Disturbance Ecologies :: Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo

Disturbance Ecologies

“Disturbance Ecologies,” reflects upon the possibility of living cooperatively towards partial recuperation in the wake of a human disturbed world. A disturbance marks simultaneously a problem, an end, and a beginning of something new. Places marked by human disturbance have struggled and responded with real world examples consisting of new mineral classifications, plastic eating fungi, and the barbed wire notion of private property. In this exhibition’s hypothetical landscape, serpents from Latin-American myth observe actions in the present from a subterranean spiritual realm, seed skeletons are the dead holding the living protected by sharp leaves formed from beer cans. Citrine, fools gold, and corals wrap themselves around and amongst bricks, cinder blocks, and broken technology. The negotiation of the natural and artificial have formed a quiet commons at which we can water or waste, calling upon us to tend to a troubled present.

Sarah Elizabeth is the recipient of the 2023 National Open Call for Exhibitions.

BIO:

Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo is an interdisciplinary artist based in Memphis, TN. She is a co-founder of BASEMENT, a provisional artist-run space in Chapel Hill, NC where she was also a co-curator from 2019-2022. Her work has been shown at the Mint Museum, Ackland Art Museum, Duke University, and Field Projects among others. She received her MFA in Interdisciplinary Studio from The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, and her BA in Studio Art and English Literature from Davidson College. She was a 10-month artist-in-residence at Crosstown Arts (2021) and is an upcoming artist-in-residence at the McColl Center (2023). She was a 2021 New Public Sculpture Fellow with the Urban Arts Commission in Memphis, and a 2021 recipient of the Current Art Fund Grant. She was awarded the 2022 Tennessee State Fellowship and was the finalist for the Southern Prize.

Featured Image:

Sarah Elizabeth Cornejo
The Pool
sand, citrine rock, broken asphalt, plug, wires, broken iPhones, spray foam, fencing, coral, broken brick, broken cinder block, saw dust, wood glue, found bullet casings, old bandsaw blade, shells, fools gold, shattered car glass, bolts, seaweed, epoxy clay, alcohol ink, water
13″ x 24″ x 29”
2023