By SDCN Editor
La Jolla, CA–This fall, UC San Diego will unveil Embodied Pacific, a multi-sited exhibition in partnership with the Getty initiative PST ART: Art & Science Collide.
Embodied Pacific, a collaboration between UC San Diego’s Department of Visual Arts and Birch Aquarium at Scripps Institution of Oceanography, features artworks created by artists in partnership with scientists from Scripps Institution of Oceanography and laboratories across UC San Diego, as well as with community leaders in Indigenous environmental and ocean science, engineering and design.
The exhibition spans multiple sites on the UC San Diego campus including Birch Aquarium at Scripps, as well as Kosay Kumeyaay Market, an Indigenous-run arts center located in Old Town San Diego. In a time of planetary crisis, the exhibition examines the intersection of oceanography and Indigenous knowledge and objects — such as Kumeyaay basket-making and full-sized tule reed boats—and imagines an intercultural approach to sustaining the oceans.
Embodied Pacific is among more than 60 exhibitions and programs presented as part of PST ART. Every five years, PST ART unites hundreds of artists around a single, electrifying theme. While the theme is different each time, the heart of the exhibition is always the distinctive cultural identity of Southern California and the universal hunger for artistic and intellectual discovery. In a region famed for its films and theme parks, PST ART provides a different kind of gripping experience— and the most distinctively Southern Californians.
UC San Diego is hosting an additional PST ART installation at the Mandeville Gallery as part of the Helen and Newton Harrison: California Work exhibition. This exhibition opens on September 28.
Embodied Pacific will open on September 26 at Gallery QI and the SME Visual Arts Gallery, at Kosay Kumeyaay Market on September 27, and at Birch Aquarium on October 4. The project is curated by Lisa Cartwright, Nan Renner, and Megan Dickerson. World Design Capital 2024 is highlighting Embodied Pacific as an exemplary community program.
