February
1999
A
Change of Art
Environmental Art and Activism By
Bill Meyer
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When one thinks of art, images of galleries and
museums, private patrons and rich collectors come to mind. Indeed, these
days it often seems that art—and art criticism—is only interested
in the self and its struggles rather than the pressing issues of environmental
pollution and broader issues of social injustice. Environmentalist and
artist Bill Meyer highlights those who are working in environmental
art and how his own art is a form of activism.
Born from the activism of the 1960s, the late 1970s and early 1980s was
a time of great artistic activity in New York City, particularly on the
Lower East Side of Manhattan. There, artists were carving out spaces in
which to live and work by reclaiming abandoned city-owned buildings. A
vibrant community formed with significant influences from Europe—including
Joseph Beuys, a two-time parliamentary candidate for Germany’s Green
Party, and Christof Kohlhofer, another Berlin artist whose work focused
on social issues. Spurred by activity and as a means to express communities’
ideals, the collective known as Colab formed. A significant exhibition
organized by Colab, entitled “The Real Estate Show” was conceived
as a direct action against the city’s Department of Housing, Preservation
and Development, whose policies advocated the eviction of artists from
these city-owned dwellings.
The event took place in an abandoned storefront on Delancey Street, which
was taken over by the group on New Year’s Day 1980. Joseph Beuys’
presence at the event among other things helped to attract significant
coverage in the press. Intervention by the New York City Police Department
on the day of the exhibition caused a cascade of bad publicity for the
city in the mainstream media. As a result, the city was forced to give
an abandoned city-owned building to the collective. This building became
known as ABC No Rio, and today, nearly 20 years later, it is still being
operated as a center for art and activism.
From Smithson to Chin
Environmental art of the last 30 years has evolved from
large earth-moving practices to more intuitive interpretation. Work such
as Robert Smithson’s “Spiral Jetty” (1970) and Walter De
Maria’s “Lightning Field” (1977) involved vast amounts
of alteration of the natural world. Here, nature was being used as a medium
for expression rather than being accepted on its own terms. The Southern
Californian team of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison first began
to work on environmental issues in the 1970s and their work has been much
less intrusive. They have explored different ecological systems in league
with scientists, politicians and sociologists. One of their major works,
“Sacramento Meditations” (1977) explored the irrigation of the
Sacramento–San Joaquin watershed in Northern California. For this
project, they used different media—billboards, graffiti, radio and
television performances, and murals—to draw attention to the interruption
and destruction of the natural systems. The Harrisons redefined what it
means to be an artist. They involved experts and ordinary people, governments
and institutions in a mesh of environmental, public policy, social, and
aesthetic concerns that linked the process of making art to creating a
healthier environment. Artist, writer, and educator Lucy Lippard is concerned
that we have lost our connection to the Earth by becoming members of a
transient society no longer in touch with where we live, thus having no
reason to care about what we do to foul our place. One of her works uses
massive stones to draw attention to the mysterious prehistoric stone mounds
found throughout New England. This work highlights humans’ previous
presence in the landscape and will itself become a record of place over
time.
In the 1990s, art has begun looking at ecosystems and the way society
interacts with the Earth. Mel Chin is a Chinese-American artist whose
work explores the environment, human rights and our relationship to the
planet. His project, “Reclamation Field” (1989-ongoing), highlights
the process in which toxic heavy metals are removed from the Pig’s
Eye Landfill in St. Paul, Minnesota. He defines this work as a reductive
process similar to that used in painting and sculpture, with the intended
resultant aesthetic being a revitalized Earth and the return of green
growth to a place where there would otherwise have been none. The National
Endowment for the Arts gave Chin a $10,000 grant for “Reclamation
Field” and then rescinded it on the grounds that his project “was
not art.” This decision was eventually reversed, but it demonstrates
the conservative view that threatens activist-art.
The Art of Environmentalism These
days, more and more artists are looking at the Earth and its degradation
and bringing material into the galleries. One of these artists is Judy
Phaff, who has put tree sections in galleries and juxtaposed them with
industrial materials that may have brought about the downfall of the trees
themselves or have replaced them in the wild. Not only is the artist drawing
attention to the beauty of the trees and what they represent, but she
also seems to be highlighting a need to recognize the value of nature
and at the same time societies’ role in the destruction or sanitization
of the natural environment.
As an environmentalist and activist, I am concerned with the interaction
of human society and the natural world. I draw upon the struggle of nature
to continue to exist in the face of the onslaught of mining, pollution,
over-development and other Earth-destructive practices. The human race
is betraying the environment and I seek to represent that battle. And
it is a battle. Shortsighted human activity is radically altering the
planet’s ecology and its life-support systems, and we are seeing
the ever more powerful backlash of nature’s fury. The strength of
the world’s ecosystems is unmatched by anything we know. But collectively
we can sense that if we do not learn to live in harmony with nature, it
will ultimately win the battle.
In my art, I contrast natural, found material—stones, trees, earth—with
post-industrial material. I bring the natural and the artificial together
in a synthesis, creating three-dimensional images of living matter supported
by chemicals and genetics, no longer existing in a natural form but in
some horrific, unnatural, mutated form. Here there is an illusion of life,
but life that is supported by artificial means.
Along with Lippard and Chin, I am concerned with how human activity is
adversely affecting the planet. The representation and definition of how
a particular action is creating a particular reaction on the planet and
putting that together in an accessible public exhibition is, I believe,
a strong form of activism. The knowledge that we gather from seeing these
objects is not based on the intellectual study of art or an in-depth knowledge
of the workings of the contemporary art world. All people really need
to view and understand one of my works is an intuitive knowledge of the
natural world and how society affects their lives. Using real, everyday
objects for me provides a powerful illustration of the battle between
human beings and nature—illustrating how in some cases life is losing
out to Man’s artificial creation and how, in other cases, nature
is fighting back, destroying the artificial that had been degrading its
life force.
Bill Meyer is on the board of directors of Amanaka’a Amazon
Network and Worldview. He lives in New York City.
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