A still from Jason Livingston's film Ancient Sunshine. A white round sun fills the image. On the top and middle around it are yellow, orange, and red fields, and on the bottom, are black and white textures that cut off the bottom of the sun.
A still from Jason Livingston’s film Ancient Sunshine. A white round sun fills the image. On the top and middle around it are yellow, orange, and red fields, and on the bottom, are black and white textures that cut off the bottom of the sun.

Squeaky Wheel announces In the Sun’s Absence, a new public art project and exhibition by Jason Livingston on the occasion of the 2024 Solar Eclipse

Developed in collaboration with paleontologist Dr. Phoebe Cohen and with participation of Squeaky Wheel’s students, “In the Sun’s Absence” will take place at Squeaky Wheel and  billboards and public signage throughout Buffalo.

For Immediate Release
January 9, 2024
Media contact: Ekrem Serdar, ekrem@squeaky.org

BUFFALO, NY — Squeaky Wheel is pleased to announce In the Sun’s Absence, a  public art project and exhibition led by artist Jason Livingston in collaboration with Phoebe Cohen (Chair and Associate Professor of Geosciences, Williams College). Timed with the 2024 Solar Eclipse, and featuring haiku’s installed on public signage, sound art, video, print work, and sculptural projects, In the Sun’s Absence asks audiences to contemplate how “in the sun’s absence, we have a chance to notice its significance.”

The project draws from Livingston’s public and environmental art practices and Cohen’s research into deep time. Livingston and Cohen have a shared interest in the Earth’s systems and the fact that the fossil fuels that run our economy are the preserved products of ancient photosynthesis. Throughout Livingston’s public art works, audiences will reflect upon the foundational importance of our sun and its encompassing impact on the history of the Earth and humankind. This project was selected and has been generously supported by the Simons Foundation as part of their In the Path of Totality project.

Jason Livingston and Phoebe Cohen sitting next to each by a wooden table in a sun lit room at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. They are both smiling; Livingston is looking to the camera, and Cohen is looking to her right.
Jason Livingston and Phoebe Cohen sitting next to each by a wooden table in a sun lit room at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. They are both smiling; Livingston is looking to the camera, and Cohen is looking to her right.

“Jason Livingston’s long standing work through his experimental film work, installation art, and art activism – embodies a curious, risk-taking, collaborative, critical approach to media arts, with a cutting analyses of contemporary society that I believe is emblematic of our organization’s mission and history, of which he has been a part of for nearly 20 years. It’s been a joy to see him in such deep collaboration with Phoebe Cohen, whose wondrous and rigorous scope of knowledge has been essential to this project. I cannot wait for audiences to playfully and critically encounter our world and our sun together with the artist and scientist.” says curator Ekrem Serdar.

Livingston and Cohen have been developing this project over the past several months. The artist and scientist, along with our Education Director, Caroline Doherty, intensively developed the project’s direction at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September. Livingston and Cohen later led a science and sound/poetry workshop with Saturday Cafe, our advanced-track media art program for high school students. The young artists recorded haikus that will be part of the public project. An additional workshop open to the public will take place on Wednesday, January 31, 6–8 pm. 

Phoebe Cohen is lecturing, standing in front of of a projection with several students gathered around a table with notebooks. On the screen is a diagram depicting the Sun, Moon, and Earth’s position during a solar eclipse, with the moon blocking the sun relative to the earth. Cohen is pointing at the moon.
Phoebe Cohen is lecturing, standing in front of of a projection with several students gathered around a table with notebooks. On the screen is a diagram depicting the Sun, Moon, and Earth’s position during a solar eclipse, with the moon blocking the sun relative to the earth. Cohen is pointing at the moon.

Public signage in the form of billboards will begin being installed in Buffalo in late February 2024. The exhibition at Squeaky Wheel will open Friday, March 22, 2024, 6–8 pm and be on view through May 24, 2024. Squeaky Wheel will announce locations and times of public art installations and happenings in the coming year.

Biographies

Jason Livingston is a media artist, filmmaker, and educator. His award-winning films have been widely exhibited at festivals and museums, including the National Gallery of Art in Washington, D.C., the International Film Festival Rotterdam, and Media City in Canada. He is currently researching histories of extractive cinema and abolitionist re-imaginings of our shared world as a Presidential Fellow in the Department of Media Study, University at Buffalo.

Phoebe Cohen is a paleontologist, geobiologist, teacher, and science communicator. Her research focuses on understanding the interactions between life and the earth system in deep time by integrating micropaleontological, geological, and biological lines of evidence. Phoebe is an Associate Professor at Williams College, where her research has been funded by the National Science Foundation and NASA. She is also the co-host of the forthcoming podcast Jax and Phoebe Make a Planet, and an advocate for inclusion and equity in the earth sciences and beyond.

About the Simons Foundation

The Simons Foundation’s mission is to advance the frontiers of research in mathematics and the basic sciences.

Since its founding in 1994 by Jim and Marilyn Simons, the foundation has been a champion of basic science through grant funding, support for research and public engagement. We believe in asking big questions and providing sustained support to researchers working to unravel the mysteries of the universe.

Through our work we make space for scientific discovery.

Additional images and press release download

Click here to download this press release and high quality images.

Phoebe Cohen, Jason Livingston, and Caroline Doherty sitting by a table at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. Phoebe Cohen is speaking.
Phoebe Cohen, Jason Livingston, and Caroline Doherty sitting by a table at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. Phoebe Cohen is speaking.
Caroline Doherty, Jason Livingston, and Phoebe Cohen are sitting in a row by a wooden table in a sun lit room at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. Jason Livingston and Caroline Doherty are in conversation.
Caroline Doherty, Jason Livingston, and Phoebe Cohen are sitting in a row by a wooden table in a sun lit room at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. Jason Livingston and Caroline Doherty are in conversation.
Jason Livingston, Phoebe Cohen, and Caroline Doherty sitting outside on a wooden table at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. It is a sunny day; Caroline Doherty is speaking.
Jason Livingston, Phoebe Cohen, and Caroline Doherty sitting outside on a wooden table at a retreat hosted by the Simons Foundation in September 2023. It is a sunny day; Caroline Doherty is speaking.
Jason Livingston, Phoebe Cohen are standing, holding a gallon bottle of gasoline. Several students are gathered around a large table with notebooks. Behind Livingston and Cohen is a projected slide with trees and the words “1 gallon of gasoline = 90 metric tons of ancient plant matter”
Jason Livingston, Phoebe Cohen are standing, holding a gallon bottle of gasoline. Several students are gathered around a large table with notebooks. Behind Livingston and Cohen is a projected slide with trees and the words “1 gallon of gasoline = 90 metric tons of ancient plant matter”

 

 For media inquiries, contact Ekrem Serdar at ekrem@squeaky.org or 716-884-7172

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