The Future is Now 

On the heels of the COVID pandemic, many of us wonder what comes next for us as humans on planet Earth. We have seen — and continue to see — big changes with technology, our environment and beyond in recent years. Looking at our impact on our planet and how we live with it is exactly what the latest exhibit at the Ink People's Brenda Tuxford Gallery is all about. Backcountry Metaverse is an exhibit centered around trying to make sense of what it is like to live in the Anthropocene Era in which humans have significant impact on, well, pretty much everything. Running through Sept. 29, the group art show is the brainchild of Ink People Marketing Director and writer, critic and Journal contributor Gabrielle Gopinath and her partner, sculptural artist and art educator Benjamin Funke.

As marketing director for the Ink People, Gopinath regularly coordinates scheduling for the Brenda Tuxford Gallery. However, this is the first show she and Funke have personally curated there. (The two curated a show together called Sublime Frequencies at the Redwood Art Association in 2019.) For them, the main concept of behind this show is exploring what it means to be alive at this point in time, when human presence is everywhere.

"This is something that weighs really heavy on my mind and exists for most of the people that I know," says Gopinath. "It came to me that a lot of the artists around us are working with these kinds of ideas in various ways. It feels like the experience of trying to seek some kind of refuge during the pandemic brought home the idea that it is so difficult to separate from the world, from our digital devices and contact, and all of that."

Looking around the gallery space at the many different interpretations of the concept each artist reveals in their work, Funke added his two cents to the exhibit concept. "The COVID experience, at least for me, revealed that people either retreated to the land or went into a virtual reality-metaverse type of experience," he says. "Escapism either to the wilderness or a digital frontier, this is something I see a lot of in this artwork, too."

Upon announcing calls for artists for the show, the duo gave wide berth to artistic interpretation of their vision. They were more interested in artists exploring their conceptual ideas than in setting boundaries on the type of artwork submitted. In the end, Backcountry Metaverse brings together artists from various genres and mediums who all complement the theme in some way. Participating artists include Angie Allen, Jeremiah Barber, Laura Corsiglia, Kit Davenport, Melissa Dubbin and Aaron S. Davidson, Nicholas Erbazelli, Becky Evans, Asaf Kastel, Christine Kelly, L.L. Kessner (also a Journal contributor), Stephen Nachtigall, Emily Silver and Mitch Springer. While not all the artists are local, most of them are either based in Humboldt County or have connection to the area.

The entrance piece in the show is a sculpture by Becky Evans called "One Year Later." It's a block of salmon skeletons from 2002 fish kill on the Klamath River, preserved in hardened mud and ringed by smooth river rock. The artwork is a memorial to the fish kill, like her "30,000 Salmon" installation recently re-installed at the Morris Graves Museum of Art ("The Return of '30,000 Salmon,'" Aug. 17, 2023). On the walls beside Evans' sculpture hang drawings created on topographic maps. The work feels like dream visions of what the Klamath could look like without dams, without human intervention. "This event initiated a lot of people to realize that there may not be salmon in our future and how intolerable that would be," says Gopinath. "This is a piece that is probably more connected to this place and to the history of this place than any others. So, it seemed like a logical thing, putting this in front of the exhibit."

The exhibit fans out from there, with artwork including a digitally morphed image of an old-fashioned camera by Barber, reminding us that the future may be more artificial than human, and vessels created by Davenport that seem organic but mixed with almost-robotic components. Abstract patterns overlay maps on artist Silver's drawings of her desert walks that seem to represent both being in a physical environment, while having it mediated by information and technology at the same time. The translucent, silicone relief by Dubbin and Davidson hangs in the window as an ode to both the advances of science and plastics that invade our world, as well as the wonder of being a child and collecting tiny, seemingly natural objects. Hanging adjacent to the window, Kessner's painting of a simple but odd pattern on a black background maybe captures the whole idea of the show, prompting questions: Is it a satellite? An alien? An unidentified star system? What is that up there in the sky?

In talking about his own work and reflecting on the show theme, participating artist and local resident Nachtigall may capture Backcountry Metaverse best when he says, "I've been working to find balance between overarching themes of nature and technology, since I feel that this combination is so present in our lives, especially here in Humboldt County. Being on a hike under the redwood canopy, taking in beautiful vistas, or feeling the ocean's breeze, we still deal with the weight of phones buzzing in our pockets or, for some, the need to capture the moment, experiencing that moment through the screen itself. The artwork in this exhibition might give us different views and perspectives of these moments and give us pause to consider how our efforts might protect the ecology and environment that sustains us, both locally and globally."

The Brenda Tuxford Gallery (422 First St, co-located with the Humboldt County Visitors' Bureau) hosts Backcountry Metaverse through Sept. 29. For more information visit inkpeople.org/tuxfordgallery or call (707) 442-8413.

Tamar Burris (she/her) is a freelance education writer and relationship coach. Her book for children of divorce A New Special Friend is available through her website tamarburris.com.