The Word for World is Forest
Artists: Sofía Córdova, Beatriz Cortez, Candice Lin, Allison Smith, and Patrick Staff
Curators: Fiona Ball, Naz Cuguoğlu, Chloe Kwiatkowski, and Orly Vermes
Venue: The Wattis Institute, San Francisco
Dates: May 14–September 14, 2020
The Word for World is Forest centers on world-building and alternative ways of being as its points of reference. The title and premise of the exhibition depart from a 1972 novella of the same title by American writer Ursula K. Le Guin. The book tackles topics like colonization and limited natural resources, while offering different scenarios for coexistence and being-in-common. Le Guin conjures a universe where the protagonists are concerned with making a positive impact while causing the least harm to others--not only humans, but all the ones that accompany us on this planet: the stones, streams, plants, birds, rivers, and the rest of our nonhuman kin.
With this in mind, The Word for World is Forest turns to artistic practices to investigate how speculative thinking can challenge dominant narratives. Córdova, Cortez, Lin, Smith, and Staff, through various lenses, explore how time can be malleable and circular—constructing a world where a future of equality and respect is, in fact, achievable and within reach. By looking toward ways of being that value life with allied beings in a conscious symbiosis, the project imagines alternative worlds of mutual care and survival.
The Word for World is Forest is viewable online at wattis.org through September 14, accompanied by an exhibition catalog accessible by free download or the purchase of a hard copy. The catalog features an interview with Sofía Córdova, an essay and instructions for growing a garden of plants indigenous to the Americas by Beatriz Cortez and Elizabeth Pérez Márquez, a text by Allison Smith about her ritual instruments featured in the project, field notes from Northern California burn zones by Gavin Kroeber, and essays by the curators. Additional information about a possible physical exhibition to come later this year will be posted on the same site as it becomes available.