Amy Balkin is a long-time colleague of Ted’s, been invited by him to teach the Social Practice Seminar at CCA, which she continues to do after many years. Her work "combines cross-disciplinary research and social critique to generate ambitious, bold, and innovative ways of conceiving the public domain outside current legal and discursive systems." Commons of many forms (physical, conceptual, legal, material) are at the heart of her work, alongside and in response to the research based inquiries she makes into the role of humans and humankind on the social and material landscapes they inhabit. Her t-shirt contribution reflects an awareness of and respect for the ecosystems and natural processes that model interdependency without hierarchy, and that have been subject to human behaviors and actions as articulated by notions of the anthropocene .

 

Many of her works intervene directly in the use of land and the legal and civic structures of property ownership, even and especially where these structures fail to protect us or the environment from projected catastrophes or offer alternatives. From a “clean air park” floating in the sky above us to a the continued pursuit of a legally recognized commons, many of her projects present alternative models for co-existence outside of these systems, navigating the complexity of national and supranational systems to create models that privilege environmental responsibility and conservation, as well common-pool resources and social collaboration, as critical components. Other projects, such as an audioguide companion to the I-5, or an archive of objects collected from people living in places that may likely disappear due to climate change; narrate and critique the conditions of people and land subject to these often impossible and destructive systems.

 

Often existing outside of the mechanisms of the institutionalized art world in their origins and form, her work has been frequently exhibited and published internationally as well as recognized and supported with numerous fellowships.

 

http://tomorrowmorning.net/