What is the role of art in the face of ecological crisis? - Part II

Part one of this series explored the role of art in encouraging an active awareness of the ecological crisis, but surmised rather pessimistically that environmental art often falls short. Whilst encouraging an underlying ethic of eco-art can help prevent mindless institutional greenwashing, placing undue pressure on any particular piece for not doing will not exactly lead anywhere. During a time of global ecological, political, and social turmoil, it can feel futile to dedicate time and energy towards art at all. But before we (sustainably) dispose of our art materials and gallery passes, here is part two, delving a little further into the role of art during a time of ecological crisis.

Joseph Beuys's 7,000 Oaks (Kassel, Germany in 1982), pictured in 2020, (Photo credits: Baummapper, CC BY-SA 3.0 DE <https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/de/deed.en>, via Wikimedia Commons)

Building a new world

“The crisis consists precisely in the fact that the old is dying and the new cannot be born, in this interregnum a great variety of morbid symptoms appear.” 

- Antoni Gramsci, 1930 [1]

When the world is burning, isn’t art just an indulgence, a waste of time that might be better spent working towards building this ‘new’ world? Gramsci reminds us that whilst the old ways are dying, new ways are yet to emerge and the monsters seen today are only a symptom of this struggling birth. We are so deeply entrenched in old systems - of politics, economy, but also culture and thought, we cannot yet move towards the new - but art may be a way forward. You might say that this is where art ends and activism begins, however as a genre ‘ecological art’ serves a function beyond the aesthetic, also producing a ‘social effect’ in the changes it brings about in the world in a way that a painting might not. For example, ‘7000 Oaks’ (1982) - a land art project by Joseph Beuys - involved planting 7000 oak trees over a period of several years. The project however also involved participation from the community, and had a legacy on ecological art that prevails today. [2] His aim was not only to plant trees in ecological concern, but to change people’s attitudes towards the environment; Beuys himself even conceptualised the piece as a ‘social sculpture’.

Ackroyd & Harvey 'Beuys’ Acorns', 2021, Tate Modern (Photo credit: Ackroyd & Harvey)

Ecological thinking

Psychologically, people aren’t always able to process large complexities and disasters - as large as ‘climate change’. These  ‘hyperobjects’, as termed by Timothy Morton, may be precisely where art is most needed. A ‘hyperobject’ is defined as an object resulting from the relation of multiple other objects, and which is ‘massively distributed in time and space relative to humans’. [3] Art won't necessarily change the world, not on its own anyway, but it can help more of us parse these large entanglements into tangible moments of understanding or connection, that in turn help us collectively build this new world. 

“The ecological thought is the thinking of interconnectedness. [...] It’s a practice and a process of becoming fully aware of how human beings are connected with other beings.” - Timothy Morton [4]

Ecological thinking is necessary in order to correct the collective numbing that has occurred in the face of ecological crisis. It is also necessary in order to start seeing ourselves, humanity and art, as a part of ‘nature’ instead of a separate entity that has control over it. Laura Sewall’s The Skill of Ecological Perception breaks down the psychological elements of ecological thinking into five distinct elements, ending with imagination. [5] Here, she argues that the ‘images we carry’ and ‘visions we create’ are what help build our future. She argues that in an age of unrelenting media and visual overwhelm, we have lost our ability to imagine, and with practice we can regain it.

The Power of the Creative Act

Art has the power to capture and return our attention to our ecological realities - a power that now cannot be underestimated when public discourse moves so swiftly to the next dreaded thing. As addressed in part one, eco-art should raise an active awareness of eco-sociological concerns. However, at this point, any moment simply spent away from the algorithm is a small act of resistance. The creative act, (especially creating with the biosphere in mind), is the opposite of consuming (e.g. content/products/services/natural resources/labour) and demands a prolonged attention; in this way we take a pause from being customers/products to consume. This could be at least the starting point of an ‘ecological thinking’.

Of course, this making process needs to incorporate sustainable material choices and aim for a net positive (failing that, net zero) impact on the environment it aims to explore. Stoltz argues that ecological art, unlike other forms of environmental art, must go beyond ‘social effects’ to create a direct (positive) impact on the ‘natural’ world - i.e. ecological systems[6] . For example, Aviva Rahmani’s artwork drives positive social change but intends first to conserve the environment. For example, her artwork ‘Blued trees’ (2015) originated from a desire to stop the expansion of an oil pipeline. The artist created a series of art installations in a forest through which the pipeline was to be built, locating trees that were to be felled for this operation and painting them with an environmentally friendly blue pigment. The installation reproduced a symphonic score, with the blue paint forming a sine wave from the base to the canopy of the trees. She then filed for copyright to protect the piece as a site-specific artwork, meaning that the pipeline could not be built in this location. [7] The piece promotes a social development in our consideration of ownership in ecological contexts, however primarily serves the environmental cause and becomes ‘art for nature’.

Blued Trees Symphony by Aviva Rahmani, 2015, (Photo credit: Aviva Rahmani)

There can be no singular answer to the question ‘what is the role of art in a time of ecological crisis?’ We must rely on a diversity of roles to develop a truly ecological perspective of art. 

“Another world is not only possible, she is on her way. Maybe many of us won't be here to greet her, but on a quiet day, if I listen very carefully, I can hear her breathing.”

- Arundhati Roy

Blued Trees Symphony by Aviva Rahmani, 2015, (Photo credit: Aviva Rahmani)

[1] Antonio Gramsci, Selections From the Prison Notebooks of Antonio Gramsci (New York : International Publishers, 1971 printing., 1971).

[2] Ackroyd & Harvey “Beuys’ Acorns,” 2021, https://www.ackroydandharvey.com/beuys-acorns-tate-modern/. 

[3] Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology After the End of the World, 2013, https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB13730346. 

[4]Timothy Morton, The Ecological Thought, 2010, https://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BB02446453.

[5] Laura Sewall, The Skill of Ecological Perception in Roszak, Theodore, Mary E. Gomes, and Allen D. Kanner. Ecopsychology: Restoring the Earth, Healing the Mind. Sierra Club Books for Children, 1995.

[6] Barbara Stoltz, “A Nature Thing: What Does Contemporary Ecological Art Produce?,” Arts 12, no. 2 (March 29, 2023): 67, https://doi.org/10.3390/arts12020067. 

[7] Aviva Rahmani et al., “Blued Trees,” press-release, Blued Trees, September 2015, https://www.gulftogulf.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/09/Blued-Trees-Release.pdf.