Natura Non Constristatur: Survey Exhibition

 

SECRIST | BEACH is pleased to present the salon invitational exhibition Natura Non Constristatur. Natura Non Constristatur brings together a group of artists that formally and conceptually explore the cultural potency of nature - specifically trees and forests - in relation to humanity. The exhibition includes an intergenerational roster of artists and was curated with the assistance of gallery artist Jaqueline Surdell. Natura Non Constristatur is presented concurrently with Surdell's solo exhibition The Conversion: Rings, Rupture, and the Forest Archive as well as a site specific installation, titled Lumen Reliquary, created by Andee Hess of Osmose Design.

 

Natura Non Constristatur is a Latin phrase meaning “Nature Is Not Saddened.” It expresses the idea that the natural world is indifferent to human suffering and misfortune. This phrase is often associated with a philosophical outlook that emphasizes the insignificance of human affairs, and reflection on whether nature truly coexists—or merely endures—us. We like to imagine a symbiotic bond—one of mutual support and harmony, but in this Age of Anthropocene, reality teaches us otherwise.

 

The artists in Natura Non Constristatur employ a range of approaches and materials within this dynamic that explores the profundity of our relationship to forests. Throughout recorded human existence, these woodland areas have projected a wide range of cultural and emotional feelings stirring awe and reverence while conjuring everything from mystery and divinity, to fear and comfort. The same compulsions invoked within this one might also find in the spiritual realm, organized or otherwise. This intersection of nature and spirituality, compounded by the notion of nature’s lack of empathy, is what Natura Non Constristatur explores.