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Art & Ecology


Art & Ecology:

Photoessays: Art and the Earth



Changing Views About Art and the Earth

Conclusion

by Don Krug and Jennifer Siegenthaler

Artists have become involved in ecological actions through their art. Making art about ecological issues is political in the sense that these artists offered a different and sometimes conflicting perspective -- direct and indirect -- on the significance of sustainable ways of living. With regard to the transition from early environmental art to the ecological art movement, artist Harriet Feigenbaum stated, "At a minimum, any form of so-called 'land art' should be in rapport with its environment." Matilsky (1992) pointed out




Although earthworks were envisioned as a means to rehabilitate damaged landscapes, they seldom addressed life-supported systems or the transformation of these sites into viable spaces for plants and animals. Based on geometric designs, earthworks were generally not truly site-specific, and they ignored the need for problem-solving and for understanding how nature works. (p 47).

This consideration became crucial to ecological artists. If land is to be used as a site, and earth as media, artists must express their ability to co-exist with nature and rehabilitate it in its current state of crisis. This belief is manifest in theory and in action through ecological art. What does it mean to be an ecological artist? What is the basis for this aesthetic? These questions are often answered differently by different artists who identify with ecological art. But many agree that one purpose is to understand the processes of ecological sustainability and to identify the consequences of political economic development. Additionally, societies need to monitor resource exploitation, isolate negative environmental implications of certain human actions, and act to solve ecological problems through artistic collaborations.

Conceptions are changing about how people value and ascribe meaning to the things they make within particular places. Contemporary ecological artists study the interconnectedness of art, aesthetics, ecology, and culture. Artists are working collaboratively with members of communities to use their creative energies to solve real life-centered problems that affect both nature and culture.



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