Project: While some eco artists photograph or paint pristine settings that evoke beauty and reverence, many engage contaminated sites that evoke disgust and horror. In their works, activation and remediation replace observation and admiration.
Project: While some eco artists photograph or paint pristine settings that evoke beauty and reverence, many engage contaminated sites that evoke disgust and horror. In their works, activation and remediation replace observation and admiration. While the artists discussed in this section all conduct large-scale projects, their remediation approaches are applicable to small scales as well. Conduct a small scale remediation project on a puddle, a bit of bare land, a patch of weeds, a gutter, or some other component of your local landscape.
Research / Discussion: Environmental remediation undoes environmental damage. However, the focus is rarely on the damage caused by ‘natural’ disasters such as floods. Instead, remediation attends to disturbances caused by humans.
Three categories of disturbance are represented by the artists in this section:
-Paving (Bayer and Jeremijenko)
-Accumulations of toxins (Chin, Haacke, Hundertwasser, Jeremijenko, Lee, Ngo, Yeh)
-Poor water management (Harrisons, Ngo, Yeh)
The aspect of habitats that serves as the focus of these art works:
-Water is impaired (Haacke, Harrisons, Hundertwasser, Jeremijenko, Ngo, Yeh)
-Soils and land are impaired (Chin, Lee, Bayer)
Imagine that you received a grant to serve as an apprentice to study the remediation technologies of any one of these artists. Which would you choose? Why?