Portable Memories in Rising Seas is a socially engaged, multi-media project about sea level rise. The project uses the force of memory to evoke a sense of interdependence with others facing the force of water. The uncertainties brought by current climate change predictions are a threat to place and are also a catalyst for expression and a renewed sense of belonging.

Using interdisciplinary art methods, Fifty-Fifty will engage with residents of South Florida to create an archive of local experiences, providing an opportunity for the implications of climate change data to manifest on individual and collective levels. Free screenings of films that address sea level rise, memory, and place-based identity will inspire drawings and discussion at events held at various Miami Dade Public Library locations. Viewing other communities adapting to rising waters, as in the films, lessens our differences. Remembering together through dialogue and participatory drawing activates our sense of interconnectedness with each other and our environment. The collected drawings will also be shared with local sea life in an attempt to transmit our memories to species who will inherit at least part of our city.

The exhibition will include participants’ scratchboard responses as well as a published book that includes images and texts derived from screening events and that provides local context for the project as a whole. Through participation at the screenings and viewing of the exhibition, Fifty-Fifty seeks to create a heightened sense of interdependence that can lead to action and empathy for near and distant neighbors.

Fifty-Fifty is an artist collective founded by Lisa Bulawsky and Laurencia Strauss, working at the intersection of individual experience and the public sphere, negotiating cultural tensions through socially engaged participatory art practices.

Lisa Bulawsky is an artist/printmaker known for her mixed media works on paper, installations, and temporary public projects. Laurencia Strauss is an artist/landscape architect investigating vulnerabilities and ingenuities of people and the places they inhabit.

Opening Reception on Earth Day: April 21, 3-5 p.m.

Film screenings of "La Maison en Petit Cubes" and "Thule Tuvalu" will be held at the following branches:

Main Library: Thursday, January 4, 3-5 p.m.
Miami Beach Regional: Tuesday, January 9, 3-5 p.m.