ORGANIZER Orlando Museum of Art
DATES January 9 – March 21, 2010
DESCRIPTION Global warming, depleting natural resources and terrorism are just some of the daily threats and realities that we face. A relatively quiet movement promoting recycling and renewable energy sources has evolved into a major trend towards “green” living, with organic and earth-friendly products available not just in specialty retailers but in mainstream markets as well. There is no doubt this profitable trend is tapping into a larger concern on the part of humanity: it is time to alter our habits lest we cause our own demise.
Alan Weisman’s novel, The World Without Us, is an imaginative, well-researched exploration of just how nature would go about un-doing what civilization has wrought. At times frightening (think nuclear reactors leaching into the earth with no one left to tend the cooling towers) and sometimes encouraging (examples of species of birds successfully adapting to seemingly impossible conditions), Weisman’s work of fiction serves as the inspiration for this project.
Featuring significant works of art from local collections, this exhibition provided an objective look at how the natural world could encroach on our manmade landscape, and at the human will to survive and to leave a mark. Just how successful will we be when pitted against the destructive and restorative power of Mother Nature?
Artists Kristen Baker, John Baldessari, Constantine and Laurene Leon Boym, Trisha Brown, Chris Burden, Elaine deKooning, Carroll Dunham,
Angelina Gualdoni, Brad Kahlhamer, Katie Kucka, William Leavitt , Mira Lehr, Carey Maxon, Jason Middlebrook, Frank Moore, William Morris, Gary Monroe, Francis Paley, Robert Rauschenberg, Alexis Rockman, Dawn Roe, Amy Sillman, Rachel Simmons, Shanique Amie Smith, Barbara Sorensen,
Doug and Mike Starn, Anthony Waichulis,Vladimir Zbynovsky, Toots Zynsky