Calendar

Public Lecture and Talk by and with Lillian Ball | artist, researcher, environmental activist, New York | https://www.lillianball.com

Moderated by Prof. Christin Lahr and Prof. Isabel Lewis

parallel live via webex-meeting: webex-meeting | https://hgb-leipzig.webex.com/meet/khuf

Lillian Ball has recently returned from exploring the Caribbean’s reefs and mangroves from a trimaran sailboat. The artist will share aspects of her many wetland based projects. Her pro-activist perspective merges science, creative visualization, and community interaction.

Lillian Ball is a New York-based artist and environmental activist with a multidisciplinary background in anthropology, ethnographic film, sculpture, and activism.

After moving to Long Island's North Fork in the mid-2000s, her artistic practice increasingly shifted to activism focused on environmental concerns. Engagements with water issues have been the central focus of her artistic work ever since. Her initial interest in nature photography, which allowed her to combine art and environmental activism, continues to influence her work. In her multimedia installations, such as the ongoing interactive series of "GO" games, Ball addresses the protection of an endangered UNESCO National Park in Andalusia or the restoration of mangroves in Bimini / Bahamas (project H.O.M.E. Help Our Mangrove Ecosystem). The video work "Rising Voices" deals with climate threats and sea level rise in Shaktoolik, a community in Alaska. Characteristic of her artistic practice is the active involvement of diverse local publics and communities.

In the ongoing WATERWASH® project series, Lillian Ball combines stormwater remediation, wetland habitat restoration, and educational outreach. The original prototype was a water-access park funded by the Long Island Sound Futures Fund as a concept that can be applied to coastal situations worldwide. WATERWASH Bronx River, the second completed project, is an innovative, collaborative green infrastructure solution to address runoff pollution in the Bronx River. Job skills apprentices from the nonprofit organization Rocking the Boat, which teaches local youth to build wooden boats and do environmental work on the river, planted 9000 native plants. WATERWASH Bronx River cleans up runoff from commercial parking lots before it enters the river, opens private property to public use, and was funded by the New York State Attorney General's Office with fines from polluters.

Lillian Ball has exhibited and lectured internationally, including at the Anchorage Museum, the Seville Biennial, and the Reina Sofia Museum in Spain. Her numerous art awards include two fellowships from the New York State Foundation for the Arts, a grant from the John Simon Guggenheim Foundation, and a National Endowment for the Arts Grant. In 2012, she was named Environmentalist of the Year by the North Fork Environmental Council and was honored by the New York State Assembly with an award for WATERWASH. In 2006, Lillian Ball was appointed to the Land Preservation Committee of Southold, NY. Since then, she has worked with this maritime community on conservation, land use, and public lands management.  

Tue 09/05/2023 | afterwards approx. 21:00 | MEET AND EAT | Room 2.30
Conversations and spooning soup together


Wed 10.05.2023 | 10:00 - 13:00 | Room 2.30
Talk About EXPANDED SUSTAINABILITY: Connecting Art, Restoration, and Community
Continuing conversation with Lillian Ball, based on questions and interests of the students.

The lecture is part of the public event series EXPANDED SUSTAINABILITY of Prof. Christin Lahr's class Artistic Action and Research with guests in the winter semester 2022/23 and summer semester 2023

https://www.hgb-leipzig.de/en/academy/calendar/1590