News – Page 3 – Meredith Drum

Excited to be a part of Governors Island Un-Earthed, Underwater New York’s Issue Number 16. My contribution People of the Desert 122°F meditates on the past and future of the miles of canals that thread through Phoenix and Tucson, AZ. The largest pre-Columbian irrigation system in North America, the canals were first engineered 2000 years ago by the ancestral Sonoran Desert people. This Native history was destroyed by the construction of the settler-colonial metropolis. Now an urban space of asphalt and concrete, this valley is ill-prepared for the heat of the near future. The summer now reaches 122°F. At 130°, what happens to the city’s vulnerable people, plants, and animals? Adaptation or abandonment?

XR Panel at CAA 2020

Looking forward to being a part of a New Media Caucus panel focused on AR and VR at CAA 2020 in Chicago. Organized by Rachel Clare and Tom Burtonwood, the panel’s title is Dematerialization of the Art Experience and featured some terrific artists – I was honored to be among them.

Film-makers Coop Auction

Happy to once again support the Film-makers Coop by donating to their annual auction – a framed print of a still from my new animation Medusa Wigs. Auction end Nov 18th. Wonderful to be in the company of work by Zoe Beloff, Mary Billyou, Janie Geiser, Jonas Mekas, Kiki Smith and many others.

ChaNorth Alumni show in Dumbo, NYC

Curated by Brigitta Varadi and Peter Fulop. Open Oct 25 – Nov 4, 2019, the show included my animation Medusa Wigs, my husband Mitch’s 500-ft-long scroll drawing, and work by many of our friends including Sarah Sagarin, Kyoung eun Kang, Cay Yoon, Jonathan Sims and others.

Oyster City AR included in Best Foot Forward at Rochester Institute of Technology City Art Space

Curated by Cecily Culver, Best Foot Forward is an exhibition at City Art Space focused on walkable cities and is part of Current Seen, the city of Rochester’s Small-venue Biennial, Oct. 4 through Nov 17, 2019. I am happy that Oyster City, an augmented reality project that I made with Rachel Stevens, will be a part of this show. http://www.currentseen.org/event/best-foot-forward/

My video, People of the Desert 122° F, in the Works on Water project space, Governors Island July 2019

My new video, People of the Desert 122° F, is on exhibit July 1-31 in the Project Space at the WoW House 5B on Governors Island curated by Works on Water and Underwater New York. The work is a meditation on the past and future of Phoenix, AZ: here the Ancestral Sonoran Desert People constructed the largest Pre-Columbia irrigation system in North America, history obliterated by the colonial construction that became contemporary city. Now over 150 people die each summer from heat-related trauma, and with a record high of 122° F what happens at 129° – adaptation or abandonment?