Because the Sky Will Be Filled With Sulfur | Jeremy Bolen | MOCA GA | Art Exhibit

This round of Working Artist Projects was curated by Jordan Carter, Associate Curator of Modern and Contemporary Art at the Art Institute of Chicago

About the Exhibition

Because the Sky Will Be Filled With Sulfur is an immersive exhibition of speculative documentary works that archive our current climate crisis while simultaneously speculating on the optics and aesthetics of a possible geo-engineered future. Composed of photo based images, hybrid objects, videos and sculptures, Bolen’s new works often incorporate materials and methods that have been proposed to cool the planet, envisioning a world featuring sulfur filled skies, tinted shields for coral reefs and iridescent crops.

Bolen focuses on a climate engineering proposal dubbed “Solar Radiation Management”, in which sulfur particles injected into the stratosphere would combat rising temperatures by reflecting sunlight away from the Earth’s surface. This method mirrors the cooling effects of ash clouds caused by volcanic eruptions. Although it’s a possible means of mitigating the effects of climate change as we work toward long-term solutions, the procedure could have many unfavorable consequences including whitening the day sky, obscuring our views of the stars, and affecting crop production.

The exhibit also contains exclusive archives of the Anthropocene–the proposed current geological epoch in which human impact became as significant as the geologic forces of the past. Bolen was invited to document a sediment core that researchers at the Anthropocene Working Group (AWG) believe may offer concrete evidence of when the Anthropocene Epoch can be said to have officially begun. Scientists have long been trying to find this “global boundary stratotype section” (GSSP), more colloquially referred to as “the golden spike”, and may have found the answer in this core sample from an unusually undisturbed lake in Stanford, California.

Additionally Bolen incorporates casts of the passenger pigeon, a once abundant but now extinct species, that is currently the subject of de-extinction efforts. Casts of leaf blowers and coral also occupy the gallery, providing a glimpse of these items as the relics or fossils they may soon become. Employing an array of materials that index human impact on the planet and the technology being proposed to salvage it, Because the Sky Will Be Filled With Sulfur offers a scenario where we can discuss how collective human patterns impact what is, and what will remain, perceivable, knowable and habitable.

–Jeremy Bolen

Above Image: (detail from) Coral #1. 2022. cast coral, window tinting, found automobile rim, air conditioning vent, Jeremy Bolen

About Jeremy Bolen

Jeremy Bolen is an artist researcher, organizer and educator interested in site-specific, experimental modes of documentation and presentation. Much of Bolen’s work involves rethinking systems of recording in an attempt to observe invisible presences that remain from various scientific experiments and human interactions with the earth’s surface. Bolen received his MFA from the University of Illinois at Chicago in 2012 and was a recipient of the Banff Research in Culture Residency in Alberta, Canada; PACT Zollverein Residency in Essen, Germany; Oxbow Faculty Artist Residency in Saugatuck, MI; Anthropocene Campus Residency in Berlin; Center for Land Use Interpretation Residency in Wendover, Utah; Catwalk Institute Residency in Catskill, NY; Crosshatch Center for Art and Ecology Residency in Mancelona, MI; Signal Fire Residency in Portland, OR and Joshua Tree Highlands Residency in Joshua Tree, CA.

His work has been exhibited widely at numerous locations including the Museum of Contemporary Photography, Chicago; La Box, Bourges; POOL, Johannesburg; PACT Zollverein, Essen; EXGIRLFRIEND, Berlin; University at Buffalo, Buffalo; IDEA Space, Colorado Springs; The Mission, Houston; Galerie Zürcher, Paris; Andrew Rafacz, Chicago; Soccer Club Club, Chicago; Salon Zürcher, New York; The Drake, Toronto; Untitled Art Fair, Miami; Gallery 400, Chicago; Newspace Center for Photography, Portland; Depaul University Art Museum, Chicago and Hyde Park Art Center, Chicago. Bolen serves as Assistant Professor of Photography at Georgia State University, is a co-founder and co-organizer of the Deep Time Chicago collective, and is represented by Andrew Rafacz Gallery, Chicago.

Atlanta Art Exhibition
Moca Ga
75 Bennett St NW, Atlanta, GA 30309
https://mocaga.org/exhibitions-events/current-upcoming-exhibitions/

06/11/22-08/06/22

Jeremy Bolen: Because the Sky Will Be Filled With Sulfur
Jun 11, 2022 – Aug 6, 2022
12pm – 4pm
2021/2022 Working Artist Project