To De-Petrify by Sean M. Starowitz

“De-petrification” imagines a future that moves from fate to possibility. To de-petrify a landscape, rather than assign it a role as fixed and fossilized, Starowitz proposes a shift in human interaction with natural resources from extraction to collaboration. Inspired by the logics of “A Pattern Language” by Christopher Alexander, Murray Silverstein and Sara Ishikawa, the artist’s work evokes “paving with cracks…paths and terraces which change and show the passage of time and so help people feel the earth beneath their feet” (Alexander, et al., 1140). Cultivating a communion with material that welcomes such transformation, the works in To De-Petrify reframe human life within the geologic scale of the planet and the quotidian efforts that accumulate our presence. Experimenting with carbon-sequestering building techniques, Starowitz invites us to examine the task of decarbonization at individual and societal scales. Through the role of artist-as-practitioner, his work proposes “de-petrification” as a theoretical response to the imperatives of climate change. Starowitz creates and photographs speculative objects out of biochar, hempcrete, mycelium and institutional waste material. Presenting bricks, garden edging, and miniature jersey barriers alongside their moldwork, his material process recontextualizes the urban landscape of monuments and boundaries. As an artist working within the tradition of social practice, Starowitz explores what is at stake for artists and makers in the transition to an era beyond fossil fuels. Brick by brick, the artist constructs a proposal for participation as an ethical maker, material researcher and community member in the age of the Anthropocene.  

About Sean Starowitz 
Sean M. Starowitz has worked in a variety of community-based contexts, spanning more than a decade of socially engaged art practice. He uses archival research and public memory as material to reframe our current understanding of natural history and political imaginaries. Starowitz served as the Assistant Director of the Arts for the City of Bloomington, IN, during this time, he directed the 1% for the Arts program and managed cultural grants on behalf of the City. Prior to his work in local government, he was the artist-in-residence at the Farm To Market Bread Company in Kansas City and is a graduate of the Interdisciplinary Arts program at the Kansas City Art Institute. Starowitz has exhibited his work at Living Arts of Tulsa, KMAC Museum, and the Nerman Museum of Contemporary Art, as well as, numerous artist-run spaces. He has contributed writings to Proximity Magazine, Ruckus Journal and Belt Magazine. And has lectured at various universities throughout the US, including Queens College, UCLA, Indiana University, University of South Dakota, SVA, and at American University in D.C. In 2023, Starowitz received his MFA in Sculpture from the Tyler School of Art and Architecture. He currently lives and works in Philadelphia, PA, and spends his summers teaching at the Kentucky Governor’s School for the Arts in Lexington, KY.