Our inability to see the land as an intrinsic part of us and vice versa contributes to our violent divisions; racism, transphobia, and war, among others. The land is a living, breathing entity we are in a deeply symbiotic, oftentimes parasitic, relationship with.
In The Earth is a Body in Transition, I create material, ritual, and visual parallels between the human body and the earth body through a trans- lens; transsexual, transformative, transitional, trans-national, and transitory. The drawings, photographs, sculptures, and installations in this exhibition explore various acts of transformation occurring throughout nature: prescribed burns, species mimicry, hybridization, transsexualism, community uprisings, and the movement of tectonic plates within the earth’s crust.
The exhibition begins with the Controlled Burn series; in this work, I consider the history of controlled, or prescribed, burns. I recontextualize this practice as a metaphor for seemingly harmful acts that, in reality, enable a particular ecosystem to thrive while preventing much larger catastrophes in the future. In the back room, two sculptures from the Amalgamations series sit within an immersive drawing installation. Downstairs, a second installation situates the overlaid imagery within the topographical map of the valley in Northern Norway where my paternal grandfather was born. This is the landscape I have the longest and deepest relationship with so here, I investigate the edges between my body and this land I share a name with. The work demonstrates how I and my ancestral lands meld, and how, ultimately, to be human is to be of nature - in all of its queerness and complexity.
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The Earth is a Body in Transition
10.12.24 - 11.10.24
HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis MN
In The Earth is a Body in Transition, I create material, ritual, and visual parallels between the human body and the earth body through a trans- lens; transsexual, transformative, transitional, trans-national, and transitory. The drawings, photographs, sculptures, and installations in this exhibition explore various acts of transformation occurring throughout nature: prescribed burns, species mimicry, hybridization, transsexualism, community uprisings, and the movement of tectonic plates within the earth’s crust.
The exhibition begins with the Controlled Burn series; in this work, I consider the history of controlled, or prescribed, burns. I recontextualize this practice as a metaphor for seemingly harmful acts that, in reality, enable a particular ecosystem to thrive while preventing much larger catastrophes in the future. In the back room, two sculptures from the Amalgamations series sit within an immersive drawing installation. Downstairs, a second installation situates the overlaid imagery within the topographical map of the valley in Northern Norway where my paternal grandfather was born. This is the landscape I have the longest and deepest relationship with so here, I investigate the edges between my body and this land I share a name with. The work demonstrates how I and my ancestral lands meld, and how, ultimately, to be human is to be of nature - in all of its queerness and complexity.
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The Earth is a Body in Transition
10.12.24 - 11.10.24
HAIR+NAILS Gallery, Minneapolis MN
Sites of Exhaust:
ESO MALFLOR + NANCY JULIA HICKS
08.2023 - 09.2023
SOIL Art Gallery
Seattle, WA
In this second iteration of Sites of Exhaust, artists ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks present sculptures, videos, and printmaking-based works to investigate the parallels between the environment, human-made structures, and gender non-conforming bodies.
Sites of Exhaust:
ESO MALFLOR + Nancy Julia Hicks
02.2023 - 03.2023
Regis Center for Art
Minneapolis, MN
The Department of Art at the University of Minnesota presents Sites of Exhaust, the Regis Center for Art (RCA) Emerging Artist Program exhibition featuring the work of ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks. These artists unite their individual practices encompassing sculpture, installation, and printmaking to investigate the parallels between the environment, built structures, and trans bodies.
ESO MALFLOR + Nancy Julia Hicks
02.2023 - 03.2023
Regis Center for Art
Minneapolis, MN
The Department of Art at the University of Minnesota presents Sites of Exhaust, the Regis Center for Art (RCA) Emerging Artist Program exhibition featuring the work of ESO MALFLOR and Nancy Julia Hicks. These artists unite their individual practices encompassing sculpture, installation, and printmaking to investigate the parallels between the environment, built structures, and trans bodies.
In Tending To
2021
The pH Gallery
West Fork, AR
2021
The pH Gallery
West Fork, AR
THE HUMAN SCALE
2021
ROCHESTER ART CENTER
ROCHESTER MN
2021
ROCHESTER ART CENTER
ROCHESTER MN
Works shown: MADRE DE TODOS, 2021
"What does it mean to be human? Individually and collectively, where are we headed and on what paths have we traveled to arrive at this moment? Each of the artists presented here approaches these foundational questions from unique perspectives, using an array of methods, with answers that often take the form of more questions. The Human Scale uses art to tell a story of the human being that embraces all of our contradictions, ambiguities and eccentricities. The most direct way to consider our “scale” is our size, but we can also look at scale from the perspective of time, or our lifespans, or the way we function as a singular organism, or as a group. The Human Scale also explores the different ways in which artists depict the human form, or less tangible aspects of ourselves such as consciousness or emotion. This exhibition is firmly rooted in our present moment, and, taken as a whole, offers one possible version of where and what we are right now."
This project was supported, in part,
by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.
"What does it mean to be human? Individually and collectively, where are we headed and on what paths have we traveled to arrive at this moment? Each of the artists presented here approaches these foundational questions from unique perspectives, using an array of methods, with answers that often take the form of more questions. The Human Scale uses art to tell a story of the human being that embraces all of our contradictions, ambiguities and eccentricities. The most direct way to consider our “scale” is our size, but we can also look at scale from the perspective of time, or our lifespans, or the way we function as a singular organism, or as a group. The Human Scale also explores the different ways in which artists depict the human form, or less tangible aspects of ourselves such as consciousness or emotion. This exhibition is firmly rooted in our present moment, and, taken as a whole, offers one possible version of where and what we are right now."
This project was supported, in part,
by a Foundation for Contemporary Arts Emergency Grant.