On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World unites the work of 27 contemporary artists who use innovative visual techniques to reflect on the evolving relationship between humans and nature. Besides photography, the artists make use of installation, sculpture, in-game photography and video. Their various visual approaches diverge and converge throughout the exhibition. These artists show they both seek to explore and reunite our technological, socio-economical, spiritual and political connection with the world.
Kenzie inside a Melting Glacier, 2016 © Lucas Foglia. Image courtesy of Michael Hoppen Gallery
Technological developments and the rapidly changing climate have altered our relationship to nature. Photography offers a means of observing the world and our effect upon it. But can it also act as a catalyst in adopting new ways of relating to what surrounds us? Following in the footsteps of the iconic landscape photographers of the nineteenth century, a new generation of artists is using contemporary visual technologies to record and to question our relationship to the world. They do so using the same modern technologies that increasingly pervade how we relate to the world: often electronically, and mediated by our digital screens.
Typical Alpine Flora at the Hochschwab Area © Thomas Albdorf. Image courtesy of the artist
The work by Mark Dorf and Noémie Goudal makes clear how technology and the natural landscape are intrinsically interwoven, thereby demonstrating how our understanding of nature is largely shaped by human intervention. Other artists, such as Mishka Henner and Anouk Kruithof, explore the power of images to expose (or to conceal) the destructive effects of human interventions in the landscape, while Lucas Foglia and Adam Jeppesen search for alternative ways of living in harmony with nature.
Combining a wide range of visual techniques with technological, socio-economic, spiritual and political perspectives, the exhibition explores what ‘landscape photography’ can mean today. What all works have in common is that they testify to the profound impact that (visual) technology has on the paradoxical relationship between mankind and nature. The role of photography is no longer just to document and raise awareness; today it operates just as much as an active and often powerful accomplice.
Progress Vs Sunsets, Re-formulating the Nature Documentary, 2017 full HD one-channel colour with sound, 48:20 minutes
© Melanie Bonajo. Image courtesy of the artist & AKINCI
AR Chalten VI, 2016 © Adam Jeppesen. Image courtesy of the artist
Bird nest © Marten Lange. Image courtesy of the artist
PARTICIPATING ARTISTS
Thomas Albdorf (1982), Jonathas de Andrade (1982), Jeremy Ayer (1986), Fabio Barile (1980), Matthew Brandt (1982), Melanie Bonajo, (1978), Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács (1974 & 1973), Raphaël Dallaporta (1980), Mark Dorf (1988), Lucas Foglia (1983), Noémie Goudal (1984), Mishka Henner (1976), Femke Herregraven (1982), Benoît Jeannet (1991), Adam Jeppesen (1978), Anouk Kruithof (1981), Mårten Lange (1984), Douglas Mandry (1989), Awoiska van der Molen (1972), Drew Nikonowicz (1993), Mehrali Razaghmanesh (1983), Guillaume Simoneau (1978), Troika (1976 & 1977), Maya Watanabe (1983), Guido van der Werve (1977).
On Earth was curated by Foam and produced in collaboration with Les Rencontres d’Arles.
The exhibition is made possible by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia, MIAP Foundation, Goethe-Institut Amsterdam, Institut français des Pays-Bas and Kleurgamma Fine-Art Photolab.
Foam is supported by the BankGiro Loterij, De Brauw Blackstone Westbroek, City of Amsterdam, Foam Members, Olympus and the VandenEnde Foundation.
