“Notweed” Exhibit Opens March 11 at Northern Vermont University-Johnson

“Notweed,” a multimedia exhibit that features 500 hanging stalks of Japanese knotweed, soundscapes and interactive contemporary dance, will run March 11-April 5 at Julian Scott Memorial Gallery at Northern Vermont University-Johnson.

The exhibit of work by NVU-Johnson associate professor of digital art Sean Clute, a reception 3-5 p.m. March 14, and a dance performance by Pauline Jennings at the gallery at 7 p.m. March 28 are free for the public.

Clute and Jennings are co-artistic directors of the multimedia dance company Double Vision. The dance performance also will feature the work of composer and Goddard College faculty member Otto Muller.

With Japanese knotweed identified as an invasive species in Vermont and other states, “Notweed” explores the concept of invasiveness. “The idea that an original, natural, native or good ecosystem can be destroyed by an invasion of outsiders often parallels rhetoric used to portray immigrants as an existential threat. The installation also explores the rural idyll, a kind of static and timeless ‘natural state’ that exists in opposition to the urban and its association with change and progress,” says Clute, director of the Media Arts Research Studio at NVU-Johnson.

The Julian Scott Memorial Gallery is open 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Tuesday-Friday, 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Saturday and during performances at Dibden Center for the Arts on campus.

For more information, visit NorthernVermont.edu/JulianScottGallery, or call 802.635.1469.