The University of Toledo Department of Art will present a free, public exhibition of photographs and installation works by a guest artist beginning Monday, Aug. 25.
Margaret LeJeune’s creative practice explores the relationship between art, science and environmental studies. The works in her exhibition, titled “Drawn from Memory: Mapping Salt and Time,” explore significant ecological shifts in the landscape of Dare County, North Carolina, mapping changes brought forth over the last four centuries by colonial capitalism, ensuing extraction economies and rising sea levels.
Margaret LeJeune explores the relationship between art, science and environmental studies in works like her photomontage ‘Two Trees Marigram.’
The region is made up of coastal upland forests that are quickly changing to ghost forests as salt water intrudes on sinking land. In addition to the complex ecological disasters that have occurred in this region, it is also home to communities of formerly enslaved Africans and their descendants, as well as Indigenous peoples who were forced from their lands.
“As I tread on this land, I am surrounded by ghosts,” LeJeune said. “While the dead, white tree trunks serve as monuments to the forest’s disappearance and flag the invisible flood-line of the salty tides, they also serve as a reminder of the violences perpetuated in this place.”
LeJeune will give a free, public artist talk at 2:45 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 24, in the Center for Visual Art’s Haigh Auditorium. A reception will follow immediately in the gallery.
Her exhibition and visit is co-sponsored by the Jesup Scott Honors College.
“Drawn from Memory: Mapping Salt and Time,” will remain on display in the Center for the Visual Arts’ Main Gallery through Friday, Oct. 10. The Center for the Visual Arts is located adjacent to the Toledo Museum of Art at 620 Art Museum Dr., Toledo.
Exhibit parking is free in Lot 3.
LeJeune’s work has been exhibited nationally and internationally, and she has participated in several artist-in-residency programs that promote the collaboration between the arts and sciences. The Royal Photographic Society named her its Woman Science Photographer of the Year in 2023.
LeJeune holds a Master of Fine Arts degree from Visual Studies Workshop in Rochester, New York.
