Catie Byrne
Features Editor

Industrialization, deforestation and vandalism; these are the issues The Weatherspoon Art Museum’s exhibit “Reclaiming Nature: Art and Sustainability” addresses in 13 poignant art pieces.

Organized by Elaine D. Gustafson, Curator of Collections at Weatherspoon, the exhibit features pieces by the artists: Richard Mosse, Nancy Holt, Andy Goldsworthy, Marion Post Wolcott, Henry Schnakenberg, Richard Miscrach, Jeff Whetstone, Michael Ashkin, Dimitra Lazariolou, Charles Simonds, Elizabeth Bradford and Roxy Paine; and runs from Jan. 9 to April 17.

One of the exhibit’s most captivating pieces was Mosse’s “Taking Tiger Mountain,” a pink-tinted, serene photograph of Eastern Congo which features cascading fluorescent magenta trees, mountains and hills littered with black and white cows and a lone, shadowy person, buried in a vast, relatively untouched landscape.

While the piece itself evokes a sense of tranquility, the photograph’s caption details the dark history of violence which occurred at the site of this landscape. “The site is actually associated with violence and the displacement of nearly 5,000 people, and thus represents the severe social and political dynamics which the people of the Eastern Congo live.”

A similarly political piece, the background of Wolcott’s untitled black and white photograph of two malnourished children during the Great Depression, struck a more overt connection between the subjects of the photograph, and the desolate, North Carolina farmland environment they inhabit. The caption elaborates on Wolcott’s intent to, “Assert that the afflicted children are besieged by their physical and environmental circumstances, which they battle without adult guidance or protection.”

Goldsworthy’s “Dumfriesshire” also utilizes the destruction of nature in his photograph of a burnt Alder tree, set against a snowy backdrop, as a metaphor for death.

Bradford’s “Cedar Tree, Amherst,” like “Taking Tiger Mountain,” uses bright colors to celebrate nature as well as mask its darker implications.

Like “Dumfriesshire,” a tree centers the painting, however, the object of decay is the environment beyond the tree, rather than the tree itself. The caption explains the depiction of contrasting environments, as, “The mourn and loss of nature and its open spaces… the demise of such spaces by industrial, commercial and residential development.”

Schnakenberg’s “Edgewater” also critiques the expansion of industry, as the smog emitted from the painting’s power plant and train consumes what little greenery remains in the background.

The caption contextualizes his intent to display, “Two opposing mindsets in this painting: the utopian ideal of technology bringing order to the modern world by enhancing the speed, efficiency and products of everyday life, and the contrasting view that stressed the dehumanizing effects of technology, warning that it would replace workers, create pollution and dominate the landscape in a destructive manner.”

Ashkin’s “No. 48,” parallels the loss of nature in “Cedar Tree, Amherst,” but does so in a more straightforward manner, as the piece depicts a literal industrial wasteland in the form of a miniature scale model. It is the plain and aesthetically unpleasing design of “No. 48,” that distinguishes itself from the other pieces in the exhibit, as it illustrates the ugly impact of environmental destruction, without any artistic pretense.

    Paine’s “Dead Amanita No. 2,” also evokes an unappealing aesthetic of decay through the use of three-dimensional models, however it differs from “No. 48,” in its depiction of literal fungi decay, rather than man-made environmental destruction.

    Lazariolou’s photograph, “Cement Fargo,” mirrors “No. 48,” in that it is implied that man is responsible for the subject’s barren terrain. However, like “Dumfriesshire,” the photograph is eerie, and communicates an understated sense of emptiness.

Although Simonds “Birth,” is arguably the most unsettling piece on display in “Reclaiming Nature: Art and Sustainability.”

“Birth” uses 24 still photographs to gradually depict the birth of a man, set against a red, rusty clay background. The caption contextualizes the inspiration for Simonds’ piece as, “The remains of a fictional civilization of migrating people whom Simonds called the ‘little people.’”

    Whetstone’s “Post-Pleistocene,” while entirely different in composition from “Birth,” is similarly complex in creation, as the photograph is meant to reflect the history and evolution of man through old and contemporary forms of artistic communication. The caption details Whetstone’s inspiration, as, “The scratched tally marks made around 1865 by slaves counting bags of saltpeter they hauled out of the cave, signatures scrawled during the 20th century and more contemporary spray painted graffiti.”

The subjects of Holt, Misrach and Klipper, set themselves apart from other pieces in “Reclaiming Nature: Art and Sustainability,” in that each artist depicts a non-industrialized natural setting.

Holt’s ”Views Through a Sand Dune” is a creative combination of natural beach landscape through an almost optical cylindrical lens, as one sees the ocean in two holes through a sand dune, almost as though viewing it from binoculars.

Misrach’s photograph “Battleground Point,” documents the rare finding of water in the mojave desert. While Klipper’s “The Ross Ice Shelf,” is a similarly minimalist natural environment, featuring an arctic landscape untouched by man.