change its infrastructure, zoning and economy to survive rising tides? Intertidal melds art and architecture to open the door to conversations and new thinking about the future of life in coastal South Florida.

On April 7, ArtCenter will host a roundtable discussion on the importance of  visual culture in communicating the challenges that rising tides present. The event will feature A.S.T. and Dr. Meryl Shriver-Rice, Director of Environmental Media at the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy. For more information or to RSVP go to the website.

“We are committed to rethinking city structures in the face of a globalized, high-tech economy impacted by climate change. Our work thinks about repurposing facets of the city, such as zoning, real estate, and water management, to construct an alternative vision of the present. Our primary focus is to use the purported freedom of art to contemplate a systemic reorganization of coastal cities generally, and Miami, in particular,” the collective A.S.T. said in a statement.

The title for the exhibition was influenced by Kim Stanley Robinson’s popular climate novel New York 2140, where New York City is an intertidal zone redefined by a 50-foot rise in sea level. Once in the exhibition space, visitors are immersed in a series of newly-commissioned videos, audio and wall drawings that completely transform every corner of the gallery – with a portion being visible from the street below. A 20-foot wall drawing, partly executed by hand, is an imaginary map that references and layers research collected about the effects of melting glaciers on global sea levels. Together, their installation feels like a scrambled series of messages from a not-so-distant future—messages for viewers to contemplate as they think about the city. Intertidal is organized by ArtCenter’s Artistic Director Natalia Zuluaga.

A.S.T., or Alliance of the Southern Triangle, is driven by the idea that Miami is an ideal location to examine how a global city can reimagine its future as it faces climate change. Members of the collective include London-based artist and writer Diann Bauer, Miami-based artists and architects Felice Grodin and Elite Kedan and New York-based curator Patricia Margarita Hernández. Together, they have presented artwork, research seminars and lectures at HistoryMiami, The Schmidt Centre Gallery at FAU, Multimedia Cultural Centre, Split and the Sharjah Biennial.