"Gather Wood, Gather Words" began as a sketch and has become an international network of programs exploring human action and climate change. We ask, how can we work with the gesture of gathering, of bundling wood, or rice or wheat to get at the human condition across time, and now, in the Anthropocene? With colleagues at New York University Abu Dhabi, we bring together a transdiscplinary, international  groups of artists and scholars  

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My own work on the project began in 1991 when I was living in Casablanca, Morocco. Traveling in the countryside I was inspired by the relentless work of  women who gathered wood for  their cook stoves. Ever since,  the gesture of gathering wood has come to have a universal meaning for me as I have reflected on how work of all kinds "goes up in smoke" in a series of paintings, installations and performances.

 

Fieldwork in the Shenandoah Valley in Virginia and rural Maine. has led me to develop new artworks and work as a dramaturge ClimateFirst, a play by WR Duell inspired our visits to forests and paper mills. Wordsmyth Theater Company in Houston presented a staged reading in APril 2024. A full production is in the works for 2026.

 

My current, site-specific exhibition at the Tangier American Legation Museum opened with a participatory work by  the "Momkin" collective led by Ayoub Lahlouh. A film by Mohammed Reda Kouzi captures and artistry and ambiance of their unforgettable performance.

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Along with Kim Robertson, Ram Natarajan and Andreas Valentin, I look forward to presenting  "Gather Wood, Gather Words" at the Rizk Art Initiative in Abu Dhabi in April 2025.​​

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