How Will You Treat Me?
Site Specific Installation on the Grounds of the Dixon
2013
Artist Cat Peña
Image Courtesy of the artist
Catherine Blackwell Peña came to Memphis in 2006 to pursue her Masters of Fine Art degree at Memphis College of Art. Her work focuses on humanity's relationship to the natural world, revealing ways in which we manipulate, objectify, and quantify the landscape to raise personal and environmental awareness.
How Will You Treat Me? (2013) connects the viewer to a larger network of nature and their place within it as they assume the role of caretaker to a young Red Cedar sapling. The continued wellbeing of a single tree becomes a metaphor to humankind's relationship with nature and the viewer's environmental stewardship.
Outside of her studio practices, Peña is dedicated to creating, teaching, and exploring Public Art and community engagement. Currently she works at Memphis College of Art, as MCA's Coordinator of Exhibitions and Lectures.
