Ecological art

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ecological art is an art genre and artistic practice that seeks to preserve, remediate and/or vitalize the life forms, resources and

ecosystems to living species and their habitats throughout the lithosphere, atmosphere, biosphere, and hydrosphere, including wilderness, rural, suburban and urban locations.[1][2] Ecological art is a distinct genre from Environmental art in that it involves functional ecological systems-restoration, as well as socially engaged, activist, community-based interventions.[3] Ecological art also addresses politics, culture, economics, ethics and aesthetics as they impact the conditions of ecosystems.[4] Ecological art practitioners include artists, scientists, philosophers and activists who often collaborate on restoration, remediation and public awareness projects.[5][6][7][8]

Historical precedents

Art historical precedents include

Nicolas Uriburu's 1968 performance "Green Power, coloration Grand Canal – Venice" and Agnes Denes's 1968 performance, Haiku Poetry Burial, Rice Planting and Tree Chaining/Exercises in Eco-Logic, in Sullivan County, New York.[9][10][11][12]

1969 was a watershed year for ecological art practices. Landmark accomplishments include Haacke's Grass Grows in Ithaca, NY;

Christo, Peter Hutchinson, Dennis Oppenheim, Robert Morris, Robert Smithson, Carl Andre, Jan Dibbets, and Richard Long.[13]

In 1969–1970,

Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison collaborated on mapping endangered species around the world.[14] From 1972 to 1979, Helen and Newton Harrison realize seven projects designed for and about lagoons in California.[15]

In 1971, artist Bonnie Sherk performs Public Lunch with the Animals in the Lion House of the San Francisco Zoo. She went on to found The Farm (also known as Crossroads Community in 1974 in San Francisco. The project involved growing edible crops as environmental sculpture; livestock were also raised there and it also served as a performance art venue and community education center.[16][17][18]

The 1972 essay, Art and Ecological Consciousness by György Kepes in his book, Arts of the Environment.[19] presents the genre as distinct from environmental art. In the 1992 exhibition and book, Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary Artists' Interpretations and Solutions,[20] art historian, Dr. Barbara Matilsky differentiates ecological art from environmental art in that the former has ethical underpinnings.[21] In 1993, a workshop and exhibition, specifically about ecological systems and art, was presented by Don Krug, Renee Miller and Barbara Westfall at the Society for Ecological Restoration in Irvine, California. The term ecovention, was coined in 1999 as a conjunction of the words ecology and intervention, in conjunction with an exhibition of the same name curated by Amy Lipton and Sue Spaid, representing artist's projects that use inventive strategies to physically transform a local ecology. In a 2006 UNESCO research report for the Art in Ecology think tank on arts and sustainability, "Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoArt Practice and Collaboration", the artist Beth Carruthers uses the term Ecoart.[22]

A current definition of ecological art drafted collectively by the EcoArt Network of international artists, founded in 1998, is "an art practice that embraces an ethic of social justice in both its content and form/materials. EcoArt is created to inspire caring and respect, stimulate dialogue, and encourage the long-term flourishing of the social and natural environments in which we live. It commonly manifests as socially engaged, activist, community-based restorative or interventionist art."[23][24]

More recently contemporary artists like Parvez M. Taj, Eve Mosher and more embrace ecological art as their medium of expression.

Theories

The 2012 book, Toward Global (Environ)Mental Change – Transformative Art and Cultures of Sustainability, proposes that the global crisis of unsustainability is a disruption of the hardware of civilization, as well as a crisis of the software of the human mind.[25] Art and Climate Change: Separate Bubbles or Mutual Membrane? theorises three key obstacles to environment-oriented change (bad ‘memes’, ‘Radical Inertia’, ‘Framed Questions’) and explores the possible role of eco-art in exposing and dissolving those obstacles.[26] The 2004 book, Ecological aesthetics: art in environmental design: theory and practice, presents an analysis of a variety of tendencies and approaches to landscape architecture, science and theory that inform research and the transformation of the landscape for over thirty years.[27] Green Arts Web,[28] compiled by Carnegie Mellon University senior librarian, Mo Dawley, is a compendium of core readings on contemporary environmental art, ecological art and theory (20th century to the present) that includes, among other sub-categories, for example,[29] deep ecology practices;[30][31][32] ecofeminism;[33][34][35] ecopsychology;[36] land ethic and bioregionalism;[37] sense of place;[38][39][40] and systems thinking.[41][42]

Principles

Artists considered to be working within this field subscribe to one or more of the following principles:[43]

  • Focus on the web of interrelationships in our environment—on the physical, biological, cultural, political, and historical aspects of ecological systems.[44][45]
  • Create works that employ natural materials or engage with environmental forces such as wind, water, or sunlight.[46]
  • Reclaim, restore, and remediate damaged environments.[47]
  • Inform the public about ecological dynamics and the environmental problems we face.[48][49]
  • Revise ecological relationships, creatively proposing new possibilities for coexistence, sustainability, and healing.[50]

Approaches

Ecological art involves numerous diverse approaches, including:

Orientations

Contemporary ecological art has been articulated across interdisciplinary and scholarly groups in terms of life-centered issues, community participation, public dialogue, and ecological sustainability. In 1996, the educator and activist Don Krug

better source needed
] identified concepts frequently addressed by ecological artists that can be used by to interpret ecological perspectives and practices.

The following four orientations were identified: Environmental design, ecological design, ecological restoration, and social restoration.

  • Environmental design/Sustainable design – Some artists work with nature as a resource for particular aesthetic endeavors. Artists with an orientation to environmental design are interested in achieving particular formal aesthetic effects. In the 1980s and 90s, artists, architects, designers, and civil engineers explored ways to link art, aesthetics, ecology, and culture.[63]
  • Ecological design – Artists who work in the area of ecological design create art that is contingent on direct experiences and interactions with a particular place where the art is created. An ecological view of design considers the artwork within larger contexts of how people, plants, and animals are interconnected with each other, the site, and/or the earth.[64]
  • Ecological restoration – Some artists attempt to alert viewers to environmental issues and problems through scientific exploration and educational documentation. They seek to restore fragile places and educate the public to the systemic character of bioregions through the use of communication, ritual, and performance. Some ecological artists engage people directly in activities or actions by confronting environmentally unhealthy practices with social, ethical, and moral ecological concerns.[65]
  • Social restoration – An ecological ethic where humans live in relationship to larger communities of life to catalyze socially responsible artwork. Socio-ecological artists critically examine everyday life experiences. These artists scrutinize relations of power that produce community tensions about ecological issues.[66]

See also

References

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  2. ^ Strelow, (Heike (1999). Natural Reality: Artistic Positions Between Nature and Culture/Kunstlerische Positionen Swischen Natur und Kultur. Stuttgart: Ludwig Forum fur Internationale Kunst.
  3. ^ Bower, Sam. "A Profusion of Terms". GreenMuseum. greenmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 1 February 2014. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  4. ^ Carruthers, Beth. "Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoArt Practice and Collaboration". greenmuseum.org. Green Museum. Archived from the original on 4 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  5. ^ Kagan, Sacha. "The practice of ecological art". PLASTIK: art & science. PLASTIK. Archived from the original on 3 March 2016. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
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  10. ^ Land Use Database. "Earth Mound". clui.org. Center for Land Use Interpretation. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  11. ^ Spaid, Sue. "Ecoventions: qua an Arendtian Account of Freedom, Action and Miracles". Land Views. Online Journal of Landscape, Art and Design. Retrieved 24 August 2015.
  12. ^ Homer, Nicola (October 3, 2014). "Agnes Denes Interview. A Visionary Artist. Work 1967–2013". Studio International: Visual Arts, Design and Architecture.
  13. ^ Archives of American Art, Research Collections. "Installation view of the Ecologic art exhibition at John Gibson Gallery, 1969". www.aaa.si.edu. Archives of American Art. Archived from the original on 20 April 2016. Retrieved 21 April 2016.
  14. ^ Moon, Kavior (October 2019). "The Harrisons: Various Small Fires". Artforum. 58 (2). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
  15. ^ MacDonald, Scott (October 1985). "Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison at Herbert F. Johnson Museum of Art". Artforum. 24 (2). Retrieved 23 December 2022.
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  17. ^ Blankenship, Jana. "The Farm by the Freeway". In Auther, Elissa, and Lerner, Adam, eds. (2012). West of Center: Art and the Counterculture Experiment in America, 1965–1977. University of Minnesota Press.
  18. ^ "In SF, art still thrives – and celebrates its history – at The Farm". Mission Local. 2017-11-09. Retrieved 2022-12-23.
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  26. ^ Anthroposphere: The Oxford Climate Review (2022). 'Art and Climate Change: Separate Bubbles or Mutual Membrane?'. Oxford: Oxford Climate Society. Retrieved 12 July 2023.
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  28. ^ "Green Arts Web - Reference". greenarts.org.
  29. ^ Green Arts Web. "Green Arts Web: Reference (Multidisciplinary)". greenarts.org. Retrieved 6 September 2015.
  30. ^ "Deep Nature (16 article special section)". Studio Potter. 19: 18–75. December 1990.
  31. ^ Macy, Joanna; Fleming, Pat (1995). The Council of All Beings in Alan Drengson & Yuichi Inoue, The Deep Ecology Movement: An Introductory Anthology. Berkeley, California: North Atlantic Books.
  32. ^ Naess, Arne (June 1992). "Deep Ecology and the Potters in (sic) Our Planet". Studio Potter. 20: 39–9.
  33. ^ Diamond, Irene; Orenstein, Gloria Ferman, eds. (1990). Reweaving the World: The Emergence of Ecofeminism. San Francisco: Sierra Club Books.
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  40. ^ Baum, Kelly; et al. (2010). Nobody's Property: Art, Land, Space, 2000-2010. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Art Museum, Distributed by Yale University Press.
  41. ^ Capra, Fritjof (1996). The Web of Life: A New Scientific Understanding of Living Systems. New York: Doubleday.
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  43. ^ "EcoArt Network: About Our Work". ecoartnetwork. Archived from the original on 3 January 2017. Retrieved 21 January 2016.
  44. ^ Fournier, Anik; Lim, Michelle; Parmer, Amanda; Wuilfe, Robert (2010). Undercurrents: Experimental Ecosystems in Recent Art. New York; New Haven: Whitney Museum of American Art and Yale University Press.
  45. ^ Lippard, Lucy (2007). Weather Report: Art and Climate Change. Boulder, Colorado: Boulder Museum of Contemporary Arts in collaboration with EcoArts.
  46. ^ Gaynor, Andrea; McLean, Ian (1998). "The Limits of Art History: Towards an Ecological History of Landscape Art". Landscape Review. 11 (1): 4–14. Retrieved 23 January 2016.
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  48. ^ Dederer, Claire (September 23, 2007). "Looking for Inspiration in the Melting Ice". New York Times. Retrieved 23 August 2015.
  49. ^ Hanor, Stephanie; Sanromán, Lucía; Barnes, Lucinda (2008). Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet. San Diego, and Berkeley, CA: Museum of Contemporary Art; University of California, Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archive, Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego.
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  57. ^ Gevers, Ine (2013). Yes Naturally: How Art Saves the World. The Hague, Amsterdam, Rotterdam: Niet Normaal Foundation in collaboration with the Gerneentemusuem Den Haag.
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  65. ^ Krug, Don. "Ecological Restoration". Art & Ecology: Perspectives and Issues. Greenmuseum. Archived from the original on 5 March 2016. Retrieved 4 September 2015.
  66. ^ Garber, Elizabeth. "Social Restoration". Art & Ecology: Perspectives and Issues. Greenmuseum.org. Archived from the original on 16 December 2010. Retrieved 4 September 2015.

Bibliography

  • Adams, Clive, Environmental Art: A Brief Introduction Centre for Contemporary Art and the Natural World, 2002.
  • Beardsley, John. Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape, Abbeville Press, 1989 and 2008.
  • Berleant, Arnold, ed., Environment and the Arts. Ashgate, 2002.
  • Braddock, Alan C. A Keener Perception: Ecocritical Studies in American Art History, University of Alabama Press, 2009.
  • Boetzkes, Amanda. The Ethics of Earth Art. Minneapolis; London: University of Minnesota Press, 2010.
  • Brown, Andrew, Art & Ecology Now, Thames & Hudson, 2014.
  • Cheetham, Mark A. Landscape into Eco Art: Articulations of Nature since the '60s. Penn State UP, 2018.
  • Demos, T.J. and Francesco Manacorda, Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet, Walter Koenig, 2010.
  • Giannachi, Gabriella and Nigel Stewart, eds. Performing Nature: Explorations in Ecology and the Arts , Peter Lang, 2005.
  • Kagan, Sasha and Volker Kirchberg, Sustainability: A New Frontier For The Arts And Cultures, Verlag Fur Akademisch, 2008.
  • Kastner, Jeffrey, ed. Nature (Whitechapel: Documents of Contemporary Art) 2012.
  • Lippard, Lucy. Undermining a Wild Ride Through Land Use, Politics, and Art in the Changing West. The New Press, 2014.
  • Marsching, Jane and Andrea Polli, eds. Far Field: Digital Culture, Climate Change and the Poles, Intellect, 2012.
  • Miles, Malcolm, Eco-Aesthetics: Art, Literature and Architecture in a Period of Climate Change (Radical Aesthetics, Radical Art), 2014.
  • Smith, Stephanie and Victor Margolin, eds. Beyond Green, Smart Museum of Art, 2007.
  • Sonfist, Alan, Nature, the End of Art: Environmental Landscapes , Gli Ori, 2004.
  • Strelow, Heike. Ecological Aesthetics: Art in Environmental Design: Theory and Practice. Initiated by Herman Prigann. Birkhäuser, 2004.
  • Szerszyski B, W. Heim W & C. Waterton. Nature Performed: Environment, Culture and Performance. Blackwell, 2003.

External links

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