“In the midst of ecocide, art can divine hope out of a chaotic world. My task as an artist is to understand that and design another world.”
— Aviva Rahmani
Biography
Pioneering ecological artist Aviva Rahmani has worked at the cutting edge of the avant-garde since she committed to her career in art at the age of nineteen. She has devoted many years of her working life to teaching, inspiring, and leading others through her art to a renewed focus on ecological restoration as artmaking. Rahmani is at the forefront of her field in ecological art and exhibits, publishes, and presents internationally. She currently lives and works in Manhattan and Maine and has recently completed a residency with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council on Governors Island, New York.
Current Projects
Aviva Rahmani’s current projects, The Blued Trees and The Blued Trees Symphony (2015- present) have been installed and copyrighted in the path of natural gas pipelines to protect forests across miles of North America. That work has gained international attention and support, including numerous fellowships. Rahmani holds a PhD in environmental sciences, technology and studio art and has produced sessions on climate change viewed from eighty-five countries. “Trigger Points/ Tipping Points,” premiered at the 2007 Venice Biennale. She is an Affiliate at the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado.
Recognition
Aviva’s work has won numerous grants and fellowships and been written about internationally. She is an affiliate with the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder, gained her PhD from the University of Plymouth, UK, and received her BFA and MFA at the California Institute of the Arts.
Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University, UK; editor of Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968–2014
"Rahmani brings us to the place where her art (which speaks of the urgency of action and the lack of time to make change) is refracted through her reflections of her life—moments in time as a process through time."
Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia
"In Divining Chaos she nails her own heart to the Earth’s gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation."
‘Divining Chaos The Autobiography of an Idea’
For a full list of reviews of Aviva’s recent book please click here: Reviews
What People Are Saying
A full list of articles about or mentioning Aviva’s work can be found on page Referenced by Others.
Dr Robert Shane, Art Historian and Critic
“Aviva Rahmani is a transdisciplinary ecoartist, whose range of output from 1960s-1970s performance art to her continental-scaled ecoart projects is indeed legendary, and ever progressing.”
Eleanor Heartney, discussing Aviva Rahmani, Agnes Denes, Helen and Newton Harrison
(The Harrisons) Betsy Damon and Bonnie Ora Sherk“It is striking how many pioneers of Eco art are also deeply committed feminists. They pursue a feminism that is less about breaking the glass ceiling than about reordering the systems that perpetuate inequity.”
Isaac Kaplin“Aviva Rahmani argues that many entrenched political issues can be addressed with artistic thinking and a focus on human relationships.”
Audrea Lim“Blued Trees has come to symbolize — in a powerfully visual way — the absurdity of a political system that props up the rights of corporations.”
Recent Inclusions in Books & Journals
A full list of books and journals is available on the page Publications.
Journals
The Music of the Trees: The Blued Trees Symphony and Opera as Environmental Research and Legal Activism Leonardo Music Journal 2019 Vol. 29, 8-13. 2019. https://www.mitpressjournals.org/doi/pdfplus/10.1162/lmj_a_01055
Blowin’ in the Wind” M/E/A/N/I/N/G: The Final Issue on A Year of Positive Thinking December 2016. https://ayearofpositivethinking.com/2016/12/17/
The Spirit of Change: Water, Policy and Ecological Artmaking Center for Humans and Nature October 21 2016 https://www.humansandnature.org/the-spirit-of-change
Books
Divining Chaos The Autobiography of an Idea is a spirited memoir by artist Aviva Rahmani, offering a relatable narrative to discuss trigger point theory and the importance of eco-art activism. Written by Aviva Rahmani, foreword by Lucy R. Lippard. New Village Press. 2022.
Organizing the Approach in “Ecoart in Action,” an Anthology of writings About Teaching Ecological Art, edited by Christopher Fremantle, Amara Geffen, Aviva Rahmani and Ann Rosenthal. New Village Press. 2022.
Blued Trees as Policy: art, law, science and the Anthropocene in Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene Edited by Julie Reiss, Wilmington, Delaware: Vernon Press. 2019.
Interviews and Quotes from Aviva Rahmani
A full list of interviews can be found on the page Interviews and Q and A pages can be found on key topics on the pages Feminist Art, Political Art, Complex Systems and Philosophy in Art.
“As artists, we learn to master but then defy formalist rules… so when we consider the rules of legal systems, we intuitively start testing for weaknesses.”
“The human plague isn’t just about numbers, it’s also about the concentration of resources in an oligarchic uber-class…”
“I think many women in the field of ecological art feel a visceral sense of mission that makes our work that much more powerful when we can get through the cultural noise.”
“I always feel my task as an artist is to embody art as filtration for my life experiences. Whether that is rape or environmental degradation is an historical question about my evolving interests.“
Contact Aviva Rahmani
If you have any questions or comments, please get in touch via email.
Email
ghostnets@ghostnets.com