Adriana Cavalcanti
Adriana Cavalcanti is an interdisciplinary artist born and raised in Brazil whose work explores environmental issues, sustainability and our relationships with the natural environment. In 2010 she received a Bachelor’s Degree in Biology, followed by a Botany MSc at the Rio de Janeiro State University, from where she worked in collaboration with bird ecologists with focus on conservation biology. After completion of her master’s, Adriana realized that environmental conservation was only possible with society participation, in which she felt was lacking in her work. In 2013, she moved to Sao Paulo, where she enrolled in the Brazilian school of Landscape Design, a career that would allow her to blend botanical knowledge and creativity, and act directly towards society. In her landscape designs, Adriana used native species to create immersive spaces where people would find peace and connect with nature. In 2014, Adriana relocated to North America, this geographical change has forced her to reshape her professional life.
In 2019, Adriana got enrolled in the Intermedia program at the University of Maine, where she is currently finalizing her thesis research. Through a combination of studio practice and autoethnographic research methodology, in her thesis, Adriana critically looked into the waste production in her own household, while incorporating it in the artist’s creative practice, shifting the idea of “problem” to “solution”. In this research, Adriana makes reference to the environmental crisis related to overconsumption, and its entanglement of the many layers of hidden economic empowerment related to waste.