Newton and Helen Harrison, a collaborative team of eco-artists visited Utah State University this week. This was a tremendous opportunity to sit at the feet of the masters, to absorb wisdom, and to listen to the story of how they work, perceive history, and describe their relationships to their contemporaries in the Art world.
The most significant aspect to the visit was the intersection of the Harrison’s ideas about how to adapt development to mitigate manmade ecological problems, with our current and growing air quality issues in the Cache Valley. The Harrisons were infectious, emitting empowerment, hope and a sense of urgency that could be a game changer for our community if we are willing.
Autism has become epidemic in America, it is the unintended consequence of a dirty world. Even the NIH cannot justify continuing the notion that autism has only genetic causation. The National Institute of Mental Health Director Dr. Thomas Insel, recently stated that that better diagnosis and reporting could not “explain away this huge increase” in ASD cases. I wonder why, when my children melt down in the grocery store, the glares indict me, instead of the lawmakers who refuse to hold big pharmaceutical and other corporate interest to accountability for polluting our environment and our children’s bodies with an overflow of toxins. The time has come. Let us, as the Harrison’s say, “Defend ourselves.”
To learn more about the Harrisons and their work, please visit their website or the Nora Eccles Harrison Museum of Art where the work will be exhibited all year.