Seeds of Hope
Seeds of Hope
Downtown Aurora Visual Arts/DAVA
1405 Florence Street, Aurora, CO 80010
September 6-November 18, 2024
Admission: free
Review by Raymundo Muñoz
While humanity’s impact on climate change remains a contentious topic in politics, many scientists have been sounding alarms for years over the rapid ecological changes occurring across the Earth. Dark days of reckoning may be on the near horizon, and it’s the youth of today who will mostly bear the burden.
An installation view of the Seeds of Hope exhibition at the DAVA gallery. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Addressing this hard reality is an inspiring, youth-led, group exhibition titled Seeds of Hope on display at Downtown Aurora Visual Arts (DAVA). Combining works from over sixty youths (ages 6–18) with works by adult artists Kelly Cox, Anna Kaye, Regan Rosburg, and Eileen Roscina, this multifaceted, interactive, educational, and science-focused exhibition tackles the complex theme with a dizzying array of art and information.
Detail of Compost Up-Close, various artists, Petri dishes and watercolor on paper. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Even though there aren’t any tri-fold displays or Styrofoam planets, there is a science fair-like vibe throughout the exhibition. For example, in the Compost Up-Close series, Petri dishes frame simple, yet lovely, watercolor paintings of compost denizens like earthworms and fungi. Or consider the detailed papier mâché world map Everything is Connected by Maria Jose Niño Ballesteros (age 16) that illustrates how climate change affects global water levels.
Maria Jose Niño Ballesteros, Everything is Connected, paper, cardboard, and yarn. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
In addition, numerous informational art posters line the walls, pairing paintings and illustrations with facts and calls-to-action. Take, for instance, Rajaa Balkis’s (age 15) poster—a symbolic illustration of water pouring from a faucet that addresses water conservation while offering a simple solution. Youths created these images first as drawings, paintings, and collages, and then worked with guest artists from COHN Marketing to develop their posters.
Jessica Alvarado Campos, Greenplex, cardboard, moss, branches, dried flowers, and watercolor. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Over the course of eight weeks, youth participants at DAVA learned about various topics related to climate change, including air quality, sustainable food production, transportation, pollination, reforestation, composting, and water conservation. The featured adult artists also visited classes at the art center, providing artistic and conceptual inspiration for the students’ own informed visual creations.
Ange Masengesho, Lemur, ceramic and paint. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
The end results are fun, playful, and even amazing. Consider the impressive architectural work Greenplex by Jessica Alvarado Campos (age 16), a complex cardboard construction that imagines an eco-friendly, multilevel building of the future. Or the life-sized ceramic Lemur by Ange Masengesho (age 14) with its wide-eyed, incredulous stare.
An installation view of ceramic bowls and student posters in the exhibition Seeds of Hope at DAVA. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Ceramics play a major role throughout the exhibition, in both practical and purely aesthetic ways. Gaze at the beautiful and tasteful ceramic bowls by various students, which subtly make references through design to the sustainable foods (e.g. ants, crickets, mushrooms, and cactuses) that filled them for opening night snacks (sure beats the standard leftover grapes, cheese, and broken crackers we’re all accustomed to).
Miley Perez, Lemur Gardener, Whistle Flower, ceramic and paint. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Inspired by the many vital pollinator species, throughout the gallery you encounter ceramic critters (some with hats! See: Lemur Gardener, Whistle Flower by Miley Perez (age 15)) and winged pollinators appear to crawl up walls, out of holes, and float in the air in a visual symphony of bright, gloopy joy. With so much on view from so many different ages, the overall installation is dynamic and works particularly well when viewed from the generally lower viewing angle of children. (Try it, just a foot lower than you’re used to.)
Kelly Cox, Some People Say Not To Worry About the Air, clay and spray paint. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Considering the theme, however, inevitably there is a darker side to the exhibition. On a charcoal-colored wall Kelly Cox’s Some People Say Not to Worry About the Air, a series of hand sculpted clay respirator masks, spray painted in alarming yellow, remarks on a present and future where degrading air quality is a major concern.
Anna Kaye, Coos, Caws, Rattles, and Clicks (Crow), charcoal on paper. Image courtesy of DAVA.
Nearby Anna Kaye’s gorgeous and striking charcoal drawing Coos, Caws, Rattles, and Clicks (Crow) suggests a burned and ashen landscape, while leaving room for interpretations of the cyclical nature of destruction and regrowth.
Rosalyn Paz, Resistance Is Our Power, digital print. Image courtesy of DAVA.
Perhaps inspired by the previous works mentioned, Dayana Ortega’s (age 16) Our Home Is Burning, which depicts a bird donning a gas mask, is darkly humorous and poignant. Of note, Rosalyn Paz’s (age 16) stunning and powerful poster, originally created as a watercolor painting, portrays a crying woman holding in her hands two landscapes: one verdant and filled with playing children, the other smoke-filled and war-ravaged. Works like these add an intense emotional depth to the exhibition, which is further enhanced by the works of Regan Rosburg and Eileen Roscina.
An installation view of Eileen Roscina’s letter with pressed flowers. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Both of these artists make use of the written word (i.e. personal letters) as a visual medium to describe humanity’s collective regrets and fears about the past, present, and future in the wake of a changing climate. Roscina’s large, handwritten note to her three-year-old son Sylvan is tender, poetic, and surrounded by a border of delicately pressed flowers. The work’s pretty and old-fashioned presentation masterfully belies the largely doom-ridden content, with its references to “a toxic smoke-filled sunset,” ash, oil residue, and invasive species.
An installation view of writing desk and works by Regan Rosburg. Image by Raymundo Muñoz
Rosburg’s dear future film meanwhile combines footage from her affecting 2019 artist residency in the Arctic Circle with a selection of letters from her Everything is Fine letters. In this ever-growing series, people of all ages and walks of life are invited to reflect, in handwritten form, on “our emotional relationship to the natural world and what we stand to lose.” DAVA youths were also invited to contribute their own letters to the series.
Detail of the Letters to the Future installation by Regan Rosburg made up of handwritten letters. Image courtesy of DAVA.
From afar, the jumbled collection of notes is mysterious and appears random, but it becomes more and more emotionally arresting with each letter you read. One letter, in particular, sums it up: “[in reference to children the author does not yet have] Can they be the change I’ve failed to be?” No pressure, kids.
Installation view of Living Memorials, various artists, bisque red clay, tree saplings, and soil. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
While critical and often uncomfortable reflections on the state of our natural world is undoubtedly a major aim, ultimately, Seeds of Hope invites change through global action starting at a personal level. Some works are inspired by specific remedies. Living Memorials honors already lost trees with tree saplings in cute, tree-shaped, bisque red clay pots that can be planted in their entirety. The crafty Bee House by Rajaa Balkis (age 15) can functionally provide habitat to valuable pollinators.
Detail of Carbon Footprints community art installation at DAVA. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
Detail of the Carbon Footprints community art installation at DAVA. Photo by Raymundo Muñoz.
Others invite viewers to identify ways that they can implement change in their daily lives. Composed of a wavy trail of footprints on a wall leading into the gallery, an interactive community art installation titled Carbon Footprints cleverly (and without pretension) plays with the concept of carbon sequestration, using carbon-colored construction paper and participants’ own footprints and ideas about helping the environment. It’s the kind of thing you would see in an elementary school classroom but would just as easily encounter in a gallery or museum. (Much credit goes to DAVA gallery manager Viviane Le Courtois for orchestrating the balancing act of producing an exhibition with so many elements and sentiments at play.)
An installation view of the Seeds of Hope exhibition at the DAVA gallery. Image by Raymundo Muñoz.
For all the disheartening statistics and dour expressions, though, the show isn’t a downer. Rather, Seeds of Hope offers an alternative to malaise, fear of the future, and inaction through hopelessness. The exhibition presents the supreme challenge that as our climate changes so must we, and for the better.
Raymundo Muñoz (he/him) is a Denver-based printmaker and photographer. He is a current Land Line artist-in-residence at Denver Botanic Gardens. He is the director/co-curator of Alto Gallery and board president of 501(c)(3) non-profit Birdseed Collective. Ray is guided by the principle that art is a bridge, and it connects us to ourselves and each other across time and space.
