A List
2/25/08

SLU's Brush Gallery Exhibiting 'Trees And Rivers' Of Latin America

CANTON - An exhibition focusing on the relationship of literature, the visual arts and the physical environment in Latin America will be in the Richard F. Brush Art Gallery at St. Lawrence University from March 5 through April 13.

The exhibition includes "Seven Trees: Digital Photographs" by Wilmor López (Nicaragua) and "Confluence (The Imperial River): A Video and Photographs" by Mariana Matthews (Chile). It is in conjunction with the Frank P. Piskor Faculty Lecture, to be given Tuesday, April 8, at 7:30 p.m. in Room 123 of the Griffiths Arts Center by Professor of Modern Languages and Literatures Steven F. White; the exhibition and lecture are both titled "Trees and Rivers: Poetry and Ecology in Latin America."

White, co-translator of a new, bilingual edition of poems by Nicaraguan poet Pablo Antonio Cuadra (1912-2002) titled Seven Trees Against the Dying Light, says that the lecture and exhibition highlight "how human culture is linked to the physical world, and the primary importance of place - of the imagined spaces in poems and images that serve as intermediaries between the human and what David Abram calls the more-than-human world."

"Throughout his life," White states, "Cuadra demonstrated a keen sensibility toward the physical environment of his native country. Deeply familiar with its visible landscape of volcanoes, mountains, jungles, savannas, lakes, islands, rivers and coasts, Cuadra also discovered how to reveal the secrets of another landscape, invisible but etched by history and animated by the collective memory of a people through folklore and popular songs, as well as through myths of indigenous origin. In his book Seven Trees Against the Dying Light, first published in 1980, Cuadra uses seven species of trees to explore Nicaragua's past, present and potential future."

For more information, or to arrange individual or group tours, contact the Brush Gallery at 315-229-5174.

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