Love in a Mist: The Politics of Fertility
October 28, 2019 – December 20, 2019
Druker Design Gallery
Harvard Graduate School of Design
48 Quincy Street, Gund Hall 422
Cambridge, MA 02138
Love in a Mist: The Politics of Fertilityexplores several evolving narratives on the spaces and politics of fertility, triggered by the “heartbeat bill”, which recently passed into law in states such as Mississippi, Kentucky, and Georgia to criminalize abortions from as early as six weeks into pregnancy.
The exhibition explores society’s quest to control women and nature, and the resulting environmental degradation. It brings together issues such as the historical use of synthetic hormones in women’s bodies; measures to super-size farmed animals and domesticate plants; and techniques to accelerate fertility and extract natural resources.
From the treatment of women’s bodies to the exploitative human relationship with nature, Love in a Mistexamines spaces of fertility including abortion clinics, artificial wombs, court rooms, farmed landscapes, and swamps, as extrapolated from diverse accounts and imaginaries by scholars, activists, legislators, ecologists, biologists, artists, and designers.
*Love in a Mistor Nigella sativa is a purple flower with black seeds. The seeds are known for their diverse health benefits for the heart, brain, and liver. It is also said that in ancient times they were used to help regulate fertility or induce contraction of the womb and abortions.
Curator, research, and exhibition design
Malkit Shoshan
Participating activists, artists, and designers
Atelier Van Lieshout
Yael Bartana
Lori Brown
Desirée Dolron
Foundation for Achieving Seamless Territory (FAST)
Rebecca Gomperts
Bernie Krause
Tabita Rezaire
Women on Waves
Women on Web
Graphic design
Sandra Kassenaar and Anna Moschioni
Typeface
Elizabeth Ignota by Sriwhana Spong and Sandra Kassenaar
Copy editor
Janine Armin
Research assistant
Carolina Sepúlveda
Production
Dan Borelli, David Zimmerman-Stuart
Installers
Ray Coffey, Jef Czekaj, Anita Kan, Sarah Lubin, Jesuś Matheus, Joanna Vouriotis
Production assistant
Inés Benítez Gómez
Thank you
Mohsen Mostafavi, Rebecca Gomperts, Krzysztof Wodiczko, and Matthijs Bouw for the invitation, inspiration, and support.
Atelier Van Lieshout, Yael Bartana, Inés Benítez Gómez, Dan Borelli, Lori Brown, Ray Coffey, Jef Czekaj, Desirée Dolron, Elizabeth Evitts Dickinson, Jennifer Hamilton, Anita Kan, Sandra Kassenaar, Bernie Krause, Zacharias Kunuk, Sarah Lubin, Jesuś Matheus, Ian Mauro, Astrida Neimanis, Tabita Rezaire, Carolina Sepúlveda, Diana Whitten, Joanna Vouriotis, and David Zimmerman-Stuart for your generous contributions to the exhibition.
The books, essays, lectures, and activism of Paola Ebron, Barbara Ehrenreich, Deirdre English, Silvia Federici, Donna Haraway, Ann Hibner Koblitz, John M. Riddle, Our Bodies Ourselves, Carolyn Merchant, Maria Puig de la Bellacasa, and Anna Tsing inspired and laid the intellectual foundation for this exhibition.
Love in a Mist: The Politics of Fertility is generously supported by the Consulate General of the Netherlands in New York as part of the Dutch Culture USA program.
Anyone requiring accessibility accommodations should contact the events office at (617) 496-2414 orevents@gsd.harvard.edu.
