May I justify my belief that eco art will come to represent the current era in all future histories of art:
Art has been evolving since its inception tens of thousands of years ago. Despite undergoing continual transformations, a flip through any art survey reveals these diverse entries all have one thing in common – ‘innovation’.
Those who confirm the status quo may be beloved in their own time. But they tend to fade from the historic record. Throughout the ages, it is the artist who tampers with norms and disrupts expectations that are significant in the long run.
Environmentalism originates in discontent. You will not find supporters of the status quo among its ranks.
For this reason, every artist in this book advocates for reform. Norms are considered obstructions that must either be destroyed or circumvented.
Occasionally some resort to sabotage, a deliberate act aimed at obstructing or disrupting activities that are considered to be damaging to ecosystems and their populations. Eco-terrorists, for example, might spike trees to ruin the loggers’ saws to prevent logging. This is not the tactic of any artist in this book.
Could one say that art degenerates as it approaches gardening?
This provocative statement is new to me. I discovered it in a text written by Catherine Howett in Places/vol. 3 / no. 3.
Howett suggests that Smithson’s objection was targetted specifically at the aspiration of gardeners to create mini Edens in their back yards. Smithson, she asserts, was less critical of those who imitated nature’s picturesque wildness. Placing these contrasting views of the garden within the context of Smithson’s art works and writings, Edens emphasize the gestation and growth aspects of life cycles, whereas those who cultivate the picturesque focus on the decay and decomposition aspects of the life cycle.
on Thursday, 28 February, 2013. Posted in
Artists,
BlogWar crimes were in the news today. The reports focused on both the tragic inadvertent killings of innocent victims and the intended brutality of some soldiers. The horror it evoked inspired this blog entry:
‘Immolation’ is a special kind of killing because it is associated with fire and sacrifice, as when an animal or plant or some material possession is offered to a deity for foregiveness, mercy, or homage. The video installation of this title that was created by Critical Art Ensemble in 2008 examines the use of incendiary weapons on civilians. This video chronicles the major war crimes of the United States involving these weapons.
Two scales are represented. The landscape registers damage on the macro scale. The human body registers this damage on the micro scale of cells. The images are not artistic renderings. The macro footage was supplied by films of present and past wars that have used immolation against civilian targets. To create the micro footage, CAE grew human tissue at the SymbioticA Art and Science Collaborative Research Laboratory in Perth, Australia that was established by Zurr and Catts. They used sophisticated microscopy shot the micro footage.
on Wednesday, 27 February, 2013. Posted in
Artists,
BlogThis blog entry is dedicated to Nicole Fournier and all the eco artists who integrate food production into their art practice.
Recent reports about food and health confirm the optimist’s gratitude to be alive in the 21st century AND the pessimist’s anxiety and despair.
Optimism was confirmed by researchers at the Max Planck Institute for Demographic Research in Rostock, Germany who reported that human life expectancy has risen faster than it did in the previous 200 millennia since modern man began to evolve from hominid species.
Should ‘life’ or ‘death’ provide the central theme for organizing human consciousness? This provocative question was asked by Melissa Sue Ragain in the fall 2012 issue of Art Journal. The question is intriguing because advocates for ‘life’ recognize the imperative of death, and those advocating ‘death’ acknowledge the requirement of life.
Life advocates focus on anabolic processes: the synthesis in living organisms of more complex substances from simpler ones
Death advocates focus on catabolic processes: the breaking down in living organisms of more complex substances into simpler ones, with the release of energy. Entropy is the doctrine of inevitable decline. It is applied to social systems, biological entities, and geological phenomena.
on Thursday, 21 February, 2013. Posted in
Artists,
BlogHere is a particularly curious instance of one artist appropriating the actual work of another artist and including it in his or her own work. As reported in the Journal of Curatorial Studies by Alana Kushnir, this action involves Simon Starling’s work, “Rescued Rhododendrons” (2000) that elicits the itinerant history of a particular rhododendron that Simon Starling introduced to a park in Spain. Why does the word ‘rescue’ apply to this plant? Starling reversed the historical trajectory of the plant by returning it to its original site.
Pedro Reyes is intent on diverting guns from politics and violence into culture and peace. He is creating art as an antidote to the conditions that emerge when, for example, a series of deadly Barrett .50 firearms entered Mexico as part of a controversial US government strategy that permitted the illegal sale of weapons in the hope that this would provide a route into Mexican drug cartel.
Palas por Pistolas (Shovels for Guns) is an earlier campaign to curb the trade of small weapons. It is ongoing. Imagine is a new endeavor that consists of more than 500 pieces of artillery that were confiscated by Mexico’s Secretary of National Defense. They were donated to Reyes so that they could be dismantled and reconfigured into 50 functioning musical instruments.
Is there a problem with the word ‘thinking’ in the phrase: ‘holistic systems thinking’?
Some colleagues object because it seems to reduce systems analysis to precise rational schemes, and ignore the intuitive and emotional aspects of holistic awareness.
After consideration, I’d like to propose that, instead of replacing the word ‘think’, this interesting linguistic challenge might be solved by expanding the use of the word “think” which means “to have a conscious mind.”
Phrases with this word greatly expand this meaning. Consider these additions for holistic systems: Think. Think of. Think through. Think up. Think better. Think fit. Think twice.
No Ant Farm members are implicated in the sex-abuse scandal that is rocking Amarillo, Texas. nonetheless, Ant Farm’s iconic installation, “Cadillac Ranch” may be scrapped because of its patron’s alleged child sex abuses. Stanley Marsh is an eccentric Texas oil heir and art patron. Since the 1970s he has been reaping respect and honor for sponsoring Ant Farm’s renowned, renegade art installation. Now indignant citizens are campaigning to demolish the work because it provides public acclaim to a patron accused of committing deviant acts.