Art IV

  • 1960s artists think artworks ecosystems

  • “ecosystem” coined in 1935, initially designated interconnections defined primarily by the agency of animal organism

    • after WW2 and rise of cybernetics understood differently

  • steady-state ecosystem was characterized by a consistent order that was assumed to be both predictable and unchanging over time

    • remained the dominant scientific model and means to imagine global connectivity during the 1960s and rise of the environmental movement

  • art as a self-contained system while also being part of a larger system, “system esthetics” by curator and art historian Jack Burnham in 1968

  • Helen and Newton Harrison, Shrimp Farm, Survival Piece #2, 1971

    • Helen Mayer Harrison (1927-2018) born Queens, NY and studied english and education before teaching in the 1940s

    • Newton Harrison (1932-2022) born Brooklyn, NY and studied art at the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts

    • married in 1953 and lived in Florence, Italy from 1957 to 1960

    • beginning 1960s began working together

    • Making Earth (1970), production of rich soil (sand, clay, sewage sludge, leaf material, chicken, cow, horse manure; mixed + watered over 4 month period)

    • series called the “Survival Pieces” (1970-1972)

    • staged at exhibition called “Art and Technology” at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA), may 10 to august 29, 1971; part of unsuccessful program from (1967-1971)

    • point of transition from land art to more ecologically conscientious practices

    • also called Notations of the Ecosystem of the Western Salt Works with the Inclusion of Brine Shrimp

    • 4 ponds of salt water and brine shrimp

    • response to Robert Smithsons Spiral Jetty in Utah's Great Salt Lake

      • reddish hue from carotene from algae (more salt more red)

    • survival series create ecosystems for fish, trees, potatoes, salad greens, worlds

    • The Lagoon Cycle (1972-1984) crab species from Sri Lanka and indoor estuary

      • scylla serrata (mud crab); replicates monsoon conditions, started mating; need periodic changes in environment to survive

      • 7 cycles, 7 panels of text, maps, photo-collage

      • first three: indoor to outdoor

      • fourth: moving crabs to California's Salton Sea

      • fifth and sixth: regulate salinity, herbicide, pesticide levels by connecting Gulf of California and Pacific Ocean

      • seven: mediation upon Ring of Fire (connects Sri Lanka to American West Coast)

  • Hans Haacke, Rhine Water Purification Plant, 1972

    • born in Cologne, Germany in 1936

    • based on NYC since 1965

    • associated with the Zero Group in Europe, formed into Düsseldorf in 1957 and known to create “kinetic” or moving art

    • leading proponent of land art, kinetic art, conceptual art, and institutional critique (artworks that bring to light the structures of social and financial power that give prominence and prestige to art museums)

    • created at the Museum Haus Lange in Krefeld, Germany

    • filters of charcoal and sand

    • plexiglass with goldfish, leftover water to garden

    • around 1963 started experimenting with movement of water 

      • Condensation Cube (1963-65), cycle of evaporation and condensation

    • Wave (1965), suspended from ceiling, swing with air currents in room and movement of liquid

    • named “Wind and Water Works” by Jack Burnham

    • invited to participate in Earth Art, early exhibition of land art which was held at Cornell University in feb-march 1969

      • each artists had gallery in Cornell’s Andrew Dickson White Museum of Art

      • Haacke inside pile of dirt in solarium and planted rye grass seeds, called Grass Grows

      • outdoors in gorge under waterfall connect rope from top to bottom of waterfall, Ice Rope, melted

    • MoMA Poll (1970), empty with slot, vote yes or no to Southeast Asian police of NY governor, Nelson Rockefeller

      • Rockefeller on Board of Trustees and former president of MoMA (New York's Museum of Modern Art)

    • Shapolsky et al Manhattan Real Estate Holdings, A Real Time Social System as of May 1, 1971

      • 146 photos of apartment buildings and documents of activities of slumlord

      • intended to debut at one person exhibit at the Solomon R Guggenheim Museum, director of museum canceled 6 weeks before open

    • in 1972 city of Krefeld poured about 11 billion gallons of untreated wastewater into the Rhine, largest polluter factory on Rhine part of giant Bayer group

  • Nancy Holt, Sun Tunnels, 1973-76

    • (1938-2014)

    • born in Worcester, Massachusetts and raised in New Jersey

    • Tufts University, studied biology

    • collab with husband, Robert Smithson

      • East Coast/West Coast 

    • 1995 relocated from NYC to Galisteo, New Mexico

    • 4 concrete cylinders in Great Basin Desert Utah, in shape of X, 86 foot diagonal

    • opening and cylinder aligns with summer and winter solstices, June 21 and December 21

    • holes in shape or constellation on each cylinder, representing Draco, Perseus, Columba, and Capricorn

    • cylinders 22 tons

    • essay “Sun Tunnels” published april 1977 in issue of Artforum magazine

      • writes that she went out west first time in 1968 with Robert Smithson and Michael Heizer; only other place connected with was Pine Barrens in southern NJ   

    • first began planning in 1973 in Amarillo, Texas, while husband was working on Amarillo Ramp

      • Smithson and pilot died on June 20 while flying over site, Holt finished ramp with friends and created video work Boomerang with Richard Serra in amarillo tv studio

    • site purchased for sun tunnels is former location of Lake Bonneville

    • bullet marks in tunnels

    • Dark Star Park (1979-84) in Rosalyn neighborhood of Arlington, Virginia; one of first perks at outdoor artworks realized with funding from the National Endowment for the Arts, also funded by Arlington County and local businesses

      • site formerly housed gas station and warehouse

      • comission to accompany office building at intersection that feeds traffic into Washington DC

      • shaped metal shadows that align with actual shadows at 9:32 AM August 1 every year (aug 1 reference to day on 1860 when William Henry Ross purchased the land from father-in-law)

      • Art in the Public Eye: The Making of Dark Star Park (1988); developer of Park Place office, swimming pool construction company, construction foreman, landscape architect 

  • Mark Dion, A Meter of Jungle, 1992

    • born in New Bedford, Massachusetts, 1961

    • in 1980s participated in Independent Study Program of the Whitney Museum of Art in NY, studied with Hans Haacke

    • Neukom Vivarium (2006), 60 foot hemlock tree in greenhouse in Seattle's Olympic Structure Park

    • alongside artists J. Morgan Puett created Mildred’s Lane in rural northeastern Pennsylvania

    • in exhibition Arte Amazonas at Rio De Janeiro’s Museu de Arte Moderna

    • section of amazon rainforest floor in gallery, removed invertebrates

    • William Beebe in 1915 filled a “war bag” with leaves, sticks, moss, earth, mold from brazilian rainforest to dissect on 10 day boat rise back to NY; employee of NY Zoological Park (now the Bronx Zoo), founded division called the Department of Tropical Research

    • The N.Y. Bureau of Tropical Conservation (1992) in the American Fine Arts gallery in New York, sifting through materials gathered in the Orinoco Basin of Venezuela

    • On Tropical Nature (1991), 3 weeks in Venezuelan rainforest collecting flora and fauna dispatched weekly to the Sala Mendoza in Caracas, divided into 4 discrete sculptures

    • the tropics first appear in Dions work in 1989

    • Tropical Rainforest Preserves created in collaboration with William Schefferine

    • ozone hole above antártica announced 1985

    • created A Meter of Jungle in context of a UN “Earth Summit” in Rio de Janeiro on 1992, attended by 172 nations

  • Pierre Huyghe, Untilled, 2011-12

    • born in Paris in 1962, currently lives in NYC

    • studied at the Nationale Superieure des Artes Decoratifs in Paris

    • 2015 commission for the Roof Garden at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in NY

    • emerged to international audiences in 1990s through digital and cinematic artworks, friction and blurring of artistic creations and real life

      • The Third Memory (1999) commissioned by the Renaissance Society at the University of Chicago, displayed on 2 channels, 2 side by side screen, about attempted 1972 bank robbery at Chase Bank in Brooklyn, NY by John Wojtowicz (robbery and hostage situation became subject of Sidney Lumet's 1975 Dog Day Afternoon, starring Al Pacino)

    • No Ghost Just a Shell with Philippe Parreno, inspired by 1995 Japanese animated film Ghost in the Shell, bought copyright for “Annlee”, manga character for 46k yen ($400 US)

      • 2002 exhibition toured zurich, san fran, and eindhoven showing 17 renditions of annlee by 15 artists; Rinkrit Tiravanins, recites hours of Philip K Dicks Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep; M/M (paris) fractured form series of posters; Joe Scanlan, consumer/carpenter Ikea like diagrams assemble bookshelf

      • in 2002 removed from public, created private company called the Annlee Association, sold rights for one dollar

      • to conclude set off fireworks on december 4 2002 on opening of Basel Miami Beach, titled Smile Without a Cat (Celebration of Annlees Vanishing) playing on Lewis Carroll's Alice in Wonderland

    • Art Basel Miami Beach one of largest art fairs held annually in global art market, extension of Art Basel which has been held in Swiss city of Basel since 1970

    • biennial, gathering of new artworks from around world, put on display in city limited time, though not owned or for sale (held every two years)

      • most influentials ones in Venice, Italy; São Paulo, Brazil; New York City; Gwanghwamun, South Korea; Istanbul, Turkey

    • art exhibition Documenta held every 5 years in Kassel, Germany, began in 1955 after decimation of Kassel in WW2

    • Untilled created specifically for 13th iteration of Documenta held during summer 2013

    • created in composting area in Kassel’s Karlsaue Park

    • nude female sculpture head covered by active beehive, by Max Weber

    • bench created by Dominique Gonzalez Forester

    • upturned tree from earlier documenta project by Joseph Beuys titled 7000 Oaks

    • attendant with white dog, one leg pink

    • variety species of plants