FOOD FOR THOUGHT: Micro Views of Sustenance - Threats & Prospects

This exhibit offers a micro perspective on how one part of nature–our food–is connected to climate change.

Using photomontage to create a surreal conversation between everyday foods and microscopic parts of themselves, this work ponders threats to our staple foods from: crop loss due to droughts, floods, soil loss, pests, deforestation; loss of crop nutrient value, and stresses on developing nations; the wasting of 30% of the food we produce; the shifting ranges of many crops; the shift of seasons and implications for syncing with pollinators; and the crash of insect (bee and other) populations.

At the same time, a great deal of work is underway to make agriculture a net carbon sink rather than a net carbon emitter. These images reference prospects: regenerative agriculture, carbon farming, permaculture, forest gardens; rebuilding soil through cover crops, perennials, agroforestry, no-till, plants such as azolla which have balanced atmospheric CO2 over millions of years; and small scale efforts to develop locally-viable, backyard grains.
The goal of this exhibit is to use dramatic art to engage visitors in complex issues and possibilities surrounding the state of food on our dinner plates and planet.
The exhibit is supported by educational components, including curriculum materials for K-12 and Post-secondary studies, and a website with linked resources. Robert Dash is available for lecture presentations.

“Robert Dash’s work celebrates and challenges the concept of scale, broadening small beauties into wide revelations about ecosystems, food systems, and the imperiled futures of both.” —Thor Hanson, author of Buzz, and The Triumph of Seeds

“...like fragments of mysterious ecosystems that no one has ever seen... (They) are meaningful, visually poetic observations about how the things we cannot see can show us how our very lives can be under the threat of extinction.” —Lensculture

“An excursion through these photomontages feels as if one might be exploring an intricately curated cabinet of curiosities, each image drawing us into a microscopic world, leaving us wondering what else might lie in the vast, as yet unexplored universe we have wandered into.” —The Passporte Fine Art Digital Space