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4 5 beyond green toward a sustainable ar t allora calzadilla free soil jam learning group brennan mcgaffey in collaboration with temporary services nils norman people powered dan peterman marjetica potr c michael rakowitz frances whitehead wochenklausur andrea zittel curated by stephanie smith smart museum of art university of chicago independent curators international new york[close]
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6 7 published to accompany the traveling exhibition beyond green toward a sustainable art co-organized by the smart museum of art university of chicago and ici independent curators international new york and circulated by ici the exhibition is curated by stephanie smith smart museum curator of contemporary art this exhibition and accompanying catalogue are made possible in part by the smart family foundation the horace w goldsmith foundation the richard h driehaus foundation nuveen investments tom and janis mccormick and the kanter family foundation and ici exhibition partners kenneth s kuchin and f bruce anderson and gerrit and sydie lansing additional support is provided by the arts planning council the environmental studies program and the green campus initiative university of chicago copyright © 2005 david and alfred smart museum of art university of chicago and independent curators international ici new york all rights reserved no part of this book may be reproduced or utilized in any form without reflections on art and sustainability © victor margolin 2005 statements by jam dan peterman majretica potr and andrea zittel © the artists c design jnl graphic design chicago editor stephanie smith copy editor greg nosan publication assistant rachel furnari printer oddi printing iceland smart museum of art university of chicago 5550 south greenwood avenue chicago il 60637 773.702.0200 http www.smartmuseum.uchicago.edu independent curators international 799 broadway suite 205 new york ny 10003 212.254.8200 http www.ici-exhibitions.org isbn 0-935573-42-9 library of congress cataloging-in-publication data not available at time of publication exhibition itinerary 6 october 2005 15 january 2006 smart museum of art university of chicago 2 february 7 may 2006 museum of arts design new york 5 may 15 july 2007 contemporary arts center cincinnati 14 september 7 december 2007 richard e peeler art center depauw university art museum greencastle indiana at time of publication contents foreword and acknowledgments anthony hirschel and judith olch richards beyond green stephanie smith 8 12 reflections on art and sustainability victor margolin allora calzadilla free soil jam learning group brennan mcgaffey in collaboration with temporary nils norman people powered dan peterman marjetica potr c michael rakowitz frances whitehead wochenklausur andrea zittel checklist artist biographies 20 30 40 52 60 services 72 82 92 100 106 1 18 126 134 144 1 52 155 mission statements and boards 160[close]
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foreword and acknowledgments 8 9 foreword and acknowledgments organizing a traveling exhibition that addresses the intersection between sustainable design and contemporary art poses particular challenges how to be thrifty and environmentally conscious in presenting interpreting packing and shipping works of art this problem would be germane only to those of us in the business of art exhibitions if it did not also speak to the ways in which we as a society and as individuals consume resources in an increasingly globalized sphere of interactions these days we order furniture produced on the other side of the world and have the pieces shipped to us from distant warehouses eat produce grown on different continents and buy clothes made from fabrics woven and tailored across the globe it takes effort to go past superficial understandings of green living in order to live in a truly sustainable way the artists in beyond green toward a sustainable art bring these questions into the production and circulation of their own work we thank them for creating a remarkable array of projects and for sharing them through this exhibition these artists offer counterpoints to established forms of environmentally conscious art rather than large-scale interventions they explore sustainability at a more modest portable level some adopt proven principles of green design others propose small-scale alternative modes of living still others incisively highlight the problems and contradictions of the very discourse of sustainability absent from beyond green are more familiar forms such as community gardens planning projects or public art though all of the artists have in fact worked site-specifically with particular communities ephemerally or outside the boundaries of art museums the works presented in beyond green demonstrate a specific curatorial choice to feature another side of these practices structures objects and processes that can be used and reused in a range of contexts and can be experienced directly by visitors at each exhibition tour venue the curatorial approach to beyond green thus brings recycling one strategy of sustainability into the world of art collaboration another critical element of sustainable living has permeated all levels of planning for beyond green this complex exhibition has required intense levels of collaboration among curator artists and many others and we thank stephanie smith for her curatorial vision and dedication as she knitted together not only the content of the show catalogue and accompanying programs but also the networks of people and relationships that have shaped beyond green likewise the partnership between the smart and independent curators international has enabled us to leverage resources to make possible the exhibition tour and catalogue as well as related programs in chicago where this project initially took shape we benefited from the early involvment of several individuals groups and university departments we are especially grateful to dave aftandilian of the university of chicago s environmental studies program the chicago architecture foundation and its curator ned cramer ken dunn of the resource center peter nicholson of foresight design group and kevin pierce of the architecture firm farr associates for their ongoing feedback ideas enthusiasm and support which significantly extended the range and reach of the exhibition we are also grateful to the university of chicago s green campus initiative the department of visual arts the environmental studies program the office of community and government affairs the university community service center and the workshop on the built environment for pushing beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries to help us involve audiences in tackling real problems of art and sustainable design without them most of the programs presented in conjunction with beyond green in chicago would not have been possible we extend special thanks to the artists who participated[close]
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foreword and acknowledgments 10 11 in several ambitious university programs inspired by the exhibition a summer 2005 course on art and activism that artist kevin kaempf of people powered taught for high school students in the university s collegiate scholars program nils norman s fall 2005 residency teaching an interdisciplinary course on art and environmental activism and wochenklausur s intensive three-week residency during summer 2005 to create their exhibition project with the help of a team of university students listed on page 142 none of this would be possible without the support of visionary funders we sincerely thank the smart family foundation the horace w goldsmith foundation and the richard h driehaus foundation as well as ici exhibition partners gerrit and sydie lansing and ken kuchin and bruce anderson for their generous support of this project we also thank the arts planning council at the university of chicago for encouraging greater involvement by university students through their grant the smart also acknowledges the critical support of the illinois arts council a state agency nuveen investments and tom and janis mccormick and the kanter family foundation for their support of smart museum exhibitions we offer them our deep thanks we also thank susan and michael hort for lending work to the exhibition additional thanks are due to chantal crousel galerie klosterfelde gallery lisson gallery lombard freid projects galerie christian nagel max protetch gallery and andrea rosen gallery for their support of the artists work and their ongoing assistance with beyond green josie browne at max protetch and susanna greeves at andrea rosen deserve additional thanks for their assistance in facilitating loans we also thank those who made special contributions to this catalogue victor margolin offered support and expertise during the book s conception and production his essay allows us to consider the ideas put forth in the exhibition within the context of an expansive framework of social ecological and political involvements with sustainability jason pickleman of jnl design translated the concepts of the exhibition into graphics and catalogue providing a visual identity to the project as it travels from the beginning he understood and embraced the challenges of designing a book that articulated sustainable design in both form and content greg nosan provided excellent editorial guidance many individuals on both our staffs have contributed their professional skills creativity and enthusiasm to planning fundraising catalogue production presentation programming and touring at the smart we offer special thanks to deputy director for collections programs and interpretation jacqueline terrassa who shepherded the project during her term as interim director and worked closely with stephanie smith to develop the programs that accompany the exhibition s chicago presentation project interns sara black rachel furnari and kristin love greer for their skill dedication and grace under pressure deputy director for development and external affairs shaleane gee public relations and marketing director christine carrino manager of education programs amanda ruch and the registration and preparations staff who so ably addressed the special requirements of this exhibition lindsay artwick rudy bernal and david ingenthron at ici we thank director of exhibitions susan hapgood former exhibitions associate amy owen exhibitions assistant ramona piagentini registrar beverly parsons and intern erica hope fisher for their management of this complex exhibition catalogue and tour director of development hedy roma and development assistants hilary fry and katie holden for skillful fundraising efforts and communications coordinator sue scott for her public relations work finally we extend our warmest appreciation to the trustees of the smart museum of art and of independent curators international for their continuing support enthusiasm and commitment to our respective institutions they join us in expressing our appreciation to everyone who recognized the importance of this project and gave generously in so many ways to ensure its success this exhibition is an especially appropriate collaboration for our two institutions as it draws on a shared commitment to presenting significant developments in contemporary art in relation to current cultural trends and issues it continues a series of exhibitions organized by stephanie smith for the smart museum of art that explore critical art practice conceptual and socially engaged work involving multiple constituencies sites of production and strategies for collaboration likewise ici s program of traveling exhibitions of contemporary art takes as one of its priorities a focus on critical issues in artistic and curatorial practice beyond green builds on these histories by introducing us to exciting artistic developments and providing a new way of seeing art within a framework of sustainability even as they speculate in other disciplines the works in beyond green can be best understood as artwork not as design architecture or activism they are for the most part provisional rather than practical polemical and opportunistic rather than reasonable some can be used to effective ends but ultimately they offer us a playful and yet entirely serious meditation on how we can use the resources at hand to sustain responsible living 34 35 anthony hirschel dana feitler director smart museum of art university of chicago judith olch richards executive director independent curators international new york[close]
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12 13 beyond green by stephanie smith sustainable design has the potential to transform our everyday lives through an approach that balances environmental social economic and aesthetic concerns this emerging strategy emphasizes the responsible and equitable use of resources and links environmental and social justice by doing so it moves past a prior generation of more narrowly eco-centered or green approaches although still a fledgling movement this holistic ethical pragmatic and wildly inventive mode has the potential to redirect design toward progressive ends a phenomenon that designer bruce mau succinctly dubbed massive change 1 this shift derives from and speaks to a much more widespread desire to find socially and environmentally responsible in other words sustainable ways of living and working a desire being enacted around the world in large and small ways not only by activists and designers but also by growing numbers of corporations policy makers and possibly even you beyond green explores some of the ways in which contemporary artists also grapple with this impulse to build a more sustainable future whether or not they think this is actually possible this exhibition does not survey all such efforts rather it calls attention to a florescence of recent art making that resonates with the considerations at the heart of sustainable design the project brings together thirteen artists and artists groups based in the united states and europe leaving it to others to explore work coming from other parts of the world sustainability seems likely to become a strong current among artists living and working in rapidly industrializing economies such as china s for instance it is important to note that environmental concerns are part of the mix of these artists practices but just that they have no desire to be labeled as eco or green or even sustainable artists they work in an expanded field blending art activism and design to varying degrees this exhibition focuses on only one strand of this art by presenting objects structures and processes/networks that use aspects of sustainable design to metaphoric practical speculative ironic and playful ends green as the new black about five years ago i began to notice hybrid electric-gas cars on chicago s streets a few years later a new logo cropped up at gas stations around the city the green-andyellow sunburst that introduced british petroleum s new incarnation as self-proclaimed eco-friendly bp purveyor not only of petrochemicals but also of solar power their ad campaign initially touted their capacity to move beyond petroleum around the same time the city government launched a campaign to make chicago the greenest city in america and national magazines like dwell began to feature eco-chic design strategies this trend toward the greening of corporate practice civic policy and consumer desire has continued at a rapid pace new advertising campaigns promoting ecoconscious corporate practices are rampant and on a more personal level we can purchase all kinds of goods for a green lifestyle much more easily than we could just a few years ago even my decidedly gritty local grocery now sells organic milk what to make of all this green its return to relatively mainstream fashion especially after a stretch through the 1980s and 1990s when environmental concerns languished at the fringes of social attention might seem purely positive however if detached from a broader set of pragmatic and ethical considerations green practices might be just another trend a fleeting surface treatment rather than a deep and demonstrable good activists for instance stay alert for greenwashing in which corporations highlight their environmentally friendly practices primarily as a public[close]
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beyond green stephanie smith 14 15 relations device without significantly changing their overall business practices green tactics only address one strand of a complex problem in these globalized times a more holistic approach seems a sensible and necessary response to the deep interconnection among human activities and other natural systems.2 sustainable design offers such an approach it grows out of a broader set of policies and theories about sustainability that have developed over the past three decades to meld two of the definitions that design historian victor margolin provides in his essay in this catalogue sustainability involves meeting the needs of the present without sacrificing the capacity of future generations to meet their own needs and doing so with equal attention to social and environmental justice.3 theorist tony fry prefers to think in less anthropocentric terms he asks is the essential project `sustainable development the reform of the existing methods of development but retaining its fundamental objectives or `the development of sustainment redirecting development toward a very different basis for the creation of economy society and a relation between human beings the artificial worlds they create and the biosphere 4 despite these differences of emphasis both definitions underscore the need for change and the capacity for human action to enact it sustainable design puts such thinking into practice by reimagining the ways we live and the stuff of daily life structures such as offices homes and other buildings objects such as tools books clothes and cars and processes and networks such as transportation and recycling systems in doing so it utilizes many established elements of green design such as the use of recycled materials and renewable energy sources but to reiterate sustainable design posits that a purely green approach which considers environmental questions in isolation from other factors is incomplete and ineffective ethics have to be considered along with a pragmatic attention to the entire life cycle of any designed thing from its production through its useful life to its disassembly and whole or partial reuse 5 although sustainable design practices are gaining toeholds in societies around the world through personal civic and even corporate efforts the complexity of our current situation means that massive change is indeed necessary and only just starting to percolate in the face of many and persistent obstacles a sustainable art one can easily see how this sort of design might affect daily life but how does it resonate with art making and particularly with the art presented in beyond green at any given moment artists have access to a relatively limited set of visual languages and conceptual strategies picking up on or pushing against them these must be considered along with the broader cultural context the widespread desire for a more sustainable future mentioned earlier during the 1960s and early 1970s large numbers of artists began favoring ideas over objects and devising works for sites other than gallery and museum spaces growing out of this shift and in tandem with wider phenomena such as the lingering effects of 1960s countercultural experiments and a growing sense of urgency around environmental problems some artists began to pursue land art environmentally based projects informed by conceptual and site-specific modes of art making earthworks one variety of land art consisted of works sculpted in and in fact from remote or pastoral landscapes and often made no obvious environmental claims.6 other examples from this period were informed by more explicitly pragmatic and didactic purposes focusing for instance on the impact of human development on particular ecosystems.7 since the late 1970s increasing numbers of environmental projects have dealt not only with such out-of-the-way sites but also with towns and urban centers.8 one common trait of these diverse works apart from their engagement with environmental material has been their emphasis on particular places whether or not the artists in beyond green directly refer to these predecessors their work must be considered in relation to and in distinction from them and one key difference concerns this issue of site specificity many of the beyond green artists have worked in such modes which remain a rich part of contemporary practice.9 they also work however with a more nomadic sensibility exemplified by the mobile structures objects and processes/networks featured in this exhibition such works might have a generative connection to a particular spot but they can mutate and adapt over time and in new places additionally many address the contested spaces of contemporary cities and towns and thus might be seen as extending that strand of environmental work that emphasizes populated places rather than remote ones such projects chip away at perceptions that the environment is something out there and that cities are not as deeply connected to other ecosystems as they are to global trade networks they reflect the current reality that as far-flung people and places become more entwined ever-spreading populations and communications networks reduce the number of places that might qualify as out there they also remind us that for all their flaws cities have some innate characteristics for instance the pooling of resources made possible by density that can be amplified into sustainable spaces in addition to site-specific and environmentally focused predecessors and parallels the artists of beyond green should also be considered in relation to two aspects of european and american art during the 1990s that have an even more direct relationship to their work the rise of critical practice and the fertile crossover between art and design critical practice in art can be defined as an ethically based conceptually grounded approach that addresses the social sphere from a position of critique and does so by embracing process as well as product and involving multiple constituencies sites of production and strategies for collaboration as artist and critic dan s wang writes what critical practices share is a fundamental aspiration to present questions and challenges about the way the world is the ways we perceive it and the ways in which we can act in it these questions or challenges might be presented in general terms or with respect to a particular social detail or situation this aspiration can be described as inherently critical because the inescapable implication is that a world with different social arrangements behaviors or both is possible.10 of course there is nothing new about that pull toward relevance the impulse to grapple with the pressing questions of one s time and even to use creative endeavors as a means to enact social change that desire recurs again and again in art but it finds varied manifestations among different generations and situations.11 in the 1990s new modalities of art making channeled the urge for social engagement into particular forms as indicated above collaboration has been an especially important vehicle the last decade has seen the formation of many successful artists groups 34 35[close]
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beyond green stephanie smith 16 17 that address social questions not only by working with people outside usual art communities but also by forming collectives and thereby contesting or sidestepping traditional notions of authorship while also pooling resources equally important has been the spread of conversational and relational ways of working that derive their meaning in part from interactive processes the latter have yet to be adequately addressed by historians and critics but some important attempts have been made art historian grant kester coined the term dialogical art for art that takes form not through objects but rather through platforms or processes meant to foster dialogue;12 and critic nicolas bourriaud devised the influential term relational art to describe works that take on meaning largely through the participatory engagement of the audience.13 such modes of working are part of the wider artistic culture and counterculture of our moment and though used by artists with differing aims they have been particularly strong channels for critical practice which has in turn been an especially fertile and increasingly visible presence within american and european art since the mid-to-late 1990s.14 during roughly the same period design and lifestyle emerged as another major area of investigation for european and american artists who expanded their practices by creating functional works that drew on the visual languages and materials of fashion architecture and interior and product design.15 this blurring of boundaries paralleled the general ascendancy of design as a driver of desire within popular culture think for instance of the popularity of lifestyle magazines that cut across wide demographics from readymade to wallpaper to martha stewart living the success of the scandinavian retailer ikea or target s promotion of itself as a low cost/high style purveyor of design for all critic hal foster among others has unpacked some of the problematics of the infusion of design into so many aspects of contemporary culture as we all become targets of increasingly focused niche marketing strategies aimed to infuse the designed subject with ever-greater consumer needs.16 some of the artists investigating design share his concerns or have looked away from consumerist drives and toward emancipatory ways of using design that draw on the utopian ideals of past moments of art/design overlap the bauhaus the constructivists or more directly on progressive thinkers outside the art world such as buckminster fuller or victor papanek author of the 1972 classic design for the real world the latter strand of practice has been especially important for beyond green in many ways the ascendancy of design and the rise of critical practice in art have been distinct developments many artists exploring design as a site of investigation have no interest in engaging social questions and many others working in a relational manner have little investment in making objects the convergence of these two strands can provide rich opportunities for artists to create satisfying visual forms that provide new ways of embodying critical practices and when this convergence occurs around environmental questions it resonates strongly with sustainable design s goal of bringing social and aesthetic concerns together with environmental and economic ones beyond green and into the museum so what can we gain or lose by bringing these hybrid practices together within the particularly powerful framing space of the museum for museums to remain relevant they must make space for projects that productively explore the tensions between the world out there and the protected precinct of the museum through works that provide rich experiences for visitors in all its hybridity and occasional messiness such work extends the boundaries of contemporary art in important ways museum exhibitions provide a means of introducing this work to wider audiences and with luck of securing a place for it within official records of art history on a more practical level through the commissioning of new projects and other kinds of support to artists museum exhibitions can provide material resources and recognition that may be useful to the artists as they pursue their own independent projects museums can themselves be strengthened by stretching to accomodate such art practices that perforate the boundary between the museum and the rest of the social sphere can make even the famously difficult white cube more responsive to current art and enticing to visitors of all kinds when practitioners from different backgrounds come together to participate in exhibitions and accompanying programs the museum becomes a platform from which to sustain existing networks and to create new ones [figure 1 museums can also learn from art they present in this case that means taking up the challenge to make museums more sustainable spaces.17 there are potential losses as well the art presented in beyond green was for the most part planned with a dual commitment to its discursive and speculative function within the museum and its application in other arenas.18 still some of the projects sit a bit more comfortably within the white cube than others and there is always a risk that the museum setting could overdetermine the ways that visitors respond to these works indeed other works that might fall under the heading sustainable art would not could not be appropriately housed in museums still it is worth presenting works like these in spite of what is lost the benefits not the least being the potential for institutional change outweigh the risks who knows what will come next and whether sustainable design will have a lasting impact on art making museum practice and the social sphere still i find it heartening that space seems to be opening up both within the wider culture and inside the art world for practices that feel hopeful ironic detachment has its benefits and indeed appears within some of the works in this exhibition but earnest engagement has a place and is finding expression within complex experimental forms of contemporary production the trick of course is not only finding ways to enact change in large and small ways but also finding the creativity courage and resources needed to sustain it over time 34 35 fig 1 at a community design workshop held during beyond green s opening weekend in chicago teams of exhibiting artists community members students professors designers architects planners and others created this model which shows playful and practical ways that sustainable design might be used to improve the built environment in an area adjacent to the university of chicago s campus.[close]
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beyond green stephanie smith thanks to my colleagues at the smart museum and ici and to tony fry peter nicholson 18 19 victor margolin and dan s wang for sharing their responses to this text i also thank parkett editor cay sophie rabinowitz for commissioning a piece for the winter 2005 issue of parkett that provided me with an initial opportunity to explore these ideas in print 1 2 see bruce mau massive change london phaidon press 2004 useful recent texts include tony fry a new design philosophy an introduction to defuturing new south wales university press 1999 michael braungart and william mcdonough cradle to cradle remaking the way we make things new york north point press 2002 and the death of environmentalism global warming politics in a post environmental world a 2004 paper by michael shellenberger and ted nordhaus that was commissioned by the nathan cummings foundation and widely distributed over the internet 3 4 5 see victor margolin s essay in this volume p 21 tony fry email correspondence with the author october 23 2005 two popular conduits for ideas about sustainability especially in relation to business are cradle to cradle note 2 and paul hawkins armory lovins and l hunter lovins natural capitalism creating the next industrial revolution boston back bay press 2000 6 apart from the now ubiquitous spiral jetty famous examples include michael heizer s massive sculptural excavation into a nevada desert double negative 1969 or richard long s performative work a line made by walking 1967 in which he flattened a path through a grassy meadow and documented the results with a photograph some projects initiatied in the 1970s remain works-in-progress such as james turrell s roden crater these iconic forms of land art remain the most well-known manifestations of environmental work receiving continued attention in the scholarly and popular press key texts include john beardsely earthworks and beyond new york abbeville press 1984 suzaan boettger earthworks art and the landscape of the sixties berkeley university of california press 2002 jeffrey kastner and brian wallis land and environmental art london phaidon press 1998 and gilles tiberghien land art new york princeton architectural press 1995 7 for the former think of robert smithson s unrealized plans of the early 1970s to remediate mining sites as a sculptural project for the latter joseph beuys s public tree planting the 7000 oaks project first realized in kassel in 1980 or helen and newton harrison s gallery installations exploring watersheds 8 projects by mel chin mark dion platform buster simpson susan leibovitz steinmann and mierle ukeles are just a few of the examples that could be mentioned here the cincinnati arts center s 2002 exhibition ecoventions current art to transform ecologies also explored this topic 9 critics such as miwon kwon and claire doherty have been useful in pushing the understanding of site-specificity see miwon kwon one place after another site-specific art and locational identity boston mit press 2004 and claire doherty ed from studio to situations contemporary art and the question of context london black dog press 2004 10 dan s wang practice in critical times a conversation with gregory sholette stephanie smith temporary services and jacqueline terrassa art journal 62 no 2 summer 2003 6888 1 1 examples as varied as nineteenth-century painter gustave courbet the early-twentiethcentury russian revolutionary constructivists artists affiliated with the popular front between the first two world wars and the 1980s work of hiv/aids activists gran fury are just a few that might be cited here 12 kester uses one of the artists groups in beyond green wochenklausur as a primary example see kester conversation pieces community and communication in modern art berkeley university of california press 2004 13 nicolas bourriaud relational aesthetics paris press de racel 1998 14 this is partly a function of technological changes the web allows autonomous artists and artists groups to form networks and share information more quickly than in the past so that groups like temporary services in chicago can maintain an ongoing dialogue with artists writers and activists in vienna copenhagen paris or portland that same technology helped fuel the international antiglobalization and antiwar movements which have produced ideologies and visual strategies that have often overlapped with critical practice as demonstrated by the interventionists an exhibition curated by nato thompson at massmoca in 2004 shows like thompson s are indicative of our situation within one of those recurring moments at which the broader art world has directed attention to socially engaged and activist practice through a developing critical and art-historical examination as well as through major museum exhibitions 15 some of the influential artists working in this manner include atelier van lieshout jorge pardo tobias rehberger joe scanlan superflex and andrea zittel such crossover has been documented through exhibitions like the generali foundation s designs for the real world 2002 the walker art center s strangely familiar design and everyday life 2003 which focused on design but shares similarities with many of the practices featured in beyond green and several design shows that have featured artists in beyond green including the cooper hewitt national design museum s inside design now national design triennial 2003 and the museum of modern art s safe design takes on risk 2005 16 see hal foster design and crime and other diatribes new york verso 2002 1326 17 i have taken this phrase from a symposium at which i discussed related issues dual commitment recent examples of public art in austria and the united states organized by the artists wolfgang scneider and beatrix zöbl and held in various sites in linz salzburg and vienna july 2005 18 to extend this thought there are many ways to generate more sustainable museums for instance how might we devise more energy-efficient climate control systems or bring sustainable thinking into the often wasteful practices of exhibition design or do more to share resources and strengthen networks with other institutions or with our neighbors some of these changes would require major shifts but others might be implemented more easily 34 35[close]
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victor margolin 20 21 reflections on art and sustainability by victor margolin the term sustainability has taken on varied meanings in the twenty-five years since it first came into use in 1987 the world commission on environment and development headed by former norwegian prime minister gro harlem brundtland defined it as follows sustainable development is development that meets the needs of the present without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs it contains within it two key concepts the concept of `needs in particular the essential needs of the world s poor to which overriding priority should be given and the idea of limitations imposed by the state of technology and social organization on the environment s ability to meet present and future needs.1 this definition appeared in the commission s report our common future which was published fifteen years after the united nations conference on the human environment in stockholm the first in a series of international meetings on environmental concerns fifteen years after the club of rome s seminal study the limits to growth five years before the earth summit in rio de janeiro which resulted in the document agenda 21 the rio declaration on environment and development and fifteen years before the last of the global united nations environmental gatherings earth summit 2002 which was held in johannesburg south africa because sustainability initially arose within the framework of international politics it is a more pragmatic approach to overcoming social injustice and environmental ills than the idealistic ecological theories that include deep ecology which stems from the writings of norwegian philosopher arne naess spiritual ecology which puts a particular emphasis on the capacity to experience oneness with the planet james lovelock s gaia movement and social ecology which emphasizes social organization and collaboration with nature.2 my own definition of sustainability follows in principle the statement in our common future that the strategy for sustainable development aims to promote harmony among human beings and between humanity and nature 3 however i choose to put the brundtland commission s connection between the social and the environmental into a sharper political focus by substituting the term social justice for harmony among human beings and environmental justice for harmony between humanity and nature sustainability and the methods of achieving it are inherently political and thus contestable therefore its definition should emphasize the need for struggle to achieve sustainable goals the culture deficit in the various meetings and declarations on sustainability mentioned above discussions of culture were nonexistent the closest the united nations came to the subject was the 1995 report our creative diversity which sums up the deliberations of unesco s world commission on culture and development the commission took up problems of culture within the broad context of economic and social development and consequently had little to say about specific cultural activities such as literature music or art.4 34 35[close]
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reflections on art and sustainability victor margolin 22 23 i was heartened to find the cultural question addressed in a recent essay by hildegard kurt aesthetics of sustainability which appeared in a volume initiated by the german artist herman prigann.5 kurt argues that questions about the cultural and aesthetic dimensions of sustainability have lagged behind the debates on the topic that originated in the natural and social sciences during the mid 1980s though she does not refer directly to themes of human injustice such as torture disease and poverty with which artists have long been engaged she does criticize the art world s limited view of sustainability in the art world she writes lively dialogue is often hindered by the error of seeing sustainability only as an `environmental subject and not as a genuinely cultural challenge 6 kurt also highlights the lack of cultural considerations in the sustainability discourse anyone trying to find out why sustainability is not attractive as the task of the century she writes will come across the `culture deficit inherent in the conception of the model in fact you will largely look in vain for artists as protagonists of sustainable future development in the rio declaration and agenda 21 and culture as an element in society going beyond the arts and humanist education to include symbolic and aesthetic creative practice by individuals and societies is scarcely mentioned either 7 given that discussions of culture and especially art are missing from the ecology and sustainability discourses of large international organizations and populist ecological movements alike how does one begin to think about art s relation to sustainability such that a new understanding of artistic practice might result sustainable art and its precedents before continuing to speculate on this topic i would like to briefly review some of the art movements and projects that one might consider as sustainable art or precedents for it the projects fall into several categories art that engages with the land or landscape art that incorporates sustainable practices such as recycling and art that responds to social issues through the production of objects or discourse within the first category artists have engaged with the land in different ways not all of which can be seen as environmentally sustainable various terms such as environmental art earth art land art and eco-art have characterized these interventions walter de maria s lightning field 1977 michael heizer s double negative 1969 dennis oppenheim s time pocket 1968 and robert smithson s spiral jetty 1970 figure 1 represent artists intentions to alter the landscape either by making cuts gashes or holes in its surface forming new shapes from large masses of earth stone or other materials or as with de maria s lightning field filling a large field with metal rods lined up in symmetrical rows other artists produce sculpted or constructed forms that they place in the landscape to enter a dialogue with it these include mary miss s sunken pool 1974 and alice aycock s circular building with narrow ledge for walking 1976 the latter a structure that invites participation from the public a third group of artists work with processes found in nature their projects are exemplified by hans haacke s ten turtles set free 1970 and newton harrison s slow growth and death of a lily cell 1968 related projects include alan sonfist s time landscape 19651978ongoing and 8 joseph beuys s 7000 oaks 19821987 figure 3 sonfist obtained the use of a land parcel on laguardia place in new york city where he planted trees and shrubbery that would have grown in the precolonial forests of the area while beuys s project which he initiated in 1982 for documenta 7 in kassel germany involved reforesting the city of kassel one of the largest environmental art works ever executed it was finally completed in 1987 after he died in recent years art in the landscape has taken on a different meaning when it has been used to reclaim sites that were previously abandoned or even subject to some destructive force to create wheatfield a confrontation 1982 agnes denes planted and harvested two acres of wheat on the battery park landfill close to manhattan as a discursive act the project demonstrated how a piece of wasteland could be brought back to life although it ended without transforming the landfill permanently in germany herman prigann who created the terra nova project 19962000 to reclaim damaged or destroyed landscapes turned rheinelbe a former coal mine area near gelsenkirchen that had become a garbage dump into an archeological field replete with traces of former buildings stone sculptures and a major landmark called the skystair recycling is another activity that contributes to a sustainable environment since the 1920s making art out of previously used materials has been one of the significant strands of modernism although until recent years it has not been framed by a discourse of ecology or sustainability while kurt schwitters made hundreds of collages from the printed flotsam and jetsam of weimar germany critics have never considered him to be an ecological artist the same is true for john chamberlain who reclaimed cast-off auto bodies which he crushed and shaped into large metal sculptures on the vernacular side the muffler men made by folk artists in the american southwest or the toy cars trucks and motorcycles created by street artists in tanzania and other african countries are also examples of industrial waste that is turned to productive use.9 mierle ukeles who has served for almost thirty years as 34 35 fig 1 robert smithson spiral jetty april 1970 great salt lake utah black rock salt crystals earth and red water algae 3 x 15 x 1500 feet art © estate of robert smithson licensed by vaga new york ny fig 2 mierle laderman ukeles media flow city from flow city 1983present design for public art/video environment at 59th st marine transfer station new york city department of sanitation[close]
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reflections on art and sustainability victor margolin 24 25 artist-in-residence at the new york sanitation department dealt with the problem of waste a different way in her project flow city 1983present figure 2 she transformed a garbage-recycling unit of the sanitation department into a site where the public could observe how garbage is disposed of in actuality and on a video screen as part of the project she created a walkway bridge and viewing wall that were made of recycled materials art that responds to social injustice is perhaps the largest category that might belong to a culture of sustainability although it is scarcely visible as such since many artists make art based on social concerns without relating their work to sustainability issues within this category for example would be joseph beuys s well-documented and numerous political actions that include the information office he set up as part of his organization for direct democracy 1971 his founding of the free international university for creativity and interdisciplinary research in düsseldorf with the writer heinrich böll 1974 and his involvement in the genesis of the german green party 1979 art and sustainability three issues are central to the discussion of art and sustainability the first regards form if there is an aesthetics of sustainability kurt s term then it should be based on something that art provides as a basis for aesthetic judgment this need not be a physical object or even an immaterial project it might be a gesture or even a mental action what forms then does art take in a culture of sustainability are they vastly different from the forms of art in mainstream visual culture or are they sufficiently analogous to be easily understood in a new context kurt s view of art in a modernist context leads her to characterize it as a form of knowledge this definition enables art to bring aesthetic competence into the cognitive process which makes it different from science and at the same time its equal 10 its not clear what antecedents in modernism s past kurt is referring to when she characterizes art as knowledge but one might imagine conceptual art the situationists and some fluxus activities as examples kurt believes that characterizing art as a form of knowledge can empower it discursively once art is recognized as a cognitive medium integrating aesthetic creative knowledge into the sustainability discourse would have a retrospective effect on that discourse would change it art as a mode means that sustainability is seen felt thought and conceived differently and communicated differently.11 though kurt s emphasis on art as a bearer of cognition brings it into relation with a discourse on sustainability it does not clarify sufficiently what the boundaries of this discourse are nor does it explain the contribution that art might make to it adopting the broad definition of form that kurt and others have provided leads to a second issue art s relation to other practices that are concerned with sustainability after recognizing art as a cognitive medium how do we then distinguish its particular characteristics from those of architecture landscape design graphic design community action and additional activities that engage with problems of sustainability especially when the projects appear to be similar a third issue is related to the second how do we think about art that moves from discourse to action art whose intent is to produce a useful result and what about artists who generate ideas and plans rather than objects or actions are they planners or artists and by what criteria do we evaluate their work in the never-ending debates on the difference between art and design the distinction usually comes down to the primacy of discourse in artistic practice and the fact that artists need not be accountable as designers are to produce something useful but when artists want to achieve social results without identifying themselves as designers how should the critical community respond and why is the artists work given special status in a museum or gallery if its aims are predominantly practical problems of interpretation the widening of artistic possibilities in the last century has had positive results for the future of art and particularly for an art that engages with issues of sustainability besides the production of objects two new elements have been added to artistic practice participation and action but these new possibilities have also created problems of interpretation that must be addressed before we can discuss further art s contribution to a sustainable culture earth artists and environmental artists created projects that drew the spectator in as a participant the experience of environmental art was immediate and more visceral than viewing a picture on a gallery wall environmental art expanded the sites of artistic display beyond the gallery or museum and even the urban spaces of public sculpture in beuys s 7000 oaks for instance people were also invited to participate in planting the trees not only to walk among them beuys s project like a number of others spills over into the realm of action and raises questions about how to determine its aesthetic value reforesting kassel was an ecological gesture to redress the balance of nature in the urban landscape though initiated by an artist it transcended art discourse and became social action so did a series of similar projects by artists in the united states and europe consider harriet feigenbaum s land reclamation work erosion and sedimentation control plan for red ash and coal silt area willow rings 1985 on a site damaged by strip mining the artist planted two concentric circles of willow trees around a pond that was formed from coal-dust run-off the site became a public park that also preserved the memory of the land s prior use similarly bonnie sherk founded the farm in 1974 bringing together an interdisciplinary team to create a sustainable ecosystem and educational park on a piece of unused land near a fig 3 joseph beuys plants the first tree for the 7000 oaks project at documenta 7 1982 kassel germany 34 35[close]
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reflections on art and sustainability victor margolin 26 27 san francisco highway interchange finally mel chin s revival field 199093 at pig s eye landfill in st paul minnesota became a biological experiment in which the artist explored the use of plants to remediate the soil in a landfill that had been contaminated by heavy metals.12 formal qualities are easy to identify in the projects by beuys sherk or feigenbaum where we are looking at configurations of materials whether artificial or natural in patterns but what about chin s research on plants to remediate contaminated soil where is the aesthetic dimension in the ethic of chin s intention in the ingenuity of his concept in the physical arrangement of the plants the challenge here is difficult as it is in other eco-art projects critics generally evade the interpretive problem by considering such projects within existing categories such as environmental art or land art and then loading a set of prior aesthetic conventions onto them and what is the ecological aesthetic of beuys s social sculpture it has been described as a shift from museological concerns about the context of art to anthropological ones creativity to him was a science of freedom all human knowledge comes from art the concept of science has evolved from creativity and so it is that the artist alone is responsible for historical awareness what counts is to experience the creative factor in history history must consequently be seen sculpturally history is sculpture 13 the concept has even been institutionalized in the social sculpture research unit directed by artist shelley sacks at oxford brookes university in england sacks who worked with beuys describes the projects initiated there as instruments that involve `trans-actions between people issues and places they are arenas for negotiation creating shared currency and new forms of dialogue 14 what then is the basis for an aesthetic judgment is there a form to the organization of the workshops that invites aesthetic consideration the central focus of the projects appears to be the creation of an experience for the participants while sacks does not present the projects as artworks they derive from beuys s intention to collapse the proverbial boundaries between art and life critics have worked hard to fit beuys s projects and others like alan sonfist s time landscape or newton and helen harrison s portable farm the flat pastures 19711972 into an art discourse when in fact the projects sometimes have more to do with other practices such as landscape architecture design or even biology part of the problem is that many artists want to participate in social processes or make statements about social situations in ways that transcend the conventional forms of representation that museums and galleries were originally created to house even as their projects avoid the commodity forms on which the art market depends they are sometimes led to produce documentation that nevertheless conforms to the conventions of museum and gallery display as well as to the commodity demands of the art market problems of identity once artists enter the realm of action it is difficult to characterize their projects differently from those of other actors such as landscape designers or even architects in a recent exhibition groundswell at the museum of modern art a group of exemplary landscape designs were presented what differentiates them from the previously described environmental projects is that they dealt primarily with postindustrial urban landscapes.15 the museum s architecture and design department organized the exhibition thus preserving the conventional distinction between the practical and the discursive arts what moma s departmental division fails to acknowledge however is that the discursive has spilled over into the practical and the practical has become more discursive the landscape projects have as much to do with art discourse as artists action projects do with design the prevailing division between art and design practice is one of the biggest obstacles to holistically envisioning a new sustainable culture and remains a challenge not only for museums but also for artists and practitioners let us return for a moment to hildegard kurt s intention to discover an aesthetics of sustainability and her claim that in order for art to function as a cognitive medium it must be seen felt thought and conceived differently although we recognize that culture consists of multiple discursive modes that complement each other s ability to describe explain or even represent experience defining the boundaries of those modes has become increasingly difficult by separating art too rigidly from complementary practices that engage the same issues and situations one runs the risk of maintaining a misleading cultural hierarchy in which art projects are understood to carry a heavier discursive load than more pragmatic designs thinking this way however often minimizes the discursive power in a practical design project artists who call attention to social or environmental problems sometimes garner more notice and public interest than the people who are engaged directly with such problems for a recent exhibition of his work at chicago s museum of contemporary art artist dan peterman was invited to build three shed structures a bicycle repair shop a marketplace/classroom kiosk and a garden shed using standard waste containers two were relocated to a local park during the exhibition and adapted for a variety of cultrual uses however the kiosks received more public attention and occupied more discursive space as art than as design had such kiosks been placed in the park directly they might have merited a mention in the newspaper but not gained the cultural capital they accrued as works of art by presenting his kiosks in an art exhibition peterman performed a service in that he called the need for such structures to public attention and one could well argue that he used the cultural capital of art s discursive power to call attention to a social need nonetheless the hierarchy between art architecture design and planning remains a paradox within the culture of sustainability where the principal criterion of value is to bring into being sustainable projects and environments the social space for the demonstration of such projects is still coded unsustainably according to discursive hierarchies that privilege some practices over others this would be less of a problem if the formal manifestations of each practice were sufficiently distinct but as these formal distinctions break down we need to open up the discourse about projects to create greater continuity between them what gets lost when a cultural hierarchy of practices prevails is the wider knowledge of projects that do not fit easily into an art-world or museum framework i think here of the many productive ideas that resulted from research at nancy jack todd s and john todd s new alchemy institute particularly their living machines that have been successfully used for water treatment and other purposes but also their ecological designs for urban spaces hydroponic factories back lot bioshelters and bus stop aquaculture designs.16 these are equivalent to work that some artists have carried out but they have not been linked to related projects in the art world 34 35[close]
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reflections on art and sustainability victor margolin 28 29 a strategy for a sustainable future beuys was instrumental in creating the current difficulties that surround the problem of ecological aesthetics he was strategically brilliant in trading on his recognition as a gallery artist to gain attention for his action projects such as 7000 oaks and the polemics of his lecture tours ultimately all these activities have been drawn into an art discourse but they don t fit comfortably to deal with new forms of human expression and action critics and curators are continually trying to stuff them into institutional boxes where they don t fit old categories need to collapse before we can begin to create a different dialogue on aesthetics in a sustainable culture we will need a new aesthetic to embrace the three categories of object participation and action without privileging the conventional formal characteristics of objects in this aesthetic the distinctions between art design and architecture will blur as critics discover new relations between the value of form and the value of use hildegard kurt was correct when she criticized the art world for viewing sustainability in terms of environmental subjects instead of as a larger cultural challenge the culture that kurt identified within the wider sustainability discourse remains an issue and needs to be overcome this will lead to new forms of solidarity within the culture of sustainability imagination is an artist s greatest asset it can produce bold visions of what a sustainable future might be like people can be moved and aroused by powerful environments innovative designs and practical demonstrations of active engagement with open minds and a willingness to collaborate those who seek a place in the culture of sustainability must move forward the problem of ecological aesthetics will solve itself 1 world commission on environment and development our common future world commission on environment and development oxford and new york oxford university press 1987 43 34 35 2 for a discussion of the major ecological theories ideologies and movements see caroline merchant radical ecology the search for a livable world new york and london routledge 1992 3 4 5 our common future 65 our creative diversity report of the world commission on culture and development paris unesco 1995 hildegard kurt aesthetics of sustainability in aesthetics of ecology art in environmental design theory and practice ed heike strelow in cooperation with vera david initiated by herman prigann basel berlin and boston birkhäuser 2004 6 7 8 ibid 239 ibid 238 i have taken the breakdown of project types from mark rosenthal s essay some attitudes of earth art from conception to adoration in art in the land a critical anthology of environmental art ed alan sonfist new york dutton 1983 6072 9 see timothy corrigan correll and patrick arthur polk muffler men muñecos and other welded workers occupational sculpture from automotive debris and streetwise the mafundi of dar es salaam in the cast-off recast recycling and the creative transformation of mass-produced objects los angeles ucla fowler museum of cultural history 1999 3180 81110 10 aesthetics of sustainability 240 11 ibid environmental art ed jeffrey kastner survey by brian wallis london and new york phaidon press 1998 13 heiner stachelhaus joseph beuys trans david britt new york london and paris abbeville press 1991 64 14 shelley sacks performing an aesthetics of interconnectedness in the ongoing online exhibition enterchange performance and nature curated by wallace heim for green museum 2004 http www.greenmuseum.org c/enterchange/artists/sacks 15 see the review by nicholai ourousoff confronting blight with hope new york times feb 24 2005 16 an excellent introduction to the todds work is nancy jack todd and john todd from eco-cities to living machines principles of ecological design berkeley north atlantic books 1994 12 the projects by beuys feigenbaum sherk and chin are documented in landscape and[close]
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