[-empyre-] Ecological Aesthetics
Ryan Griffis
ryan.griffis at gmail.com
Tue Apr 29 06:13:18 EST 2008
Sounds like a really great project Tim, one I look forward to following.
I haven't done much close reading on this, but I think Smithson's
decidedly anti-preservationist aesthetics have some interesting
relationships to some of the more current critiques of political
ecology and humanism from folks like Latour.
Although Smithson remains in the kind of anti-human (or at least
ambivalent about the human) apocalyptic realm (i think he would have
loved Jared Diamond's critiques of human society though). I don't
think he would have been much interested in eco-visualization or
"green" art, which imply a fixable, utopian, rational subject.
I would agree that a lot of the work of eco-vis is more aligned with
the aesthetics and politics of someone like Haacke, at least on the
surface. And since he's still around, I wonder what his thoughts are
on the patron(izing) of eco-aesthetics. While i'm very attracted to
much of this work, it also seems to suggest a fairly conservative
solution to the problems of ecology. the mixing of rational (info-
aesthetic) and sublimated desires (in both the "Natural" and
continuation of fetishism) present is definitely something that needs
engagement. If anyone has seem Mau's "Massive Change" exhibition,
that should be kinda clear.
Anyway, i don't mean to further the diversion (especially one i'm not
really qualified to take further), but i'll look forward to the
conference!
best,
ryan
On Apr 27, 2008, at 9:03 PM, empyre-request at lists.cofa.unsw.edu.au
wrote:
>> Thanks for your post. It's a coincidence that you make this
>> posting just as I'm thinking about how to organize a Cornell
>> conference next fall that will combine reflections on eco art with a
>> celebration of the 40th anniversary of the Cornell earth art
>> exhibition that included Walter De Maria, Jan Dibbets, Hans Haacke,
>> Michael Heizer (who seems to have withdrawn during participation),
>> Neil Jenney, Richard Long, David Medalla, Robert Morris, Dennis
>> Oppenheim, Robert Smithson, and Gunther Uecker. This was the kind
>> of low tech exhibition (seeminly the second international group show
>> that featured land art) that focused attention on rejecting the
>> gallery space. Your e-mail has me thinking that I should do some
>> further research about the relations of patrons to this show that
>> was curated by Willoughby Sharp.
>
> What I've been considering is the extent to which these artists'
> early interests in the form of the earth have evolved into more
> recent consideration of eco art and wired sustainability. This all
> becomes more complicated since so many of these artists went on to
> enjoy tremendously successful careers who's later earth art
> interventions lacked the quiet minimalism of many of the Cornell
> projects. Indeed, the works on eco media in the exhibitions
> currently up at Eyebeam and Exit Art seem to be motivated by an
> esprit much more akin to that earlier work, especially the
> experimentations by the more political of the early artists, such as
> Hans Haacke.
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