Environmental consciousness includes people with the same set of values. People who care about natural habitats and use renewable resources. Humans can act for the sake of nature and can put others ahead of themselves. But what about the people who do not act for the planet's best interests? Can art be part of the change? Here artists write about these issues, in a creative way.

Resident Artist - Micheala Hall

Nature’s palette

Environmental consciousness is growing for many different people in many ways but when we think of being environmentally conscious – art may not first come to mind. We most likely think of making sure we separate our recycling or buy food that isn’t wrapped in plastic. However, there’s a lot more to being environmentally conscious than telling others how they should live their lives and do better for the planet. Yes, this is important, but there is another element to this which is drawing on natural resources to highlight what we’re trying to save. Rather than creating works that illustrate what is going wrong – some artists have chosen to use nature’s palette itself to create beautiful artworks that inspire others to admire and re-focus.

Hungarian artist Agnes Denes did just this with her ‘Wheatfields’ installation in 1982. Denes is known for working across a variety of mediums with a curious mind that sees her work exploring everything from science and philosophy to language. In this instance, the artist is exploring our relationships with the planet in terms of how we prioritise our relationships. The installation consisted of two acres of wheat planted and harvested on the Battery Park landfill in Manhattan, New York. This location was importantly only two blocks from Wall Street and the financial district of the city, a place focused on commerce and the artificial. The land itself was worth 4.5 billion at the time and therefore, Denes’ action to plant wheat in the space wasn’t only a statement to contradict its surroundings. It was also a plea for passers-by to witness the natural beautiful spectacle of such a dense wheat field in the middle of a city that is also worth a lot – to remind those in an area perhaps distracted, to assess their thinking towards nature and the planet.

Similar to wheatfields, you may not initially think grass can be powerful or exciting. Artists Heather Ackroyd and Dan Harvey are changing this. For over a decade artists have been using grass to create living artworks that are a spectacle and make us think again about the power of nature over the manmade. They do this by using grass as a canvas and living photographic images. They take advantage of the light sensitivity of the newly grown grass and imprint photographs onto it so that the image becomes sharper as each grass tip grows. Of course, unlike a traditional material canvas, grass doesn’t last forever, and this makes the image and beauty even more precious and special and highlights the joy of witnessing the artwork. A prominent message about the precious nature of our planet. The works are often very large in scale and stand out for all the right reasons in their industrial exhibition spaces.

What these works have in common is that they are created from something in nature that is overlooked as unimportant or mundane. In their transformation in these works into new environments, they possess the power to reconnect viewers with earth in a new and unexpected way that re-opens the mind to the possibilities of the natural materials that our planet produces. The artists give us the gift of dedicated time to be environmentally conscious and aware – something that is sparse in our fast-moving contemporary world.

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Artist name - Peter Devonald

BIO -
Peter Devonald is a Manchester poet and screenwriter. Over 50 poems published in anthologies/ zines/ galleries including in 2022: Artists Responding To…, Dear Politicians: Ecopoetry Anthology, Forget-Me-Not Press, Dirigible Balloon, and haus-a-rest Deconstruction/ Tiny/ Dada. Heart of the Heatons best poetry winner 2021. Appeared in Tender Stems group show and Chronically Online/ Culturable/ Layered Onion group show. Featured in The Poetic Map of Reading. Screenwriting: Children’s Bafta-nominated, Gold Remi WorldFest Houston winner and formerly senior judge/mentor Peter Ustinov Awards (iemmys).
www.scriptfirst.comIG:@peterdevonald
FB: https://www.facebook.com/pdevonald
Twitter: https://twitter.com/petedevonald

poem -

BEFORE AFTER THE TIPPING POINT -

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Conscious Environment by artist Noel Molloy - studied at Limerick School of Art and Design 1978 – 1982, has a Degree in Fine Art 1982. Works in sculpture/mixed media and performance art. He has exhibited and created performances extensively throughout Ireland, Western and Eastern Europe, and the U.S.A. https://www.noelmolloyart.com/about.html

WHEN IS A THUG NOT A THUG…

Japanese anemone (A. x hybrida): Late summer/early autumn flowers in shades of white and pink these perennials, are also called garden thugs. They will invade the space of neighboring plants, taking nutrients from the soil as they go - and it's extremely difficult to totally eradicate them.
Species of animal, plant and insect are being genetically modified for pleasure or to combat pests, is this interfering with the natural order of things and creating problems for the future.
Or is it, given our capacity to invent/create a natural process also. Some would believe there is untold damage being done or is the so called invasive species activities part of our evolution. invasive species is defined as “a. species that is non-native to the ecosystem under. consideration and whose introduction causes or is likely. to cause economic or environmental harm or harm to. human health.”

As we traversed the pandemic lockdowns we became prisoners of our environment, prevented from leaving our homes some of us became more aware of our living spaces be it an apartment, house or wherever we live. Some fortunate to have a garden could escape from the four walls of their space and interact with the wider environment while others invented ways of escaping their confinement. The space we occupy became more heightened in our consciousness and led to revamps; redecoration etc. new uses were developed to combat the isolation. Our environment became our safety blanket our guard against the invasion of covid and a safe haven. We will not look at our environment in the same way again and treat it with the respect it deserves. Social media provided an escape into the wider environment of galleries, museums etc. never had there being more interest in the Arts before. I was informed by some friends the postings on social media of my work old and new sustained them through the lockdown. New interests were discovered, working environments changed or abandoned in favor of life style changes with ambitions to be realized. The rediscovery of my immediate environment and researching some plants in my garden which are invasive is to me a metaphor of our vulnerability and our mortality. I wonder when talking to people and they remark how the pandemic was a reminder of simpler times, no sounds of traffic on the roads or airplanes in the sky and having a heightened awareness of their surroundings such as air free of traffic fumes or hearing the birds singing or the simple activity of walking in the countryside will they continue to discover that simplicity or slide back into the norm if there ever was such a thing as normal before. We need to continue to change to realize we are made of the same stuff and just because we can and do for our own profit, we need to stop the exploitation.

WHEN IS A THUG NOT A THUG…

DESCRIPTION
Japanese anemone (A. x hybrida): Late summer/early autumn flowers in shades of white and pink these perennials, are also called garden thugs. They will invade the space of neighboring plants, taking nutrients from the soil as they go - and it's extremely difficult to totally eradicate them.

MEDIUM
found object/ plastic and metal sculpture

PRICE
1500 euro

YEAR
2022