Gallery: Disturbing or Beautiful? Artists Evaluate Man's Impact on Nature
01peter-edlund-hilly-island-in-wolf-country-manhattan-2009
Of all the sciences, ecology asks most directly how humanity understands and participates in life. If the answers have ever been clear, they're certainly not now. That ambiguity is reflected in ["Beyond the Horizon,"](http://ecoartspace.blogspot.com/2011/05/beyond-horizon-at-deutsche-bank-nyc.html) an exhibition organized by environmental art curators [Ecoartspace](http://ecoartspace.org/index.html) and on display now at Deutsche Bank in New York City. There's plenty of destruction and degradation, but the works are not simply about that. There's also resilience and vigor, an awareness of history and of humanity's extraordinary power to shape our environments -- controlling nature, but never quite completely. As the exhibition is private, people seeking tours should [contact Ecoartspace](http://ecoartspace.org/contact.html) or walk through on the following pages. Peter Edlund, *Hilly-Island-in-Wolf-Country (Manhattan)*, 2009 --------------------------------------------------------------- The choice of Manhattan as setting is appropriate for Edlund, whose work addresses "the inherent contradiction between the mythic, utopian image of the great American landscape as exemplified by the Hudson River School, John James Audubon and Ansel Adams," and actual social reality. For Edlund, the landscape is a vehicle for addressing "social amnesia."
02george-boorujy-glacier-2008
George Boorujy, *Glacier*, 2008 -------------------------------- Boorujy is "interested in how we shape, mark and manipulate the landscape," a process made graphically apparent in the rapid melt of glaciers.
03sarah-trigg-lake-vostok-with-two-olympias2007
Sarah Trigg, *Lake Vostok with Two Olympias*,2007 ------------------------------------------------- Trigg's perception of Earth as "the tissues and organs belonging to an integrated global body" is evident in *Vostok*, with the develped world and pristine Antarctic lake linked in an "age of Google Earth and instant satellite news, one of rapid distribution and consumption of information."
04patricia-johanson-bat-bridge-crossing-route-24-1999
Patricia Johanson, *Bat Bridge, Crossing Route 24, 1999* -------------------------------------------------------- An artist who works with ecology itself, Johanson's projects "combine art, ecology, landscaping and functional infrastructure," such as the [Fair Park Lagoon in Dallas, Texas](http://patriciajohanson.com/fairpark/). *Bat Bridge* is part of a series of drawings done for her proposed ["Rocky Marciano Trail"](http://patriciajohanson.com/timeline/boston_herald.html) in Boston, Massachusetts, which would turn the former boxing champion's training run into a series of natural corridors through what is now a blasted industrial city.
05joy-garnett-china-yangtse-three-gorges-project-2008-2009-river-7
Joy Garnett, *China Yangtse Three Gorges Project (2008–2009) River #7* ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Garnett describes the world's largest hydropower project, construction of which involved "the razing of villages, the submersion of factories and toxic waste dumps, the flooding of arable lands and the displacement of over one million inhabitants," as "China's worst environmental nightmare and a monument to obsolete ambitions." Her paintings are based on government imagery used to promote the project, transforming their propaganda into "a methodical evisceration of the river valley, rendering the image of the landscape, once immutable, as a fragile substrate to be broken up violently in a triumph of engineering." *China Yangtse Three Gorges Project (2008–2009) River #4* --------------------------------------------------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/08/garnett_2.jpg)
06sarah-mccoubrey-available-2000
Sarah McCoubrey, *Available*, 2000 ---------------------------------- Drawing from the everyday, anonymous countryside of upstate New York, McCoubrey's paintings "don’t fantasize a false idyllic wilderness" but rather one "thoroughly used by human beings, bearing the scars of industry and habitation. They suggest that while humanity’s effects on the planet can have devastating consequences, they may eventually be ignored by nature." *Building Lot*, 2008 -------------------- [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/08/mcoubrey_buildinglot.jpg)
07marion-wilson-white-soil-landscapes-from-the-solvay-wastebeds-solvay-ny-2009-2011
Marion Wilson, *White Soil; Landscapes from the Solvay Wastebeds, Solvay, NY*, 2009–2011 ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Painted in miniature on microscopic glass slides, this series explores the Solvay Waste Beds outside Syracuse, New York, which Wilson describes as "1400 acres of contaminated, sterile and largely overlooked land." The miniatures depict four seasons of life in the beds, where some plants have managed to grow. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/08/wilson_solvay.jpg)
08charlotte-schulz-the-uneven-intensities-of-duration-suspended-in-the-midst-of-an-encounter-with-a-flood-the-unknown-past-carries-itself-into-a-current-location-and-pressures-a-rescue-from-geographi
Charlotte Schulz, *The uneven intensities of duration: suspended in the midst of an encounter with a flood, the unknown past carries itself into a current location and pressures a rescue from geographical forces*, 2010 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Schulz describes her work as creating "a purposefully disjointed narrative, fusing historical catastrophes with domestic interiors, postmodern architecture and other-worldly landscapes," which over time "lose their linear, geometric structure and emerge into a synthesis of various landscapes, objects, interiors and weather." [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/08/Schulz-flood.detail_website.jpg)
09jason-middlebrook-inspired-by-the-countless-trips-from-my-house-to-my-studio-2008
Jason Middlebrook, *Inspired by the Countless Trips from My House to my Studio, 2008* ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Middlebrook "examines themes of ecology, entropy and environmental concerns with an emphasis on the tense relationship between man and nature."
10eva-strubel-molasses-and-asphalt-tanks-2009
Eva Strubel, *Molasses and Asphalt Tanks*, 2009 ------------------------------------------------ Inspired by Superfund sites in Baltimore and Brooklyn, Strubel's paintings "rest between order and disorder, bucolic nature and industrial-scape."
11aviva-rahmani-oil-and-water-5-2011
Aviva Rahmani, *Oil and Water #5*, 2011 --------------------------------------- In the summer of 2008, Rahmani traveled from the Gulf of Maine to the post-Katrina Gulf of Mexico, documenting the effects of global warming. *Oil and Water*, a series of images "about the untenable paradoxes we live with today," is based on a photograph of Louisiana bayous taken on the trip. [](http://stag-komodo.wired.com/images_blogs/wiredscience/2011/08/water.jpg)
12lisa-sanditz-tower-of-babble-2009
Lisa Sanditz, *Tower of Babble*, 2009 -------------------------------------- An explorer of the intersection between marketplace and wilderness, Sanditz traveled in 2006 and 2007 to China's single-industry export villages -- Sock City, Shoe City, Oil Painting Village. The resulting paintings "examine how the consumer-based relationship between China and the United States is causing the Chinese landscape to shift from the pastoral to the industrial." The title *Tower of Babble* is drawn from a billboard advertisement near the Yiwu Commodities Market.
13eve-andree-laramee-geologic-map-of-the-grand-canyon-1-2008
Eve Andree Laramee, *Geologic Map of the Grand Canyon #1*, 2008 --------------------------------------------------------------- Long interested in the culture of science and the sociopolitical undercurrents of map design, Laramee's works focus on "the environmental and health impacts of Cold War 'atomic age' legacy sites and their effects on human evolution."
