Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story

Beth Stephens, American

Annie Sprinkle, American

Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story, 2013

This image is a press photo from the film Goodbye Gauley Mountain: An Ecosexual Love Story. The film reflects the critical elements of the sacrifice zone: an abundance of natural resources that are exploited by a powerful capitalist entity that exports the wealth it extracts, leaving the region in poverty; limited visibility of slow violence; and severe consequences to health. At the same time, it highlights the activism that does exist. The exuberant scene set against the background of mountaintop removal destruction illuminates the intersection of environmentalism, queer identity, and artistic expression that guides both the film and the activism practiced by Stephens and Sprinkle. Environmentalism is reflected by the contrast between the stark background scene of the destroyed mountain top. Queer identity, especially where it includes ecosexuality, is represented by the erotic position of the two women amongst the bloom of flowers. Artistic expression as activism is at the core of the film; creator Stephens initiated the project with the intention of calling attention to the hushed exploitation of Appalachia. Label by Hannah London

Cape Mongo

Francois Knoetze, South African, born 1989

Cape Mongo, 2013

Cape Mongo is a short film set in Cape Town, South Africa that follows six different characters, represented by sculptures made of the city’s discarded waste. The word “mongo” is a slang term for “an object thrown away and recovered.” Even in a post-apartheid state, structural environmental violence is still incredibly evident in impoverished, non-white areas where the trash of wealthier metropolitan residencies ends up. Each “creature” journeys to the place of their material origin, revisiting its imagined past and examining the social weight of its conception. The selection I have chosen is a still showing a metal figure surrounded by pollution of their own making, in a slouched position facing toward the sun, perhaps contemplating the time and negligence it took to get there. Label by Kristin Rheins

Arquiero Digital

Denilson Baniwa, Baniwa, born 1984

Arquiero Digital, 2017

This piece is based on an 1834 engraving made by Jean-Baptiste Debret, and so is fundamentally art of reclamation: This piece is an indigenous artist taking something that was originally created by colonizers to exoticize the people of the Amazon region and turning it into a representation of indigenous agency. The symbol of a digital symbol can be taken as representing the overall trend of new media in indigenous campaigns for greater sovereignty and environmental safety from deforestation and extractivism, and its position superimposed over a weapon indicates the artist’s belief in the strength of new media to protect the rainforest environment and traditional land relations, which may themselves be represented by the indigenous subject’s hunting. Label by Frank Kennedy

Azougue 80

Denilson Baniwa, Baniwan, born 1984

Azougue 80, 2019

Azougue 80 is a short video piece of art by Denilson Baniwa, who is an indigenous artist from the village of Darí (in Rio-Negro). His work centers around the idea that art is an important form of expression and communication of political protests and environmental justice work. In this work, he sits at a table with artificial fishing lures and a glass of mercury (where the title “azougue 80” comes from), and he begins eating and spitting them out. In the background, there is a recording of Jair Bolsonaro discussing the benefits of gold mining. The disturbing piece is referencing the contamination that has occurred in indigenous areas due to Bolsonaro’s decisions regarding mining in the Amazon area, and it demonstrates the health hazards and life-altering impacts these destructive actions cause for native peoples. Label by Maeve Marsh