Disaster Diary: August 2019—December 2020

Susan Unterberg and JeanneSilverthorne

We do not inherit the earth from ourancestors; we borrow it from ourchildren.   —Chief Seattle (ca. 1786–1866)

Disaster Diary: August 2019 —December 2020 features work produced (separately but in tandem) by Susan Unterberg and Jeanne Silverthorne between August 2019 and December 2020 in response to never ending crises chronicled in print news. 

Unterberg’s pieces focuses on the given headline—she wants the gist, the unadorned stupefying fact. Silverthorne’s handwritten quotations wanders along the corridors of literature to catch the echoes of centuries-long warnings about our environmental depredation. In Disaster Diary:August 2019— December 2020, Unterberg and Silverthorne together give us the here and now, and the then and there. 

I looked directly to The New York Times newspaper for format and inspiration. Printed on uncoated, newsprint-like stock, 11 x 13 inch, unbound. It reads and feels like a newspaper. The publication features a prologue and individual work excerpts by the artists, an essay by Robert Emmet Hernan and poem by Henri Cole. Edited by Michaelyn Mitchell and printed by GHP, North Haven, CT.