Opening Reception: Tuesday, January 29, 2019 at 4:30pm; Remarks by Curator Benjamin Chaffee at 5pm, FREE!

What does it mean for our world concept, language, ethics, and knowledge, if we accept that human bodies co-evolved with their microbiomes? Audible Bacillus posits a reconnection of our consciousness from the inside out, presenting our coexistence at a metaphoric register rather than representing or speaking for the beings within us. The works are presented not as practical scientific rhetoric but rather as investigations in their own right into a variety of themes including alternative epistemologies, the nature and source of volition, a breakdown of the boundary between self/other, the limits of our language(s), and into the radical care we need to sustain a future. Stromatolites, the fossilized remains of ancient cyanobacteria, the dominant species on the Earth billions of years ago, will also be included in the exhibition.

Read a review of the exhibiton by Jacquelyn Gleisner in Connecticut Art Review.

RELATED EVENTS
FREE!

Artist Talk: lucky dragons
Thursday, January 31, 2019 at 4:30pm
Adzenyah Rehearsal Hall, Room 003 (Daltry Room), 60 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown

Guided Exhibition Tours
Saturdays, February 2 through March 2, 2019 at 1pm
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
The public can take a closer look at the exhibition by joining a 45-minute tour, led by Wesleyan University gallery guides. Tours begin in the lobby of the Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery. Public guided tours are for individuals and small groups up to ten people. Larger group visits can be arranged by emailing bchaffee@wesleyan.edu.

Lunchtime Reading Group
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 from 12:15pm to 1pm
Usdan University Center, Room 104D, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown
Elizabeth Povinelli, “After the Last Man: Images and Ethics Of Becoming Otherwise“
Sherene Schostak, “Synchronicities” from Speculation, Now
Please email bchaffee@wesleyan.edu for access to the readings.

Exhibition Walkthrough
Tuesday, February 5, 2019 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
With Smith Curator of Paleontology of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum of Natural History, Harold T. Stearns Professor of Integrative Sciences, and Research Professor, Earth and Environmental Sciences Ellen Thomas; Andrew W. Mellon Postdoctoral Fellow for Writing in the Social Sciences Tess Bird; Professor of Art Jeffrey Schiff; and Curator and Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee.

Film Screening: “Donna Haraway: Story Telling for Earthly Survival” (2016)
Wednesday, February 13, 2019 at 7:30pm
Powell Family Cinema, Center for Film Studies, 301 Washington Terrace, Middletown

Artist Talk: Sky Hopinka
Monday, February 18, 2019 at 4:30pm
Ring Family Performing Arts Hall, 287 Washington Terrace, Middletown

Lunchtime Reading Group
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 from 12:15pm to 1pm
Usdan University Center, Room 104D, 45 Wyllys Avenue, Middletown
Timothy Morton, “Subscendence”
Chris Sharp, “EXHIBITION MAKING IN THE ANTHROPOCENE”
Please email bchaffee@wesleyan.edu for access to the readings.

Exhibition Walkthrough
Tuesday, February 19, 2019 from 4:30pm to 5:30pm
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
With Visiting Assistant Professor of Dance Julie Mulvihill; Associate Professor of History, Science in Society, Environmental Studies, and Chair and Associate Professor of Feminist, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Jennifer Tucker; and Curator and Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee.

Film Screening: “Ghostbusters II” (1989)
Wednesday, February 27, 2019 at 7:30pm [DATE CHANGE]
Powell Family Cinema, Center for Film Studies, 301 Washington Terrace, Middletown

lucky dragons: Other Transformations Performance
Sunday, March 3, 2019 at 1pm
Ezra and Cecile Zilkha Gallery
This performance will incorporate video projection by the Los Angeles-based experimental music group lucky dragons, an ongoing collaboration between Sarah Rara and Luke Fischbeck. The performance will feature a piece that lucky dragons have collaborated on with Wesleyan students. The group researches forms of participation and dissent, purposefully working towards a better understanding of existing ecologies through performances, publications, recordings, and public art, including sounds created in collaboration with the audience. The name “lucky dragons” is borrowed from a fishing vessel that was caught in the fallout from H-bomb tests in the mid-1950s, an incident which sparked international outcry and gave birth to the worldwide anti-nuclear movement.

Image: Stromatolite, Hoyt Limestone, Saratoga Springs, New York, Late Cambrian (~490 million years old). Courtesy of the Joe Webb Peoples Museum and Collections, Wesleyan University. Photography by John Giammatteo.

Listen to a conversation between Associate Director of Visual Arts Benjamin Chaffee and Curator of the Davison Art Center Miya Tokumitsu about this exhibition on the Center for the Arts Radio Hour: