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...And the Future is Now (I)


by artists and supporters of this movement (2003)

Introduction, Debbie Mathew, Jim Cummings, Lillian Cooper, and Shan Wells

Part (II) John K. Grande, Michael Vitti, Marion Weber/Danny and Sandra Hobson, Peter Fend, Part (III) Tim Collins, Henry Corning, Aviva Rahmani, Laura Audrey, Part (IV) Perceiving Nature by Jim Nollman

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Introduction

As part of our celebration of Earth Day, greenmuseum.org asked artists and scholars associated with the environmental art movement and our visitors to share their thoughts on where they think this work is headed.

Some people sent in a paragraph, some people sent in an essay. Each of these contributions reveals both evolving themes and a range of thoughts on the subject. We're thrilled and honored to present these unique and passionate voices here on greenmuseum.org.

Throughout this series, we sensed a hunger for and finally a refreshing commitment to creating good news. The unsettling drizzle of fear and uncertainty in the air these days seems to demand a more empowering counterbalance. The sun still rises and miracles and beauty surround us daily. What do we want to live for?

What drives those already inspired by environmental and ecological art to spend their lives making it, discussing it and teaching others about it? Clearly, hundreds of people around the world are devoting their lives to help advance this movement.

We believe this is just the beginning of a much larger transformation sweeping the world. The role of art and artists in society is undergoing a significant shift which is spreading under much of the art world radar. Most people do not know about environmental art and unless we join together to spread the word and continue to make ever more effective and powerful use of our creativity to help our communities and ecosystems we will have wasted a precious opportunity.

Opening up...
"I see not a step before me as I tread on another year; But I 've left the Past in God's keeping, — the Future, His mercy shall clear; And what looks dark in the distance may brighten as I draw near."
- Mary Gardiner Brainard (1837-1905)

Those of us at greenmuseum.org are convinced that there is hope for the future of the planet in many of the ideas we've seen within the environmental art movement. That beauty, metaphor, service, diversity, scientific rigor, ethical conduct, spiritual reverence, and broad-based collaboration towards ecological sustainability provide a path worth pursuing. We are witnessing the beginnings of a more sustainable world culture which can leave us empowered, more joyful, and connected to values which nourish the planet to the benefit of all.

This is the future which motivates us at greenmuseum.org. It's a future made possible by the thousands of people like you who create this art, discuss it and support it. Here's what just a few of them had to say.

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Debbie Mathew

In the future, I imagine Ecological Art to be a familiar concept, even though it may not even have this name. The eco-artist does not creates objects that inspire possession or pride, be it on a personal or public level, but serves to highlight and heal relationships. In this way, it is the feminine archetype that is being welcomed back into culture.

I order to understand the whole, I divide the specializations of ecoartists/ecoart into 3 parts: the biological, the social and the spiritual. Of course, there is much overlap and as the work evolves over time, every project will include all three areas.

Biological: this means that the artwork utilizes scientific explanations of ecology as its framework. Biological ecology understands that matter is all interconnected: scientific approaches include systems thinking, cyclical time and nature's inherent intelligence. The artwork primarily engages the physical, biological world. Examples include: restoring or improving habitat for indigenous species, bioremediation, creating public sculptures that filter polluted water.

Reduce, reuse, recycle.
"Visions of glory, spare my aching sight! Ye unborn ages, crowd not on my soul!"
- Thomas Gray, The Bard
Social: Social ecology focuses on the social systems and their interdependence with nature; it seeks to rebalance social inequalities especially as they relate to the environment. Emphasis of the art is on engaging people in the process of restoring their connection to nature and their cultural traditions that include non-human nature. Examples include organizing marginalized communities to connect and care for their human/ecological community, educating about the ecology of the non-human world, working in the political realm to create relations between heretofore 'opposing factions' (eg environmentalists/industrialists).

Spiritual: Spiritual ecology recognizes that all manifestations of nature have a spiritual dimension. Connecting to the sacred through art is the main focus; it may manifest in personal or community rituals whose purpose is to connect and heal human relations to nature. Ancient symbols, traditional concepts and methods may be used. Examples: ritual work connecting to lunar/solar rhythms or specific 'place'; creating structures of/in nature providing opportunities for communities to rapport with nature & their own souls (e.g. labyrinths).

Within these 3 areas, and as they merge to become one, I envision the rise of the feminine; the focus on process, relationships, nurturing and celebrating life. Artists will be working at grass roots levels, within or tangentally with public institutions (eg. universities, research centers...), sometimes independantly but always in consultation with community. Of course much of this is already happening, only in the future, it will be very common and integrated at every level of an individual's, community's and culture's expression.

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Jim Cummings Earth Ear founder

In these times of turmoil, I see hope. More than ever, people are reaching out for each other, and the strength that is shared by contact with the earth. Even many moderate conservatives are recognizing that a time of great choices is upon us, some directly and clearly, others via a subtle un-ease or lack of certainty about the actions of our government home and abroad.

Environmental artists can serve as especially important bridges, affirming the importance of the relationships between humanity and the natural world: personal connection and sustenance, societal consideration for all species, and the sacred threads that link our souls with that of the planet, the solar body, the galactic landscape.

Now more than ever, the work of environmental artists of all stripes is both crucially important, and I think meeting a receptive public. From expressions of simple beauty (landscapes in bank galleries, traditional nature audio, essays in local papers about the coming of spring) to more engaging, perhaps challenging public art events (large-scale puppet theater, local watershed celebrations, community soundscape-gathering projects), this is an invigorating time for bringing the voices of the planet into our social spheres.

In some ways, the enthusiasm I am tapping here is a continuation of the perhaps naïve dreams of the past forty years: that the madness of our culture is at its breaking point, and a holistic sanity is finally finding widespread rooting space. We really can't know whether the madness will crack and fall away, or become a tragic crust that stifles life's promise here; either way, the role of the artist is to give voice to both the sorrow and the hope, so that those who experience the art may find their perspectives broadened (and deepened), and the time of the artists' greatest impact is the time of greatest turbulence, when there is opportunity to have an effect on individuals and societies making choices in stark times.

Now is a time such as that. As a writer, sound producer, and member of a watershed community of life (bird, water, wind; bear, deer, fox; fir, highway, human domesticity), I welcome the opportunities to get out there and play!

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Lilian Cooper view art

For me environmental art represents an acknowledgement of the wider world around us, of being a small part in a large whole. I think the future of environmental art is just beginning. In a world that is increasingly divorced from its roots, environmental art provides a link with the threatened natural landscape around us.

Plums.
"I would feel more optimistic about a bright future for man if he spent less time proving that he can outwit Nature and more time tasting her sweetness and respecting her seniority."
- E. B. White

My goal is to have more people recognise the value of what they have, when this is in an urban environment, it simply makes it more accessible. I think the future of environmental art lies in the mainstream. If this happens via schooling, or from a growing dissatisfaction with consumer culture or any other motivating reason, the goal is to bring environmental awareness into the everyday. This is where environmental artists have a vital role. To bring a contemporary perspective, to interpret the world around us in such a way that we raise awareness and give people new insights in their daily lives.

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Shan Wells view art

A virtual culture is upon us. Science alters our perception of the world dramatically by creating an remarkable ease of life, a fantasy so compelling it distracts us from the world under our feet, which is as primal and brutal as it ever was.

It is as much a stretch to say that Eco-art can save us from the perils of the machine as it is a cliche to say that technology will create a Matrix-like hell. Most likely, many people will continue find nature as vast, beautiful and fascinating as they ever have.

However, our hand is becoming much heavier. The weight of our numbers drags on the ecosphere like a chain. Slight shifts in political control results in massive destruction, a foolish hand at the wheel causes the pollution of a quarter hemisphere. Fewer and fewer people control more, destroy more. Such careless, concentrated power is the ultimate, intoxicating distraction for both those who wield power, and those who are ruled by them.

Eco-art insists upon attention to the real. It demands recognition of a core needs that humanity shares with all life- air, water, food, freedom. This insistence antidotes the delusional concentration of human power by cutting away the gloss of our self-importance. But it's a very weak and limited vaccine. Alone, it cannot cure. It must be joined with grassroots political movements in which it provides a visual & philosophical grounding ideal which inspires the drive for change.

Eco-art's ultimate value may not be in artwork itself, but in its practitioners, whose devotion to the genre is not unlike the labors of St. Francis - seemingly insane or irrelevant in context to its times, but powerful in its embrace of the corporeal.

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...And the Future is Now (I)"
(Introduction, Debbie Mathew, Jim Cummings, Lillian Cooper, Shan Wells)

...Part (II)"
(John K. Grande, Michael Vitti, Marion Weber/Danny and Sandra Hobson, Peter Fend)

...Part (III)"
(Tim Collins, Henry Corning, Aviva Rahmani, Laura Audrey)

...Part (IV)"
(Perceiving Nature by Jim Nollman)

So what do you think? Join the ongoing discussion in the Forum...

© 2008 greenmuseum.org