Creek by Creek

 

Creek by Creek is a collaborative effort by artists Mary Edna Fraser and Jeff Kopish, underscoring the perils of plastic pollution and the importance of protecting the Lowcountry’s unique waterways. Featuring an array of Fraser’s batiks on silk and oil paintings and Kopish’s ceramic and found object sculptures incorporating everything from recycled plastic to actual trash, this exhibition aims to further educate the public on environmental issues through the lens of art, and to remind viewers of the consequences of their own actions within the larger ecological systems of which they are a part.

The artists’ new work, and their ecological concerns, is being presented in concert with three indispensable area groups: Charleston Waterkeeper, the Coastal Conservation League, and the South Carolina Environmental Law Project. Specifically, the exhibition will focus on eight areas of concern: the endangered African American communities of Cainhoy and Phillips, the Beidler Forest Audubon Center and Sanctuary, Captain Sam’s Spit, Crab Bank, the Great Pee Dee River, Hobcaw Barony, Shem Creek, and James Island Creek.

“My work is not what is important,” says Fraser. “It is the collective work done by all three groups. How they protect what we hold dear… passing the baton to win new battles. This is an environmental activist show to encourage action and counter apathy.”

The installation will be on view Wednesdays through Sundays from noon to 5pm starting March 18 and closing May 8, 2022 at City Gallery.

Curator’s Statement:

Mary Edna Fraser

I am an environmental activist artist whose website Delete Apathy seeks to change policy through creative projects. Advocating for local conservation through art began in 1984 with Dana Beach at the Coastal Conservation League. While flying in my family’s antique prop plane over the South Carolina coast, I photographed landscapes threatened by development.

This exhibit will include videos produced by my studio assistants, Cori McIntyre, Environmental Media Consultant and Kevin Free, Digital Archivist. It will include an exhibition of batiks on silk and oil paintings, letters to the editor, as well as text explaining battles fought and still to be won. My friend, sculptor Jeff Kopish, with whom I have exhibited for decades, will share his newest work made with recycled refuse. Dr. Orrin H. Pilkey, Professor Emeritus of Earth Sciences at Duke University, and my collaborator on two books Global Climate Change: A Primer, Duke University Press and A Celebration of the World’s Barrier Island, Columbia University Press, contributes wall text concerning sand mining and sea level rise.

My work is currently informed by Amy Armstrong at SC Environmental Law Project (SCELP), Andrew Wunderley at Charleston Waterkeeper (CW), and Emily Cedzo at Coastal Conservation League (CCL). Join us in efforts to fight greed and disinformation, and to protect the land and water we hold so dear.

 

About the artists:

Mary Edna Fraser

The pioneering work of American artist Mary Edna Fraser has been collected and exhibited worldwide. Her silk batiks (an ancient resist process using wax and dye on cloth) and oil paintings range from panoramic to plein air. The common thread in her career of four decades is environmental awareness.

Her art has supported the efforts of Charleston Waterkeeper, Coastal Conservation League, SC Environmental Law Project, Water Missions International, The Nature Conservancy, Sierra Club and Environmental Defense Fund. Her blog, Delete Apathy, is a venue for activism, from local to global.

NASA recognized Fraser as their Artist of the Year and she was featured demonstrating batik in DC at the Smithsonian Folklife Festival. The Verner Award was presented in 2016, South Carolina’s highest honor for an artist.

Fraser has lectured internationally in Indonesia, Taiwan, and Australia. Venues such as the National Academy of Sciences, Duke University Museum of Art, and the National Science Foundation have hosted over 100 of the artist’s one-woman exhibitions. National Geographic and Ted Turner have broadcast her endeavors. Beginning with the aerial viewpoint of her Grandfather’s 1946 Ercoupe plane, she has captured the bigger picture. Science has become more beautiful and accessible through the lens of Mary Edna Fraser’s art.

Jeff Kopish

Jeff Kopish has been creating art in Charleston, SC for almost thirty years and has been using alternative materials and repurposing discarded objects in his work since elementary school. In college, he studied science and received degrees in bacteriology and environmental change; while there, he continuously took ceramic courses as stress relief. After college, he served as a US Peace Corps volunteer and saw how ingenious people can be; necessity and a lack of resources make for creative thinking. This point of view became front and center of what he considered important. He has maintained his commitment to helping the environment by creating as much art with society’s debris: His giant octopus (“Pugita”) at Taco Boy on Folly Beach, SC, was made from the trash of one holiday weekend. He is happily supported by family, friends, locals, tourists, architects, designers and businesses, and gives heartfelt thanks to all.