Boston-based artist Allison Maria Rodriguez critically examines the health of our planet and the interconnection between species. In this light, the extinction of animals and environmental devastation are not just ecological horrors. They are also failures of human consciousness and imagination. Rodriguez’s recent multichannel video installations combine scenes observed in the arctic, digitally generated imagery, green screen performances, and collaged photographs. Rodriguez’s Legends Breathe (2019–present) shows a human figure in a tent that floats over a herd of wild horses. In another scene, two human figures coexist with foxes, all surrounded by an outer-space purple glow. A video still from another work, In the Presence of Absence (2017–present), shows Rodriguez sitting on the ground grazing flower petals with her fingertips. Another woman stands in front of her, smiling and comfortable, a crocodile at her feet. In the sky behind them, the heat map of a hurricane.
I had two video...
University of California Press