Overview

A spirited memoir by artist Aviva Rahmani, offering a relatable narrative to discuss trigger point theory and the importance of eco-art activism. Divining Chaos is an intimate personal memoir of unparalleled transparency into the moments in Rahmani's life that shaped her as an artist and activist. Detailing the history that led her to two seminal projects—Ghost Nets, restoring a coastal town dump to flourishing wetlands, and The Blued Trees Symphony, which applied her premises to challenge natural gas pipelines with a novel legal theory about land use—Rahmani shares the decisions that shaped her life’s work and thinking. Her discussions about trigger point theory argue for how to predict, confront, and determine outcomes to the ecological challenges we face today.

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9781613321669

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Reviews

Rahmani brings us to the place where her art (which speaks of the urgency of action and the lack of time to make change) is refracted through her reflections of her life—moments in time as a process through time. -- Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University, UK; editor of Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968–2014 In Divining Chaos Aviva Rahmani nails her own heart to the Earth’s gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation. Yet, to fight ecocide and regain the symphony of life, we must 'read' and 'listen' to her beautiful, beating heart, an avatar of harmonia mundi. -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is—precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful. -- Laura Raicovich, writer and curator; author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art Aviva Rahmani’s remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life. This is the story of a life in art that is also a life in politics, science, and environmental- ism. And, in our dark times, it is also a story of what we may still be able to do to save our planet. -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature. Her personal experiences of trauma might well have defeated her. Instead, they seemingly empowered her to become a strong and persistent advocate for ecological issues through her artwork, and to challenge the status quo in innovative and effective ways. -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene In Divining Chaos she nails her own heart to the Earth’s gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation. -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is—precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful. -- Laura Raicovich, author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art Aviva Rahmani’s remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life. -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature. -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene

Rahmani brings us to the place where her art (which speaks of the urgency of action and the lack of time to make change) is refracted through her reflections of her life-moments in time as a process through time. -- Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University, UK; editor of Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968-2014 In Divining Chaos Aviva Rahmani nails her own heart to the Earth's gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation. Yet, to fight ecocide and regain the symphony of life, we must 'read' and 'listen' to her beautiful, beating heart, an avatar of harmonia mundi. -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is-precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful. -- Laura Raicovich, writer and curator; author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art Aviva Rahmani's remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life. This is the story of a life in art that is also a life in politics, science, and environmental- ism. And, in our dark times, it is also a story of what we may still be able to do to save our planet. -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature. Her personal experiences of trauma might well have defeated her. Instead, they seemingly empowered her to become a strong and persistent advocate for ecological issues through her artwork, and to challenge the status quo in innovative and effective ways. -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene In Divining Chaos she nails her own heart to the Earth's gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation. -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is-precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful. -- Laura Raicovich, author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art Aviva Rahmani's remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life. -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature. -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene

"""Rahmani brings us to the place where her art (which speaks of the urgency of action and the lack of time to make change) is refracted through her reflections of her life—moments in time as a process through time."" -- Hilary Robinson, Professor of Feminism, Art, and Theory, Loughborough University, UK; editor of Feminism Art Theory: An Anthology 1968–2014 ""In Divining Chaos Aviva Rahmani nails her own heart to the Earth’s gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation. Yet, to fight ecocide and regain the symphony of life, we must 'read' and 'listen' to her beautiful, beating heart, an avatar of harmonia mundi."" -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia ""Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is—precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful."" -- Laura Raicovich, writer and curator; author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art ""Aviva Rahmani’s remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life. This is the story of a life in art that is also a life in politics, science, and environmental- ism. And, in our dark times, it is also a story of what we may still be able to do to save our planet."" -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams ""Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature. Her personal experiences of trauma might well have defeated her. Instead, they seemingly empowered her to become a strong and persistent advocate for ecological issues through her artwork, and to challenge the status quo in innovative and effective ways."" -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene ""In Divining Chaos she nails her own heart to the Earth’s gallery wall and invites us to examine it, a daunting experience of critical life-moments revealing the complex dialectic of violation."" -- Glenn Albrecht, environmental philosopher; author of Earth Emotions and Solastalgia ""Aviva Rahmani offers a memoir of anti-capitalist, anti-ecocidal storytelling imbued with a deep and abiding faith that people and art can interrupt and reinvent the status quo. In twinning deep scientific and theoretical knowledge with her art, she manages a near-impossible task of rendering the world as it is—precarious, violent, dangerous, beautiful."" -- Laura Raicovich, author of Culture Strike: Art and Museums in an Age of Protest and former director of the Queens Museum of Art ""Aviva Rahmani’s remarkable Divining Chaos is part bildungsroman, part eco-action guidebook, part pandemic diary, and part portrait of a turbulent time in American art and history. With searing honesty, Rahmani presents her complex multidisciplinary thinking as it has evolved through the twists and turns of a tumultuous life."" -- Eleanor Heartney, art critic and curator; author of Art & Today and Doomsday Dreams ""Divining Chaos is a compelling and courageous memoir of historical importance, written by a central figure in the emergence of ecofeminist art. Aviva Rahmani makes clear that the same entrenched systems of power enable the abuse of women and the abuse of nature."" -- Julie Reiss, PhD, editor of Art, Theory and Practice in the Anthropocene"

Author Information

Aviva Rahmani (Author) Aviva Rahmani is an ecoartist whose work has been exhibited, published, and funded internationally. She is an affiliate with the Institute for Arctic and Alpine Research at the University of Colorado at Boulder and gained her PhD from the University of Plymouth, UK. Lucy R. Lippard (Foreword by) Lucy Lippard is an internationally known writer, activist, and curator. She has authored twenty-two books, has curated more than fifty major exhibitions, and holds nine honorary degrees. Lippard is the recipient of numerous awards, including a Guggenheim Fellowship and two National Endowment for the Arts grants.

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