Queer Ecologies: Anno and Parr

QUEER ECOLOGIES: A Gallery Event and Conversation Featuring Kim Anno and Adrian Parr.

Kim Anno: Water City, Berkeley (Film 2013)
Adrian Parr: So To Speak (Spoken Word Performance)

Thursday, September 11. 5:00 -7:00 pm.
Wurster Hall Gallery (110). UC Berkeley.

Internationally recognized photographer, painter and film/video artist Kim Anno will present her provocative 2013 film entitled “Water City, Berkeley.”Anno’s film explores questions surrounding climate change, cultural identity, and the role of aesthetics in social change. The screening of the film will be followed by a spoken word performance entitled “So to Speak” by the ecological critic and social theorist Adrian Parr. After her performance, Parr will also comment upon Kim Anno’s film, exploring how it connects ecological change and cultural difference, and considering the role of aesthetics

in forming activist communities and new political imaginaries. The event is free and open to the UC Berkeley Community and the general public. Light refreshments will be served following the discussion.

KIM ANNO is a painter, photographer, and film/video artist whose work has been collected and exhibited by museums nationally and internationally. Her recent

interests and expertise have been in the intersection of art and science, particularly in aesthetic issues surrounding climate change, water, and adaptation. The influence of abstraction and abstracting something remains prominent in Anno’s practice, with resulting work that remains, as she notes, “open, playful, and engaged with a kind of difficult beauty.” Anno collaborates with other artists and musicians, integrating video, sculpture, sound, and interactivity in performative installations and books. She is currently at work on a series of paintings and photographs, and a multi chapter interdisciplinary video work: “Men and Women in Water Cities,” with the 2013 film “Water City, Berkeley” to be shown at this event.

ADRIAN PARR is an internationally recognized social and environmental theorist. She holds a joint appointment in the Department of Sociology and the School of

Architecture and Interior Design at the University of Cincinnati. Her research focuses on environmental politics, water access, and the built environment. In 2011 Parr received the distinguished Rieveschl Award for Scholarly and Creative Work. In 2013 she and Professor Dion Dionysiou were appointed as UNESCO Co-Chairs of Water Accessibility and Sustainability. Parr currently serves as Chair of Taft Faculty and Director of the Charles Phelps Taft Research Center, University of Cincinnati.

This event is made possible by the generous support of the Arcus Endowment at the College of Environmental Design, UC Berkeley.

Co-sponsored by Queer Conversations on Culture and the Arts and the Queer Cultural Center.