STOCKBRIDGE — Long before the pandemic began, Madeline Schwartzman had grown increasingly frustrated by the accessibility to nature in distress through the limited lens of social media. Watching the Amazon burn, from her home in New England, elicited a feeling she likens to an “incapacity to do anything [to help] and the ability to just veer away, click on something else,” the Berkshire-based artist told The Edge. Schwartzman soon seized the opportunity to literally face nature, up close and personally, through a series of unconventional self-portraits. Via daring and intimate immersion in her local surroundings, she remedied her gnawing inaction. The practice ultimately inspired her most recent body of work, “Face Nature,” which will be on exhibit at Berkshire Botanical Garden’s Leonhardt Galleries January 15–February 25.
“It’s a spectacular learning process … when you stop looking at nature from a distance and bring it close to your face,” Schwartzman explained of her experience appearing in such close proximity to plants. Her unique experimental art practice features installations on the human body that form uncanny hybrids and present a vehicle for mutual subjectivity. At its core, the project has reciprocal benefits for artist and viewer alike: “By changing the way I dealt with nature, I could bring it to others,” said the self-described backpacker, hiker, and collector-of-things.
Enter the pandemic, which afforded Schwartzman, after she relocated from Brooklyn to the Berkshires, much more access to outdoor space. This, in turn, “totally bumped up” her creative process. “[Spending time outdoors became] super ritualized and incredibly helpful,” she said, noting the cathartic power of nature. A glance at her images shows the artist wearing evidence of all the seasons — from star-shaped mountain laurel blossoms and purple, curly kale to ochre-hued gingko leaves and the fiery red of the invasive winged burning bush.
“People naturally relate to the content,” said Schwartzman, who points to “Face Nature” as a mask of sorts, which resonates with folks at present (made clear from Schwartzman’s 25.2K Instagram followers). And for good reason. “[During] the pandemic, we all had masks, [leaving] only the top half of the face visible … [resulting] in utter shock when you [finally] saw someone’s mouth,” she said.
Above all else, Schwartzman’s goal is to create mutual subjectivity. She points to the Anthropocene Epoch (an unofficial unit of geologic time used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history), marked by the significant impact of human activity on the planet’s climate and ecosystems. Her practice, by extension, aims to decentralize humans by depicting them in concert with nature.
“The 20th-century idea of landscape, the distant view, is not helping us, nor is seeing so much of the disaster [without] recourse,” Schwartzman said. Her personal practice depicts humans and flora intertwined, which, despite the two being so intimately connected, is rare to see.
For her most current project, Schwartzman first collected then interfaced with myriad specimens she encountered in the wild — sometimes shooting in the natural world, and at other times indoors. In each instance, most of them impromptu, she was aware of but also limited by the fleeting vitality of the leaves and flowers she plucked, most of which withered and died within a few hours. The end result, she said, is “a kind of new awareness, [via] close proximity.” Amidst a prolonged period of ultra-sanitization in our culture, Schwartzman’s work taps into further symbolic meaning: humans cannot live, thrive or even exist separate from nature, and inviting in foreign bacteria actually aids in good health.
The venue for Schwartzman’s upcoming show is particularly apropos. At the start of the pandemic, one of her then 16-year-old twin daughters, who is obsessed with plant science, reached out to the BBG and secured a volunteer job. On the very first day, she asked her mother and sister to stay for a while “because, you know, it was new.” They had so much fun that all three ended up volunteering weekly. There, among the gardens, Schwartzman met BBG horticulture staff member Ryan Campbell, who ultimately saw Schwartzman’s photographs and suggested the nonprofit might be a good venue for the work.
Serendipity? Perhaps. Or, more likely, a fantastic example of what happens when humans venture outdoors and face nature — in all its certain, uncertain glory.
NOTE: An opening reception for Face Nature is scheduled for Saturday, Jan. 15, from 3-5 p.m. Gallery hours are Tuesdays–Sundays, 11 a.m.–3 p.m. Masks and proof of vaccination are required to enjoy the galleries.