Remnant

Creative environmental remediation

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This post comes to you from EcoArtScotland

ecoartscotland received the following email from Ilka Nelson in Australia,

I am now writing to … ask if you know of a project I could work on as part of my Masters research programme? I have attached a pdf which has the project requirements and a snapshot of my background/area of interest. I’m prepared to travel to the right place, am self funded and am very very interested to engage with a creative remediation project but would love to hear of any idea this email ignites

Loosely, my Masters study launches from the premise that a state of ecocide is already upon us and that our global environmental crisis is underpinned by cultural roots which can be understood in part, as a crisis of vision. The aim of the research is to apply ecological thinking to these crises to identify what tools facilitate culture-nature connection and where these tools activate new narratives/imaginings/visions for an ecologically responsive paradigm.

The Last Tree website (www.thelasttree.net) is a good reference for my work. If you have questions please email or call +61266803263 (I’m in Sydney timezone). From this Friday (1st July) I’ll be outback for the next 2 weeks without phone/email so please be patient for my reply. I aim to make all arrangements for this project late July as I’d like the placement to commence mid-late August.

The Masters forms part of the Remnant/Emergency Art Lab.

This is being posted in the hope that someone within the network will be interested in working with Ilka Nelson.  Please contact directly.

ecoartscotland is a resource focused on art and ecology for artists, curators, critics, commissioners as well as scientists and policy makers. It includes ecoartscotland papers, a mix of discussions of works by artists and critical theoretical texts, and serves as a curatorial platform.

It has been established by Chris Fremantle, producer and research associate with On The Edge Research, Gray’s School of Art, The Robert Gordon University. Fremantle is a member of a number of international networks of artists, curators and others focused on art and ecology.
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10 ways of looking at Radical Nature

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The critics pass judgement on  Radical Nature, at the Barbican and elsewhere:

PERCEPTIVELY Hari Kunzru The Guardian: Nature is in crisis… It’s not even really beautiful any more. It’s a problem, a remnant, something that needs to be conserved and argued for. The chances of being romantically overwhelmed are slim.

PROVOCATIVELY Regine Debatty We make money not art. As long as these artworks do not step out of museums and galleries most people hardly ever visit … , I fear that the impact of their work might be somewhat limited.

NEGATIVELY Edwin Heathcote, Financial Times: The show just doesn’t hang together. “Museums,” said Smithson, “are tombs, and it looks like everything is turning into a museum.” Forty years on, we’re still in the museum.

POSITIVELY Madeleine Bunting in The Guardian: On every side, artists are putting their shoulder to the wheel, trying to prompt the revolution in values and attitudes required to deal with environmental crisis.

ARTISTS SHOULD STICK TO ART-ISHLY Rachel Campell-Johnston, The Times. It’s all very worthy and often delightful… But do artists contribute anything practical?

THOUGHTFULLY Skye Sherwin in The Guardian: Francesco Manacorda, identifies… a dangerous dualism concerning how we think about nature and culture:.. but while many artists here lament the rift or attempt to close the gap, only a few explore its potential…

DEFEATEDLY Christopher Werth: Newsweek: That somewhat defeated tone pervades much of the newer work, which reveals little of the excitement[… ] found in the campaigns of Beuys and Ukeles. Perhaps that’s only natural after 40 years of environmental art, when for most of that time, so few have paid attention to the message.

ENTHUSIASTICALLY Throughstones blog: The Radical Nature project is an extremely important landmark exhibition, and groundbreaking in the degree to which it reaches out to the public and integrates with real life as it is lived. It will for sure have a far-reaching influence for many years to come.

OBTUSELY Rowan Moore The Evening Standard: Saving the planet is more to do with the Chinese changing the way they build power stations, or Americans changing the way they make cars, than anything an artist can do.

LOOK AT US, WE’RE CYNICAL AND ENVIRONMENTALISTS-ARE-ALL -FASCISTS ANYWAY-ISHLY Anorak.co.uk on the Tree Radical parade through central London: One man has painted his face and others are raising their arms in the air, in the manner of Moseley’s mob. The driver tells us that these are the Green Shirts not the fascist Black Shirts. Old Mr A says “same difference”.

Some are thoughtful, some are downright enthusiastic; some seem distinctly rattled, too.

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