The fourth exhibition in the 2015 series, Food Systems, Surroundings & Sensibilities

Opening reception: Friday, October 23rd, 6-9pm

Bronx Music Heritage Center
1303 Louis Nine Blvd, Bronx, NY

Featured Artists:
Fallen Fruit
Linda Adele Goodine
Hyonok Kim
Yelaine Rodriguez
Bill Santen

The Bronx River Art Center (BRAC) is pleased to announce Harvest/Hærfest, the fourth exhibition in our 2015 series focused on food and its importance for the health and well-being of Bronxites of all ages. The exhibition will open with a reception on Friday, October 23rd, from 6pm to 9pm at BRAC's new temporary gallery space at the Bronx Music Heritage Center (BMHC), 1303 Louis Nine Boulevard, Bronx, NY 10460

For this year's exhibition season Bronx River Art Center is on the move (again) while our building on East Tremont Ave remains under renovation. This move to BMHC brings us closer, physically and figuratively, to the time when we will be reopening our restored building in early 2016; and where we can engage more fully again with our West Farms community.

After four years of presenting our exhibitions in a rented gallery in the South Bronx, BRAC is excited to bring our Gallery programming back "home" to the Central Bronx where we have continued to offer our after-school art education programming at partner organizations and schools throughout our area.  It is also an opportunity to establish a new partnership with another neighbor organization, Womans Housing and Economic Development Corporation,(WHEDco) through installing visual art exhibits at their community-based music center.  

Harvest/Haerfest focuses on reaping (harvesting) the "fruits" (including vegetables and fish) of our labor over a growing season, and offers an opportunity to join forces with creative artists to encourage and celebrate the commitment of Bronxites to the value of healthy food and the diverse cultures in the Bronx that influences our awarenesses.

Artists participating in the exhibition are addressing these ideas with works that examine sustainable food resources, food preservation and hunting vs. harvesting.  Bronx resident, Hyonok Kim's film spotlights the Korean Urn used to ferment and preserve "Kimchi" (the basis of Korean cuisine), symbolizing the cycle of life and nature. Bill Santen's documentary film follows an emigrant Guyanese fishermen in the Bronx, exploring the New York fishing subculture, and highlighting the various salt-water fishing spots available to all within the Bronx. The LA-based artist team Fallen Fruit (Austin Young and David Allen Burns) explore the resources of healthy food (fruits) within reach to community through identifying and planting fruit trees on public land. They recently planted trees in Harlem as part of an exhibit at St. John the Divine church, and will plant and map their trees here in the Bronx as well. Emerging Bronx artist and activist, Yelaine Rodriguez, gives a visual account through photography of Dominican people and their connection to the land, particularly following new tensions on their shared island with Haiti, which threaten trade and commerce of this caribbean island. Linda Adele Goodine's large-scale photographs bring an international focus to this exhibition by addressing New Zealand and it's annual 'Easter Bunny Hunt', part of the extreme measures taken by regional councils and farmers to cull an overpopulation of crop destroying pests by exterminating thousands of rabbits.

Harvest/Hærfest is part of BRAC's larger curatorial effort to draw attention to food as a creative medium, muse and indicator of culture; and to highlight social and political issues related to food and health, especially those impacting the Bronx community.