What was Worth Saving?, 2022
Paint, carved polystyrene, wood, wood stain, varnish, and assorted found objects
Approximately 8ft x 10 ft x 10 ft
Paint, carved polystyrene, wood, wood stain, varnish, and assorted found objects
Approximately 8ft x 10 ft x 10 ft
Artwork made in response to the Goetemann Environmental/Installation Artist in Residency program at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in September 2022, and in collaboration with the Ocean Alliance
Artwork's Statement
Jonathan Latiano’s installation, What Was Worth Saving?, was created in direct response to his time as the Goetemann Environmental/Installation Artist in Residency at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in September 2022. The Goetemann residency’s unique parameters provided Jonathan with special access to the Ocean Alliance, which offered him a studio/office, workshops, and gallery to sustain his artistic practice. He was also given unfettered access to the Ocean Alliance’s archives, team members, and day-to-today operations. The artwork presented here represents the sustained dialogue between the artist and the Ocean Alliance team, which commonly returned to the topic of: what is the hierarchy of preciousness that our society prescribes to all things?
Situated in the middle of the exhibition space is a large, black, boulder. The boulder is carved to mirror the striking deposits of granite that distinguish the landscape of the Gloucester region. This boulder rests precariously in the space, its fragile base either the product of erosion or some other unnatural means. The boulder is painted high-gloss, glass-like black. This obsidian coloring of the stone, paired with the granite-like patterning, makes the boulder both of our world and alien, or from a different time.
The boulder splits open to reveal a Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Arranged within the cabinet’s shelves are hundreds of items collected by the Ocean Alliance over its fifty-year history of ocean research, conservation, and activism. The items are meticulously curated to play off of one another. From whale vertebrae to outdated cassette tapes to a piece of brick that’s fallen off the façade of the Ocean Alliance’s headquarters, the salon-style display breaks down the typical hierarchy of material values between the objects.
The work can be viewed as many things: an alien meteorite, a time capsule in our planet’s distant future, an odd piece of furniture. At its core, the work stands as a portrait of an organization that has passionately dedicated the past five decades to the vital task of saving our planet’s marine mammals. This type of conservation requires ingenuity, resourcefulness, fastidiousness, and resilience. At times, the love and idealism that fuels the conservation movement is matched only by the frustration born from the societal apathy, greed, and shortsightedness it rages against. The work challenges what is valuable, what is worth saving, and what is traditionally tossed aside. The items arranged within this artwork were collected by individuals who intensely value the world’s oceans and the work that they do to save them.
Extending beyond the Goetemann residency, Jonathan Latiano will use this artwork as a catalyst for a much larger project. The work displayed in this gallery will go on to serve as the centerpiece of a major solo exhibition at the SPACE art gallery in Portland, Maine in Summer 2023. Latiano plans to use this as an opportunity to expand the physical footprint of the artwork itself, as well as his collaboration with the Ocean Alliance through a multi-layered event of performances, lectures, and expanded dialogue. Like the work of conservation in general, rather than this being the end, it is only the beginning of something greater.
Jonathan Latiano’s installation, What Was Worth Saving?, was created in direct response to his time as the Goetemann Environmental/Installation Artist in Residency at the Rocky Neck Artist Colony in September 2022. The Goetemann residency’s unique parameters provided Jonathan with special access to the Ocean Alliance, which offered him a studio/office, workshops, and gallery to sustain his artistic practice. He was also given unfettered access to the Ocean Alliance’s archives, team members, and day-to-today operations. The artwork presented here represents the sustained dialogue between the artist and the Ocean Alliance team, which commonly returned to the topic of: what is the hierarchy of preciousness that our society prescribes to all things?
Situated in the middle of the exhibition space is a large, black, boulder. The boulder is carved to mirror the striking deposits of granite that distinguish the landscape of the Gloucester region. This boulder rests precariously in the space, its fragile base either the product of erosion or some other unnatural means. The boulder is painted high-gloss, glass-like black. This obsidian coloring of the stone, paired with the granite-like patterning, makes the boulder both of our world and alien, or from a different time.
The boulder splits open to reveal a Victorian cabinet of curiosities. Arranged within the cabinet’s shelves are hundreds of items collected by the Ocean Alliance over its fifty-year history of ocean research, conservation, and activism. The items are meticulously curated to play off of one another. From whale vertebrae to outdated cassette tapes to a piece of brick that’s fallen off the façade of the Ocean Alliance’s headquarters, the salon-style display breaks down the typical hierarchy of material values between the objects.
The work can be viewed as many things: an alien meteorite, a time capsule in our planet’s distant future, an odd piece of furniture. At its core, the work stands as a portrait of an organization that has passionately dedicated the past five decades to the vital task of saving our planet’s marine mammals. This type of conservation requires ingenuity, resourcefulness, fastidiousness, and resilience. At times, the love and idealism that fuels the conservation movement is matched only by the frustration born from the societal apathy, greed, and shortsightedness it rages against. The work challenges what is valuable, what is worth saving, and what is traditionally tossed aside. The items arranged within this artwork were collected by individuals who intensely value the world’s oceans and the work that they do to save them.
Extending beyond the Goetemann residency, Jonathan Latiano will use this artwork as a catalyst for a much larger project. The work displayed in this gallery will go on to serve as the centerpiece of a major solo exhibition at the SPACE art gallery in Portland, Maine in Summer 2023. Latiano plans to use this as an opportunity to expand the physical footprint of the artwork itself, as well as his collaboration with the Ocean Alliance through a multi-layered event of performances, lectures, and expanded dialogue. Like the work of conservation in general, rather than this being the end, it is only the beginning of something greater.