What Is Environmental Art?
by John Laumer, Philadelphia 
on 04.22.06
We're unwilling to rate art because it's classified as High or Low, Fine or Folk, Craft or Decorative, digitally created, filmed, or performed in the rainforest. Even bypassing those categories, it's hard to decide what makes Art "environmental"? TreeHugger has no resident critic (thank goodness); so we'll pursue this question by example. In the film category one is preminently relevant and beautiful: Koyaanisqatsi. If you haven't seen it, you must. Colin recently posted about how Mr. Gore has seemingly impressed the art film crowd with a documentary of his speech on climate change. We were wondering if this could be thought of as performance art?
Landscape painting is of course a very old tradition in Europe. In North America, the so-called Hudson River painters, "helped to shape the mythos of the American landscape," but with an often romaticised view.
Modern landscape painting ranges from the representational to the abstract, as in this print by Terri Zupanc.
Some visual artists have taken to distributing a large portfolio in digital form, such as Andy Goldsworthy's River and Tides DVD. We've posted on Christian Hahn's paintings, which address climate change, and also on artists who recyle guns into sculpture.
We interviewed furniture maker and sculptor Julienne Dolphin Wilding who uses reclaimed wood for much of her work and even posted an overview piece on the role of art in activism and public awareness building.
The New York Times recently carried a story about a nucleus of outdoor sculpture gardens, artists' studios and an experimental architecture project called Ecoshack located in the desert East of Los Angeles near Joshua Tree National Monument. Inspired by nature seems to be the key thought for this collective effort.
Speaking of architecture, the Grandfather of ecologically integrated-architecture in the US, and perhaps the world, is Frank Lloyd Wright, especially as manifested in his Prairie period, where entire buildings were constructed of just a few locally produced native materials. Partly earth sheltered, solar heated structures were roofed with native plants in FLW designs over 50 years ago. Many of Wright's designs are as reverently protected as a rennaisance painting in a musuem, drawing tourists and scholars from all over the world.
Treehugger has covered many green design projects; but we're doubtful that very many would be classed as 'works of art', in spite of the creativity and extra investments that went into them. So much of the green building movement these days is about the pragmatism of energy and material efficiency that the art and beauty aspects tend to be overlooked. Perhaps our readers have a contrary example?
We'll hold off on music as environmental art form for a future post.
Tentative conclusion: environment as a direct subject has crept into nearly every corner of the arts. Should be interesting to see if broadcast television starts to include more environmental themes and plots in entertainment.
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There is a growing and diverse ecological art movement--much of which can be accessed through The Greenmuseum at www.greenmuseum.org
right now there is a very good exhibit at Exit Art in New York, called "The Drop" about water.
Last year there was an exhibit in Paris by Frans Krajcberg, "an 84 year old artist of Polish Jewish origin, Brasilian by adoption, who continues to voice his revolt against the destruction of nature by man through his magnificent sculpted works, photos and paintings inspired by the vegetal forms of the Minas Gerais and the Amazon rainforest."
"Hollowed out trunks, branches curved into shapes of exuberant lianas, twisted and serpentine roots, wooden concretions in the forms of cancerous masses or strange flowers..." Pierre Restany
site with lots of photos of his works:
http://lanore.club.fr/krajcberg/index.html
interview, in French
http://www.bresilbresils.org/actualites/index.php?id=104
And let's not neglect the written word as an art form - certainly there are many books about the environment, but few "environmental novels" ... I can think of one author off the top of my head whose fiction positively drip with "green thought" and is absolutely steeped in the idea of a strong connection to the world around us: Kim Stanley Robinson. Heck, his most recent novels are about global warming - although any of his books would qualify as just as important as films like Koyaanisqatsi, Baraka (a better film in my estimation), et al.
Highly recommended. I'd be interested if anyone who is familiar with Mr. Robinson's work would have any recommendations for similar authors, or other authors whose fiction would be judged soundly environmentally positive...
i was inspired by the research of mr. emoto ( he made photographs of frozen water to prove the effect of our thoughts on the structure of water, http://www.hado.net/water_crystals1.html )
my following up idea was ... the joy watching colors and moving structures trough a glass of water will be transported to the water
i did some videos and stills
http://web170k.dynamic-kunden.ch/artfotos.html
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there is a list on environmental art at
http://wikiforgood.org/index.php?title=Art_For_Good#Environmental_Art
Some incredible, stunning images here: http://spectralq.com/
using human forms to spell out progressive, environmental messages, photographed aerially.
To slightly nit pick, environmental art is traditionally considered by the art world to refer to large nonpermanent outdoor installations, such as stringing a giant curtain between two mountaintops, or covering a series of small islands in fabric for as long as it takes to cover them all and photograph. It is not generally seen as environmentally friendly, as such I would suggest that attempting to brand greener art such as what you are describing as Environmentalist art, or ecoart, or something of that ilk.
Moving on to actually contributing information, I'm an illustrator at a art and design school, and I know all of our product designers are highly encouraged to adopt environment friendly design ideas, sustainability, and cradle to grave planning are highly prized in that department. And you can even see environment friendly messages in major games and animations, which are a hot bed for artists working on them. Most of Hayao Miyazaki's Studio Ghibli works have very strong environment friendly messages. Just look at say, Princess Mononoke. Or even a game like Final Fantasy 7, which in one of the main plot arcs of the game features a struggle against a global power company destroying the planet.
One key example I saw for environmentalism in a gallery about 4 months ago was a green wall design, that would have a hexagonal mold with a hollow center (about 1'x1'x6' shape to it) which would be packed with soil, and then seeded to grow grass, or whatever type of plant you so desire to uphold the structural integrity. I'm not sure if the designer has gotten it mass market as yet, but even simple things like that can have interesting implications. The one that first comes to mind for me would be things like replacing railings on a deck, or to enable some interesting shifts in the wayy we work with an in outside spaces in our own dwellings.
Environmental art, in regards to the visual arts, was a movement started in the late 1960's that used a site as a specific venue to convey an idea. This medium is still in practice today.
In the context of Treehugger, 'environmental art' could address questions like what materials an artist uses (are they green)? How energy efficient is their studio? Who is the most eco-friendly contemporary artist?
Don't forget to see "Baraka" - I find it even a better movie
let's not forget about Ed Burtynsky! his photographs expose the dangers of [nickel] mining, and most recently, the terrifying nature of excessive consumerism: the Three Gorges Dam projects and endless factory scenes in China.
Just a heads up about Linda Weintraub's new book, "Avant-Guardians", http://avant-guardians.com/
some very good writing on eco-art by a recognized pundit.