The Westmont Ridley-Tree Museum of Art features the multimedia creations of Ethan Turpin, whose works are grounded in the natural cycles of wildfire, devastation, and recovery and regrowth, Jan. 9-March 22.
There will be a free opening reception of WILDLAND: Ethan Turpin’s Collaborations on Fire and Water, 4-6 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at the museum.
“Turpin brings artists, scientists and educators together to create powerful experiences that broaden perspectives and deepen awareness of underlying natural forces where we live in Southern California,” said Judy L. Larson, Askew professor of art history and museum director.
Turpin’s personal artistic practice has explored ways of perceiving climate change, leading to 10 years of collaborations and the founding of the Burn Cycle Project, which focuses on the complex relationships between fire, water and ourselves.
“WILDLAND will engage with the paradoxical entanglements of beauty and risk present in the exhibit’s location, the Westmont College campus,” Larson said. “Using a wide range of immersive and participatory media, Turpin and his collaborators will share modes of orientation toward wonder and resilience within a mighty landscape.”
The museum is open 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Monday through Friday and 11 a.m.-5 p.m. Saturdays; closed Sundays and college holidays.
For more, visit westmont.edu/museum or call the museum at 805-565-6162.
Turpin and Naomi Tague, a researcher and professor of ecology at UC Santa Barbara, will explore their collaborations for WILDLAND in a free, public lecture, 5:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 30, in Westmont’s Adams Center, classroom 216.
A site-specific installation, created by Turpin and Jonathan PJ Smith, co-owner of the Environment Makers, will use multiple video projectors and mapped footage of glowing embers to make trees, scarred from the 2008 Tea Fire, appear as though glowing with fire from within.
The special event, called Ember Trees, will be at 6 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 20, in groves of stone pine trees in Westmont’s Formal Gardens, east of the museum.
The program will include testimonials from firefighters and community members, a poetry reading by Paul Willis, former Santa Barbara poet laureate, and a musical piece by Daniel Gee, Westmont director of choral activities.
The museum hosts a free, all-ages Family Day for the community to experience the WILDLAND exhibit; create sustainable arts-and-crafts projects; visit educational workshops and tables from local organizations such as the Museum of Natural History and the Santa Barbara County Fire Safe Council; visit with firefighters; view a nature documentary inside Porter Theatre; and enjoy a community barbecue.
Friend of Wildland sponsorship opportunities are available here.