GIORGIO CRAVERO
Hasselblad Masters 2016 Winner Giorgio Cravero and his photography journey By Samantha Areman [online] At: https://www.productionparadise.com/blog/hassleblad-masters-2016-winner-giorgio-cravero-and-his-photography-journey/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“Men are poison for the earth. Behind this work there’s the story of what we are and of our arrogance when we think that we really count. Nature will outlive us: in the fruit and toxic vegetables, where color slides away, there’s the upper part which firmly holds the color of life. Do we really think that we can make a difference? Do we really think, in the age of technology, that we can lay down mankind’s law to the extent that we dominate the law of nature? Nature defeats us in silence, or in any case, it will stay here for longer than us, it will be run-down, but it will still be there. We fall ill and we die to create space for other man and to ensure the continuation of species. Nature doesn’t give a damn about our pain or our profit logic. The blackened chicory, the abandoned carrots are the clear image that – ok – we needed a knife to tear the meat off our preys, therefore we are technical beings for survival, but Earth had also imposed on us to be humble, and we -in reply- became arrogant. Nobody shall escape the retaliation for that arrogance, this is what the ancient Greeks tell us and they are a people of indescribable greatness, if nothing else because -before anyone else- they became aware of mortality and suffering and they wrote the greatest literary production of all the time on the topic. Here, in that cabbage which was sadly left to its fate, lies all the tragic meaning of our smallness and of our short memory, because we should have stayed there, close and loyal to the Earth, we should have stayed humble.” –Giorgio Cravero.” Giorgio Cravero’s Conceptual Photography – 2016 Hasselblad Masters “Product” Winner [online] At: https://www.productionparadise.com/blog/hassleblad-masters-2016-winner-giorgio-cravero-and-his-photography-journey/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“A healthy diet is closely connected with the concept of beauty, but everyone is more concerned with the achievement of exterior beauty than what beauty in its broadest sense actually represents” HASSELBLAD MASTER 2016 GIORGIO CRAVERO, PRODUCT [online] At: https://www.hasselblad.com/inspiration/masters/2016/giorgio-cravero/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
MARCELA MAGNO, 38° 1'24.75"S | 67°39'11.36"O | 17 Sep 2013 (2013)
Magno, Marcela (b.1966) / Argentinian, 38° 1'24.75"S | 67°39'11.36"O | 17 Sep 2013, 2013, printed 2014 (inkjet print) [online] At: https://www.bridgemanimages.com/en/magno/380-1-24-75-s-67039-11-36-o-17-sep-2013-2013-printed-2014-inkjet-print/inkjet-print/asset/3084008 (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“Land is a photographic project that aims to make visible the cartography of areas of extraction of mineral and natural resources and their waste, revealing the historical evolution of the landscape, the political construction of the territory and our geopolitical identity.
The images that make up the project were constructed with maps taken from google earth, printed in large size and definition, they are satellite cartographies that reveal topographies of extraction fields.
I am interested in the dystopian result in which the utopias of modernity become. These maps seem to confront us with this otherness: social and economic deformity, environmental disaster, equivocal territorial definitions and the uncertain future of our planet.” Data sheet. Marcela Magno. Land. 2012 / in progress. Inkjet on Hahnemühle baryta or Canson baryta paper. Variable sizes. [online] At: https://marcelamagno.com/project/land/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
ALISON WILDING, O n the Day (1986)
On the Day. Alison Wilding 1986 [online] At: https://www.wikiart.org/en/alison-wilding/on-the-day-1986 (Accessed 07.11.2022)
ROBERT SMITHSON A sphalt Rundown (1969)
“…Asphalt Rundown also points towards the levelheaded violence of industry, echoing the pouring of asphalt into the roads that cut across America and the world. … Ecology and industry, in the Smithsonian metaphor, are “two irreconcilable situations hopelessly going over the same waterfall.” Asphalt Rundown. By Serena Solin. October, 2022 [online] At: https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/asphalt-rundown-0 (Accessed 07.11.2022)
Robert Smithson, Asphalt Rundown (1969) Rome, Italy. Sculptural event Photograph: Robert Smithson [online] At: https://holtsmithsonfoundation.org/asphalt-rundown (Accessed 07.11.2022)
WALTER DE MARIA, The New York Earth Room [141 Wooster St, in SoHo, New York, USA]
Left: Installing the first Earth Room, Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Münich, 1968, via artblogcologne.com / Right: Walter De Maria installing the first Earth Room, Galerie Heiner Friedrich, Münich, 1968, via articles.latimes.com online At: https://www.widewalls.ch/magazine/walter-de-maria-new-york-earth-room (Accessed 31.10.2022)
OLAFUR ELIASSON Little Sun (2012)
Olafur Eliasson Little Sun lamp [online] At: https://shop.tate.org.uk/olafur-eliasson-little-sun-lamp/16465.html (Accessed 07.11.2022)
According to the artist Olafur Eliasson:
'Light is for everyone – it determines what we do and how we do it. This is why Frederik Ottesen and I have developed the solar-powered lamp Little Sun. Little Sun is a small work of art with a large reach. One part of the artwork is the lamp and the activities it enables. The other is the successful distribution of Little Sun in off-grid communities, its journey from production to usage.
As the first partner to join the Little Sun project, Tate exhibited confidence in the power of culture to have a real impact on the world. Tate has believed from the start that holding hands with the sun is holding hands with the future.' Olafur Eliasson Little Sun lamp [online] At: https://shop.tate.org.uk/olafur-eliasson-little-sun-lamp/16465.html (Accessed 07.11.2022)
In Olafur Eliasson's project, there is one feature that, in my opinion, distinguishes a social or environmental project from art - it is a necessity - the need of people in countries with underdeveloped economies for basic access to light. Here a reasonable, logical and technical craft is translated into something practical.
Nigel Warburton in the book "The Art Question" tries to answer the main question "what is art?" and the conclusion is that there is no answer. Since there are a large number of criteria that may be present in art, it is difficult to derive a universal formula about the features of art. As the author suggests, we just have to determine for ourselves why this or that particular art is considered art and matters to us? So for me this is not art, but a very, very good social project.
I compare this device with the development of Playtronica. Where a technically verified instrument turns objects into sound. In my opinion, even this tool can be attributed to works of art rather than the Little Sun. Because here this tool is something new, not yet popularized. It is not a "first necessity" tool, different to the light in Africa and at the same time it gives rise to a new, yet unfamiliar experience in a person.
Playtronica macht Musik aus Früchten oder was auch immer MIDI controller TouchMe von Playtronica @playtronica.com [online] At: https://coolsten.de/playtronica-musik-gadgets/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
HELEN ALTMAN Signal (1992)
Helen Altman. American, born 1958 Signal 1992. 108 × 156 1/8 × 12 in. (274.3 × 396.5 × 30.5 cm) [online] At: https://emuseum.mfah.org/objects/40320/signal?ctx=2951fc858c5bee77929e055bb9b600223da04233&idx=11 (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“The artist’s use (or reuse) of familiar objects elevates them and draws parallels to our own human predicament. The work invites the viewer to consider their own responsibility, as Altman considers her own, in the face of rapid deforestation and habitat destruction.” Asphalt Rundown. By Serena Solin. October, 2022HELEN ALTMAN. INDEPENDENCE The MAC, Dallas, Texas January 12 – February 23, 2019 [online] At: https://talleydunn.com/project/helen_altman_independence/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
YOKO ONO Between the Sky and My Head [exhibition] (2008)
The installation, ... comprises a digital simulation in which a black smoke flag is projected over real images of Spindletop that transmit the changing atmospheric conditions there throughout the year.” Exhibition view of the retrospective YOKO ONO Lumière de L’aube. Artworks: Skyladders and Three Mounds Photo Blaise Adilon [online] At: https://www.mac-lyon.com/en/programmation/yoko-ono (Accessed 07.11.2022)
TARA DONOVAN "Untitled," 2006
Tara Donovan [online] At: https://www.stephenfriedman.com/exhibitions/105-tara-donovan/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“I think of my process almost as a re-manufacturing of a manufactured material, and I think that it’s inevitable that what results goes back to nature. I never have a set idea in mind of what an overall composition will look like; it really grows out of a doing and making and a sense of play and an idea of chance.” Tara Donovan, a Sculptor Who Finds Beauty in the Mundane. A new book looks back on two decades of the artist’s installations, which use man-made materials to explore the natural world. [online] At: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/09/20/books/tara-donovan-fieldwork.html (Accessed 07.11.2022)
JOAN JONAS Crystal Sculpture [Reanimation] (2010-2013)
A walk through MoMA this summer. Christina Yoh Posted on July 16, 2018 Updated on September 6, 2022 [online] At: https://www.common.com/blog/2018/07/walk-moma-summer/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“Reanimation is an immersive installation inspired by the Icelandic writer and Nobel laureate Halldór Laxness’s 1968 novel Under the Glacier …At the heart of the structure, a sculpture made of eighty crystals refracts light from the projections and casts shadows and reflections onto the screens. The environment—at once mystical and domestic—also contains drawings of symbols that appear in the work, and two “theater box” sculptures, as Jonas calls them, displaying videos in miniature.
Jonas’s multilayered works evolve over long periods of time, encompassing various disciplines. Reanimation began as a performance, in 2010, and this installation comprises both new and previously recorded footage. Echoing Laxness’s nonlinear storytelling...” Joan Jonas, Reanimation, 2010/2012/2013 [online] At: https://www.moma.org/collection/works/229567 (Accessed 07.11.2022)
EDWARD BURTYNSKY Crystal Sculpture [Reanimation] (2010-2013)
Edward Burtynsky Oil Spill Photography By Seamus Payne Updated on September 14, 2010 [online] At: https://www.thecoolist.com/edward-burtynsky-oil-spill-photography/ (Accessed 07.11.2022)
“While trying to accommodate the growing needs of an expanding, and very thirsty civilization, we are reshaping the Earth in colossal ways. In this new and powerful role over the planet, we are also capable of engineering our own demise. We have to learn to think more long-term about the consequences of what we are doing, while we are doing it. My hope is that these pictures will stimulate a process of thinking about something essential to our survival; something we often take for granted—until it’s gone.” – Edward Burtynsky WATER [online] At: https://www.edwardburtynsky.com/projects/photographs/water (Accessed 07.11.2022)
Anthropocene.
“The Anthropocene Epoch is an unofficial unit of geologic time, used to describe the most recent period in Earth’s history when human activity started to have a significant impact on the planet’s climate and ecosystems.” National Geographic RESOURCE LIBRARY. ENCYCLOPEDIC ENTRY [online] At: https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/anthropocene (Accessed 07.11.2022)
In my opinion, scientists should establish the names of historical eras, and today there is disagreement in applying the new term to an era. But what is obvious and unambiguous is that man greatly influences nature, and hence our environment. After a quick analysis of artists who take into account directly or indirectly the situation with environmental pollution and our responsibility for it, it becomes clear that such artistic reactions help the situation as a whole, but very slowly. The indicated problems reach only those people who go to museums. And the artist must be famous so that the problems voiced by him receive the necessary publicity. Because, for example, "Little Sun" OLAFUR ELIASSON, which today helps children learn in the dark, will not help these children not to throw plastic "into nature". Light and pollution are unrelated things in the minds of many people. And this is the most common and primitive example. And in life it comes to the point that I in Germany (the leading economy in Europe) hear my friends and acquaintances openly declare that they are not endowed with a special interest in water or forest pollution. People throw-away plastic and not only in lakes and fields. And this is happening in the most advanced economy and society in the world. In contrast, I will not say what I saw with my own eyes in the families in Sao Paulo and residential areas of Shanghai and Moscow. Only one thing can help - the implementation of the subject of ecology in all schools of the world.
Bibliography and references
1. Nigel Warburton 2003 "The Art Question" Routledge London and New York
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