Maria Thereza Alves
With the ongoing pandemic, I was not able to travel and visit Michigan State University's Broad Art Museum in person, but looking online at their website as well as the individual sites of many artists involved in the current showing, "Never Spoken Again: Rogue Stories of Science and Collections," has provided me with a much better understanding of the exhibition, its purpose, and the artists involved. It is a traveling exhibition focused in on the creation of modern collections and what sustains them, while attempting to portray the depth of knowledge and history behind them. Bringing in artists from all different countries and different cultures who are able to examine these ideas through their own artistic lens enables such a collection to be so successful. Although it was a group effort, one particular individual stood out among the other artists as I began to dig a little deeper into my research.
Maria Thereza Alves is a Brazilian artist and activist, best known for her investigation of European botany in relation to indigenous peoples and land, most notably, her ongoing installation series, Seeds of Change, where her continued investigation of over 20 years has honed in on the idea of imported seeds in and across the European borders. Her work is driven by query of originality and nativity, where her ongoing efforts continue to answer the questions of "at what moment does a seed become native?" and "through what historical and political means does this become possible?"
Through her research and investigation, Alves has put out some amazing work. She has not limited herself in terms of style or medium, her work ranging all the way from drawing and sculpture to installation and photography and even further into the realm of audio and video. It is so interesting scrolling through pages of her unique works, each with their own captivating ability to capture the true essence of nature and history and historical angst in and of themselves.
Her artwork is a metaphor: the seeds representative of us as people, as colonies and civilizations. Through trying circumstances, through war and repression, through drought and dearth of sunshine, we survive. We even begin to thrive. Just as the seeds, we adapt and we grow to fit our surroundings and the environment around us. We come out of our shell and with the resources necessary and fit, blossom into a beautiful flower, and then begin to flourish and multiply. Yet, there are dark times as well, where the plants fade and turn gray, times in our history where desperation and desire turn to destruction, where populations are swept and little is left to remain. These ideas and more are quite prevalent throughout Alves' works. She has been recognized for her political and artistic efforts, earning the Vera List Prize in 2017.
Alves is able to not only portray beauty through visual appeal, but through intellectual idealism. Her work is not just that of an artist, but one of a scientist, a historian, and an activist as well.
For more information on Alves, her art, and her own life, visit her page or take a look at this video.
http://michelrein.com/en/artistes/expositions/34/Maria+Thereza+Alves
https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibitions/never-spoken-again
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/index.php
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-freedom-to-develop-what-is-necessary-maria-thereza-alves-interviewed/
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/works/unrejected-wild-flora?c=47
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/works/the-flood/?c=24
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/maria-thereza-alves-through-the-fields-and-into-the-woods-1
https://www.absolutearts.com/painting/oil/maria-teresa-fernandes-alves-collection-1158427549.html
https://curatorsintl.org/exhibitions/never-spoken-again
Maria Thereza Alves is a Brazilian artist and activist, best known for her investigation of European botany in relation to indigenous peoples and land, most notably, her ongoing installation series, Seeds of Change, where her continued investigation of over 20 years has honed in on the idea of imported seeds in and across the European borders. Her work is driven by query of originality and nativity, where her ongoing efforts continue to answer the questions of "at what moment does a seed become native?" and "through what historical and political means does this become possible?"
Through her research and investigation, Alves has put out some amazing work. She has not limited herself in terms of style or medium, her work ranging all the way from drawing and sculpture to installation and photography and even further into the realm of audio and video. It is so interesting scrolling through pages of her unique works, each with their own captivating ability to capture the true essence of nature and history and historical angst in and of themselves.
Her artwork is a metaphor: the seeds representative of us as people, as colonies and civilizations. Through trying circumstances, through war and repression, through drought and dearth of sunshine, we survive. We even begin to thrive. Just as the seeds, we adapt and we grow to fit our surroundings and the environment around us. We come out of our shell and with the resources necessary and fit, blossom into a beautiful flower, and then begin to flourish and multiply. Yet, there are dark times as well, where the plants fade and turn gray, times in our history where desperation and desire turn to destruction, where populations are swept and little is left to remain. These ideas and more are quite prevalent throughout Alves' works. She has been recognized for her political and artistic efforts, earning the Vera List Prize in 2017.
Alves is able to not only portray beauty through visual appeal, but through intellectual idealism. Her work is not just that of an artist, but one of a scientist, a historian, and an activist as well.
For more information on Alves, her art, and her own life, visit her page or take a look at this video.
Seeds of Change: New York, 2017
A Botany of Colonization at the Vera List Center
Unrejected Wild Flora, 2013-14
The Flood, 2017
Through the Fields and into the Woods, 2007
Alves Collection, 1972
http://michelrein.com/en/artistes/expositions/34/Maria+Thereza+Alves
https://broadmuseum.msu.edu/exhibitions/never-spoken-again
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/index.php
https://bombmagazine.org/articles/the-freedom-to-develop-what-is-necessary-maria-thereza-alves-interviewed/
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/works/unrejected-wild-flora?c=47
http://www.mariatherezaalves.org/works/the-flood/?c=24
https://www.artsy.net/artwork/maria-thereza-alves-through-the-fields-and-into-the-woods-1
https://www.absolutearts.com/painting/oil/maria-teresa-fernandes-alves-collection-1158427549.html
https://curatorsintl.org/exhibitions/never-spoken-again
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