2013

Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth

Works

The exhibition takes its title from an IHT book review of the biography of environmentalist Rachel Carson. With the release of her own book ‘Silent Spring’ (1962), focus was on the indiscriminate use of pesticides, which she artfully linked to radioactive fallout in order to raise awareness to the changing practices of industrial agriculture. Both were invisible, acutely toxic, mutagenic and had effects that could last for generations. The main chemical singled out by Carson was DDT; the book subsequently resulted in its being banned in the U.S.

 

 

The artworks developed for this exhibition explore the potential mystical properties of the chemical, in an environment of historical dioramas with as much documentative credibility as fantasy. To elaborate; in the process of gathering archival photographs for the works, strange parallels began to arise between the media aesthetics of the period in the banning of DDT, and that of the Prohibition Era. The works are therefor developed with the sensibility that if the chemical was such a focus of negative attention, it must be good for something – perhaps as a form or inebriation.*

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
installation overview

Expanding molecular models become fumes which emanate from laboratory bottles, whilst a huge cross bearing bronze renderings of Carson spins in the background. A constellation of propped and fallen books forms a maquette to become an extract of Stone Henge, a gesture suggesting ‘Silent Spring’ to be a moment of evolution, now only token and shelved.

 

*The ‘Mickey Slim’ was a drink that had short-lived popularity in the United States in the 1940s and 1950s. According to the The Dedalus Book of Absinthe by Phil Baker, it was made by combining gin with a pinch of DDT (also known as dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane).

'Rotating Rachel'
rotating bronze and asebo schulpture: four bronzes, pier wood and electronics

'Rotating Rachel'
rotating bronze and asebo schulpture: four bronzes, pier wood and electronics

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

(cavity 1 of 3 in trypich)

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

(cavity 2 of 3 in trypich)

'Passionate Advocate for a Poisoned Earth'
archival photographs, bottles, steel, and fibonacci-style expanding model of ddt in multiplex cavity

(cavity 3 of 3 in trypich)

'Silent Spring as Stone Henge'
various editions of silent spring on geometric pedestal

'The Relationship between Colourbred Canaries and DDT Packaging'
stuffed canary, acrylic and mounted inkjet print on canvas 94 x 26 x 12 cm

'The Relationship between Colourbred Canaries and DDT Packaging'
stuffed canary, acrylic and mounted inkjet print on canvas 94 x 26 x 12 cm

'The Relationship between Colourbred Canaries and DDT Packaging'
stuffed canary, acrylic and mounted inkjet print on canvas 94 x 26 x 12 cm

'The Relationship between Colourbred Canaries and DDT Packaging'
stuffed canary, acrylic and mounted inkjet print on canvas 94 x 26 x 12 cm

'The Relationship between Colourbred Canaries and DDT Packaging'
stuffed canary, acrylic and mounted inkjet print on canvas 94 x 26 x 12 cm