Our Time on Earth visit + reading group
5-8pm (Barbican visit, 5-6pm), Tuesday 26th July
BIRMAC and the Environmental Humanities hub invite you to join us on a visit to the exhibition where we view it not only through our own lens, but through the work of feminist scholar, Isabelle Stengers and her work, In Catastrophic Times.
“One species among millions of others, striving to live together in a delicate balance. It’s a vital connection, and one we can’t afford to lose.”
This is the tagline of ongoing exhibition, Our Time on Earth, at the Barbican. Featuring 18 international artists, the exhibition speaks to a more-than-human experience of the world. This exhibition presents a grand narrative in response to catastrophic climate change.
We ask you to think of our time on earth as catastrophic, for any number of reasons. We also invite you to read the exhibition through the work of Zakiyyah Iman Jackson (in Wilcox 2022) and her work on plasticity and anti-blackness to highlight the process of racialisation that in ongoing in some multispecies work. Finally, we take inspiration from Adrienne Maree Brown in looking for ways forward and inspiration for thinking beyond Our Time on Earth.
Sign up here to take part in a joint field trip to Our Time on Earth at the Barbican on Tuesday 26th July in the 5-6pm slot. followed by a reading group nearby in the gardens (weather permitting).
Tickets are available directly from the Barbican website at £18 or £13 for students, and we plan to follow our visit with a discussion of the exhibition in conversation with the readings below.
Readings
Brown, A. M. 2022 We Are Earth, Atmos online magazine.
Stengers, I. 2015 Chapter 15 Artifices, In Catastrophic Times, Open Humantities Press.
Wilcox, L. 2022 Black feminism at the end of the world: an interview with Zakiyyah Iman Jackson. Int Polit Rev.
