Anne Yoncha - MSU Denver

Biography

Anne Yoncha (US) was born and raised in Wilmington, Delaware, and has lived in Jacksonville, FL; Ciudad Colon, Costa Rica; Philadelphia, PA; Missoula, MT; Oulu, Finland; and Ada, Oklahoma. Her practice combines digital sensing technology, such as bio-data sonification, and analog, traditional processes including painting with ink she makes from locally-sourced plant matter. Outside the studio she can often be found doing another kind of environmental “research” via bicycle.

Research Interests

My work combines experimental art + ecological science to explore mechanics of plant physiology. By translating these processes into artworks, I aim to build affinity with unfamiliar ecologies apparently out of sight or possessing different temporalities than our own. I'm most interested in places we've altered through extraction - our post-human "novel" landscapes - and how we can get to know these new places and the beings that call them home.

Teaching Interests

What can art be, and do, for people today? A good painting class is a community of practice addressing 3 types of questions: questions of all time (like identities, belief systems, love, and death), questions of today (like climate change or border politics or the Plasticene), and questions of tomorrow (join a class and we'll try to figure out what these might be!). Classroom conversations grounded in issues like these can set precedent for critical examination of our systems of knowing, and often-hidden, default means of making sense of the world.