The Artist in the Archive: The Art-Science Discoveries of Kirsten Stolle

Event Details

Join the Halsey Institute of Contemporary Art at CofC on Tuesday, October 4 at 7:00 PM in the galleries for a lecture by the "Only You Can Prevent A Forest" exhibition essayist Hannah Star Rogers centered on the intersection of art and science in the work of Kirsten Stolle. This event is free admission.

Hannah Star Rogers is an Art and Science Studies scholar, curator, and poet. She received her Ph.D. at Cornell University in Science & Technology Studies, where her research concerned the intersection of art and science, particularly critiques of science in contemporary art. She explores the question of how art and science work as categories to circumscribe bodies of knowledge. She is currently a Visiting Scholar in Science, Technology, and Innovation Studies (STIS) at the University of Edinburgh and lectures at the University of Virginia’s Engineering and Society department.

Using appropriation, wordplay, and humor, Kirsten Stolle co-opts advertising strategies used by agrichemical corporations to resurface and critique company history. For her exhibition, Only You Can Prevent A Forest, Stolle created photo-based collages, visual poetry interventions, text-based sound animation, a neon wall piece, and her first site-responsive sculptural installation. Building upon her decade-long research into companies like Bayer/Monsanto and Dow Chemical, the work will forefront historical ties to chemical warfare and reveal persistent greenwashing. Stolle’s work interrogates the global influence of chemical companies on our food supply and their consistent efforts to downplay effects of their toxic products on our health and environment.

Kirsten Stolle: Only You Can Prevent A Forest is funded in part by a grant from South Arts in partnership with the National Endowment for the Arts and the South Carolina Arts Commission, and with the generous support of Charleston magazine, and Mindelle Seltzer and Robert Lovinger.