New Book Launch

After 3 years, my book is launched finally.

Insights into the Eco-art of Britain
生態永續的藝術想像和實踐

Introduction of the book:

Introduction

In August 2009, I was on board of a flight to Manchester, ready to carry out a research project on the development of ecological art in Britain.

While reading the newspaper, I saw all the news were about disasters brought by the typhoon Morakot and its torrential rainfall. Before, people knew that Taiwan is an island that suffers from tropical rainstorms and flooding from the heavy rain that comes with typhoons. But year after year, the damages have grown bigger and bigger. Even when the typhoon didn't come inland, the circulating air currents in the typhoon's periphery cause the island great uneasiness. As the Chinese idiom says, 'Water can float the boat, as well as capsize the boat'. Now, the effects of global warming and extreme weather conditions caused by climate change, combined with the threat of 'losing ground' and its related issues provide the focus of my trip.

The development of environmental art in Taiwan is quite recent. Following the context of public art, it appears in communities and the natural environment. The former is represented by the programme, 'Art as Environment: A Cultural Action on Tropic of Cancer', curated by the artist and curator Wu Ma-Li and sponsored by the Cultural Bureau of Chia-yi County Government annually since 2006. This encompassed the whole region of Chia-yi county lasted until 2009. Art in the natural environment can be represented by the 'Guandu International Outdoor Sculpture Festival'. Also founded in 2006 by American curator and artist Jane Ingram Allen, it is based at the Guandu Nature Park in Taipei.

I was invited to take part in the 'Art as Environment: A Cultural Action on Tropic of Cancer' by Wu Ma-li in 2007. Initially the focus was on the investigation and the preservation of historical buildings as well as the empowerment of an agricultural village where young people had gone to work in the cities rather than preserve and revitalize the village. However, engagement with the community's issues meant engagement with environmental issues, and those of industry. All are related in a very complex way.

Wu Ma-li invited American artists the Harrisons who have developed ecological art since the late 1960's to give a lecture respectively in Taipei and conduct a workshop in Dapu, Chiayi, the location of Tseng-wen reservoir. It was during the ride to Dapu with associate curator Chen Hung-Yi and art scholar Hsu Tiao-Hu, that I first heard of the relationship between the planting of beetle nut trees and the conservation of water and soil on the slopes of mountains. In the workshop, the Harrisons introduced many of their environmental works, including cases in different geographic conditions and different countries. Their concerns touched many ecological aspects such as the balance between the natural environment and human survival; as well as the struggles between industries and social ideals or needs. Taiwan ecologist Chen Yu-Feng also mentioned about the observation he got from many years of research on the vertical migration of several plants and insects in Taiwan, as indigenous evidence of the influence of global warming and climate change.

A year later, when the county government in Chiayi wanted to use big land art projects to solve the environmental problems of waste oyster shells from the local oyster farming industry, the organizer of Art as Environment: A Cultural Action on Tropic of Cancer invited two international advisers. The British artist David Haley who had worked with the Harrisons on 'Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom'(2007-9), the project that considered the effecs of climate change on Britain, had previously advised Wu Ma-li the similar situatuion of Taiwan. He was joined by American eco-art curator Patricia Watts. Both raised the perspective from a local environmental pollution issue all the way up to a global issue of climate change. It was on that occasion that the seeds of awareness of what ecological art may contribute to the problems of 'losing ground' and 'human survival' in Taiwan had been planted in my mind.

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Ecological Art and Environmental Art are two terms often used confusingly interchangeably and mixed with Land Art or Earth Art, particularly in Taiwan. It seems that any work taking one trace of Nature or making art outdoors automatically becomes Environmental Art. Even taking photos and doing paintings of creatures in Nature such as butterflies or insects then they too become eco-art! But this confusion doesn't do anything good to our understanding of eco-art or environmental art except placing new labels on the old representative tradition of Nature.

Search the Internet and you will find that Environmental Art involves a broad range of art works, from the early landscape paintings to the 1960's and 70's site-specific installation, land art and arte povera, along with today's works which emphasize the goal of 'sustainable living' and the challenge of climate change. There is a major transition which is 'Many environmental artists now desire not merely an audience for their work but a public, with whom they can correspond about the meaning and purpose of their art.' ¹

But if we look more closely into the subject, not every work mentioned above is free from iniquities. The most noteworthy example is the Spiral Jetty (1969) by American artist Robert Smithson. He used the land as canvas, a bulldozer to scrape and cut the land, impinging upon the lake, inflicting considerable permanent damage upon the landscape he worked with. ²

In the well-known environmental art website greenmuseum.org it is stated that 'In a general sense, it is art that helps improve our relationship with the natural world. There is no definition set in stone. This living worldwide movement is growing and changing as you read this. Much environmental art is ephemeral (made to disappear or transform), designed for a particular place (and can't be moved) or involves collaborations between artists and others, such as scientists, educators or community groups (distributed ownership).' ³ In other words, the contemporary development of environmental art has incorporated the concerns of environment and become a encompassing terminology to include eco-art / ecological art, ecoventions, land art, earth art, earthworks and art in nature, as well as other less used categories.

The contemporary origin of ecological art can be traced back to the 1960's when conceptual art was popular. Many of the practices 'frequently objectified the land as a medium or as a site. Far from embodying sensitivity to, or awareness of, bioregional complexity, much Land Art of the 1960s and 70s involved what we now recognise as tremendous imposition on local eco-systems. Many giant earthworks exist as monuments to the artist, a practice which critic John Grande has referred to as egocentric, rather than eco-centric' ⁴ However, the Harrisons had already taken the stance of avant-guarde interventions by making ecological art and activism. Art historian Arlene Raven says that the Harrisons 'work from their aesthetics, from which originates the impulse to restore the relationship between the physical ground and the physical humans inhabiting that ground.' They 'want to create actions that not only stand beside, but work to undo the domination and manipulation of nature in the service of man-made hierarchical systems' ⁵ Their practice of ecological art has developed from the 1960's to the present day and is, perhaps, the best example of eco-art. The Harrisons were also called the 'grandparents' of the genre.

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What on earth is 'ecological art'? I like to cite the words David Haley always uses to open his remarks during different speeches. In English, ecological art consists of two words, the 'ecology' and 'art'. From the Oxford English Dictionary - ecology: the study of organisms in relation to one another and to their surroundings, derived from the Greek word, oikos, meaning house, or dwelling. ⁶ As for art, David Haley claims that the 'art' in English is derived from the ancient Sanskrit word, 'rta',

Rta retains its meaning in contemporary Hindi as a noun-adjective for the dynamic process by which the whole cosmos continues to be created, virtuously. It refers to the right way of evolution and we still talk about excellence, or the correct way of doing something as an ‘art’ – the art of cooking, the art of football, the art of gardening, ‘The Art of Archery’, ‘The Art of Making Cities’, and even ‘The Art of War’. ⁷

In other words, for David Haley, the emphasis of art is not on its 'product', but rather its 'processes' – a dynamicly forming process of creativity. It can be presented as a poem, a performance, an action, a dialogue, a long-term project in a community or a large-scale city and regional planning. Because of this character, the expression of ecological art is quite diversified as well. Generally it can be acknowledged by the following features:

1, it is a combination of science and art, a inter-disciplinary collaboration.

2, focus on eco-systems, and not just the 'human' perspective.

3, having momentum to change, art has become the means and tools to intervene.

4, a holistic grasp of whole systems, the relations and inter-dependencies of all their elements.

From June to October 2009, the famous art gallery in London, Barbican Art Gallery, hosted a well-received exhibition 'Radical Nature: Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet 1969-2009'. The works in the exhibition include many of the important artists, architects and architect teams since 1960's, such as Ant Farm, Richard Buckminster Fuller, Joseph Beuys, Agnes Denes, Mierle Laderman Ukelese, Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson, along with the younger generation's such as Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n), Philippe Rahm and Simon Starling. Walking inside the gallery to look at the retrospective exhibition of 40 years is like, borrowing the comments from an architect, 'moving through a 3-dimensional catalogue.'

There was a reconstruction of an early work by the Harrisons in the exhibition, the 'Full Farm' from 1974. Originally, it was commissioned by the Houston Museum of Contemporary Art for its opening exhibition entitled “10”, 1974. It was intended as a possible teaching system for grade school and high school as well as having an existence as a complex installation. Entitled 'Full Farm: Survival Piece #6', the work contained Portable Orchard, Potato Farm, Flat Pastures, Upright Pastures and Worm Farm. There was neither space nor funding to add a fish farm, which would have added protein to the ensemble of fruits beans, vegetables and potatoes. ⁸

Under the impending challenge of Climate Change, the work of 'Full Farm' was recommissioned by the Barbican Art Gallery in 2009, and the Harrisons noted that the work used electrically powered light, which is not a sustainable element, but was not a consideration in the original work. This point was included in an information panel and also stated that they would "only make work that would benefit ecosystems" henceforward. David Haley discussed this in his email explaining that 'Regarding the Harrisons' piece at the Barbican, their note referred to the only element that would now be considered unsustainable was the use of electrically powered light. The rest is sustainable now and the use of electricity was not an issue when they first made the work. There are (among many others) two things to be learned here: 1. everything changes; 2. start thinking 'whole systems'. ⁹ So to speak, for serious ecological artists, the principle of examination on each work and the core spirit of ecological art is 'to benefit the ecosystems'!

In this book, I have collected seven examples of ecological art in Britain. Each one of them presents very different contents and forms, but all are based on the thinking of ecosystem. Although some people think that ecological art originated in the United States, my decision of choosing Britain as the research field has its own particular benefits and coincidence. As stated before, the 2008 International Forum of Oyster Shells Land Art in Chiayi gathered domestic and international scholars and experts from various fields to discuss the influence of climate change and how it will affect the southwest coast of Taiwan. One of the two international advisers was British artist David Haley, who was the associate artist working with the Harrisons on the project, 'Greenhouse Britain'. He also leads the MA Art As Environment Programme at Manchester Metropolitan University. We may compare the reality that Taiwan and Britain are both ocean-bound island countries, and 'Greenhouse Britain' was an important focus of my research from the beginning. Through David Haley's introduction to other important British eco-art projects, networks unfolded in a short time. For a researcher who only has a limited budget and duration to visit the country, Britain was the best choice and David Haley certainly is the best guide for this study.

Each of the seven chapters in this book represented a case study that I visited in my research trip. Each chapter is an independent case to be read. All are arranged into three categories: Water, People v.s. Community, and Activism. The first three chapters are in the 'Water' category. The first chapter is about a water system and the story of unculverting a town beck (stream) in Ulverston, in North West England, where David Haley lives. Contrasted with usual forms of urban water management, this exploratory project opened up a section of the Town Beck and revived the nature along its banks, becoming a pioneer of similar projects in Britain. As an artist, David Haley broke with some of the norms and constraints of engineering thinking and routines to set an exciting example for ecological art and water management.

Chapter Two introduces the British artist group Platform and their 25 years art practices, based in London. Their practice of eco-art began with camping in the city, getting feelings of a city as an organism with holistic understanding through the five senses, then discovering London as a financial headquarters of multi-national corporations to affect many international, political, economical, environmental, energy and human rights issues. These included stories of the rivers meandering through and under the city, and their works with many experts from different disciplines. Their work shows various forms, including walking in the city, performance, dialogue, installation, publication and workshops, presenting diverse outputs.

Chapter three introduces one of the major projects on eco-art in recent years, 'Greenhouse Britain: Losing Ground, Gaining Wisdom'. The project explores the potential effects of climate change on mainland Britain, and the opportunities for interdisciplinary collaboration with many experts. British artist David Haley invited American pioneering artists, Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison (the Harrisons) and scientists to collaborate on the issues. In the subsequent touring exhibition, the display of works presented several novel ideas and propositions based on rigorous science. Like Britain, Taiwan is an island country, facing the urgent issue of climate change, so 'Greenhouse Britain' is worth a detailed examination to gain understanding.

Chapters four and five belong to the category of People v.s. Community. Chapter four is an example of ecology and art in communities: Knowle West in Bristol, southwest England. Initiated by a long-term resident artist Carolyn Hassan who used photography to develop the goal of community empowerment, the well-received popularity and continuation of her project inspired further opportunities for art and sustainability in Knowle West.

Chapter five focuses on the concept of a city, trying to think of a properly-built process for urban planning and development by applying the ecosystem model and eco-management. Owing to the fact that it's still an on-going idea, this chapter will focus on the city of Bristol as an example, and how the artist Alan Boldon who develops and promotes 'ecological place-making and learning' built up his theoretical construction. The subsequent results will need close attention and continuous observation.

Chapter 6 and 7 are accounted as 'Activism'. Chapter 6 introduces a market town in southwest England famous for its 'Transition Town' movement and transition culture: Totnes. The 'Transition Town' movement was promoted by a Permaculture ¹⁰ teacher living in the town. Totnes was already famous for its art tradition, alternative culture and lifestyle, but in 2006 the Transition movement started, and received popular support and acknowledgments, that quickly spread to other places of the world. The aim of the movement is to develop a system of action plans, to achieve the lifestyle that is carbon-reducing and less dependent on oil, thereby increasing the resilience of cities and towns facing the impact from both the climate change caused by global warming and the depletion of oil. In other words, it is to become more self-sustaining on food production, energy use, health care, job opportunities, and economy. Since many artists reside in the town, their response to the call of the 'Transition Movement' and 'sustainable lifestyle', becomes an interesting question of how successful they have been.

Chapter seven, the last chapter of this book, is about John Jordan, an artist who is engaged in social and environmental activism. He was a co-chair of the London artists group Platform for many years, and worked on several eco-art projects. Later he left Platform to form a new group with others and took a more direct approach of walking into the crowds on streets to make the social and environmental interventions. Inheriting the experience of working with the Platform, his methods show diversity and liveliness, sometimes with a great sense of humor and irony, which demonstrates another different approach of eco-art.

All the seven chapters mentioned briefly above, stand as independent case studies within the book, but in reality they overlap. The artists of each example either know each other or have worked together, and more or less draw a network of the major trends in British ecological art. Due to the constraints of time and budget, it's impossible to collect all examples big and small in Britain. The approach in this book is my personal perspective, trying to grasp the knowledge generated by the cases which can then reflect on the issues that Taiwan now faces. Keeping my writing in plain words, I aim to bring different visions and opportunities of ecological art to the reader.

Moreover, at the end of each category there are brief introductions of ecological art practices in Taiwan from recent years and related links, which are intended to help interested readers gain further knowledge through the links on the development of eco-art in Taiwan, as well as provide comparisons to further understand the British cases in this book. Again, since Eco-art is a practice about systems and relationships, like the British examples mentioned above, the Taiwanese examples are assigned to the three different categories of 'Water', 'People v.s. Community', and 'Activism'. However, each project involves all three aspects to varying degrees.

Additionally, the Appendix has an article by David Haley entitled, 'Ecology in Practice: Art and the Deconstruction of Climate Change', which was the text of his speech in the Eco-Art Master Lecture at Treasure Hill International Artist Village, Taipei, Taiwan on December 10, 2010. The text presented a development of David Haley's thoughts on ecological art and research that introduces complexity and ecology to expand our understanding of economy. At a time when most of the public and the government officials were tangled in the dilemma of adopting either environmental protection or economic development, David Haley undertook the theme from etymology and epistemology perspectives, to deconstruct the psyche of the climate change dilemma and dispel the myth that prevent our understanding of each issue. He does this as combined form of ethics and aesthetics.

1Cited from: John Beardsley, 'Earthworks and Beyond', New York: Abbeville Press, 1998, p 127. See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_art 。

2See: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_art 、http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sustainable_art

3See: http://www.greenmuseum.org/what_is_ea.php

4See: John Grande, 'Balance: Art and Nature', Montreal: Black Rose Books, 1994. Cited from: Beth Carruthers, 'Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice and Collaboration', http://greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=263

5Arlene Raven, 'Two Lines of Site and an Unexpected Connection: The Art of Helen Mayer Harrison and Newton Harrison', in Burnham, Linda Frye and Durland, Steven, editors, 'The Citizen Artist: 20 Years of Art in the Public Arena', Gardiner, NY: Critical Press, 1998, p 69. Cited from: Beth Carruthers, 'Mapping the Terrain of Contemporary EcoART Practice and Collaboration', see: http://greenmuseum.org/generic_content.php?ct_id=263

6See: David Haley, 'A Drop in the Ocean, A Trace of Life', 2008, provided by the artist.

7David Haley, 'The Art of Complexity: from Ecology to Economy', December 10, 2010, Eco-art Master Lecture, Treasure Hill International Artist Village, Taipei. See: Appendix 1.

8See: http://theharrisonstudio.net/?page_id=222 。

9Email discussion with David Haley. June 6, 2010.

10樸門農學is the Chinese translation of 'Permaculture', which means both 'permanent agriculture' and 'permanent culture'. It is an approach to designing human settlements and agricultural systems that are modeled on the relationships found in natural ecologies, aimed to create stable, productive systems that provide for human needs, harmoniously integrating the land with its inhabitants.