About the Work: The following are meanings of ‘aggregate’ and ‘channel’ as they relate to this installation and context of this event:
Aggregate – (noun and verb) basic structural unit of soil and/or the whole sum or amount and/or to collect or gather into a whole.
Channel – (noun and verb) the bed where a natural stream of water runs and/or a means of communication or expression and/or a way, course, or direction of thought or action and/or to convey or direct into or through a channel.
The combined meaning of the title speaks to multiple aspects of this installation:
- hand drawn patterns
- tunnel structure of installation
- collection of interwoven branches, wood and vines at either end of the tunnel
- ever-changing quality of light and shadows of the site
- location and history of Dubuque
- Dubuque Rendezvous! – multidisciplinary arts festival about climate action
Together with community input, Aggregate Channeling will grow over time to become a visual representation of the Dubuque area’s collective climate action.
Community members and visitors are invited to share their answers to “What is your climate action?” using Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson’s Climate Action Venn Diagram framework for helping us understand our role in climate-based solutions. Everyone is invited to use a bin of printed fabric and materials (and further instructions) to write or draw their climate action on, then tie the answers onto the installation.
On the final day of Dubuque Rendezvous! people who added their climate action are welcome to meet the artist and collect their answers for use as fabric patches or mementos. They can be sewn onto clothing or accessories.
About the Artist: Sara Meredith, also known as Smere Tactics, is an interdisciplinary artist redefining interconnection. She creates artwork, installations & community frameworks in collaboration with artists, organizations and community members to build a future of care together. She has been a practicing artist for decades with artworks exhibited in many Midwestern cities and towns. Sara is part of the team that operates the all-volunteer run, DIY arts collective Communication in Madison, WI. When she’s not creating you can find her talking to trees, squirrels, birds and any other “more than” human beings on hikes and in the yard outside where she lives with her husband, their 2 sons and creepy crawly pets.
Website: https://www.smeretactics.com/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/smeretactics/
Substack: https://smeretactics.substack.com/