2.0 general article t Ecological Art: A Call for Visionary r i
Intervention in a Time of Crisis env onmen
Ruth Wallen
a b s t r a c t The ice is melting while fires are raging. Frogs, Contemporary bats and bees are disappearing, coral reefs bleaching and Approaches At a time when the world is vast forests being felled by beetles. Renowned environmen- In the following pages I survey the beset by ecological crises, tal analyst Lester Brown argues that it is imperative that we recent development of ecological ecological art offers inspiration, insight and innovation. This immediately take actions to lower greenhouse gases; stabilize art practice, followed by a brief in- world population; eradicate poverty; and restore earth’s natu- essay provides an overview of terrogation of the most significant the artistic and scientific roots ral systems, including “soils, aquifers, forests, grasslands and concepts—ecology, ecosystem, biodiver- of the practice and illustrates fisheries” [1]. Although Brown offers a blunt assessment of sity and sustainability—that inform the significant role that ecoart can play in the formulation, the challenges we face, he is quick to add that we have the the practice. I close with a discus- technological and economic resources to take the actions he development and promulgation sion of examples that illustrate of a culture of sustainability. advocates. His recent work, however, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing the potential of ecoart to advance to Save Civilization, concludes with a chapter titled “Can We ecological consciousness and offer Mobilize Fast Enough?” [2]. While Brown, like many other fresh visions. sustainability advocates, focuses on sociopolitical, economic The contemporary practice of ecological art had its genesis and technological factors, culture—and particularly ecologi- in the late 1960s through mid-1970s with the work of such cal art, or ecoart for short—can play a major role in activating innovators as Hans Haacke, Helen and Newton Harrison, and inspiring change. Patricia Johanson, Alan Sonfist, Joseph Beuys, Nancy Holt, Mierle Ukeles, Bonnie Sherk (Fig. 1) and Agnes Denes. At Toward a Definition of Ecoart that time, there was a tension between what Allan Kaprow later described as “art-like art,” art that was self-referential and sepa- Drawing on broad interdisciplinary knowledge and appealing rate, and “life-like art,” which emphasized “connectedness and to both heart and mind, ecological art is grounded in an eco- wide-angle awareness” [4]. While environmental art, includ- logical ethic and systems theory, addressing the web of interre- ing early earthworks, employed natural materials and placed lationships between the physical, biological, cultural, political work in remote landscapes, these forms were generally more and historical aspects of ecosystems. Asking probing questions, concerned with challenging the conception of “art” than with fashioning potent metaphors, identifying patterns, weaving engaging ecological principles [5]. In contrast, practitioners stories, offering restoration and remediation, inventively us- of life-like ecological art conceived of themselves as engaged ing renewable materials and re-envisioning systems, ecologi- citizens or public intellectuals responding to the call of the cal artists inspire, advocate and innovate, revealing and/or activist movements of the day. enhancing ecological relationships while modeling ecological Writing about ecoart is still distressingly scant. Suzi Gablik values. Ecological art inspires caring and respect for the world and Lucy Lippard are among the most noteworthy English- in which we live, stimulates dialogue, sparks imagination and language writers envisioning socio-cultural change inspired by contributes to the socio-cultural transformations whereby the ecological systems theory. In Europe, using a somewhat differ- diversity of life forms found on earth may flourish [3]. ent framework, two anthologies edited by Heike Strelow and collaborators amplify these ideas [6]. For Gablik, an ecological perspective emphasizes the wide context, “the web of relation- Ruth Wallen (artist, educator, writer), Goddard College, 123 Pitkin Road, Plainfield, VT ships in which art exists” [7]. In a later article, she calls this a 05667, U.S.A. E-mail:
© 2012 ISAST LEONARDO, Vol. 45, No. 3, pp. 234–242, 2012 235 2.0 erence arguments, such as in the widely t circulated essay “The Death of Environ- mentalism,” that criticize the limitations r i of traditional “green” environmental movements [15]. To clarify, the ecologi- env onmen cal art championed here takes the ethical, activist approach that curator Stephanie Smith espouses, perceiving human con- siderations as integral to the ecological. In contrast, I take issue with another very recent exhibition, Radical Nature, which, while appropriating the term “radical,” dismisses the thrust of the exhibitions described above as “pragmatic and hu- manitarian,” retreating instead to an object-oriented “ironic and subversive artistic neo-conceptualism” [16]. Although these exhibitions offer a snapshot of the codification of ecoart, they are but one locus of a practice that Fig. 1. Bonnie Ora Sherk, Crossroads Community/The Farm, 1974–1980. (© Bonnie Ora Sherk) primarily engages a broader public, Envisioned as a “life frame,” this project transformed land adjacent to a freeway into a farm beyond gallery walls. We can also un- and community center;
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of ecoart. While some ecoart works em- t phasize physical innovation, transfor- mation and restoration, others inspire r sociopolitical activism and still others i function conceptually, promulgating env onmen ecological values and perceptions. Works with the most impact often function on several registers simultaneously. For instance, Mel Chin, whose cel- ebrated ecoart work Revival Field dem- onstrates that plants can function as hyperaccumulators, absorbing heavy metals from the soil, was invited to New Orleans in the wake of Hurricane Ka- trina. In response to extremely high lev- els of lead in local soils, his recent work Operation Paydirt/The Fundred Dollar Bill Project (2007–) (Fig. 2) proposes to use phosphate-induced metal stabilization, a method developed by the U.S. mili- tary and not yet tested in urban areas, to neutralize lead in situ. To raise the $300 million necessary, he is organizing groups of children across the county to draw “fundred” dollar bills, which he is Fig. 3. Ruth Wallen, The Sea as Sculptress, 1980, 2010. (© Ruth Wallen)
Wallen, Ecological Art 237 2.0 Tim Collins and Reiko Goto’s 3 Riv- simple quantitative measure, mirroring of what it is desirable to “sustain.” The t ers 2nd Nature (2005) was a 5-year project our materialist culture. For those acting Brundtland Commission of the United that enlisted collaborators from many in the quantitative arena, measuring bio- Nations on 20 March 1987 simply de- r i disciplines to address the vitality of the diversity is the strongest tool available for clared: “Sustainable development is de- watersheds of Allegheny County, PA (Fig. estimation of the deleterious ecological velopment that meets the needs of the env onmen 4). As artists, they were able to pose ques- impacts of potential projects. However, I present without compromising the ability tions, animate dialogue and motivate caution those championing charismatic of future generations to meet their own and creatively synthesize research, offer- species. If one returns the emphasis to needs” [25]. This definition can easily be ing alternatives to an entrenched system single parts or objects, the concept of interpreted as echoing the managerial of power dominated by economic, legis- biodiversity is potentially less robust than ethos of “multiple use” informing many lative and legal agendas. that of an ecosystem understood in terms governmental agencies. It initially gives Another central concept of ecology, of relationships and patterns. non-human creatures no standing other which has become more problematic to Fortunately, although biodiversity is than a utilitarian one—as “resources,” define, is the idea of equilibrium or bal- sometimes understood as replacing the although, as pharmaceuticals illustrate, ance within systems. In the contemporary older terms species diversity or species rich- we may not yet know which species may view, balance is understood as a dynamic ness, diversity can also be a measure of prove useful. equilibrium, with multiple stable points. many other variables, including genetic, In practice, sustainability promulgates Severe perturbations that overstress the molecular, morphological, habitat, or relational, systemic thinking, integrat- limits of a system may upset balance, cre- ecosystemic diversity as well as human ing not only the hard sciences, but also ating tipping points whereby the system attributes such as cultural and linguistic political and economic realities, into is reconfigured in a very different, and diversity. If biodiversity is understood as ecological frameworks. The 2005 World perhaps less complex, environmentally the sum of these interrelated variables, it Summit deemed ecological, social and degraded state. not only affirms the importance of each economic demands the “three pillars” of Ecosystems are often described as individual species or attribute, but also, sustainability [26]. Most significantly, this chaotic or complex. However, the ran- through the back door, by establishing understanding inexorably links sustain- domness of chaos can be perceived as the value of diversity within each of the ability to social justice, placing human organized patterns, known as strange various components that make up a sys- suffering—poverty, malnutrition, disease attractors. Ecoartists can play significant tem, reaffirms the importance of ecosys- and lack of education—in an ecological roles in identifying and exploring the im- temic complexity. context. plications of these patterns. Helen and The concept of sustainability poten- Ecoartists recognize the need to ad- Newton Harrison, for instance, work by tially offers a robust perspective. It takes dress both socioeconomic and biological identifying large-scale patterns, which the crucial step of placing humans within needs. For instance, after the 1989 Loma they describe in terms of potent meta- ecosystems, instead of conceiving of “nat- Prieta earthquake in the San Francisco phors, such as Peninsula Europe, Serpentine ural environments” as outside of human Bay Area, Susan Leibovitz Steinman con- Lattice or Green Heart of Holland. Then, domains, and therefore not intrinsically structed a temporary park using native responding to the questions invoked by of human concern. The popularity and plants and repurposed highway materials these metaphors, the Harrisons create openness of this term, however, may over- on the site of the collapse of the Nimitz larger narratives that recommend ac- shadow the need for precise specification Freeway in Oakland, California (Article tions to foster ecological well-being [22]. Because homeostatic ecosystems are difficult to identify and quantify as dis- Fig. 4. Tim Collins and Reiko Goto, 3 Rivers 2nd Nature, 2005 (© Tim Collins and Reiko crete units, biologists have increasingly Goto, Studio for Creative Inquiry, Carnegie Mellon University);
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in light of estimates that we are already t consuming the resources of future gen- erations, exceeding the sustainable ca- r
pacity of the planet by nearly 30 percent i [29]. As segments of increasing human env onmen populations clamor for a more equitable share, ethical questions abound. Return- ing to the initial definition of sustain- ability, meeting the needs of the present without compromising the ability of fu- ture generations, what “needs” are legit- imate ones? Should certain “needs” be prioritized? Might “generations” apply to more than human species? Significantly, ecology can be under- stood not only in terms of scientific principles but also as the basis for ethi- cal action. Ecologist Frank Golley, in his book about the ecosystem concept, de- scribes its usefulness in broad terms:
It emphasized interconnection and inte- gration of systems at a variety of scales, cooperation, synergisms and symbioses rather than dialectical opposition, com- petition and conflict. . . . Thus the eco- system perspective can lead towards an ecological philosophy, and from philoso- phy it can lead to an environmental value system, environmental law and a political agenda [30].
Ecoart can play a significant role by encouraging dialogue and offering vi- sions of desirable sustainable futures, both informed by and informing an “en- vironmental value system,” or “ecological ethic,” as well as the concept of ecologi- cal justice. Hildegard Kurt, in her contri- bution to Prigann, Strelow and David’s Ecological Aesthetics, offers a provocative vision of an aesthetic of sustainability. She imagines sustainability as nothing less than the “humanization of industrial modernism,” linking “global justice” and “ecological responsibility.” However, she bemoans the “cultural deficit” in current Fig. 5. Lynne Hull, Lightning Raptor Roost with ferruginous hawk, wood, metal, 20 in tall, models of sustainability, arguing that in 1990. (© Lynne Hull) These sculptures provide alternative nesting sites for threatened and order to make this broad vision attrac- endangered raptors attracted by large transmission lines;
Frontispiece). Recognizing the totality of Speth, Dean of the School of Forestry community desires, she also teamed with and Environmental Studies at Yale [27]. Powerful Examples a community college to provide train- Wochenklausur, a collaborative group Discussion of a few of the innumerable ing, and ultimately jobs, in horticulture, based in Vienna, exemplifies the con- ecoart works will help elucidate how eco- building and maintaining the park. tribution of the arts to re-envisioning artists can meet this cultural challenge. The current economic crisis highlights economic systems. “Social Economy—A Eschewing the status of the distanced the challenge of addressing social and Discourse in Progress,” a project cen- observer championed by Cartesian sci- economic pillars while promoting eco- tered in Worgl, Austria (which in 1932 ence, the arts encourage us to get dirty, logical sustainability. Calls for alterna- launched its own currency to stimulate combining scientific understanding tives to existing economic systems that the local economy), involves a dialogue with sensual awareness to reawaken foster mindless, inequitable consump- among international experts on alterna- embodied relationship and innovative tion can be heard in many corners, from tive exchange systems and reshaping fi- response. the recent World People’s Conference nancial markets [28]. Consider Prima Lingua by Jackie on Climate Change and the Rights of The current inequitable use of the Brookner (1996), a sculpture in the Mother Earth, to Lester Brown to James world’s resources is even more untenable shape of a huge human tongue, colo-
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Fig. 6. Wetland constructed by the Chengdu Urban Rivers Associations to purify greywater proximate to an elementary school in Ping Yi County, Sichuan, China. (Photo © Betsy Damon) Inspired by Betsy Damon’s Living Water Garden, 2010;
nized by ferns, mosses and liverworts the relationship between corporality and ment. More recent projects by Brookner that serve to filter the contaminated rationality. as well as those of others, including Betsy water pumped through it (Color Plate Prima Lingua also evokes other link- Damon, Barbara Johanson, Viet Ngo and C No. 3). Imagine purifying water by ac- ages. The sculpture exemplifies Donna Buster Simpson, scale this concept up to tually licking, tasting and touching the Haraway’s fascination with species en- public water sculptures and parks. contamination. While the tongue ap- tanglements, the tongue serving as an Betsy Damon’s Living Water Garden, peals to our base senses and reminds us “attachment site,” for the unexpected designed and constructed with local col- of our sexuality and connection to the “copresence” of species. As Haraway ar- laborators in Chengdu, China, diverts earth itself, it also references language, gues throughout her recent work When polluted water from the Fu Nan River the intellect by which we cognize the cur- Species Meet, this “becoming with” is a and purifies it employing a seven-stage rent ecological plight. Dualities reified by practice of “becoming worldly,” of rec- biological system including settling positivist science are blurred, as it is the ognizing all the ramifications of our eco- ponds, aerating flow forms and recon- direct sensual relationship of the tongue logical embeddedness [33]. structed wetlands. Although the project tasting water that purifies the water. The Interweaving sense, emotion and rea- only cleans 200 cubic meters of water a title, translated as “First Language/First son, the tongue also comments on the day, it changes the relationship of a city Tongue,” reinforces the primacy of this limitations of what feminist theorist Val to its river, offering an urban park while relationship. Plumwood deems “dispassionate sci- demonstrating the power of natural eco- Furthermore, Prima Lingua illustrates ence.” Plumwood asks why, if science is logical processes to purify water. While the insight of cognitive scientists that rea- granted standing through the concept children play safely in the symbolic flow son itself is literally embodied, formed of rational legal authority, do resulting forms, the revitalized habitat beckons a from the bodies we inhabit. Accord- policies, such as the quotas set for fisher- diversity of fauna. ing to Lakoff and Johnson, “Our con- ies, still result in degradation, or collapse, Within China, the influence of this ceptual systems draw largely upon the of the resource. Her cogent, embodied relatively small (5.9-acre) park has been commonalities of our bodies and the critique argues that it is the “value-free” quite significant. Replicated throughout environments we live in” [32]. These nature of contemporary, disengaged sci- the country, most notably for the Olympic commonalities, expressed not literally ence that is so easily trumped by a politics Forest Park in Beijing, a part of the 2008 but metaphorically, form the basis for privileging economic gain [34]. Olympic revitalization efforts, the park abstract thought. Prima Lingua provides Prima Lingua offers an alternative provides a visionary model that combines an ecological function while proposing ethical vision, a multispecies system that parkland, biological water treatment, a powerful metaphor that reestablishes purifies water through embodied engage- habitat restoration and environmental
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Fig. 7. Helen and Newton Harrison, Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground Gaining Wisdom, installation (scale model, projections, digital imagery, photography, text), Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 2009. (© Helen and Newton Harrison. Photo courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.)
Wallen, Ecological Art 241 2.0 concepts that are woven into provocative from our very tongues, circles of con- 15. Michael Shellenberger and Ted Nordhaus, The t Death of Environmentalism: Global Warming Politics in a narratives. The rising ocean is termed a nections and possibilities widen. New Post-Environmental World r ism.shtml>. i termining the forms that other elements dialogues question reified relationships of civilization, from culture to industry, while sparking new ones. Fresh narratives 16. Francesco Manacorda, Radical Nature: Art and Ar- env onmen will take. In addition to responding de- inspire further change and innovation. chitecture for a Changing Planet, 1969–2009, exh. cat. fensively, the Harrisons suggest that we Values and perceptions may shift as new (London: Koenig Books, 2009) p. 27. might “withdraw gracefully.” This grace- knowledge emerges. Ecological art is a 17. ful withdrawal is framed as an opportu- growing force in the shaping of values, 18. Haeckel quoted in Robert L. Smith and Thomas nity for visionary planning and design. visions and innovations so that we may M. Smith, Ecology and Field Biology (San Francisco: Resultant proposals focus not on “de- ensure the well-being of future genera- Benjamin Cummings, 2001) p. 3. velopment” but on “settlement,” a word tions of the diversity of life forms inhabit- 19. 242 Wallen, Ecological Art Color Plate C No. 1. Kang Zhang (above): Circles, lines and polygons in Kandinsky’s style. (© Kang Zhang) Kang Zhang (right, top and bottom): Rule-based automatic generation of Kandinsky- style abstract paintings. (© Kang Zhang) No. 2. Jackie Brookner, Prima Lingua, volcanic rock, concrete, moss, wetland plants, water, fish, snails, rubber, stainless steel, 64 × 101 × 80 in, 1996. (© Jackie Brookner) 261