“Nature Cult, Seeded | Donald Moffett” as Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland. Photos by Dave Clough Photography The Center for Maine Contemporary Art in Rockland is presenting two views of important contemporary issues – species extinction and Black identity – by two artists: “Nature Cult, Seeded | Donald Moffett” and “To Whom Keeps a Record | Arnold J. Kemp,” both through Sept.
8. WHAT: “Nature Cult, Seeded | Donald Moffett” and “To Whom Keeps a Record | Arnold J. Kemp” WHERE: Center for Maine Contemporary Art, 21 Winter St.
, Rockland WHEN: Through Sept. 8 HOURS: 10 a.m.
to 5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, noon to 5 p.
m. Sunday ADMISSION: $10, $8 senior and students, free for Rockland residents, members and children under 18 INFO: 207-701-5005, cmcanow.org Donald Moffett wants to unsettle you, perhaps even shock you into action.
That is, after all, what he’s done for years as an activist artist. Ergo the title of “Nature Cult.” In an interview with Domus magazine, he told Toshiko Mori (the CMCA’s architect) “I want a word after ‘nature’ that perturbs in a way.
” “Cult” is certainly calculated to elicit this discomfort. The big questions for me are: How impactfully does this exhibit perturb us and spur us to outrage, or to actually do something about the issue at hand? And when do polemics generate the opposite, almost somnambulant response? The single-most haunting gesture of this show is not visual. It is an audio recordi.