Michael Singer: A Closer Look at an Eco Artist

The artist as visionary contributes to ecological sustainability through interventions and engaging with public and private sectors. This can be as part of a design team, bringing in an aesthetic and creative vision, such as Reiko Goto and Timothy Collins in Nine Mile Run in which they reclaim a section of the Pennsylvania River through research, participatory workshops and legal action, or in organizing an event that brings together inspiring speakers and artists with the general public, such as Dalziel and Scullian’s More Than Us in Inverness 2007, or by using metaphor and creative conceptualization to solve real problems such as The Harrisons in their recent project Greenhouse Britain. As an artist working in the field of ecological design I have come across the artist Michael Singer and been inspired by his way of bringing art and his unique creative vision to large industrial projects.

Michael Singer lives in Southern Vermont on a large piece of land with many studios blended into the landscape. I personally have met him and talked with him about his art. His work embraces not only sculpture but also photography, painting, monoprinting and publishing. Many of his sculptures are twenty to thirty feet long and made from granite, wood and metals. Much of Singer’s time is spent as a municipal artist. Many projects in the built environment set aside one or two percent of their budget for art. Singer has persuaded project directors to see the artist as central to the design process. You can see his six hundred foot retaining wall on the riverbanks in Grand Rapids, Michigan built between 1988 and 1995 as a piece of engineering or a massive sculpture.

Michael Singer played a central role in the design of a solid waste transfer station and recycling facility in Phoenix, Arizona, which was built between 1989 and 1993. He claims that instead of an artist hanging a painting in a building, they can also be using the same skills they use in the studio to help with the design process and overall appearance of the building. They should be asking questions and bringing their unique perspective to help problem solve. A big question he asked when working on the recycling plant was “how can we make this a place that the public can understand?” He is interested in changing people’s attitude towards waste. Thus, “transforming infrastructure into something that works with the community.” By making this project one of beauty with many courtyards and places for people to sit, as well as an educational area and an amphitheater where they can view the sorting of garbage, he turned a solid waste management project into a public park where people go on a Sunday. In Earthworks and Beyond: Contemporary Art in the Landscape John Beardsley wrote about this project, “The whole effect is at once archaic and futuristic, suggesting an ancient temple consecrated to a postindustrial phenomenon – the culture of excess and obsolescence.” In 1993 the New York Times chose the design as one of the eight most important architectural events of the year.

In a sense, Michael Singer’s ideas are also redefining the role of the artist. Instead of an artist being an added extra, who applies a decorative finish to a project, he is a primary figure in every aspect of the project. Michael Singer adopts a holistic approach to a project thus integrating aesthetic site design, architecture, public access, utility, and natural elements.

Many of the projects, on which Michael Singer works, embrace the new field of Industrial Ecology. The design of industrial processes is modeled on the systemic design of natural systems. The goal of industrial ecology is to design engineered processes or a building on the same principles and as adaptations and interpretations of natural systems. These processes are seen as part of the greater bioregional ecosystem with balanced flows between nature and industry, as opposed to industry treating ecology as a source of expendable materials and a sink for wastes. The result is often great beauty. Dr. John Todd, who is a biologist, collaborates with Singer on some projects that involve Industrial Ecology. He designed a system for treating wastewater using no chemicals but natural ecosystems of plants, bacteria and fish. These accelerate nature’s ability to cleanse herself, thus creating clean water. John Todd won the Chrysler Award for Innovation in Design for his pioneering work in ecological and industrial design 1994.

Singer has worked on the design for two power stations in New York. One is in Astoria, Queens and the other in Green Point. He has also completed design elements for the AES Power Station in Londonderry, New Hampshire. The waste heat generated by the New York plants will be used in greenhouses to heat water for aquaculture and create the perfect climate for horticulture. The greenhouses will be aesthetically beautiful, employ local people and create revenues through the sale of fish and produce. They will also be open to the public.

Singer has had a long career as an artist with a strong relationship to the natural world. In the 1970’s his art was much smaller scale and based on a specific natural area such as a local pond in Vermont. This work was more in the genre of Andy Goldsworthy. He described these pieces as meditations. Singer’s interest in rituals and site specific projects still enters his work today. Often his gardens have winding pathways or small enclosures that draw the public into the sculpture. In 1993, he was commissioned to design a garden in Stuttgart, Germany for an international garden exposition. The site had been bombed in World War Two so Singer created a memorial to war and the survivors. He called it, Ritual Series/Retellings: A Place to Remember Those Who Survived

“The gardens function as the lungs and kidneys of the building, cleaning air and gray water as well as providing comfortable climate control without air-conditioning. Water is first diverted to an outdoor constructed wetland and pond. From that point it is piped into the first atrium garden pool next to the buildings library. This pool contains fish and plantings that absorb toxins...The water drips into a deep cistern for storage and recycling in the buildings irrigation system.”

The potency of Michael Singer’s art lies in its ability to appeal to all one’s senses. One can walk through his sculptures following their twists and entering the enclosures of creeping vines, granite and wood. One smells the plants and flowers and hears the sound of water running over patterned concrete slabs. At the same it appeals to the mind with its environmental consciousness and desire to merge functionality and beauty, while making the most unexpected places, such as waste transfer stations, artful.