Fructify
Contributing Artists Jacklyn Brickman and Ashley Browne
2019-2021
Biography - Jacklyn Brickman
Jacklyn Brickman is a visual artist whose work entangles science fact with fiction to address social and environmental concerns by employing natural objects, processes and technology. Her work spans installation, video and performance, with special interest in cross-disciplinary collaboration and social engagement. Fellowships include The National Academy of Sciences, U.C. Davis and Chaire arts et Sciences, The Ohio State University, Jentel Foundation, National Endowment for the Arts and Erb Family Foundation, Connecting Heritage- Maryland Milestones/ Anacostia Trails Heritage Area and the Pyramid Atlantic Art Center. She has exhibited her work in the US, France, Canada and Slovenia. Brickman is currently based in Columbus, Ohio.
Q & A
What makes more livable futures for you?
Family, community (small and large), imagination, joy in process, being connected with my immediate environment and getting to know the beings that also occupy it - namely plants.
What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?
I’m hopping around between books; those in my current rotation include Octavia’s Brood: Science Fiction Stories from Social Justice Movements edited by Walidah Imarisha and adrienne maree brown,
Manifesto on Xenofeminism: A Politics for Alienation by Laboria Cuboniks, A Million Black Anthropocenes or None by Kathryn Yusoff,
Staying with the Trouble by Donna Haraway, and The Two Towers by J.R.R. Tolkien.
What practices are sustaining you?
Asking questions with impossible answers, imagining absurd possibilities, working collaboratively, spending time with my family.
Biography - Ashley Browne
Born and raised in Miami, Florida, Ashley Browne is a visual artist focused in engaging her community through and with art, particularly in creating spaces open for conversation and collaboration. Her practice encompasses video, experimental animation, and the computer generated image, and her interests range from Black history and theory, the environment, coevolution, and the world that is beyond the limits of human understanding. Thinking about power and agency over the digital, her work stems to investigate this same power in people and society, distinctly in perspectives of race, gender, and accessibility. She earned her BFA from the University of Florida, and has recently moved to Columbus, Ohio to pursue an MFA at the Ohio State University.
Q & A
What makes more livable futures for you?
Understanding, respect for lives (known and unknown) that we come across in our every day. Paying attention. Listening. Paying attention and listening and fixing.
What are you reading, viewing, listening to right now?
I’m jumping between a few books, but I’m currently reading Elizi’s Mirrors: Imagining Black Queer Genders by Omise’eke Natasha Tinsley, A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and its Assault on the American Mind by Harriet A. Washington and a couple of podcasts: Still Processing hosted by Jenna Wortham and Wesley Morris, and Code Switch from NPR. I’ve been also reading classic Black literature again, revisiting Zora Neale Hurston and Toni Morrison. I’ve been rewatching some of my favorite childhood films.
What practices are sustaining you?
Paying attention to what fulfills me instead of what I think I need or want. Collecting and documenting the parts of my life that remind me why I’m here and doing what I’m passionate about. Going on long walks with my dog. Remembering to be present. Being aware of my position/power and figuring out ways to always include my community in the ways that I create and show my work. Trying to learn skills my grandmother wasn’t able to teach me before she passed.