May 9 – Performance by Calista Lyon, “The Unknown and the Unnamed”
May 9 @ 4:30 pm – 7:30 pm
The Unknown and the Unnamed
https://www.calistalyon.com/theunknownandtheunnamed
The Unknown and the Unnamed uses projected images, live narration, interviews, and field recordings to reckon with the violence of historical and contemporary settler power in Australia. The performance shares a collective experience of loss, extinction, and the consequences of human action on nonhuman and human lives via the endangered Crimson Spider Orchid (Caladenia concolor).
This ongoing, multi-year research project began with my introduction to an Australian orchid collection created by self-described “recluse” and amateur botanist, Phillip Branwhite, who lived in Lyon’s family’s farming community in Tallangatta Valley, Australia.
Lyon use oral histories drawn from her personal relationships with local amateur botanists, conservationists, farmers, scientists, photographic and botanical archives, and extensive literary and scientific research. She makes visible the impacts on mental health of living in a time of escalating drought, bushfires, species extinction, deforestation, and global warming. Drawing from research in Feminist Science Studies and her experience growing up on a cattle farm in Australia, she use symbiosis as a metaphor for community challenging dominant narratives of human individualism.
Working to subvert dominant narratives of human individualism, the performance provides layered examples of individual existence borne of and reliant on interconnection, prompting considerations of our entangled relationships toward more just forms of living.
Directions and Parking Information
The Davis Auditorium (Room 248) is located in Sturm Hall
2000 E Asbury Ave., Denver, CO 80210
Free parking is available in Lot T. The parking garage, Lot T, is located underneath the tennis and basketball courts, immediately west of the gallery on the north side of Asbury, opposite Race Street. There will be an attendant stationed at the garage to open the gate and direct you, simply let them know you are here for the performance.
Driving West on Asbury Ave.: Continue straight through the 4-way stop sign at the intersection of Asbury and York. You will pass the Vicki Myhren Gallery on your right. Continue past the angle street parking to your right, and make a right turn into the parking garage and the attendant will let you in. If you reach High Street, you have gone too far.
Driving East on Asbury Ave.: Drive past the Dimond Residential Village (southeast corner of Asbury Avenue and High Street intersection). On your left, you will see the garage entrance. Make a left into the garage and the attendant will let you in.
To reach Davis Auditorium (Room 248), Sturm Hall: Follow the blue arrows on the diagram above. In the northeast corner of the parking garage, there is a pedestrian exit and pathway. Exit the garage and cross Asbury Ave. Sturm Hall will be on your right. Enter and proceed up the stairs to floor 2. A wheelchair accessible entrance is located at the back of the building, on Race St. After crossing Asbury Ave., proceed West on Asbury and turn left on Race St., Sturm Hall will be on your left. Go past the loading dock and enter the building. An elevator will be ahead on your left. Take that up to floor 2. Exit the elevator, turn left, and proceed to the front of the building. Make a right and you will be in the lobby in front of the auditorium.