Limited Taxonomy is a research-based project organized by Jessie Fisher and Viy that seeks to bridge the human/nature divide by examining how built and non-built environments interact on a small scale.

Image: A close-up photograph of a cluster of light green crescent-shaped seed pods resting in the palm of an outstretched hand.

Working on a 12x12 ft plot in Millwork Commons where industry, development, and nature co-exist, Fisher and Viy set out to document the plants, fungi, insects, rocks, and debris on the site’s surface. They researched each of these organic and inorganic bodies to create a taxonomic index tracing their characteristics, histories, and journeys, resulting in a body of work that includes photographs and printed materials. Installed in a constellation of images and text, Limited Taxonomy uses small-scale intervention and a light hand to magnify the complex entanglements of interdependent human and non-human environments.

Research produced as part of Limited Taxonomy was collected and published in a small volume. Click the link for a digital version of the publication.

Jessie Fisher makes art in multiple mediums, but for the last 5 years has primarily been a printmaker. He works in letterpress, woodcut/linocut, monotype, and cyanotype. Whether it’s experiments with processes or more direct socio-political propaganda, the work encourages questioning what's possible. Jessie grew up on a farm in rural Nebraska, but has called Omaha home for the past 20 years. In that time, he's worked in construction, art education, and for the past 6 years has been a home inspector. Jessie helped create an art/community space called “Media Corp.” It provided meeting space for a variety of advocacy groups and also functioned as a food pantry for a time.

Viy, pronounced /v/, is a non-binary, multi-media artist. Their practice focuses on the materiality and history of objects, breaking them down to better understand them so they can be reconfigured and re-contextualized as art objects. Interested in refuse and refusal, their work comes from their own trash and items discarded by others, refusing the notion that these objects are worthless and instead seeing them as full of artistic potential. Most recently, their practice has been focused on handmade papermaking, fiber-based media, and relational aesthetics.

Amplify’s programming is made possible with support from the Andy Warhol Foundation for the Visual Arts, the Nebraska Arts Council and the Nebraska Cultural Endowment, and Metropolitan Community College.