- Four Ecological Art Pro jects Michael Chew

Introduction and General Outline The growing awareness of the environmental crisis on both physical and spiritual levels over last forty or so years has gone alongside development in art which have highlighted various aspects of this crisis. From the land art of the 1960s, environmental art has progressed to becoming more aware of the in this vein I hope that these projects can further peoples understanding of, appreciation for, and protection of the natural environment, as well as beginning to see themselves as a part of this very environment. The four ecological art projects that follow encompass differing themes. Indicator Tree raises awareness of the oft-ignored world on the ground, particularly with respect to litter. Trashanimals also focuses on litter, acting at the key site of disposal. Natural Beauty explores, critiques and offers differing representations of natural beauty. Free Daily Screenings questions the creative work of human artists or performances as the only legitimate form of creativity, and ties together the projects as a whole. As presented in final installations all will have concise and informative descriptions of these purposes and how the work fits into a broader framework of sustainability.

Project One: Indicator Tree

Concepts to be communicated Indicator species - a single species whose population health gives some indication of the overal health of the ecosystem that contains it. They are usually selected on the basis of their sensitivity to conditions and their overall visability for counting purposes. Waste in this context visible ground litter Occular verticality the long standing tradition where perceptions of art, beauty and their observation are standardised on a vertical level; that is to be comprehended as such by an upright, vertical viewer, in ignorance of the horizontal scale, and what rejected debris it often entails.1 Outline The idea for the Indicator Tree is for the installation to be the repository of material and debris found by viewers around the site. The tree itself has hooks for attaching such material. A sign is attached to the trunk of the tree that clearly states the instructions that any debris, with priority rubbish, be collected with the surrounding ground (approximately the same size as a root system for the tree species common in the area) and be placed on the tree. Through this engagement the instrallation is actively connected to the surrounding area of ground, mapping it up to the tree, up into the traditionally visible and beautiful register. Rubbish on the ground will also appear in the tree, and thereby be rendered more visible. Every full moon the attachments are removed from the tree (and placed in landfill) the basis is on a natural cycle, rather than an arbitrary viewing period (such as a four week exhibition). Materials PVC piping, hooks/attachments, paint, weighted base, laminated sheet-sign Budget
1

See Bois 1999:89-124 for further analytical expositions and reflections on the aspect of horizontality within art.

Requirements and issues Willingness of public to participate this is a vital factor in the work, and if it is not satisfied, would surely make the work fail to communicate its ideas. Therefore it is vital to select the site with public participation in mind, and encourage it whereever possible (perhaps on the sign?) Public liability insurance and safety this will be a prerequisite for all the public art installations, but it is particularly relevant to this, as the public will be interacting with the art and though the risk of injury is still very small, for a liability assement viewpoint special measures would need to be put in place - such as a special attention to the safety of the attachment design, no attachments at small childrens height, and perhaps also warning incorperated into the sign. Council workers to remove attachments if the art work is successful, and people do participate, then as a cycle of the art work the material that will have accumulated in the branches will need to be removed. This would best be done by either council workers or Parks Victoria employees, depending on the actual location of the site and who oversea it. Thus by accepting the installation, the relevant custodians enter into an ongoing relationship with it.2 Extensions to project Context if successful, the trees could be installed in different environons, such as in more artificial environments such as the CBD. There could also be potential in installing them in schools, in which some already have systems where students collect rubbish, and the work could be fitted into an existing regime. Design the design and construction of the actual trees may be done by a local school and trialled there if there is enough interest shown.

This idea came from Felix Gonselaez Torres mounds of lollies installations where the viewing public would be free to take from the pile, and the gallery kept them at an approximately fixed size by replenishing them. Fundamentally am interested in this process orientated part, where not only the work is site-specific, but it participates in the local ecolgical flows.

Project Two: Trashanimals

Concepts to be communicated Waste the actual generation of waste itself (as opposed to where it is distributed) Interconnectedness- that the well being of a certain species will be affected by degregation of (seemingly) separate areas/environons, in this case through continuing expansion of landfill. The effect of personal actions that each time an individual disposes of waste, no matter how small, they are participating in a waste cycle with potentially harmful consequences. Outline A rubbish bin cover in the shape of an animals head, with open mouth, is to be fitted over the tops of existing rubbish bins. Therefore every time a person goes to throw out an item, it is clearly communicated that this item does not magically disappear but instead affects the health of nature, in this case certain familiar animals. A sign on the bin will give relevant facts about wastage, tailored particularly towards personal waste. There will be easy recommended measures that an individual could take to reduce their waste output. Materials Fibre-glass, hinge, spring, paint, signage Budget Requirements and issues That council workers emptying the bins are educated/briefed about the project this project, like the previous one, requires the ongoing support (althought less so) from the local council. Public liability insurance and safety care must be taken in designing the lids so that there is no possibility of injury whilst depositing garbage, particularly so because of the potentially infectious environment of the bin. They will be simply made as to be easy to

clean. They will also be made in a very robust fashion, to withstand the elements and repeated usuage. The message being too strong- there could be a possibility that the idea of placing rubbish in a cute animals mouth be too repugnant to many users and may actually dissuage people from using the bins. An argument could be that bin users should be rewarded for their responisiblity (rather than dumping it on the ground), not made to feel guilty for their actions. However, I maintain that the work is attempting to instill a shift in thinking between a polite anthropocentric environmentalism, and a more genuine ecocentric thinking. Such transisitions are seldom comfortable. Extensions to project Interactivity - a potentially more effective (through being more interactive) cover could also be made featuring a hinged mouth that had to be pulled open to gain access to the bin. Design - the design for the bin covers may be sourced from local school as part of a a design competition. Context the covers may be exported to bins in different locations, particularly schools and universities, where there may be more opportunity for attitude-behaviour change.

Project Three: Natural Beauty

Issues/Concepts to be communicated The illusions of wilderness - the representation of natural beauty as pristine wilderness, untouched by humankind, and the ommisions that this viewpoint has. Decay - that the process of decay is ecologically important and can be aesthetically beautiful. Outline Fine print photographs of traditional wilderness scenes are mounted in one side of a display box, under glass. On the opposite side of the display is the identical photograph except for the fact it is printed from negatives that have been buried in the ground for a month, letting them degrade; interacting with the acidity of the soil, micro-organisms, invertebrates and so forth. This side has no covering, continually exposing it to the elements for further degregation. The purpose of the piece is to show how idealised, static and ultimately lifeless our romantic conceptions of nature are, conceptions that we surround ourselves by in our urban enclaves and which safely reassure us about the continuing presence of the natural environment as it is being destroyed and degraded at even increasing rates. The flipside of this critique is the offer of an alternative view of natural beauty that of the living processes of decay. In these essential processes entropic forces break down form and laugh at ideals of stasis inviting an aesthetic of a decay process, where beauty is created that is not confined to a flat static image, but rather participates in its own transformation. There is a political expediency in validating such processes aesthetically; without such appreciation for such an important part of our ecosystems (which has historically been relegated to base matter within the dominate Western philosophical tradition), it is much harder to progress beyond a clean, anthropocentric beauty and its corresponding environmental thought, which leaves the underlying philosophical causes of humanitys descration of the earth largely outside of its critique. Materials display box (or wood for making one, glass), stand, two photographs, signage.

Budget Requirements and issues Aesthetic reception because of the way we have been socialised to see images, as complete objects in themselves, it may be that an initial viewers reaction is to think of the degraded image as being a mistake, a problem, simply dirty. The beauty of the first image may need to be overstylised to get the message across. Extensions to project Lifecycle of work - the photographs may be rotated or changed after a fixed period (perhaps the same lunar cycle, or a certain time that it takes an artificial object for instance an aluminium can to degrade) to keep the work interesting. The pairs of photographs could later become part of an exhibition. Design because this project is based more on representation, and is necessarily more abstract, it may not be as popular or useful to participate with schools. This being said, there is perhaps some avenue for upper high school art classes to get involved through the taking of the photographs and the subsequent burying and printing of the negatives.

Project Four: Free Daily Screenings

Issues/Concepts to be communicated Critique of the entertainment experience this experience, coming to rise with Hollywood and the culture industry, relies on specific notions of the modern lifestyle which have disturbing implications specifically orientated around dualisms such as work and leisure and culture and nature. Outline This project takes the form of various standard means of event publicity to advertise a very common event, often treated as mundane the sunset. Numbered admission tickets will be issued, together with posters made, and street chalking done. The project questions the hegemony of a paying, special human-organised cultural event as a key part of our leisure time. In capitalist society, work time equates to an individuals labour being traded for money as exchange value, and leisure time relies our consumption our spending of this exchange value on things that will improve our quality of life, and presumeably validate our existence. The act of providing tickets to a (free!) natural phenomonem seems absurd since it does not fits into the latter paradigm, and this rupture invites participants to question the latter. It also provides an opposite<?> process to the growing tendancy for natural resources to be privitised and made user-pays for instance you can buy flavoured or non-flavoured air in the larged Japense urban centres. Entertainment is centred around notions of creativity, which have traditionally been seen as exclusively the human domain3 - by having nature as the centrestage, it displaces creativity from beauty, to performance. A second idea behind this project was to have the sunset performance as being taking the place of the standard wine, chats and nibbles opening of an art show (not that this will preclude the latter key elements). The tickets would be handed out on sucessive days prior to the opening, encouraging sunser viewing daily, with the actual date of the opening (at sunset time of course) marked in. The tickets would be distributed close by
3

Even as the romantic conception of the artist relied about nature, particularly through the sublime, as a form of nature muse, it was the ultimately the human soul which funneled and perculated inspiration to unleash creativity into the world.

the place of sunset viewing, which will in turn be inside the area where the other projects will be installed. Materials card (150-200gsm) tickets and paper posters, designed on computer and digitally printed. Budget Requirements and issues Aesthetic reception because of the way we have been socialised to see performances, as eluded to above, it may be that an initial viewers reaction is to think to think of the ticker as a joke. An explanation detailing some of the ideas may need to be included on the back of the ticket to provoke questioning. Extensions to project Context the tickets and posters may be handed out anywhere, but are particularly suited to areas where a good vantage point of the sunset can easily be reached. Content the same idea of using tickets/posters may be applied to other regular natural phenomenon full moon (midnight screening?), dawn, high and low tides.

Potential Funding Sources for projects VCA Student Project Fund, Melbourne City Council, Moreland Council, Ian Potter Cultural Trust, Young Australians Opportunity Grant, VCA Student Union, University of Melbourne Student Union. Bibiolography Bois, Y, Krauss, R., Formless:A Users Guide, Zone Books, 1997.