Threshold 32°F

ABOUT

SCENE Metrospace | 110 Charles St. East Lansing

November 5-December 13, Reception November 6, 5-7pm | Artist Talks at 6pm

Threshold 32°F, by artist Klara Maisch, writer Debbie Clarke Moderow, and ecologist Rebecca Hewitt, is a multidisciplinary narrative about change in the boreal forest. Together, the voices of Maisch, Moderow, and Hewitt take the audience on a journey that unfolds in a sequence of paintings and poems, accompanied by scientific field notes.

ABOUT THE COLLABORATION

On a warm September morning in Interior Alaska, an artist, a writer, and an ecologist wander through the boreal forest. As they move among spruce trees, they look to the forest floor, its weave of berries and mosses, fungi, and lichens, so well-adapted to long dark months of cold. The three friends are winter people. The musky scent of fall lifts their spirits, but signs of warming are clear.

Extended summers and temperature swings above 32°F (0°C) in winter have amplified change in the North. The artist pauses to sketch a tree trunk spilling sap from boreholes left by spruce bark beetles. The ecologist touches a branch full of browned needles and describes the tree’s connection to fungal networks below ground. The writer scans the understory for healthy young spruce.

In the company of fear unspoken, the three forage on an earthen threshold where science meets story, where recipes for resilience might reside. Where 32°F, the tipping point between ice and water, draws them deeper into a storyline of what is at stake when temperatures rise in a land shaped by cold.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

Threshold 32°F was produced in partnership with the In a Time of Change (itoc.alaska.edu) program, co-led by Mary Beth Leigh (University of Alaska Fairbanks) and Lissy Goralnik (Michigan State University), with funding from the National Science Foundation (DEB-2224776 and DEB-1636476) and the USDA Forest Service Pacific Northwest Research Station (RJVA-PNW-20-JV-11261932-018) through the Bonanza Creek Long-Term Ecological Research program (lter.uaf.edu). Additional funding was provided by a grant from the Alaska State Council on the Arts and the National Endowment for the Arts, with additional support from the Rasmuson Foundation.