After Nature

In a recent visit to New York City I had the privilege of getting to see a relevant and disturbing exhibition at the New Museum called “After Nature”. Over ninety contemporary artists envision an extinct world or one on the verge of extinction. The show was inspired by "Lessons of Darkness", a video by Werner Herzog of the 700 Kuwaiti oil wells that the Iraqis burned in the wake of the Gulf War. Six million barrels of oil were burned a day and the footage of the smoke, fires, fireman, trucks and wasted landscape looks like the end of the world.

Faced with the overwhelming fact that the Earth’s Ecosystem is out of balance due to human population and the dramatic abuse of fossil fuels, we are forced to imagine scenarios of global catastrophe. We are already experiencing more severe storms, floods, draughts, and hurricanes than ever before. Many scientists predict that runaway global warming is inevitable and as humans warm the planet, the ice caps melt and sea levels rise creating as many as 600 million refuges from rising seas (The International Institute for Environment and Development). As glaciers melt less water is stored as snow creating flooding and lower water tables. Water shortages along with population growth spell disaster. We have been living in a time of unnatural abundance by burning ancient sunlight that has been stored for millions of years. The exhibition “After Nature” is a timely look at our potential lack of future if dramatic change does not take place soon.

Imagine an ethnographic museum full of the remnants of human civilization. Here artist Pawet Althamer created a self-portrait made up of all his clothes and belongings wrapped in plastic. Next to this is “Pawet and Monika” two people frozen in a glass box with cameras and cell phones, yet their insides are made of straw. This is a poignant reminder that we may feel detached from nature yet we are in fact one and the same. Berlinde De Bruyckere has made a wax body that is melted and scared, lying in a glass coffin. Next to this can be viewed “The Magnificent Seven” distorted ceramic heads on metal poles by Thomas Schutte, a sculpture that made me think of warfare, both primal and chemical.

Another artist imagined a world in which nature outlived humanity, shown by photographs of Kudzu vine devouring buildings in the US South. These were both sad and strangely beautiful, showing the Earth’s ability to heal and erase signs of human life. It made me think of ancient ruins from past civilizations such as the Incans and Mayans that were discovered hidden in the jungles of Central and South America. Diego Perrone also used photography to take pictures of large holes in the Earth with humans interacting with the spaces. He says about his work “ I wish to speak for nature”.

George Bush has tried to fill our minds with religious views of good and evil and the idea that the “axis of evil” exists in the Middle Eastern states. Inspired by this image of paranoia Roberto Cuoghi has sought to create a psychogeography of this evil empire through black glass, lead and ink maps of imaginary “dark” landscapes. In perhaps one of the most distressing of the show’s art pieces Maurizio Cattelan’s equestrian sculpture shows a taxidermied horse hanging with its’ head missing into the wall. The feeling is one of fear and madness.
Although this show “After Nature” is frightening and heavy I left the New Museum encouraged. Finally artists are involved in creating art about ecological issues. Ecological art is not a tiny movement on the edges of the art world, but entering into large museums and influencing the public to wake up and realize the extent of the change that needs to happen if we are to avoid global catastrophe.