“Neighbors” Exhibition with Blake Lavia and Elizabeth Saucier

Blake Lavia:

Blake Lavia (all pronouns) is a multimedia artist and community organizer. Their art practice
dances between writing, video, photography, sculpture, animation and mixed media illustration.
Through their art they share the voice of ecosystems and question structures of power. Blake is
an advocate for change, and they imbue their art and writing with calls for action. Their art and
short films have been exhibited in venues such as the The Wild Center, the Centro per Arte
Contemporanea Luigi Pecci, the Western Massachusetts Biennial, the New York K&P Gallery,
and The ROAR.
Through their work with the environmental storytelling collective Talking Wings, Blake has
produced documentary films, written and illustrated eco-centric stories, and curated the
exhibitions;Water and Origin, “Listening to Water,” and “Memory Flow/ Water of
Boston.” Blake is also one of the funders of Talking Rivers, Inc., an organization that is
dedicated to educating communities about the Rights of Rivers and their ecosystems. Under
Talking Rivers, Blake has co-curated conferences such as the We Are All In This Together
Symposium,; and events such as We LOVE Raquette River.
Blake is also writing and illustrating a series of speculative fiction novels. The first novel is titled
“Panoptic Snow.” The novels grapple with how individuals stuck within systems of corporate
power can liberate themselves and others, heal and build a new society.

Blake Lavia Artist Statement:

When we usually think about neighbors, we imagine our human community. In this exhibit, I
want to expand the concept of neighbor to envelop all the other beings, animals and plants,
who form part of the ecosystems we call home. My goal is to bring into a human-made
municipal building, the furry, feathered, and leafy people of the Raquette River (Ahná:wate in Kanien‘kehá/Mohawk)

watershed. They are all citizens of this Land and Water, and their voices
deserve to be heard. Just like the human residents of Potsdam, NY (Kanien’kéhaka Territory)
these other-than-human people are entitled to be represented, their interests respected, and
needs met.

Elizabeth Saucier:

Elizabeth was raised in Michigan and recently moved to NY from Mississippi. She loves the water and going to the beach and that has largely inspired her Sea Creatures collection. She’s been creating all of her life but she didn’t begin creating professionally until 2012. Her favorites are landscapes and animals and lots and lots of colors.