Erin Charpentier and Travis Neel work at the unruly edges of art and urban ecology to explore the possibility of collaborative survival within the weedy entanglements of human-disturbed landscapes.

Currently, their work centers the Honey Mesquite tree—the charismatic and thorny protagonist of the Llano Estacado’s ecological theater in West Texas. In an attempt to understand the Honey Mesquite, they have become enmeshed in a symbiotic association with other artists, landscape architects, neighbors, Chihuahuan desert and Short Grass prairie plant communities, ranchers, arborists, insects, bacteria, rainwater, mycorrhiza, and the City of Lubbock. Together, this community of actors have manifested the Mesquite Mile, an expanding network of sites designed to provide solar cooling with gentle shade, irrigate drought-hardy plants with stormwater runoff through green infrastructure, and increase biodiversity in Lubbock, TX. 

Their collaborative work has been supported and recognized by the National Endowment for the Arts, the Mid-America Arts Alliance’s Interchange Artists Fellowship program, Headlands Center for the Arts, Southwest Contemporary, the British Cultural Council, Stoveworks Artist Residency, the Tallgrass Artist Residency, the Brooklyn Art Museum, the Tacoma Art Museum, the Portland Art Museum, the Atlantic Center for the Arts, Temple Contemporary, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the RedLine Contemporary Art Center, and numerous DIY art spaces across the United States and Canada.

Contact:
Visavistravis@gmail.com
eecharpentier@gmail.com