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Change can come at a glacial pace. But if global warming activists are to be believed, change is coming faster and faster, and with little relief from the heat and friction of a political climate that is turning an icy shoulder to environmental issues. From the hotly contested issue of global warming to the simple idea of conservation, a message emerges from the art world, offering a more easily digestible perspective than the political or scientific.
Eco-art seeks to transcend aesthetic appeal, offering opportunity for participation, engagement and action. It makes sense because art is, by nature, intrinsically linked to environment. Art has always acknowledged and respected the air that oxidizes oil paint, the moisture that must be in perfect balance to sculpt wood, the clear sky that extends to every landscape's horizon. Art is nature as nature is art.
In the urban environment, green is little more than a tag line used to sell a product that's message is more recycled than its content. Where environmental activists had simply to fight the corporate message of consumption and use, they now must fight to distinguish between the well-packaged and heavily advertised misuse of the 'green' label by companies looking to capitalize on a consumer trend, and the authentic message of conservation and sustainability. As space to broadcast becomes more limited, artists seek inventive ways to exhibit work with an environmentally conscious message.
The slogan has always been a simple catch-all that fits on any shirt or coffee mug. Think globally, act locally. Easily adapted to most any environmental concern, it rings true enough to get suburban gardens growing and to boost sales of reusable fabric bags at the grocery store. Since the phrase caught on in the late 60s, it has come to epitomize the best efforts any individual can make to fix the ecological crises.
Initiatives like The Canary Project, which started as a mission to photograph areas being studied by scientists for climate change, quickly grew into locally grown installations of art meeting activism. The Green Patriots Poster Campaign, launched by the project, is one such example, seeking to use the modern art of propaganda posters to encourage communication of sustainability issues. The initiative, like so many of its kind, is almost fully interactive, inviting viewers to participate as designers, critics and activists. The line between art and activism is barely visible. (1)
If, through more traditional art forms, that line is blurred, it all but disappears through some of the more ambitious, living works that have taken root across the globe. The Soil Kitchen, a six day installation in Philadelphia, used wind power, educational workshops, and soup made from locally grown ingredients to effectively squash any remaining doubt that the art form in itself was a productive statement of sustainability and ecological responsibility. (2)
The effect of humankind on the environment is dynamic, lacking the good fortune of being captured in the pristine stillness of a painting or sketch. Art, then, responds in kind, evolving into a politic, a statement, a call to action, not to freeze the world in a familiar landscape, but to remind the world that it matters, that the beauty of it can be captured in art, and freed by artistic vision.
1. [Online] http://www.greenpatriotposters.org
2. [Online] http://articles.philly.com/2011-04-04/news/29380533_1_soil-samples-artist-and-sculptor-metals
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