Earth WORKS: Ten Artists on Land and Industry

Earth WORKS
Ten Artists on Land and Industry

George Boorujy, Gary Colclough, Blue Curry, Micah Ganske, The Institute of Critical Zoologists, Jess Littlewood, Colette Robbins, Bill Smith, Viktor Timofeev, Letha Wilson

Curated by Anneliis Beadnell and Stuart Morrison

June 28th – July 27th, 2012
Opening Reception: Thursday, June 28, 6-8pm

P.P.O.W is proud to present ten artists in the exhibit Earth WORKS. In a series of different reactions and interventions the artists present their exploratory vision, contributing to the contemporary discussion of our changing environment and how we interact with our surroundings. 

Throughout history humans have recorded their environment and in turn used these observations to both analyze the past and to form ideas of a future. George Boorujy'smassive depiction of a bison, Bellow Black Diamond, and The Institute of Critical Zoologist's photo of a slumbering Iriamondi Cat poised in a developed salt mine; use the plight of a single creature as a symbol for a wavering environment alienated by industry. 

Images are spliced together, objects placed and ideas are merged to depict 'Earth' in a variety of majestic and intimate forms. Industrial concrete crashes against a photograph of an ephemeral landscape in Letha Wilson's Altogether at Once while utilitarian functions are lost and symbolic reverence is suggested through the bean covered tires of Blue Curry's, Untitled.

Within this reworking and transformation layers of information are created, erased and overwritten, establishing visions of society that are situated between the unknown and the familiar. Uncanny histories and narratives are formed in The Sentinel by Colette Robbins,Jess Littlewood's After the Battle and Gary Colclough's Elsewhere Elsewhere, all of which discuss the fragility of the earth and, indeed, our own brief passage across its changing face.

Works by Micah Ganske and Viktor Timofeev speak of aspirational futures and how technology continues to enlighten our surroundings. Bill Smith's installation, Graphyne, speaks of a world where our biological existence melds with our mechanical and electronic creations. Through these visual interventions, utopian and dystopian ideals challenge the desire for innovation in a technology that is both eco-friendly and sustainable for prospective communities. 

Through the many manifestations of documentation, specific histories and potential futures, visions are formed that act as timely metaphors toward the evolution of our relationship with land and industry. The artists in Earth WORKS show how the desire to intervene and examine these relationships simultaneously illuminates the casualties of the present while igniting a promise for the future. 

George Boorujy (lives and works in Brooklyn, NY; represented by P.P.O.W, New York); Gary Colclough (lives and works in London, UK); Blue Curry (lives and works in London and Nassau; represented by toomer labzda, New York); Micah Ganske (lives and works in New York; represented by RH Gallery, New York); The Institute of Critical Zoologist (lives and works in London and Singapore); Jess Littlewood (lives and works in London); Colette Robbins (lives and works in New York); Bill Smith (lives and works in Illinois; represented by P.P.O.W, New York); Viktor Timofeev (lives and works in London; represented by Hannah Barry Gallery, London); Letha Wilson (lives and works in Brooklyn, NY).