The exhibition Environmentally Concerned is organized around two constellations of art works. The section of the exhibition Concerning Nature addresses the natural environment highlighting the social and political aspects circumscribed by ecological awareness. The category of the natural environment is a consequence of naming and classification based on Enlightenment developments of science. The genealogy of the natural sciences is traced in Michel Foucault's The Order of Things. Foucault writes, "natural history is nothing more than the nomination of the visible." The section Concerning Environments investigates the concept that in creating installations and offering alternative spaces artists challenge our behaviors, perceptions and observations within such sites. Henri Lefebvre locates the political aspect of surrounding environments in The Production of Space. For Lefebvre, space is never a neutral site but rather it is a site of political and social power-this aspect is addressed in Concerning Environments. The dialectic relationship that is established between the concept of the natural environment (nature) and the artist's experimentation with alternative spaces (constructed space) is the focus of this exhibition. This dialectic allows for further inquiry into how space is experienced within everyday life and demands strategies for the activation of environments.
Artists in this exhibition who have consistently examined nature and the resulting consequences of man's interaction with the natural environment are: Mark Dion, Ming Fay, David Nyzio, Rapid Response, Christy Rupp and Accra Shepp. Some artists traverse both categories. Artists in this exhibition who create or alter environments include: Laura Anderson Barbata, Mark Dion, Ming Fay, Catherine Owens, Ga Hae Park, Gunther Selichar, Oona Stern, Sandy Skoglund, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, and Paul Wong.
Curator: Karen E. Jones for Dieu Donne Paper Mill
Artists:
Laura Anderson Barbata
Mark Dion
Ming Fay
Felix Gonzalez-Torres
David Nyzio
Catherine Owens