Thick as Mud, on view at the Henry Art Gallery February 4 – May 7, 2023, explores how mud animates relationships between people and place through the work of eight contemporary artists. Across multiple geographies and a range of aesthetic approaches—from figurative clay sculpture to audio recordings of the swamp—these artists engage mud as a material or subject that shapes personal and collective histories, memory, and imagination. Each artist brings a distinct perspective to the theme, conjuring dynamics embedded in the landscape that include colonial and racialized forms of dispossession, cultural reclamation, narratives of self-actualization, and ecological loss and adaptation.
Artists: Dineo Seshee Bopape, Diedrick Brackens, Ali Cherri, Christine Howard Sandoval, Candice Lin, Rose B. Simpson, Eve Tagny, Sasha Wortzel
