Artists and the Practice of Agriculture

Silvia Bottinelli (PhD University of Pisa) is Senior Lecturer and Chair of the Visual and Material Studies Department, School of the Museum of Fine Arts at Tufts University. Dr. Bottinelli's scholarship focuses on contemporary food-based art as well as twentieth and twenty-first-century Italian art. With Margherita d’Ayala Valva, she co-edited the volume The Taste of Art (2017) and a special issue of Public Art Dialogue on "Food and Activism in Contemporary Art" (2018). Dr. Bottinelli also co-edited Lead in Modern and Contemporary Art with Sharon Hecker (2021), and single-authored the book Double-Edged Comforts: Domestic Life in Modern Italian Art and Visual Culture (2021). Dr. Bottinelli’s research has been widely published in edited volumes and scholarly journals such as Art Journal, Modernism/modernity, Public Art Dialogues, Food Studies, Palinsesti, Predella, and Ricerche di Storia dell’Arte. Her scholarship was supported by grants of the Italian Art Society, the Center for Italian Modern Art, the American Philosophical Society, and the Tufts Tisch College Faculty Fellowship, among others. Dr. Bottinelli received an International Award for Excellence from the Food Studies Research Network.

"Climate action alarm bells have been ringing for decades and while some people are only now hearing the call, countless artists have been engaged in environmental arts for decades. Through this book, Bottinelli brings critical awareness to a group of artists who have been working through the lens of agriculture. With perceptive essays and a collection of in-depth artist interviews, Bottinelli takes a serious look at how the arts can contribute to understanding and adapting to the challenges our food systems face in a rapidly changing global environment."-Cameron Cartiere, Professor of Public Art and Social Practice, Emily Carr University of Art and Design

• Framing the field: An IntroductionThe Matter of Artists and the Practice of AgricultureThe Visual and Material Language of Agriculture as Art: The Example of Hunger by Ghada AmerContributions, Scope, and Disciplinary Perspective of This BookChapters’ Overview, Author Positionality, and Writing ProcessAcknowledgementsSection IChapter 1: Experiences of Human and Other-Than-Human Interconnection through Agriculture in Contemporary Art.Preparing the Terrain: Historical Contexts and Theoretical LensBecoming Plant: Giuseppe PenoneEnergy Flows and Non-Hierarchical Interactions. Bonnie Ora SherkThe Healing and Spiritual Power of Agriculture: Joseph BeuysAgricultural Knowledges and Economies: Global Tools and Gianfranco Baruchello.Fluidity against Binaries: Fritz HaegBeyond Utopia: Adaptation and Community for Kamin Lertchaiprasert and Rirkrit Tiravanija, and Artist as FamilyPlace-Based Knowledges and Interconnectedness in Contemporary Indigenous Art: Jolene Rickard and Elizabeth James-PerryConversation with Bonnie Ora SherkConversation with Fritz Haeg Conversation with Artist as Family (Meg Ulman and Patrick Jones)Conversation with Jolene RickardSection IIChapter 2: Confronting Technology in the Field: Reimagining Agriculture for Food Sovereignty and Environmental Remediation.Dialectics, Tautology, and Paradox: Agnes DenesDIY Technology and the Power of Agribusiness: Critical Art EnsembleBiopolitics, Biopiracy, and Sexuality: Ines DoujakThe Agency of Plants: Li Shan, Natalie Doonan, and Maria Thereza AlvesClimate Change Adaptation, Historical Technologies, and Gardens: The Harrisons and Nida SinnokrotConversation with Maria Thereza AlvesConversation with Natalie DoonanConversation with Nida SinnokrotSection IIIChapter 3: Colonial Legacies in Agriculture and Art: Labor, Memory, and HealingExtraction, Exploitation, and Colonial TradesHonoring Diversity through Plants and Food in Australia: Lauren BerkowitzColonial Histories and Today’s African Diasporas: Binta DiawConnecting Cuba, China, West Africa and North America: Edible and Medicinal Plants in María Magdalena Campos-Pons’s PracticeFood Security and Artistic Cross-Pollination at Yinka Shonibare’s Ecology Green Farm in NigeriaAbolition, Imagination, and Community Gardening in the USA: jackie sumell and Seitu JonesThe Politics of Urban Agriculture in Hong KongConversation with Lauren BerkowitzConversation with María Magdalena Campos-PonsConversation with jackie sumellConversation with Seitu JonesSection IVChapter 4: Embodied Pedagogies and Knowledges Exchange through Art Farming. Health, Nutrition, and Sense of PlaceAwareness and Social Equity through Food-based Pedagogy: A Theoretical Framework.Hydroponic Systems and Community Care in Response to the AIDS Crisis: HahaCycles of Learning: Sensorial and Spiritual Resilience in Tattfoo Tan’s ExperienceFloating Ecosystems: Mary MattinglyCivic Fruit and Public Art: Participation for Fallen Fruit and Lisa Kyung GrossBeing with Bees: Juan William Chávez’s Creative Pedagogy Against Racist HistoriesQueer Ecologies and Cross-Species Interaction: Eli BrownMaking with Fungi: Urbonas Studio and MyceliumEver-Changing Traditions: Unlearning and Experimenting for the Scuola delle AgricoltureConversation with Haha (Richard House, Wendy Jacob, Laurie Palmer, John Ploof)Conversation with Tattfoo TanConversation with Lisa Kyung GrossConversation with Juan William ChávezConversation with Eli Brown