c h l o r o p h y l l a *

Artist & Sculptor:

Bartek Elsner

Riitta Päiväläinen

Vestige - Series

I decided to take a train to see the El Anatsui show at the Brooklyn Museum today and holy shit was I glad I did. For those who don’t know El Anatsui, I highly suggest you look him up, but in short - those sculptures/installations are made out of the 1” x 3” pieces of aluminum from liquor caps.

Look at the pictures and let that sink in.

SEAT ll Installation by E/B Office 

Photos: 2011 Cheng Long Wetlands International Art Project.

In the small villages around the Cheng Long Wetlands in Taiwan’s poorest county, people make what living they can from fish farms and agriculture, though most young people these days leave to seek employment elsewhere. In this remote and little-known place, however, something is growing: Engagement with environmental issues is on the rise thanks in part to a community-based program that seeks to draw attention to the importance of the wetlands by turning them into a “gallery” for ecofriendly art.

     Art is not limited to posh designers and studios. This is especially true on the subject of ecological art. Deep in the Cheng Long wetlands in Taiwan, villagers and artists have taken to constructing installations using found materials such as bamboo, driftwood, wetland grasses, etc. Villages in this area depend largely on fishing as a way of life, but the gradual shrinking of the wetlands makes this increasingly difficult. The creators’ sculptures are a way to bring awareness to this issue without harming the environment. 

     With such an expansive area to cover, the installations needed to be large. One artist used branches and twigs to create more than 30 “nests” suspended on bamboo throughout the area. Another artist combined construction and horticulture to create a series of “flying boat gardens”. 

     The purpose and intent of these works sends an environmental message from a very unlikely source, while the ingenuity and creativity add aesthetic brilliance to the landscape. The size and expansiveness of the works and the group of artists is also impressive. 

5/5 

                                                            Source:

Haddam, Jennifer. “Artists Turn Taiwan Wetland Into Ecofriendly Gallery.” TreeHugger. N.p., 03 June 2011. Web. 20 Jan. 2013.