Column“What we are doing to the forests of the world is but a mirror reflection of what we are doing to ourselves and to one another.” -Mahatma Gandhi

“Nature’s Toolbox” features work from artists around the world and across a wide range of media using nature’s wisdom as inspiration. Of the traveling exhibition the show’s curator, Randy Jayne Rosenberg, says:

Science provides facts while art tells stories.  The need for environmental stories has never been greater, people are hungry for positive images of the future. The stories at the heart of ‘Nature’s Toolbox’ offer fresh solutions, making it clear that humanity is itself an essential piece of this system. By understanding the relationships, not only can we save nature, we can save ourselves, too.

The Waribashi Project by Donna Ozawa

This approach is refreshing in a time when some ecologists predict that half of all mammals and birds could be extinct within the next century, with similar losses in plants, marine life, and other species. According to others, entire ecosystems are in peril. That artists can tell us stories to disrupt what at times seems like a swirling vortex towards oblivion grants opportunity.

Aquarium From The City by Lori Nix

Harnessing technology and inspired by nature’s amazing design concepts, the show’s innovative, eye-capturing art helps visitors understand and appreciate the life-or-death interdependence between the 10-20 million species on earth, which includes humans and the quality of the environment we share.

Collection: Aepyomis, Gallimimus, Allosaurus, Pelaeomastodon, Lucy and Jorge Orta

 E.V. Day

Moreover, Rosenberg explains:

They explored its genius and found opportunities for invention by employing the lessons nature offers. We learn, for example, how by mimicking nature we can harness energy from algae, create fabric with the strength of a spider’s web, self-medicate like a chimp, create amphibian cities with the structure of a lilypad, and build walls made from sugar.

Collaborating in the Darkness Series Aganetha Dyck and Richard Dyck

Nature, indeed, has much to teach us and in this exhibition, the artists are listening. In Rosenberg’s words, “Many people still don’t realize how much our very lives depend on the biodiversity of plants, animals, and everything else.”

Top Image: Midway: Message from the Gyre by Chris Jordan

Inspired by a post on CoExist.

Eco, trends, art, creativity and how they tumble through social media to shape culture fascinate EcoSalon columnist Dominique Pacheco. Her trends blog, mixingreality, speaks to these topics daily, and here at EcoSalon, she takes a weekly look at the intersection of eco and art. We call it heARTbeat.

The post heARTbeat: Nature’s Toolbox: Biodiversity, Art & Invention appeared first on EcoSalon.