Installation view of Next World Emissaries by Jude Griebel. All works courtesy of the artist. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

Next World Emissaries: Cockroach, wood, air-drying clays, adhesives, acrylic, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

Next World Emissaries: Spongy Moth, wood, air-drying clays, adhesives, faux fur, acrylic, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

Next World Emissaries: Blue Bottle Fly, wood, papier-mâché, textiles, wire, acrylic, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

Next World Emissaries: Scarlet Pimpernel, wood, papier-mâché, acrylic, 2021. Courtesy of the artist. Photo by Blaine Campbell.

JUDE GRIEBEL | NEXT WORLD EMISSARIES
17 SEPTEMBER 2022 - 19 NOVEMBER 2022

Next World Emissaries is a series of new sculptures that builds upon Jude Griebel’s previous work exploring eco-anxiety in fantastic and dystopic tableaux. While these past dioramas processed environmental collapse in miniature environments, elements of these new works are both true to scale and oversized – awarding humanity’s current “pests” a monumental scale. These sculptures explore the concept of “new beginnings”, influenced by speculative fiction in historical and contemporary writing, visual art, and popular culture.

As a foundation for this work, historically imagined utopias from the absurd revelry and hybrid forms of Hieronymus Bosch’s Garden of Earthly Delights to antique sailing maps of imagined territories were considered alongside constructed virtual reality worlds in pop-cultural narratives and Ecotopian fiction. Both tender and darkly humorous, the resulting installation draws from eclectic sources—from the despondent insects in Roald Dahl’s 1961 novel James and the Giant Peach to the optimism of archival images from 1970’s Earth Day parades.

Next World Emissaries features triumphant hybrid forms based on pervasive species of weeds and insects. These various “nuisance species” are based on those common to many North American cities, including: scarlet pimpernel, dandelion, cockroach, blue bottle fly, and gypsy moth. These species also happen to be the most likely to survive catastrophic environmental disaster, acting as ambassadors from our time to an unfamiliar future.

Installed upon a long stage in the gallery, each figure stands on an individual base that appears composed of the industrial detritus of a collapsed city. Walking in formation over the rubble, the figures’ celebratory march symbolizes both the resilience of the natural world and the readiness for a new ecology to take shape. As emissaries for a new world, their hands clutch symbolic offerings such as a bouquet of daisies and oak leaves, as symbols of endurance.

Jude Griebel is a figurative sculptor working between Brooklyn, New York and Bergen, Alberta. He has completed numerous residencies including Pioneer Works, New York; ISCP, New York; The Studios of MASS MoCA, North Adams and HALLE 14 Center for Contemporary Art, Leipzig. Griebel’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions including the Art Gallery of Alberta, Edmonton; the International Museum of Surgical Science, Chicago; the Spinnerei Archiv Massiv, Leipzig and the Tokyo Metropolitan Art Museum. Griebel is a three-time recipient of the Elizabeth Greenshields Foundation Grant and his work is in collections including Arsenal Contemporary Art, Montreal, the Frans Masereel Centrum, Kasterlee and the Volpert Foundation, New York.

Curated by Adam Whitford, Interim Curator, Southern Alberta Art Gallery Maansiksikaitsitapiitsinikssin.

This exhibition was made possible with funding assistance from the Canada Council for the Arts, Alberta Foundation for the Arts, and the City of Lethbridge. The artist would like to acknowledge the support of Pioneer Works, New York in supporting the creation of this exhibition.