[-empyre-] Ecological aesthetics

[Ryan Griffis]

On Apr 25, 2008, at 9:00 PM, empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au  
wrote:

> When land artists such as Robert Morris and Robert Smithson
> went into industrial wastelands in the 1970s and created large earth
> art works they were demonstrating knowingly or unknowingly the future
> utility of those spaces. The were also actively rejecting the gallery
> system. Dross scapes are now the contemporary edge of landscape
> architecture but they inherited that focus from artists.

"Rejecting" the gallery space, maybe (but even that's a stretch), but  
hardly the "gallery system". Smithson's patron was, after all, both a  
gallery owner and mining heiress. I don't think there was any chance  
of their work being "unknowing" contributors to the reimagining of  
post-industrial sites.
This history should lead us to look more closely at the patrons of  
the emerging eco-aesthetics, namely the in the agencies of green- 
capitalism.
But we should also maybe remember that Smithson's images were pretty  
apocalyptic and hardly preservationist. Not exactly trying to salvage  
or remediate slag sites for a utopian future.
This isn't to say I'm suggesting Smithson's position as correct...  
hardly.
Ron Graziani's Robert Smithson and the American Landscape is a good  
read for this.
best,
ryan