The Moody Center for the Arts at Rice University hosted the reception for its latest installation, “Practices of Attention,” as part of the ongoing Moody Project Wall series. This collaborative effort, spearheaded by artist and Rice art lecturer Angela Chen and a dedicated group of Rice students, exemplifies the Moody’s commitment to fostering interdisciplinary engagement and creative exploration.
“The goal of the Project Wall is to introduce students directly to the creative voice, to invite them to see the world differently through the eyes of an artist and to make something,” said Alison Weaver, the Suzanne Deal Booth Executive Director of the Moody. “That really summarizes what the Moody does.”
The Moody Project Wall series, launched in 2021, serves as a platform for collaboration between Houston-based artists and Rice students.
“This is the first time we’ve worked directly with a class of students,” Weaver said, explaining that previous installations were completed via a series of workshops. “Angela Chen was offering a course about close looking and practices of attention: going out into Houston, looking at the bayous, looking at the ecosystems and how we as humans interact with the natural world, then inviting students to make a response.”
The class walked through Buffalo Bayou Park and traveled on boats along the eastern portion of the bayou into the Houston Ship Channel. The students also got to visit the Baytown Nature Center. There officials with the nonprofit organization Bayou City Waterkeeper explained that the nature preserve sits on a former subdivision that sank due to subsidence from oil and gas drilling.
“We saw how the oil and gas industry has changed the landscape, and we learned how to see its environmental impacts,” Chen said.
They also learned what they could do to counter those impacts by joining with Buffalo Bayou Partnership’s Clean & Green Program to pick up plastic waste and listening to experts about how to attend to the environmental degradation around us while also holding space for wonder.
“We know that our reliance on fossil fuels is the greatest contributor to climate change, and we know that capitalism’s appetite for unchecked growth is destroying ecosystems,” Chen said. “How does practicing attention enable us to respond — creatively, legislatively, collectively? The works on the wall are a form of response, and there are many others.”
Chen’s large-scale photo-textile collage of Buffalo Bayou served as the visual anchor for the installation, printed on recycled cotton muslin dyed with local flora. Students Cuiyuanxiu Chen, Kevin Chen, Naomi Doron, Saba Feleke, Nevaeh Hicks, Cal Mascardo and Izzy Ramnath, inspired by their experiences and discussions throughout the semester, contributed their own creative responses to ecological themes, reflecting a diverse range of perspectives and approaches.
“The Project Wall has been a great way that the Moody can be a platform where students and artists come together and share their work,” Weaver said.
The April 19 reception marked not only the culmination of “Practices of Attention” but also the anticipation for future installations. In fall 2024, Houston-based artist Ruhee Maknojia will take over the Project Wall, followed by associate professor of visual and dramatic arts Chris Sperandio in spring 2025.
“Each iteration of the Project Wall is unique,” Weaver said.
To learn about upcoming projects and events at the Moody, click here.
