The works of Youngs and Rinaldo are meant to mold the viewer’s aesthetic reactions in a way that anchors their role in the Great Chain of Being as one part of a massive web of links and connections; as we humans are allowed to take up space and oxygen on Earth, so, too, are creatures like springtails and fallen leaves on the concrete ground allowed to exist. …read full review

– Anika Sultana

I was invited to present as part of the Art and the Environment Talk Series. A collaboration between the Ross Art Museum and the Department of Environment & Sustainability. This series includes artists, activists, and scholars and their efforts to confront and change the world around them for the better. All talks are free and open to the public.

The museum also has some fantastic related exhibitions as well: Our Changing Landscape: Life in the Anthropocene and Michelle Stitzlein: Demarcations and Delineations.

The full list of speakers in this year’s Art and the Environment Talk Series:

2/10 (Tues) 6:30pm  John Sabraw – Toxic Colors John Sabraw is an artist, activist, and professor at Ohio University. His work marries environmental cleanups, chemistry, and art into a cohesive whole. He uses the iron oxide in mine runoff to make paint pigments. He has recently collaborated with Gamblin oil paints, to make the “Reclaimed Earth Colors” paint set. 

2/24 (Tues) 6:30pm  Laura Ann Bergman – Regenerative Farming and Social Justice Laura Ann Bergman has been the farm liaison for Seminary Hill Farm since 2022. Laura Ann has spent her whole life growing food in Ohio. Seminary Hill Farm is part of Methodist Theological School in Ohio which works in pursuit of a just, sustainable and generative world.

3/3 (Tues) 6:30pm Jarod Anderson – Strange Naturalist Jarod Anderson is a nature writer, podcaster, and poet who has just published his fifth book Strange Animals which is also his fiction debut. His work revolves around a deep appreciation for the natural world, mental health and the healing power of nature. 

3/17 (Tues) 6:30pm Emma Kline – Living Art and Cross-disciplinary Work Emma Kline is the Lab Specialist for the Living Art and Ecology Lab at OSU. LAEL’s purpose is to create a space that fosters cross-disciplinary collaborations and invites students to engage with their local environment through artistic practices. 

BONUS! 3/18 (Wed) 4:15pm Lesley Wheeler – Mycocosmic Poetry Reading Lesley Wheeler is a poet, literary scholar and professor at Washington and Lee University. Her latest book of poetry, Mycocosmic, deals with navigating personal and planetary loss and regrowth following the example of mushrooms that flourish after forest fires.

3/24 (Tues) 6:30pm Amy Youngs – Art, Technology, and the Natural World Amy Youngs’ work is a blend of eco art, interactive sculptures, digital media, and technology into installation and interactive pieces. Young works as an artist and professor at OSU teaching both art and science and the confluence of the two. 

4/14 (Tues) 6:30pm Eve Warnock – Collaborative Art and Invasive Species – Eve Warnock is the founding artist of OBLSK, a creative group of artists, inventors and designers that create interactive installations. Her latest work has been a collaboration with the Columbus Parks and Recreation to use removed invasive plants in environmental sculptures for Columbus Arborfest.

4/21 (Tues) 6:30pm Carolina C. Barbosa – Open Data and Open Science Dr. Carolina C. Barbosa is a faculty member in OWU’s Department of Environment & Sustainability and has been advocating for open science practices through her work with the grassroot networks DSOS (Data Science and Open Science in Aquatic Research) and GLEON (Global Lake Ecological Observatory Network)

“Belonging to Soil” is opening at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Cleveland this Friday, January 30! This is my collaborative virtual reality art installation – with Shadrick Addy, JT Thrash, Mayen McClain, Luke Stephens, Josh Rodenberg, Will Yuan, Andrew Sanchez, and Megan Wright, and live springtails!

This group show brings together artists across Ohio who focus on sustainability, agriculture, food justice, and natural ecologies. Through diverse materials and perspectives, these artists reflect on humanity’s relationship with the environment. Some incorporate found elements like waterway pollutants, plant-based dyes, and grass clippings, while others investigate topics ranging from climate change conspiracies to natural history and arthropods. Many draw directly from personal experiences as farmers, grocery workers, or environmental observers. Spanning painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, and community-based practice, the works in this exhibition highlight the urgency of environmental issues while inviting dialogue and response.

Curated by Theresa Bembnister, DJ Hellerman, Megan Lykins Reich, and Christina Vassallo. Co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, OH.

It really is a great exhibition, with artworks by: Catherine Clements, Avery Mags Duff, Myles Dunigan, Tina Gutierrez, Brian Harnetty, Desert Kitchen Collective: Glenna Jennings, Jalisa Robinson & Friends, Keith Lemley, Celeste Malvar-Stewart, Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber, Elena Osterwalder, Praxis Fiber Workshop, John Sabraw, Charmaine Spencer, and Supermrin.

This show brings together artists across Ohio who focus on sustainability, agriculture, food justice, and natural ecologies. Through diverse materials and perspectives, these artists reflect on humanity’s relationship with the environment. Some incorporate found elements like waterway pollutants, plant-based dyes, and grass clippings, while others investigate topics ranging from climate change conspiracies to natural history and arthropods. Many draw directly from personal experiences as farmers, grocery workers, or environmental observers. Spanning painting, sculpture, printmaking, photography, installation, and community-based practice, the works in this exhibition highlight the urgency of environmental issues while inviting dialogue and response.

Curated by Theresa Bembnister, DJ Hellerman, Megan Lykins Reich, and Christina Vassallo. Co-organized by the Contemporary Arts Center, Cincinnati, OH and Museum of Contemporary Art Cleveland, Cleveland, OH.

The other artists in this exhibition: Catherine Clements (Bowling Green), Avery Mags Duff (Akron), Myles Dunigan (Oberlin), Tina Gutierrez (Cincinnati), Brian Harnetty (Columbus), Desert Kitchen Collective: Glenna Jennings, Jalisa Robinson & Friends (Dayton), Keith Lemley (Ravenna), Celeste Malvar-Stewart (Columbus), Lori Nix & Kathleen Gerber (Cleveland), Elena Osterwalder (Columbus), Praxis Fiber Workshop (Cleveland), John Sabraw (Athens), Charmaine Spencer (Cleveland), and Supermrin (Cincinnati).

Go check it out! https://www.contemporaryartscenter.org/experience/exhibitions/2025/05/ohio-now-state-of-nature

An event for people to drink tea and consider what we can learn from the billions of soil organisms who co-create the healthy conditions for plants to grow in – and in turn, nourish us. Tea is a plant, after all. After drinking, we fed our used teabags and paper cups back into the wormbin ecosystem. While it might seem strange to have tea with worms, springtails, mites, and billions of microscopic organisms, we are always having tea with them.

We discussed what we can learn from worm bin ecosystems. For instance, they show us the undigestable microplastics hidden in teabags – and they show us how our food and paper waste can be turned into valuable nutrients for gardens and indoor plants. Worm composting does not create unpleasant odors and does not produce methane, a greenhouse gas which is generated by food waste that rots in landfills.

For this event, we drank loose-leaf tea scooped into strainers or into small paper pouches. I’ve learned from the worms that some commercial tea bags are made of plastic, even those that really look like paper. Worms can’t eat it, soil doesn’t need it, and studies show that plants take microplastics up into their bodies. This is a problem for them and for animals like us, who eat plants.

Thousands of composting worms and arthropods and billions of microbes live inside this worm-shaped wagon. They are making rich compost from waste generated from my home, such as cardboard, wilted lettuce, banana peels, apple cores, dead plants, tea bags and used coffee grounds. This composting ecosystem includes a colony of red-wiggler worms (Eisenia Fetida), who have lived with me for thirty years. We have shared many meals. The fertilizer they make is fed to my houseplants, herbs, tomato plants, and lettuces. To publicly celebrate soil critters, I have mobilized my worm bin onto a wagon. Worms do their business in the dark; they do not announce to us that they offer solutions to climate change and they do not speak about their important role in circulating nutrients and healthy microbes in soils. I’m sharing this on their behalf because I hope other households will develop regenerative relationships with composting worms. Sharing nutrients with household worm ecosystem is a slow, steady way to reconnect one’s sense of self within the larger web of life.

The recycling of old into new is also how I approached making Mobile Soil Maker, this “Worm Wagon” ecosystem sculpture. I made it from the remnants of an old artwork, rather than using all new materials. You can see the original installation from 2004, Intraterrestrial Soundings.

Credits:

Fungal Entanglement artists: Anna Arbogast, Madison Blue, Alex Buchan, Xiuer Gu, Elias Marquez, Jiara Sha, Doo-sung Yoo, and Amy Youngs.

In a Hotter House exhibition curated by Doo-sung Yoo and Amy Youngs

Artists: Skylar Albright, Anna Arbogast, Marcia Armstrong, Madison Blue, Alex Buchan, Madalyn Bunjevac, Al Dilorenzo, John Cairns, Ben Chang, Megan Fabro, Andie Goodes, Taylor Green, Xiuer Gu, Brennan Jones, Olga Kisseleva and Lilia Chak, Eric Homan, Bethany Marple, Elias Marquez, Andrew Mehall, Caroline Mosholder, Zoe November, Ivan David Ng, Takahiro Okubo, Dev Patel, Noor Quadri, Bakhahang Rai, Mural Remix, Jonathan Riles, Ken Rinaldo, CG Ryan, Bella Saraceni, Lily Schumacher, Sabrina Sedlacko, Jiara Sha, Avery Stratman, Kaika Wakabayashi, Thomas Winningham, Andrew Wood, Uriah Wright, Doosung Yoo, Amy Youngs, Barry Yuan, and Danny Zhang.

Video: Jordan Sommerlad

Photography: Dev Patel and Amy Youngs

Music: “Aurora”, by Anemoia. creative commons license cc by-nc-sa

Project support: The Ohio State University’s Humanities Institute, the Living Art and Ecology Lab of the Department of Art, the Biological Sciences Greenhouse, and the Department of Molecular Genetics.

Special thanks to the Costume Shop in the Department of Theatre, Film, Media Arts at the Ohio State University for sharing their fabric scraps with us!

We also took the Fungal Entanglement performance to New York City in 2024 for the Art in Odd Places festival.

Photos by Wong Pak Hang.

The exhibition team installed the work beautifully; including the virtual reality experience zone next to the live springtail terrariums with magnifiers and a video microscope viewing area. The exhibition is at Hong Kong City Hall, November 4 – November 12, 2023. I will also present a talk titled, Eco Intelligence, in the festival’s conference, Humans, Animals, Plants, Machines and Artificial Intelligence, on Nov 9, 2023.

Belonging to Soil is a collaborative virtual reality artwork created with Shadrick Addy, Mayen McClain, Luke Stephens, JT Thrash, Andrew Sanchez, Josh Rodenberg, Megan Wright, and William Yuan.

Insect as Idea Panel Discussion

Join us for a panel discussion hosted on Zoom in partnership with the Zoological Collections, Department of Biology, Western University, on Thursday May 12 at 5:30 p.m. EST.

In conversation with exhibition curators Dr. Helen Gregory and Dr. Nina Zitani, participating artists Catherine Chalmers, Andrea Cooper, Aganetha Dyck, Jude Griebel, and Amy Youngs will discuss how their practices have been influenced by environmental issues and multispecies ecologies.

Register here

The exhibition Insect as Idea runs from April 28 to June 18 at McIntosh Gallery, Western University. For more information, visit https://mcintoshgallery.ca/.

“Augmented and virtual reality have become commonplace. The Augmented Senses: Feminist Queer Augmented/Virtual Reality virtual symposium highlights experimental and creative approaches to enhanced immersive experiences. Focusing on gender, trans, and feminist themes around the body, desire, biological art, and our microbial environment, three contemporary artists will present their work: micha cárdenas, Eva Davidova, and Amy M. Youngs.”

– More on the Feminist Queer Augmented and Virtual Realities symposium site.

This was programming put on by the CURTIS R. PRIEM EXPERIMENTAL MEDIA AND PERFORMING ARTS CENTER at Rensselaer