Unnecessary Things is on view at Bert Green Fine Art in Chicago March 14th - June 27th, 2020.

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                                                  Lord, I will learn also to kneel down
                                                  into the world of the invisible,
                                                       the inscrutable and the everlasting.
                                                  Then I will move no more than the leaves of a tree
                                                       on a day of no wind,
                                                  bathed in light,
                                                  like the wanderer who has come home at last
                                                  and kneels in peace, done with all unnecessary things;

                                                  every motion; even words.

                                                                                                                       — Mary Oliver

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On October 8th, 2018, the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) released a special report detailing the projected environmental and societal impacts of global warming 1.5o C above pre-industrial levels, the long-term temperature-stabilization goal posed by the Paris Agreement of 2016.

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In this report -- now, nearly 1.5 years old -- the IPCC urged the global public to recognize that avoiding the forecast catastrophes of an Earth warmed beyond 1.5o C would require “rapid, far-reaching and unprecedented changes in all aspects of society.”

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What can be made of this message? What, in practice, can it mean to fundamentally change everything, everywhere, in all aspects and in ways never before seen -- and to do so very quickly? It’s the kind of sweeping, philosophical challenge that brings every individual, every trade, every movement into question. It is a call to return our collective attention to that which is vital.

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How might we move from this place? How might we, at last, come home?

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These reflective sentiments weave throughout the works present in Unnecessary Things, one of two interrelated Chicago solo exhibitions by Jeffrey Michael Austin. A curious layering of reclaimed waste material, idyllic imagery, urgent pleas and spray paint on mirrored surfaces form an environment as disconcerting as it is spirited and inviting.