Tuesday, July 8, 2008

artists go green, con-ed to follow



Here's some interesting work that came to the attention of Warrior Ant Press that deal with global climate disruption (it's more than just change).Eve Mosher's work, HighWaterLine, a Brooklyn-based artist who walked around Long Island with a chalk line machine (just like the ones used to lay down the foul lines at a baseball game) marking the water line from increased flooding that would result from large-scale sea-level changes and climate disruption. At one point, Ms. Mosher, was ordered to stop, because she was scaring the locals, driving down property values, and raising insurance rates for areas that would be expected to be frequently inundated. We'd rather keep our head in the sand, errr, peat bog.

Another favorite is the Lemon Everlasting Backyard Battery by Susan Cockrell and Ted Purves, who harvested excess lemons from backyard trees and made preserves and marmalade in the community of San Jose, California. When life gives you lemon, make lemonade; when art gives you lemons, build a community.

On to the Netherlands, a country that could benefit from a slowing down of carbon emissions, with this question, "Could art change the climate?" With this question seventeen international artists were sent into the Waterloopbos, an almost exotic forest in the Netherlands and asked to build artworks that addressed Global Climate Change. The environmental setting is in the ruins of a former, open air laboratory where hydraulic engineers worked for several decades to find solutions for hydrodynamic problems all over the world. The Laboratory has now been taken over by the forest (Waterloopbos), and is managed by the Nature Monument Association. Amongst overgrown sluices, harbours and river courses, the artists worked on location on a new view on the typically Dutch battle against the water.

One positive effect of global climate disruption is that the Blue Man Group is expected to be inundated forever.






Elsewhere:
pedro marzorati
kunstbroedplaats
Or in a special issue of NYFA Current, sponsored (and we aren't making this up) by Con Edison—New York City. new york foundation for the arts

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Hi! Thanks for writing about the HighWaterLine project and posting the image! I should clarify that I was never ordered to stop doing the project. I successfully marked the entire Brooklyn and lower Manhattan coastline (including right up to the fence of the World Trade Center site). There were some concerns when the Office of Sustainability was approached, but we never actually worked together and they never had any influence on the project. I also didn't scare any of the locals, everyone (except the two skeptics) was really interested in the project and grateful for the information that I was distributing. I did think I would get more negative reactions but most people were really engaged.
I also really like the Lemon Everlasting project. Thanks again for the inclusion!!

Warrior Ant Press Worldwide Anthill Headquarters in Kansas City, Missouri, USA. said...

thanks for the clarification. i stand corrected. don't know where i heard about the problems, but apparently they were unfounded. sometimes my trusted sources, aren't so trusted (probably some blog or something!) but if you completed a project this large and only had 2 skeptics, well...what a success