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—, 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 , 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: . Web site: . “connective aesthetic,” one that eschews individualist anthro- See for supplemental files associated with this issue. pocentrism, instead seeking connections between culture and nature, or between art, science, religion and politics, ruptured by modernity [8]. Gablik advocates the development of an art that goes beyond critique, one that will engender healing and renewal. Significantly, this aesthetic is participatory as opposed Article Frontispiece. Susan Leibovitz Steinman, Mandela Art- to spectatorial. Just as art is situated in broader systems, so too scape, aerial overview, temporary community-based ecoart instal- the audience or viewer is regarded not as distanced observer lation (native plants and salvaged materials), 2 acres, execution 1998–1999; the installation was in existence from 1998–2003. but as participant in the experience. (© Susan Leibovitz Steinman) . ence, held at Lancaster University in 2000, provide a more

© 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; . derstand ecoart in the context of pub- lic art—specifically, what Suzanne Lacy calls “new genre public art,” a charac- rigorous critical perspective while Response, provided an extensive range of terization describing projects that are broadening the field [9]. Focusing on artistic responses to climate change [13]. not simply placed in public spaces but the performative, these anthologies in- Other examples include Groundworks, are meant to interact with both site and clude dance and theater, genres largely which focused on community-based col- public. Additionally, Beuys’s term “social ignored in other sources cited here. The laborative projects; Ecomedia, which high- sculpture” is very useful, reminding us of Between Nature essays are reminders of lighted the contributions of new media; the potential of art to transform society the importance of art as a process, one and Beyond Green, which focused on sus- [17]. through which “the very relationships tainable design [14]. In light of the above, I suggest broad- between human beings and nature are However, the full title of the latter ening the delineations offered by the being questioned, critiqued and even exhibition, Beyond Green: Towards an Art Ecovention catalogue, which privileges reinvented” [10]. of Sustainability, suggests, in my view, un- tangible physical interventions and iso- The few major exhibitions devoted to necessary dichotomies. It appears to ref- lates “activism” as one of five categories ecoart have recognized the urgency of the ecological crisis and have tended to Fig. 2. Mel Chin, The Fundred Dollar Bill Project, 2007–present. (© Mel Chin. Photo courtesy frame ecoart in instrumental terms. Frag- Fundred Dollar Bill Project.) The Fundred Armored Truck picks up bills at a school in New ile : Contemporary Artists’ Interpre- Orleans, LA; . tations and Solutions, curated by Barbara Matilsky for the Queens (NY) Museum of Art in 1992, focused on “ecological artworks that provide solutions to the problems facing natural and urban eco- systems” [11]. Ecovention: Current Art to Transform Ecologies, curated by Amy Lipton and Sue Spaid, proposed a new term, “ecovention,” a combination of the words ecology and intervention, to describe “an artist-initiated project that employs an inventive strategy to physi- cally transform a local ecology” [12]. Spaid groups projects into five catego- ries, four of which describe specific ways in which ecoartists tangibly contribute to enhancing environmental quality: restor- ing brownfields, enhancing biodiversity, improving urban infrastructure, and rec- lamation and restoration. Other recent exhibitions have offered examples of the broad reach of the field. Weather Report, curated by Lippard, and The Trouble with the Weather: A Southern

236 Wallen, Ecological Art 2.0

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) . to Congress. This novel project provides the prospect of effective remediation, potentially applicable in many contexts, networks such as a population or com- constellations of relationships in places promulgated through lively, participa- munity integrated into larger ones such such as the San Francisco Bay. The con- tory events that model political agency as an ecosystem or landscape. (In con- cept of an ecosystem was first posed by while generating support for healthy ur- trast, as Annie Leonard points out in her Tansey, who in 1935 described it as “the ban environments. playful Internet video The Story of Stuff, whole system (in the sense of physics) in- Graphic, alarmist documentation of modern patterns of consumption turn cluding not only the organism-complex, environmental devastation is one ap- continuous resource cycles into linear but also the whole complex of physical proach to heightening disquiet about ones, with everything ending up fester- factors forming what we call the environ- ecological malaise. However, this strat- ing in a dump [19]). Furthermore, ecol- ment of the biome—the habitat factors egy alone may simply re-inscribe trauma ogists recognize that these relationships in the widest sense” [21]. and paralysis. In contrast, ecoart works change over time. Feedback loops ensure Although ecosystems are a central such as Chin’s offer hopeful visions, that changes in one part of the system concept in the popular understanding providing novel solutions while raising affect others. Whole systems evolve as of ecology, what constitutes an ecosystem awareness through collaborative, playful organisms adapt in relationship to one is subject to debate. Clements’s theory, action. another. popular before the mid-20th century, of For ecoartists, like many activists, eco- successional botanical communities that logical relationships are often invoked reach a stable climax, was refuted not Key Principles as a way to understand and fortify re- only because systems are not static but Although the science at the core of lationships to place. For example, my because the ranges of individual species ecoart practice is given little attention project The Sea as Sculptress (1980, 2010) tend to be random, instead of cohering in the scant literature, it is essential for involves an intimate year-long macro- into neat communities. Contemporary both practitioners and critics of ecoart photographic exploration of the succes- theories emphasizing patchiness present to understand its implications. Ernst sion of marine life growing on wooden further challenges to conceptualizing Haeckel’s substantive definition of ecol- sculptures placed in three locations in neatly bounded ecosystems. ogy, written in 1870, reads in part: “By the San Francisco Bay (Fig. 3). Sumptu- Where defining systems perimeters is ecology we mean the body of knowledge ous visuals heighten curiosity and sensual desirable, many ecoartists have followed concerning the economy of nature—the aesthetic appreciation, while a conflation the lead of ecologists Bormann and Li- investigation of the total relations of the of time and scale communicates ecologi- kens, who recognize watersheds as use- animal both to its inorganic and to its or- cal processes. Following Aldo Leopold’s ful, definable systems. Ecoartists includ- ganic environment” [18]. Contemporary reminder that “we can only be ethical in ing AMD & ART, Ala Plastica, Helen and textbooks often cite multiple definitions relation to something we can see, feel, Newton Harrison, Basia Irland, Domi- of ecology, but the concept of relationships understand, love or otherwise have faith nique Mazeaud, and Collins and Goto appears in every one. in” [20], the work encourages viewers to work with restoring and remediating wa- Relationships can be conceived of in function as stewards of the bay, cogni- tersheds, the circulatory systems of the three principal ways: in terms of cycles zant of the full scale and consequences earth, which carry both nutrients and of matter (water or nutrients), flows of of their actions. wastes in the most essential resource for energy or nested systems, with smaller Ecosystem is the term used to define the life.

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); . advocated biodiversity as a measure of the health of ecosystems. The preservation of biodiversity was introduced as the central principle of the new field of conservation biology in 1978 and rapidly became a widely championed cause [23]. The year of this writing, 2010, has been deemed the International Year of Biodiversity by the United Nations. Biodiversity offers a striking measure of human impact. Bi- ologists posit that humans are causing the sixth and greatest planetary extinc- tion event, a rate of extinction 100,000 times higher than the natural rate, prompting Soule to call conservation biology a “crisis discipline” (Fig. 5) [24]. In my view, however, the implications of shifting from holistic, systemic think- ing, prompted by the ecosystem concept, to a focus on individual species, sug- gested by biodiversity, deserves further consideration. Calculating biodiversity is appealing because it provides a seemingly

238 Wallen, Ecological Art 2.0

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, 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; . tive, sustainability needs to be seen as a “cultural challenge” [31].

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-

Wallen, Ecological Art 239 2.0 t r i env onmen

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

240 Wallen, Ecological Art 2.0

t r i env onmen

Fig. 7. Helen and Newton Harrison, Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground Gaining Wisdom, installation (scale model, projections, digital imagery, , text), Ronald Feldman Fine Arts, 2009. (© Helen and Newton Harrison. Photo courtesy Ronald Feldman Fine Arts.) Fig. 8. Natalie Jeremijenko, Will Kavesh and Jesse Arnold, feral robotic dogs, 2005– present. (© Natalie Jeremijenko, Will Kavesh and Jesse Arnold) Industrial playthings, education. Living Water Garden has also altered to sniff for toxic chemicals, are enlisted in the service of sustainability; . inspired the Chengdu Urban Rivers As- sociation, an NGO that, recognizing the need to address pollution at its source, is working with a number of villages in the watershed to implement complete re-use of wastewater, converting solid waste into methane (used to produce electricity), liquid waste into fertilizer and discarded greywater into fertile wetlands (Fig. 6). Helen and Newton Harrison’s work ad- dresses an even larger scale. Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom (2007–2009) (Fig. 7) invokes the meta- phor of a greenhouse, understood both in terms of greenhouse gas emissions and as a creative response—ecologically sus- tainable greenhouses. On the floor of the installation a large topographical model of Britain graphically shows, via overhead projection, the encroachment of sea- water onto the land that would result from a 5- to 15-meter rise in sea level. Accompanying wall panels, synthesizing images, maps and text, offer ways to think about impending changes. Particularly striking is the Harrisons’ use of language. Poetic text defines key

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. ; Lacy [8].

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. . carefully chosen to indicate conscious ing the planet. 20. Aldo A. Leopold, A Sand County Almanac (Ox- planning of habitats for human beings ford: Oxford University Press, 1949) p. 214. and other living creatures. For instance, References a series of compact villages are imag- 21. Tansey quoted in Frank B. Golley, A History of the Unedited references as provided by the author. Ecosystem Concept in Ecology: More Than the Sum of the ined in the Pennines as part of a forest/ Parts (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993) p. 25. meadow ecosystem designed to provide 1. Lester R. Brown, Plan B 4.0: Mobilizing to Save Civilization (New York: W.W. Norton and Company, 22. . for biodiversity, food and carbon seques- 2009) p. 24. tration. In collaboration with ATOPIA, 23. Michael E. Soule and Bruce A. Wilcox, eds. Con- 2. Brown [1] p. 241. servation Biology: An Evolutionary-Ecological Perspective the Harrisons have proposed a “Vertical (Sunderland, Mass.: Sinauer Associates, 1980). Promenade” of solar-powered high rises 3. This description is distilled from conversations with many colleagues, particularly members of the 24. Soule quoted in Martha J. Groom, Gary K. Meffe, with hanging gardens as a form of “eco- ecoartnetwork. Other iterations may be found at C. Ronald Carroll, Principles of Conservation Biology civility” for the Lea Valley (Editor’s Note: , , . 25. United Nations General Assembly (20 March 1, 2012). 4. Allan Kaprow, “The Real Experiment,” Artforum 1987), “Our Common Future: Report of the World Unlike public-service sound bites de- International Vol. 22 No. 4, 1983, pp. 37–43. Commission on Environment and Development,” signed to convince people of the dan- 5. See Barbara Matilsky, Fragile Ecologies: Contemporary . Artist’s Interpretations and Solutions (New York: Rizzoli, gers of global warming, the Harrisons 26. United Nations General Assembly, 2005 World 1992) pp. 36–60. provocatively begin with the assump- Summit Outcome. tion that the tipping point has already 6. Heike Strelow and Ludwig Forum for Interna- tional Art, Natural Reality: Artistic Positions between 27. People’s Agreement: World People’s Conference passed. However, they use this harrowing Nature, exh. cat. (Stuttgart: DAC-Verl, 1999); Her- on Climate Change and the Rights of Mother Earth, 22 April 2010,

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) . (See article by Ruth Wallen in this issue.)

261