|
HARTFORD, CONN. Real Art Ways will open a solo exhibition by
artist, community biologist, and Real Art Award recipient Ezra Moth on Thursday, June 19, at 6:00 pm, during CCH (Creative Cocktail Hour). Gallery hours are every day from 1:00-9:00 pm. Admission is free. Real Art Ways is at 56 Arbor Street in Hartford.
At the intersection of speculative science, ecological urgency, and queer futurism, "Megafauna (these desperate earthly forms)" offers an immersive installation centered on radical bio-ethics and the potential of plant-based hormone alternatives. Working from a community biology lab, Moth has genetically hybridized fennel, a plant rich in natural estrogenic compounds and vital to local swallowtail butterfly populations, as a speculative source for DIY hormone therapy.
The exhibition features vials of phytoestrogen extracted from these experimental plants, cooled and encased in laboratory remnants. Each is connected via a metaphorical umbilicus to a large-scale bioplastic form that sprawls through the gallery—a surreal, hybrid body composed of gelatin, seaweed, fennel, and symbolic flesh. Neither entirely human nor nonhuman, this form becomes a haunting monument to bodily autonomy, resistance, and trans survival.
Moth’s practice is rooted in both rigorous research and emotional vision, blending performance, storytelling, and bio-art to present alternatives to the climate crisis, gender regulation, and pharmaceutical monopolies.
“Could I grow a garden of hormones in my backyard, and with those gardens, could my trans friends harvest and synthesize their gender?” Moth asks.
Through "Megafauna," Real Art Ways invites audiences into an intimate, visceral, and urgent meditation on queer embodiment, ecological reciprocity, and imagined futures.
This exhibition is part of the Real Art Awards, a juried program supporting emerging artists in the Northeast, with funding support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts.
|
