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Against Nature: Curatorial Roundtable

Join Union Hall and the Institute of Queer Ecology for a live-stream roundtable discussion with Shawn C. Simmons, the curator of Against Nature, and some of the featured artists. Moderated by Shawn and facilitated by Nicolas Baird from the Institute of Queer Ecology, we will discuss the exhibition and larger themes within the movement of queer ecology.

There will be time for Q&A at the end.

About Against Nature

Against Nature explores the emerging field of queer ecology in response to prevailing ideas of human versus nature. As we face the climate crisis of today and tomorrow, each featured artist enacts their own utopian vision by reimagining the relationship between queer identity and nature. Featured artists include Dennis Doyle, Eden Kinkaid, Corinne Teed, Ginger Brooks Takahashi, and Frankie Toan.

Shawn C. Simmons

(he/him) is an art historian and educator drawn to the intersection of critical theory and contemporary art. He received a BA in Art History from New York University with a focus on queer memory and affect in art of the AIDS crisis. A current MA candidate in the Department of Art and Art History at the University of Colorado, he is completing a thesis on queer ecological arts practices in relation to futurism and utopia. Shawn previously worked on the editorial staff of The Architect’s Newspaper, where he covered ecologically engaged projects on an international scale.


Meet the Discussion Facilitator

Nicolas Baird

(he/him) is an artist and evolutionary biologist. Since 2017 he has served as co-director of the Institute of Queer Ecology, a collaborative organism that brings peripheral solutions to environmental degradation to the forefront of public consciousness. His creative practice uses performance, photography, and poetry to explore mutability and adaptation in a multispecies world. He makes art and science that frame the more-than-human world as a diverse network of strange kin.

The Institute of Queer Ecology

IQECO is an ever-evolving collaborative organism that seeks to bring peripheral solutions to environmental degradation to the forefront of public consciousness. IQECO projects are interdisciplinary, but unified and grounded in the theoretical framework of Queer Ecology, an adaptive practice concerned with interconnectivity, intimacy, and multispecies relationality. The collective works to overturn the destructive human-centric hierarchies by imagining an equitable, multispecies future. The Institute of Queer Ecology was founded in 2017 by Lee Pivnik while he was studying at the Rhode Island School of Design. It is co-directed by Nicolas Baird, who joined the project shortly after its inception, and has continued to steer its growth and focus.


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April 12

Art While You Lunch

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April 18

Metamorphosis: Film Screening