{"id":354,"date":"2018-07-18T17:44:47","date_gmt":"2018-07-18T17:44:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/v2.dartmagazine.com\/?p=354"},"modified":"2020-02-24T18:37:11","modified_gmt":"2020-02-24T18:37:11","slug":"water-over-the-bridge-contemporary-seascapes","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/?p=354","title":{"rendered":"Water Over the Bridge: Contemporary Seascapes"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Holly
Holly Sears, Swimmers (2011), oil on paper, laminated on board, 20 x 26 inches, Photo: Courtesy of the artist.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

by Julie Garisto<\/span><\/p>\n

Considering the scope of climate change, it really begs the question why more artists aren’t tackling the subject.<\/p>\n

Fortunately, we’re seeing a sea change. Artists from the Sunshine State (and others) are assuming the mantle for bringing attention to a subject that is as dire as it is censored \u2013 heck, the words “climate change” are even\u00a0forbidden\u00a0from being included in official documents, a mandate from Gov. Rick Scott.<\/p>\n

At the\u00a0Morean Arts Center, the comprehensive exhibition\u00a0Water over the Bridge: Contemporary Seascapes\u00a0<\/b>displays both accessible and challenging works in a staggering variety of media. Curated by\u00a0D. Dominick Lombardi\u00a0of Valhalla, N.Y., and Amanda Cooper, the Morean’s Curator of Exhibitions, it’s a must-see for anyone who cares about supporting visual art and gaining perspective on the environment.<\/p>\n

“Contemporary artists can very often be like the canary in the coalmine warning of the presence of deadly gases,” Lombardi wrote in the exhibition’s program. “Artists can bring to light the changes in sea levels, and the industries that contribute to the problem by simply exposing, with visual and written references, a very troubling reality that we are in the thick of a political battle for our very future, and the futures of the animals and plants we love.”<\/p>\n

\"Rieko
Rieko Fujinami, Invisible Site (2016), engraving on plexiglas, 45 x 60 iches, Photo: Courtesy of Dale Leifeste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Artists helping meet Lombardi’s objective include\u00a0Kate Helms,\u00a0Kenny Jensen,\u00a0Selina Roman, Anne Bowen,\u00a0Babs Reingold, Carolina Cleere, Margaret LeJeune and Rieko Fujinami.<\/p>\n

While some may flinch when invited to a climate change-focused exhibition for fear of a heavy-handed downer experience, “Water over the Bridge” does much more. It elevates the discussion, offering as much that’s life affirming as is foreboding. It provides humor and whimsicality as well as punch-you-in-the-gut pathos.<\/p>\n

“If you look at works by Don Doe, Bill\u00a0Gusky, Scott\u00a0Hatt, Dale\u00a0Leifeste, China Marks and Selina Roman, you will see that they are raising our awareness of rising sea levels with a bit of humor,” Lombardi elaborates. “I also believe that we have to be thankful for the not-for-profit institutions like the\u00a0Morean\u00a0that will mount challenging shows that raise important issues like climate change. Since not-for-profits do not have to rely on selling the work they exhibit, they can show art that goes beyond saccharine seascapes and landscapes. Living in New York I am no stranger to rubberneck delays on highways. It’s a shame there is such great interest in slowing down to look at the carnage of a car accident across a roadway, while issues about the environment have become a nasty political battle.”<\/p>\n

\"China
China Marks, Game Day in Oceana (2018), fabric, lace, thread, colored stone, fusible adhesive, 27 x 34 inches, Photo: Courtesy of the artist<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

According to her artist statement, Kate Helms calls attention to the “parroted paradise … born of stout St. Augustine grass, primly planted medians, perfectly spaced palms, and gracefully arcing sprinkler showers.” Her\u00a0works are “united by a desire to question cultural attitudes about the fabricated environments we inhabit and fetishize to the point of precarious delusion.”<\/p>\n

Her installation\u00a0Colony 1\u00a0<\/i>proposes a creepy hypothetical scenario; it foresees the future state of an antique chair in an opulent Florida living room after its been submerged for decades — the chair’s once opulence is reduced to an absurd oddity as realistically crafted barnacles overtake it. It’s both a poignant and humorous look at how nature may conquer us if we don’t stop abusing it.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t lost all hope and you shouldn’t either,” Helms said during her recent gallery talk at the Morean, adding that her work is not intended as a death knell but a call to action.\u00a0 A Stormwater Program Administrator for the City of Largo, the scientist\/artist has painstakingly tracked the effects of runoff and expresses no doubt that climate change is human-influenced.<\/p>\n

According to her artist statement, Kate Helms calls attention to the “parroted paradise … born of stout St. Augustine grass, primly planted medians, perfectly spaced palms, and gracefully arcing sprinkler showers.” Her\u00a0works are “united by a desire to question cultural attitudes about the fabricated environments we inhabit and fetishize to the point of precarious delusion.”<\/p>\n

Her installation\u00a0Colony 1\u00a0<\/i>proposes a creepy hypothetical scenario; it foresees the future state of an antique chair in an opulent Florida living room after its been submerged for decades — the chair’s once opulence is reduced to an absurd oddity as realistically crafted barnacles overtake it. It’s both a poignant and humorous look at how nature may conquer us if we don’t stop abusing it.<\/p>\n

“I haven’t lost all hope and you shouldn’t either,” Helms said during her recent gallery talk at the Morean, adding that her work is not intended as a death knell but a call to action.\u00a0 A Stormwater Program Administrator for the City of Largo, the scientist\/artist has painstakingly tracked the effects of runoff and expresses no doubt that climate change is human-influenced.<\/p>\n

\"Kate
Kate Helms, Colony 1 (2016), resin, cloth, sandpaper and found chaise, 74 x 28 x 35 inches. Photo Courtesy of Dale Leifeste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Babs Reingold’s mixed-media installation\u00a0The Last Sea<\/i>\u00a0mirrors a more current reality, one that harks viral videos of wildlife strangled by plastic bags — a canoe filled with flaccid, nondescript small stuffed animal corpses and strewn with plastic litter. In addition, one of Reingold’s Luna Ladders hangs overboard. From one perspective, it denotes a “jump ship” attitude like those of wealthy people who believe they can just colonize Mars. On the other hand, the ladder could intimate one last hope for survival. Adding a touch of dark humor, the boat’s name, the piece’s title, spelled out in a boat name painted whimsically in a recognizable 1950s-style semi-cursive font. It’s a light touch on a dark piece. Ultimately,\u00a0The Last Sea<\/i>\u00a0offers a chilling scenario, a proposition of the last major body of water on Earth. Its theme, a progression of Babs Reingold’s series\u00a0“The Last Tree,”\u00a0takes its inspiration from\u00a0Jared Diamond\u2018s 2004 TedEx talk, when he asks, “What was the person who cut down the last tree on Easter Island thinking?”<\/p>\n

\"Babs
Babs Reingold, The Last Sea (2018), mixed media, dimensions variable, Photo: Courtesy of Dale Leifeste<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The ideal exhibition to bring teens and tween students to, Water over the Bridge engages and elicits critical thinking and discourse; a highly prescriptive antidote to reactive social networking and comment-board trolling.<\/p>\n

\u201cThis exhibition does succeed as a kind of protest,\u201d Co-curator Amanda Cooper says in the brochure for the show. \u201cIf you ever thought about land conservation and wondered why it was important or whether you should care about it \u2014 one only has to look at these paintings to see what we stand to lose. Sometimes a beautifully and lovingly crafted work of art speaks louder than a megaphone.\u201d<\/p>\n

In tandem, The Morean Arts Center is also presenting a solo exhibition by an established artist who places an emphasis on the joy and wonder we feel while encountering nature. \u201cLeslie Neumann: Manna from Heaven \u2026 and Earth,\u201d shows\u00a0the trajectory of an established\u00a0artist and conservationist\u2018s work over a long period of time, focusing on the beauty of nature vs. our troubling current events.<\/p>\n

Arguably the world’s most urgent problem, climate change not only hits close to home on both the figurative and literal level, but offers a number of philosophical quandaries to explore — from the most elemental of human needs to more abstract, complex issues around\u00a0stewardship\u00a0of our planet,\u00a0morality\u00a0and\u00a0evolution.<\/p>\n

Editor’s Note:<\/h4>\n

That climate is changing is generally without dispute. The crux of the issue between believers in manmade warming and skeptics of the impact by human activity on the planet, is the extent to which either human or non-human factors shape our environment. “The science is settled” orthodoxy of climate alarmism took a political broadside with the change in U.S. administration. Even with the departure EPA’s Scott Pruitt, the likelihood of returning to Obama-era environmental regulations are slim to none. \u00a0At the centre of the debate are the atomic structures that make up our atmosphere. In a recent posting on www.icecapus\u00a0Steve Graham cites that “Carbon dioxide is a trace gas. Only four of every 10,000 molecules in our atmosphere are CO2 and the amount that human industry could have added over all of our history is only a fraction of one of those four molecules.” Sea levels aren’t rising. The polar icecaps are not melting. Historically we’ve been as warm or warmer in past ages. So go the arguments. Let us know where you stand. \u00a0\u2013 Steve Rockwell<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

by Julie Garisto Considering the scope of climate change, it really begs the question why more artists aren’t tackling the subject. Fortunately, we’re seeing a sea change. Artists from the Sunshine State (and others) are assuming the mantle for bringing attention to a subject that is as dire as it is censored \u2013 heck, the … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Water Over the Bridge: Contemporary Seascapes”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[12,3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-354","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-archives","category-reviews"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=354"}],"version-history":[{"count":10,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":975,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/354\/revisions\/975"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=354"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=354"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/dartmagazine.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=354"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}