“Imagine There is No Reef” - A Gallery Talk with Patrick Gallagher, Ph.D.

2803 Fredericksburg Road,San Antonio TX 78201

06 November, 2021

Description

“Imagine There is No Reef”: The Value and Meaning of Coral Reefs Under Climate Change [vc_row][vc_column][vc_column_text] The Value and Meaning of Coral Reefs Under Climate Change The value of nature is often realized in the space between what is and what might not be. That is, paradoxically, we often come to know the true value of nature when it appears to be on the verge of disappearance. Mark Mayfield’s striking collection of reef photography is a challenging demonstration of this predicament. The photographs represent the beauty of the reef to us here in San Antonio, but as the exhibit description indicates, the colorful vitality of many of these images is already dated because of coral bleaching. The coral reef, a massive and exuberant system of communal life is under threat from climate change in Belize and throughout the world, prompting the uncomfortable consideration of what a world without coral reefs might look and feel like. In this talk, I describe my ethnographic fieldwork with community members and conservation scientists as they seek to articulate the value and meaning of a reef that has been made increasingly vulnerable by the warmer, more acidic and tumultuous seas of a changing global climate. Patrick Gallagher is an Assistant Professor of Anthropology at the University of Texas at San Antonio. As an environmental anthropologist, he is interested in the relationship between society and nature and the cultural politics of environmental conservation in coastal Belize. He lives with his wife, Sarah, and three children in the Alta Vista neighborhood of San Antonio. For more information call (210) 383-9723. [/vc_column_text][/vc_column][/vc_row] Website: https://bihlhausarts.org/organizer/bihl-haus-arts-2/