"Part of a pioneering movement."
TODAY SHOW
One of San Francisco Magazine's
"Hottest Artists, Galleries, and Exhibits in the Bay Area"
"In Human Nature, I look at what happens when we step back to view ourselves within the expansiveness of nature and time through the lens of feminism, neuroscience, ecology, and philosophy. I consider how this scale realignment can change our perspective, offer context, reveal absurdities, and evoke humility, insights, and awe."
- Tiffany Shlain
DENDROFEMONOLOGY (Feminist History Tree Ring)
60" x 55" x 3" | Reclaimed Cedar Wood Sculpture | 2022
“I have always been fascinated by the tree ring timelines at the entrance of Muir Woods or any National Park. They illuminate how the trees are a witness to human history. However, I also felt like those timelines tell a colonialist and patriarchal story. The tree rings in Human Nature imagine what alternate histories could be told…”. - Tiffany Shlain
“Tiffany is a force of nature and her vision is remarkable, personal, thought provoking, and always relevant.."
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-Jorn Lyseggen, founder of SHACK15
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“Everything Tiffany Shlain does is so timely and important for us to understand and know."
-Dr. Nancy Dr. Nancy O’Reilly, Women Connect4Good
“Tiffany's feminist and eco-philosophical perspective continues to probe and celebrate the wonders of being human."
-Kathy Brew, Guest Curator for the Museum of Modern Art New York
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"Through her inspiring, compelling, and thought-provoking work, Tiffany has long embraced her role as a creator to affect change through art and storytelling."
-Jennifer Herrera, National Women’s History Museum, Washington DC
" The artwork in Human Nature is thought provoking, emotional, scientific, historical...all rolled into beauty. "
-Nance Miller, Artist and attendee of exhibit
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An Exhibition by Tiffany Shlain
SHACK15 at The San Francisco Ferry Building
Curre
Presented by
The National Women's History Museum based in Washington D. C.
& Women Connect4Good
Tiffany is the SHACK15 Artist-in-Residence
Upcoming Events
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UPCOMING EVENTS:
Tuesday, February 14: Artist-Led Virtual Tour 11am PT / 2pm ET. RSVP for Zoom link.
PAST EVENTS:
Thursday, October 26: Artist Talk + Preview. 6-8pm. SOLD OUT
Wednesday, November 2: Opening Reception. 6-9pm. AT CAPACITY- Highlights from the opening here.
Tuesday, December 6: In Person Artist Talk + Tour Live 6pm to 7:30pm SOLD OUT
Tuesday, January 17: Artist Tour & Discussion w/The Long Now Foundation 6pm to 7:30pm SOLD OUT
Friday, January 20: Artist-Led Tour During SF Art Week & Fog Design & Art 10:30am to 11:30am
Tuesday, January 24: Artist-Led Tour 2pm
Join our newsletter to stay posted on the Human Nature Exhibition & where it will be going next.
Press
National Women's History Museum Interview on exhibition: Inspiring Voices
San Francisco Magazine Arts Issue
Print Magazine on the exhibition
SHACK15 Artist-in-Residence Interview
Shira Gill Women Who inspire Interview
Art Inquiries + Acquisitions
If you are interested in acquiring art, please fill out your info below or
email Sawyer Steele at art@tiffanyshlain.com.
About Human Nature
The Human Nature exhibition includes 24 artworks:
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Reclaimed Tree Ring Sculptures (Reclaimed Wood Sculpture or Large-Scale Photograph)
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Mixed Media Lightboxes (3 sizes, from 108" wide to 16.5" inches wide)
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Large-scale Photography (Archival pigment print on acid-free paper)
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Large-scale Vinyl Matte Prints
About The Tree Rings
A centerpiece of the exhibition is DENDROFEMONOLOGY, in which Shlain subverts the traditional tree ring timelines by rewriting history from a feminist point of view.
Dates include:
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50,000 BCE: goddesses are worshiped.
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2400 BCE: Mesopotamian law declares: “If a woman speaks to a man out of turn, her teeth will be smashed in by a burnt brick.”
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1993: Women allowed to wear pants on the floor of the US Senate.
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2022:
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Roe v. Wade is overturned, eviscerating federal protection of reproductive rights in the United States.
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Globally, 65 countries have legalized abortions, four in the last year.
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The National Women's History Museum in Washington DC, one of the presenters of the exhibition, took the text burned into the feminist history tree ring DENDROFEMONOLOGY and made it interactive, going deeper into some of the lines here.
There are five other large tree rings in the exhibition exploring different topics from climate change, neuroscience, the evolution of knowledge and more.
More information on the process of making the feminist history tree ring DENDROFEMOLOGY
Mixed Media Lightboxes
1 of 12 in the exhibition
ROE V. WADE
Mixed Media Lightbox, Editions of 4
72” x 108” x 3.2”
24” x 36” x .6”
11” x 16.5” x .6”
Large-Scale Vinyl and Photography
2 of 5 in the exhibition
Archival print on acid-free paper
68” x 44”
47” x 31”
36” x 24”
PERSPECTIVE
ULTRA PERSPECTIVE
Large-Scale Vinyl Matte
196" x 98"
130” x 65”
86” x 43”
ABOUT TIFFANY SHLAIN
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Honored by Newsweek as one of the "Women Shaping the 21st Century,” Tiffany Shlain is an artist, Emmy-nominated filmmaker, founder of the Webby Awards, and author of the national bestselling book 24/6: Giving up Screens One Day a Week to Get More Time, Creativity, and Connection, winner of the Marshall McLuhan Outstanding Book Award. Shortly before the pandemic, the Museum of Modern Art in New York City premiered her one-woman spoken cinema show, Dear Human. When the world shut down during COVID, Shlain spent the time walking in the redwoods and began working in large-scale sculpture, photography, and mixed media, exploring themes of scale and perspective and time. She was selected as artist in residence by SHACK15 at the SF Ferry Building based on this new work, and currently has an exhibition up on the top floor of the Ferry Building called Human Nature. The exhibition is presented by The National Women's History Museum based in Washington D.C. and Women Connect4Good.
Working across film, art, and performance, Shlain's work explores feminism, ecology, neuroscience, and philosophy. Awards and distinctions for her work include multiple film premieres at Sundance, selection by the Albert Einstein Foundation as one of the people carrying on his legacy, and the Neil Postman Award for Career Achievement in Public Intellectual Activity. The US State Department has used Shlain’s films to represent America at embassies around the world. She has held artist residencies at the Headland Center for the Arts, the American Museum of Jewish History, and the Da Vinci Museum, which created an exhibit of all of her work on gender and society.
Read Interview with Tiffany about the lead up to this exhibition and her artist-in-residency.