all that moves
video still from all that moves project
by Allison Maria Rodriguez
multi-channel immersive video installation, 2021-22
Artist Statement
all that moves is an immersive multi-channel video installation exploring themes of physical and spiritual interconnection within hidden worlds. Utilizing the site of Churchill Manitoba – right at the arctic’s edge – as a foundation, this work bears witness to the story embedded in the landscape. From the unexpected beauty of an arctic summer, to the life cycle of water fleas, this work celebrates the artistry of the overlooked while also testifying to the urgent necessity of looking closer. The North is a place often forgotten by the rest of the world, but it is here that it is possible to see the impact of climate change most clearly. The fatal flaws of a colonial world view are spotlighted against a stark tundra – remnants from thoughtless actions to genocide hold visceral energy in a place seemingly unmarred by human intervention. Reflecting the place itself, the installation is a quiet meditation on our collective oneness and a testament that our stories, and our futures, are eternally linked.
All materials used in the work were gathered during an Earthwatch Fellowship at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre, where the artist personally experienced both profound scientific and spiritual discoveries. She is immensely grateful to both Earthwatch and the CNSC for this incredible opportunity.
images below: A new site-responsive version of “all that moves” on view in the New England Triennial 2022 at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum. The Triennial was curated by Sarah Montross and Shana Dumont Garr across both the deCordova & Fruitlands Museum from April 8 – September 11, 2022. Photos by Julia Featheringill
all that moves
by Allison Maria Rodriguez, 2022
in “The New England Triennial” at deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum
curated by Sarah Montross and Shana Dumont Garr
on view April 8 – September 11, 2022
(video documentation above by Sue Murad)
all that moves
by Allison Maria Rodriguez, 2021
solo exhibition at INSTALLATION SPACE
on view October 22 – November 28, 2021
(video documentation above by Sue Murad)
all that moves
by Allison Maria Rodriguez, 2021
in A Thread, Extended” curated by Amy Halliday
Northeastern University Gallery 360
(this first version of the project was created site-responsively for Gallery 360)
on view June 16 – October 2, 2021
(video documentation above by Sue Murad)
Text below by curator Amy Halliday:
‘all that moves’ is an immersive multi-channel video installation that emerges from the artist’s residency in Churchill, Manitoba during an Earthworks Fellowship at the Churchill Northern Studies Centre. This small town at the Arctic’s edge is extremely vulnerable to climate change, and is a beacon for related scientific research. Through one component of the installation — a series of videos shot and installed at ground level — Rodriguez invites us to slow down, to pay attention; to become close observers in turn.
Yet alongside the town’s environmental acclaim (it is also a popular destination for eco-tourism), Rodriguez surfaces the specter of the forced removal of members of the Sayisi Dene First Nation to Churchill in the 1950s. Relocated on the false environmental pretext that they were overhunting Caribou in the Little Duck Lake region, the Dene were later moved to the (failed) federal-government-designed “Dene Village” seen in the installation’s central projection.
Rodriguez also draws attention to the area’s history as a research and military testing site for launching rockets and missiles in arctic conditions: though the Churchill Rocket Range closed in the 1980s, uncleared shrapnel still litters the landscape. Throughout the installation, the artist combines original footage with composite animations of an auroral sky. The phenomenon invokes deep indigenous knowledge and histories of geophysical inquiry, becoming a plane of interconnection and imagination: a space for holding all that Churchill harbors; “all that moves”.
all that moves has been on view as unique, site-responsive iterations of the project in the following exhibitions:
– New England Triennial 2022 at the deCordova Sculpture Park and Museum, curated by Sarah Montross and Shana Dumont Garr across both the deCordova & Fruitlands Museum from April 8 – September 11, 2022.
– all that moves. INSTALLATION SPACE, North Adams, MA. October 22 – November 28, 2021
– A Thread, Extended. (with Odette England & Justin Levesque) curated by Amy Halliday. Gallery 360, Northeastern University. Boston, MA. June 16 – October 2, 2021