Monday, September 6, 2010

Human Nature

The ‘Human Nature’ exhibition, situated in Sydney’s Inner West, displays the work of artists who focus on creating awareness about our decaying environment as a consequence of human actions. It brings together Chris Jordan and Fiona Hall, two artists with diverse aesthetics; however together, through their specific use of media, present a uniform front against environmental damage. This exhibition was put together with the idea of letting the voice of nature emerge; opening the eyes of the audience to the detrimental effects of human carelessness. Before we can save our environment, we first have to be aware of the problem.


Chris Jordan - most recognisable for his large-scale photographic pieces representing American and global mass consumerism - largely falls within an environmental and socio-political context. Using the alarm he feels about the environmental future as inspiration, Jordan uses photography to focus particularly on human responsibility in relation to nature (Click Here for a source of inspiration). Jordan was chosen for this exhibition as he effectively uses visual stimulus to communicate to his audience the overwhelming statistics of daily consumption and its environmental impact (Chris Jordan Pictures Some Shocking Stats). The intention of Jordan’s work is to allow the audience to absorb the incriminating statistics visually (instead of mathematically), forcing them to address the state of the environment as a result of human recklessness. His objective is highlighted through his choice of media, use of repetition and the composition of his pieces.
Predominantly evident in his body of works, Running the Numbers and Running the Numbers II, Jordan often uses pre-utilised products (for example, cigarette packets and plastic), drawing a link between the visual composition of his work and the media he uses to create it; ultimately enhancing its meaning and impact on the audience. A powerful example of this is how Jordan portrays environmental damage as a consequence of human carelessness, or even more so, conscious actions. This is most notably seen in ‘The Year of the Tiger’ (2010), where it is not necessarily what is in the piece which is so confronting, but what isn’t in the piece. Upon close observation of this piece it is evident that 3,200 toy tigers (the number of tigers remaining on earth), outline a large, black void in the centre of the piece, which has the ability to hold another 40,000 tigers - the tiger population in 1970 (Chris Jordan Photographic Arts). The way that the image is arranged within a scarce outline of tigers allows the audience to gain a visual understanding of just how severe this problem is.
Jordan is primarily noticed for his riveting photography, and his artworks do not venture far from his exquisite Photoshop skills. Commonly using various repetitions of one object, Jordan is able to source the problem of environmental damage in the hope to cure it. Using his piece ‘Gyre’ (2010) as an example, repetition throughout the composition is apparent. Depicting 2.3 million pieces of plastic, the piece is composed of various plastics collected from the Pacific Ocean ranging from pen and bottle caps to hair combs. Due to the nature of the media (i.e. its 3-dimensional appearance), the image encompasses a texture which aids the visual aesthetic and interlinks with the turbid and violent ocean waves it composes; suggesting the unstableness of the earth’s future if our oceans continue to be used as rubbish bins. This is further communicated through the arrangement of plastic to create directional line which enforces the idea of a rough and unsafe ocean. Finally, Jordan enforces the meaning of the work through his use of colour, filling the sky with various shades of brown - the universal colour of pollution – which looms over the polluted sea. The general size of his pieces complement the severity of the statistics, in order to evoke awareness and reflection among humans. He uses the materials of consumerism and waste to create visual language in order for his audience to receive his message with full impact. Each component of his art is meaningful to his message, and his work very much complements the focus of the exhibition.

Fiona Hall - an Australian contemporary artist widely known for her delicate use of craft - focuses largely on the relationship between humans and the environment, through a wide variety of artistic contexts, such as scientific, environmental and socio-political. Her work is very much environmental politics; using various crafts to distinguish the unhealthy relationship between nature and culture.
As a feminist artist reclaiming craft as art, Hall works with a number of different mediums, ranging from beadwork, shredding, knitting and sculpture to photography, painting and mixed media. Hall draws a link between her media and meaning, for example, forming birds’ nests out of shredded ‘legal tender’ (US dollar bills) in order to comment on the modernisation of various species' habitats. Similarly, Hall has also depicted a series of extinct bird species created from household chemical containers, inviting the audience to draw a connection between consumerism and the decaying environment. Hall’s choice of medium is critical to her art and the way the audience interprets it; transforming ordinary, everyday objects into masterpieces - commenting on environmental destruction as a result of globalisation and consumerism (Fiona Hall). She often creates installation pieces, as for Hall’s focus, craft has a greater impact (Review: Fiona Hall’s ‘Force Field’), particularly evident in her latest work ‘Fell’ (2010). In this piece, Hall depicts a tiger skin rug, however it is made completely from wool warp and weft. This makes a statement about the unnecessary slaughtering of tigers, particularly when humans have the option to use wool for rugs - a renewable material which is harmless to animals. Her media is closely tied to her meaning, forcing the audience to become aware and take responsibility for their consequential actions.
The impact of her work is also heightened through her choice of scientific display, as evident in her body of work ‘Cell Culture’ (1999). Largely influenced by her physicist mother, Hall often looks at environmental damage from a scientific point of view, frequently arranging her work in a glass vitrine display. A unanimous interest of the exhibition is her piece, ‘Dead in the Water’ (1999), where Hall, through the delicate threading of glass beads onto fine wire, shapes organic 3D forms which visually depict the connection between wastewater runoff and the surrounding sea life (Review: Fiona Hall’s ‘Force Field’). Through the depiction of an aesthetic link between ocean life and wastewater runoff, Hall immediately communicates to the audience the direct impact human waste has upon nature. The harmonious repetition of glass beading aids in Hall’s meaning, as she states that the beads represent an ‘offshore trading between wastewater runoff and the declining aquatic environments of the ocean’ (Ewington, 2005, p.150). Confined within the walls of a glass cabinet, Hall also invites the audience to think about the scientific impact of human actions, particularly upon sea life. Just like in a scientific museum, the glass vitrine allows the audience to view the piece from various perspectives. The monochromatic colour scheme of the bead formations allows no attention to be drawn away from the meaning; forcing the audience to note the unsubtle growth of sea life attached beneath the pipes. The juxtaposition of sea life growing as a continuous form from the pipes directly contrasts the natural (sea life) against the unnatural (polluted waste water); however the two are undeniably linked as a result of human carelessness. Hall successfully communicates that unconscious human behaviours, such as wastewater runoff, have a detrimental, yet lasting effect on our planet’s sea life.


While Jordan and Hall both have extremely diverse personal aesthetics, both aim to create awareness about the current environmental status. Whereas Jordan successfully does this through exquisite Photoshop pieces in order to communicate the detrimental statistics of American and global consumerism, Hall uses delicate craft, transforming ordinary objects into masterpieces which force the audience to ponder human responsibility and the consequences of our actions. Although both artists utilise very different media, they are unified in both their underlying focus as well as their incessant use of found objects in order to enhance their message; to let the voice of nature emerge through their work. Diverse both culturally and artistically, Jordan and Hall’s work join forces in this exhibition to create awareness of the effects of human consumerism on the environment. 'Human Nature' is an exhibition which is not to be missed!
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