Temporary Exhibition:
“Earthly Needs” December 10, 2016 through March 10, 2017
Exhibition Abstract
In viewing art
presented that spans throughout the last two centuries, we can see
that not only has appreciation and preservation of our Earth been a
consistent artistic theme, but that the face of our planet is
changing. Our needs are changing and demand is ever increasing but
the resources available have not changed.
We
tend to think of Environmental concerns as a relatively new issue,
and emerging artists in current times frequently pursue their
projects with a nod to conservation and appreciation for the
environment. We strive to create art whose purpose is one of
education to the vitality in our connection and respect for Earth's
beauty and our inter-dependence on the planet.
However,
when reviewing art over a many-generational time span, we can see
that artists around the world have been devoted to capturing and
sharing the beauty of the natural around us and showing us the
effects mankind has had on the face of our planet.
By
showcasing the works of seven different global artists across a
nearly 200 year time span, with drastically different styles and
mediums, viewers will be able to better understand how the
environment and our connection to it has been a concern for many
generations of Americans.
Featured
Pieces
View Near the Village of Catskill-1827
Oil on wood 24 1⁄2 x 35 in. Loaned from the Fine Arts Museum of San Francisco, gift of Mr. and Mrs. John D. Rockefeller III in 1993.
Seneca Ray Stoddard
Lake George among the Islands-1880
Albumen Print, Photograph Approx. 6 1⁄2 x 8 1⁄2 in. Loaned by permanent collection at the Chapman Historical Museum.
Andrew
Goldsworthy
Woodpigeon
wing feathers / partly buried / laid around hole, Leeds, Yorkshire
-August 1977
1
cibachrome photograph, 24.2 x 16.2 (9 1/2 x 16 3/8). Loaned by
special collection at the University of Glasgow.
Phosphor Tailings Pond #1, Polk County, Florida, USA-Date Unlisted
Chromogenic Print, Photograph 60” x 80” Loaned by the Flowers Gallery of London.
Nils-Udo
Eruption
d'ete~Summer Eruption-2010
Video Clip-the making of
the ephemeral construct and photographing it. Used with permission of
the Nicolas Feuillatte Champagne company.
Paula's Pleasure-2011
Steel
Sculpture, approx. 20 feet tall. Loaned from the collection of the
Paula Cooper Gallery, New York.
Patrick Dougherty
What the Birds Know-2015
Woven Sapling Structure 22' x 8-12” diameter. Commissioned and loaned by by the Peabody Essex Museum for placement in Salem, MA at the Crowninshield- Bentley House.
Curatorial
Essay on “Earthly Needs”
In viewing art
presented that spans throughout the last two centuries, we can see
that not only has appreciation and preservation of our Earth been a
consistent artistic theme, but that the face of our planet is
changing. Our needs are changing and demand is ever increasing but
the resources available have not changed.
What is our
responsibility, locally and globally? Can we create and build and use
resources in a way that both meet our needs and preserve our finite
resources? Can we be purposefully inventive, resourceful, and think
outside the box to create an even richer way of life than we're
already leading?
We
tend to think of Environmental concerns as a relatively new issue,
and emerging artists in current times frequently pursue their
projects with a nod to conservation and appreciation for the
environment. We strive to create art whose purpose is one of
education to the vitality in our connection and respect for Earth's
beauty and our inter-dependence on the planet.
However,
when reviewing art over a many-generational time span, we can see
that artists around the world have been devoted to capturing and
sharing the beauty of the natural around us and showing us the
effects mankind has had on the face of our planet. Artists
have used a focus on nature to inspire spirituality, tourism,
conservation, camaraderie, to issue a warning to mankind, both past
and present, and many other personal motivations and endeavors.
The
categories of “Eco-art,” Earth-art, Environmental Art, and other
such names often encompass a vast and diverse set of styles and
subject matter, as well as intention. For
some, art whose subject matter consists of something “natural,”
i.e. water, or trees and such, is considered earth art. For others, a
piece must somehow incorporate a direct benefit to the environment,
such as rebuilding an underwater barrier reef or designing a
filtration system that is visually sculptural but whose real purpose
is to promote the transformation of polluted water into clean.
There
are many artists whose work is touted as Eco-focused but when
breaking down the process from start to finish of materials used, the
short and long impacts of the creation or building process on the
geographical location (major machinery and vehicles used, mass
tourism that travels to the specific location to view the project,
etc.) one could easily see the impact may well be more eco-damaging
and irresponsible of the artist than constructive to the cause of
environmental responsibility and awareness.
While
there are potentially dozens of interpretations as to what
constitutes Eco-art and even what to call this category of art, the
one that this show will be focusing on is artists who give
preference to using materials in an environmentally conscientious
manner to create projects of visual or sensory interest and/or create
their art in such a way as to have absolutely no direct negative
impact on the planet.
Eco-art
is different than other types of art because of the focus on using
existing items rather than destroying or expending new resources and
materials. New trees don't need to be cut down to create canvas
frames or build furniture at anywhere near the same rate if existing
products can be re-purposed to create these items in a fresh way.
Chemicals to refine or process new material, like dyes and fabrics,
are often damaging to the environment and their use can be limited.
Each small step of eliminating special manufacturing processes or
materials helps cut down on negative consumer impact to the Earth and
our ecosystem. Small steps have large impact.
Eco-art
is similar to other types of art because it seeks to enlighten and
stimulate an
emotional
response in the viewer. Whether the goal of an artist is to excite,
horrify, educate, or incite warm fuzzy feelings, environmentally
responsible art functions no different than “regular” art in
these respects.
By
showcasing the works of seven different global artists across a
nearly 200 year time span who had major commercial and artistic
success, and yet still operated and created their works with very
small or non-existent negative environmental impact, we can start to
understand how art and our own actions can dramatically effect the
environment. In addition, seeing how our connection to the
environment and inter-dependence on it is not a new concept, and
indeed, the preservation of the environment has been a concern for
many generations of people around the globe.
Our
first artist, Thomas Cole, born in England 1801-1848, focused much of
his work in New York State, and even in his short lifetime, founded
the Hudson River School, an artist's collaboration and style whereby
the landscape of New York in the early to mid 1800's is featured as
wild, ethereal, and fraught with spiritual meaning and intentions. By
portraying man as a small being interacting within the vast landscape
or simply overlooking within the environment instead of conquering
it, he created a sense of adventurous abandon and re-connecting to
the Divine for the viewer.
His
landscape paintings utilize ethereal scenes free from the sense of
industry or man's influence, and many of his works do not include
even a remote sign of humans or their touch. Cole's paintings used
vivid colors and and a unique balance between fine details and a kind
of overall hazy glow to draw the viewer into the fantasy of
overlooking a glimpse of biblical Eden from the eyes of Adam or Eve.
The
takeaway messages can be both that the land is most perfect without
man's involvement, and even when man is present, the land is still
the more important between the two entities shown.
The
black and white photography of American Seneca Ray Stoddard,
1844-1917, in the late 1800's around New York State is considered not
only an essential contribution to the tourism and financial boom of
Lake George and surrounding areas, but also credited with the
education of state and federal lawmakers towards instituting the
protected lands of the great Adirondack Park. Stoddard was not only a
photographer but a political advocate of land conservation and the
prevention of complete annihilation by logging companies and
developers in the 1800's throughout the region.
Stoddard's
work also features the serene landscapes of upstate New York, in both
grand scale and intimate settings. We're able to see mountain ranges
with harsher edges and jagged peaks in his photographs that are
actually quite varied from the now-rounded ranges our eye sees over
one hundred and fifty years later. We can see clear photographic
evidence of environmental change from then to now if we study the
images.
Most
of Scotland native Andy Goldsworthy's works are initially quite
subtle. Goldsworthy, born 1956, states that his goal with each piece
is that while it uses nature, and is set in nature, it is clearly
manmade. He doesn't want his work to be mistaken as being produced by
nature. Generally, the image of each project requires several moments
of contemplation, as the viewer first identifies what they're looking
at, then begins to wonder how the piece was accomplished and what
materials were used and how they were made to look like they look.
The size of each piece varies, and proportions of the construct is
further played with via the presented photographic image.
Goldsworthy
uses all found, earth-made ingredients for his work. Flowers, whole
or the parts, icicles, leaves, mud, pine cones, snow, stone, twigs,
thorns, clay, bark, and the like. For his ephemeral works, he uses no
man-made tools, only what he can provide physically and what he can
find on site. He proves over and over that a little ingenuity goes a
long way. To create a star shape from icicles, he affixed
the icicles together using his own saliva...once it froze, the star
was balanced on a couple tips and photographed. Once the spring thaw
came, there would be nothing left to prove or suggest the
manipulations of an artist's hand.
There doesn't seem
to be any direct negative environmental impact whatsoever with his
work. All materials used are found naturally and used without toxic
or harmful alteration. His creations brings awareness of the great
diversity and opportunity found within nature and that unique beauty
that can be made without negative impact.
Through
the large scale, aerial photographs of Edward Burtynsky, born 1955 in
Ontario, an internationally acclaimed photographer and environmental
documentarian from the late 1900's through current, we are able to
view the enormous impact of man on the environment and the global impact of
industry.
By
focusing on patterns, texture, and colors, we initially see the
images as abstract paintings. Only by further examination, we can see
what each image is truly depicting. Around the world we see mass
battlefields of abandoned cars or tires. We see river deltas and the
seemingly endless piles of polluted silt that has amassed from
factories upstream. We see vast canyons gouged into the earth's crust
by machines of progress. We see that whether the image comes from a
place 20 miles from our home or 2,000 miles away, man is having a
dramatic impact on the way our world looks. Burtynsky's images are both
amazing and heartbreaking as we realize the colors and patterns are a
sort of savage beauty wrought by ignorant or careless intention.
Nils-Udo,
born 1937 in Bavaria, is an ephemeral constructer and photographer
who creates work that has the feel of being completed by fairies or
other mysterious woodland creatures. It's quite lighthearted and
enjoyable, whimsical, even. Its simplicity is deceptive as it takes a
great deal of creative power to take random objects found in nature
and not only display them in a fashion that indicates a mood, or a
feeling, but to do so in a way that cannot harm the environment or
leave any lasting negative effect.
His work featured here was created as
an ad campaign for a French champagne called Nicolas Feuillatte. The
final result is very soft and floaty in feel, appropriate for the
lightness and bubbles of Champagne. Taking no shortcuts that would
involve the use of chemical adhesives, he takes the time and expends
the effort to make mud and use that as glue, and to weave grasses as
rope or twine. His pieces draw attention to the beauty and
possibility of nature and the options we have to create truly
environmentally conscientious and respectful work.
Combining straight lines with spiral or
circular shapes, international artist Mark di Suvero, born in China
to Italian parents in 1933, and then emigrating to America before reaching his teenage years, employs a peculiar geometric mash-up that
most closely resemble playground structures and industrial
construction or farming equipment of some sort. They're both playful
and imposing, and constructed of commercial grade steel or wood.
The
pieces are designed to be interactive-capable, either in passive or
deliberate ways such as the use of a swing and or even a musical
instrument-“Chimes” was designed to allow the wind to create a
sound as it moves across the piece, thereby forcing an interaction
with nature that wouldn't otherwise exist but not actually negatively
affecting the environment in any way. It always reflects a unique representation of the changing world around it but the sculpture itself is never altered.
By using negative
space to frame and define the natural elements around the sculpture,
such as the sky, or a view of the water, a sculpture will often
become more than just the physical lines of the piece. Even when
brought indoors, di Suvero's sculptures still take on a unique
interaction with their surroundings and in the case of the swing,
invite us to sit and contemplate. With his use of
commercially-intended industrial materials being transformed into
art, the artist asks us to consider what we value more and what
contributes to our well-being-another skyscraper or a unique place to
read, climb, perhaps enjoy an ice cream cone?
Patrick
Dougherty, born 1945 in Oklahoma, is an international installation
artist who works with local volunteers at each site to gather
saplings of various species and then create massive woven structures
that resemble the huts and homes of fairytale creatures. The
structures are semi-permanent, and when built outdoors, generally
last from 1-4 years before nature reclaims them. By clearing out
over-populated new forest areas and using only indigenous species of
trees, Dougherty's constructs are both non-harmful and conducive to
the environment around them.
By using local help, the artist not only limits negative global impact (no specialty crews, transports, or financial impact is necessary) but increases community awareness and interaction, leaving each construct amongst new friends and collaborators.
By
exploring environmentally-focused art across multiple generations,
created by artists around the globe, we can explore the past, the
present, and start to think on and decide how to create our future.
Showing the diversity in style and long-standing efforts of
environmentally astute artists reminds us this has been and will
continue to be an issue that effects us all in varying ways and no
matter where or who we are, we can all contribute in positive or
negative ways. The choice is ours and never more important than now.
Thomas Cole~ View Near the Village of Catskill, 1827
Seneca Ray Stoddard~ Lake George among the Islands, 1880
Andrew Goldsworthy~ Woodpigeon Wing Feathers-1977
Edward Burtynsky~Phosphor Tailings, Pond #1, Polk County, Florida,
USA-date unlisted
Summer Eruption by Nils-Udo, 2010 Please click link to be directed to the Video Display
Mark di Suvero-Paula's Pleasure-2011
Patrick Dougherty-What the Birds Know-2015
Resources
Referenced
"Edward Burtynsky - Biography." Edward Burtynsky - Biography. Accessed November 12, 2016. http://edwardburtynsky.com/site_contents/About/aboutBio.html.
"Edward Burtynsky's Corrupted Landscapes – in Pictures." The Guardian. 2016. Accessed November 12, 2016.
"Explore Thomas Cole." Explore Thomas Cole. 2010. Accessed November 13, 2016. http://www.explorethomascole.org/.
Kors, Stacey. "Sculpture in Salem Really Sticks out - The Boston Globe." Www.bostonglobe.com. May 23, 2015. Accessed November 12, 2016.
Mark di Suvero. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2016, from https://www.paulacoopergallery.com/exhibitions/mark-di-suvero-2011-11-22/press-release
"Seneca Ray Stoddard Collection." Remembering the History of Glens Falls, Queensbury and the Southern Adirondacks : Chapman Historical Museum. Accessed November 12, 2016.
"Splash." Patrick Dougherty. Accessed November 12, 2016. http://stickwork.net/.
"Stoddard, Seneca Ray Group Lot-Photographs." Www.invaluable.com. May 26, 2005. Accessed November 12, 2016.
Summer
Eruption by Nils-Udo [Video file]. (2010). France: Champagne Nicolas
Feuillatte. Retrieved December 10, 2016, from
https://youtu.be/gm9OyixUgC0
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