Kathy Sirico - Floating Chronologies (2022)

Floating Chronologies investigates dendrochronology—the study of mapping tree-rings—and its role in how we impose human power over nature, to the cost of climate devastation. Scientists use the term “Floating Chronology” to describe a tree-ring history whose beginning and end dates are not known and cannot be fully mapped. Here, I offer an alternative viewpoint which will reorient viewers out of a societally imposed state of mind, and towards one of empathy and climate justice. The primary sculptural element of my project is a large- scale, circular mixed media collage which stands in place of the museum tree. It is an empathetic monument which serves as an abstract alternative to patriarchal models of narrative art. –Kathy Sirico