New York artist and Niagara Falls native, Chantal Calato has received a Global Warming Art Project grant from the Arts Services Initiative of Western New York for her 2020 exhibit, UNSEEN
The Global Warming Art Project grant awarded Calato $10,000 in 2018 for her environmental multimedia installation UNSEEN which will open in 2020 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center.
Calato is amongst the first winners of the new Global Warming Art Project grant.
Some of the features of the multi-media exhibit include a cinematic film of Niagara Falls shot by Calato, two projectors and eight audio channels interweaving the UNSEEN voices around visitors and an intricate sculpture made from soil and wood.
BUFFALO, NY – 1 May 2019 -- New York environmental artist Chantal Calato has received a $10,000 grant from the Global Warming Art Project to fund UNSEEN, a multimedia installation which will open at the Burchfield Penney Art Center in 2020. The grant is supported from donations from Ben Perrone and the ‘Environment Maze’ project donors and administered by Arts Services Initiative of Western New York. Calato was the first artist to receive the new grant in 2018.
More than 40 years after the neighborhood surrounding Love Canal was destroyed by toxic waste, artist Chantal Calato investigates how the people of the Niagara region continue to suffer from the chemicals of Niagara’s industrial legacy. Calato interviewed 18 people from Niagara County for UNSEEN. Their dark, personal stories are at the heart of the installation which creates a haunting soundscape revealing how they have been affected by the toxins inside their homes.
The UNSEEN voices will permeate the room and visitors to the exhibit will be able to hear and experience their shared physical and emotional burden through what they saw and smelled when they lived in this toxic environment. A double-height projection of Calato’s cinematography of the cascading water of Niagara Falls will illuminate the space at the Burchfield Penney.
“With UNSEEN, I wanted to contrast the beauty the world knows Niagara Falls for with the dark personal stories of those who have lived in the shadows of this city,” said Calato. “UNSEEN is about your home. It is about your children, your pets, and your neighborhood. This project is about you.”
About Chantal Calato
Calato’s work explores the mutilation that humans have caused to our environment through multimedia installations. Calato grew up in Niagara Falls near the environmental disaster of Love Canal which has become a driving inspiration behind all of her work. Calato’s work has been featured in The White House Halloween Party in 2009 and City of Night in Buffalo’s grain silos. For more information Calato, please visit her website, www.chantalcalato.com
Calato lives and works in NYC. She is the winner of the Global Warming Art Project grant which is supported from donations from Ben Perrone and the ‘Environment Maze’ project and administered by Arts Services Initiative of WNY to fund her largest installation to date UNSEEN will open in 2020 at the Burchfield Penney Art Center. Her website can be found at www.unseen-voices.com.
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For editorial inquiries or to interview the artist please contact:
Jennifer Kite-Powell
Publicist for Chantal Calato
+ 1 929 442 9696