Visual Arts
In a startling variety of ways, contemporary artists are exploring the relationship that our species has to its planet. We have aggregated some of this very intriguing work below. If you have suggestions for works to add to the gallery, please contact us.
Works can also be viewed in portfolio view.
2014-15 Curator: Julia Olson
Berlin-based speculative artist Mathias Vef wants viewers to get lost in his collaged “digital ecosystems.” “The process of the creation of an image is then again opposing the process of evolution, which is an emergence out of coincidence,” says Vef. This opposition, he adds, is why he decided to name the show Syncretics. In this series, images that are named Scion are made out of a single original motif that is repeated and images called Amphigony, a biological term for sexual reproduction, combines different Scion pieces. Combining all of these, and seeing which new visuals emerge is like a “survival of the aesthetics,” Vef describes. Attendees are reminded of the “visual infection” our reality is facing, from the onslaught of wearable technologies such as Google Glass, Oculus Rift, and more on the horizon. The future, he predicts, will split creation in two paths: one that emerges from a genuine, conscious source, and another that’s a wild, untameable growth—much like the visuals he brings to life. (source).
Fascinated by the idea of what people will leave behind for those who live millions of years from now, Erik Hagen developed a unique series of paintings for his new exhbit, Fossils of the Anthropocene. “While we’re looking backwards in time at what the fossil record can tell us, what are they going to find in the future – whoever they are? That really captivated my imagination and led me to do all of these different pieces,” he said. Some of Hagen’s “fossils” were created by throwing marble dust on a canvas covered with latex paint mixed with sand, then embedding casts of plastic coins or a cell phone, referencing commerce and communication. Several of the paintings incorporate plastic waste, including a water bottle as well as plastic fragments and micro-beads like those used in lotions and soaps. (source).
Mel Chin’s project CLI-Mate proposes an easy interface to link individuals personally with global climate change and establishes feedback loops to provide an opportunity motivation for behavioral change. CLI-mate is a means to stimulate critical adjustment in human behavior, ultimately on a global level. If climate change is the most urgent issue of our time, then the development of an interface to encourage, or to be the means by which we make those modifications, is needed now. One of the essential challenges is to facilitate a personal relationship between individuals and global climate change. Chin’s project directly connects global warming trends to the source in order to change behavior. (source).
Mary Mattingly is a New York based artist. For her exhibition, “House and Universe,” she bound up virtually all her possessions, creating what she calls “man-made boulders,” which resemble postminimalist sculptures. One photograph finds her pulling a boulder down a city street with the underlying message that our ecological future is apocalyptic. (source).
Bustling cities are transformed into vibrantly colored maps depicting eroding terrains in the gorgeous series Flowing City Map by Geneva-based illustrator Chaotic Atmospheres. Chaotic Atmospheres began by rendering city maps in the program World Machine, a 3D terrain software. The illustrator then combined the maps with procedural terrains in order to achieve the right amount of “erosion flow.” “I wanted to represent the influence of cities on their environment as a kind of invisible fluid that overflows from the city to its surrounding,” the artist explains. Erosion and natural features take the form of streaks of color that flow throughout the densely packed metropolis like water, turning the landscape into a dreamy plane of ripples and currents. (source).