—CAN YOU HEAR us? “Earth’s Voices” was an immersive, collaborative, eco-inspired sculptural exhibition by New York City-based artist Judith Modrak at The Patricia Ross O’keefe Gallery at Saint John Fisher University (SJFU) in Spring 2025. The installation explored vital connections to our environment and to each other. In the center of the gallery, three painted, human-sized, Guardian sculptures gazed into a reflection pool, surrounded by leaves, tree branches, hydrangea, sweet gum seedlings, and other organic materials. These anthropomorphic, plant-like sentinels represented three of the four classical elements of the universe: Fire (orange), Earth (green), and Air (blue). The fourth element, Water, was intimated by the pond-like configuration.

This tactile installation was loosely arranged to suggest the earth’s inner core, the layers in between, and the outside crust. The topography of the exhibition invited viewers to consider in-between states, both symbolically and physically, as they moved in a circular pattern.

The curly willow branches, surrounding the gallery’s perimeter, were rooted in assorted pieces of Locust and Maple trees from fallen woody debris found on the SJFU campus. These plant arms extended up the walls to cradle mirrored shrine enclosures which displayed sculptural totems created during artist led workshops with SJFU students, faculty, and the larger Rochester community.

“Earth’s Voices” operated on multiple planes – sensory, meditative, metaphoric, and linguistic.

The participatory workshops gave voice to the new eco-language being developed around climate change. Totems were sculpted to honor specific terms such as “Terra-furie” (protective anger at how the earth is being treated), “Solastalgia” (homesickness while at home), “Biophilia” (love of all life forms), and other evolving words, as a means of recognizing these emotional and existential experiences. These sensations and feelings are confronting and shaping humans and all organisms. Ultimately, the totems, along with the “Earth” sculpture, were planted with seeds and other live plant growth outdoors during a closing ceremony in the Murphy Hall Gardens on campus. —SJFU Press Release

Special thanks to SJFU Professor Mike Boller’s Sustainability Club, family, and friends who provided foliage from New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and California, and to the generosity of private donors who made the permanent installation of the “Earth” sentinel sculpture possible.

Earth’s Voices was on view January 2025 – April 2025 in The Patricia Ross O’keefe Gallery at Saint John Fisher University. The Earth sculpture is on permanent display in the Murphy Hall Gardens on the Saint John Fisher University campus.

Related press for Earth’s Voices: SJFU Press Release