Joy Garnett
Dark Head (Strange
Weather series) 2005
48 x 54 inches
Oil on
canvas
Reproduced with permission of the artist
From the New York Academy of Sciences web site:
If Rachel Carson were alive today, she would probably be pleased about
the heightened public awareness of the environment and some of the protective legislation
passed since she wrote Silent Spring. She would likely be less satisfied with
the ongoing battle between those who wish to preserve our natural environment and
those whose efforts continue to contribute to its deterioration and destruction. ... The
book was predicated on the belief that the public was obligated to know the specific
facts about the dangers of some pesticides if they were to make informed decisions
about their use.
And just as Carson brought an investigative scientific eye to the problems she
described in Silent Spring, an exhibition opening November 4 at the New York
Academy of Sciences casts a probing artistic look at some of the most critical environmental
issues facing the world today. The exhibition, "The Obligation to Endure:
Art & Ecology Since Silent Spring," features works in a variety of media that raise
questions about such current concerns as global warming, toxic waste, POPs (persistent
organic pollutants), the extinction of species, and genetic modification.
Artists included are Joy Episalla, Joy Garnett, Tom Hawkins, Dominic McGill,
Jason Middlebrook, Frank Moore, Catherine Murphy, Bruce Nauman, Gary Ponzo,
Amy Jean Porter, Alexis Rockman, David Wojnarowicz and Carrie Yamaoka ... [read more ; click through for a gallery of the art on view]
[Nick] Debs, [curator of the exhibit and] former director of the activist group Visual AIDS and principal of the New
York gallery Debs and Co., noted that the artists chosen for the exhibition reflected
Carson’s own activist calling and her goal of speaking "truth to power."
"The directness of message on environmental topics from artists like Rockman,
Garnett, Moore, and Wojnarowicz certainly pay homage to Carson’s own clarity of
communication and her passionate love of the natural world," he said. "Silent Spring
was a call to action that resonated with a wide public; similarly, the works
of art in this exhibit provoke the viewer into considering what we’re doing to the
environment, and they serve as a caution and warning to all of us."
The Academy exhibition is on view Monday-Friday from 9 AM to 5 PM from
November 4 through January 13, 2006. The Gallery of Art & Science is located at 3 E. 63rd Street [MAP] New York City.
Way to go, Joy! -- Ross