PHOTO:On Earth-Imaging, Technology and the Natural World

Since its inception, photography has testified to the paradoxical relationship between man, nature and technology. In the wake of great nineteenth-century landscape photographers, a new generation of artists is employing contemporary imaging techniques to document and question our relationship with the natural world – which is increasingly experienced through the very same imaging technologies they employ. Photography enables us to observe this world and the effects of our existence in it. But can it also function as a catalyst for alternative ways of engaging with our environment?

By Dimitris Lempesis
Photo: Foam Archive

The exhibition “On Earth – Imaging, Technology and the Natural World” brings together the work of 25 contemporary artists who use innovative imaging strategies to reflect on the evolving relationship between humans and nature. Besides photography, the artists make use of installation, sculpture, in-game photography and video. With a few exceptions, image-makers no longer traverse the land – camera in hand – to document their surroundings. Photographers such as Thomas Albdorf, Drew Nikonowicz and Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács employ social media, image search engines, Google Maps, virtual reality and other visual tools to unpick our increasingly mediated and screen-based experience of the landscape. The inherent interconnectedness between (imaging) technology and the our experience of the natural landscape becomes apparent in the work of Mark Dorf and Lucas Foglia, who prove that our definition of what constitutes nature is largely dependent on human engineering. The power of the image to evidence (or obscure) the devastating effects of human engagement with the land is explored by artists such as Matthew Brandt and Anouk Kruithof, while artists such as Melanie Bonajo and Adam Jeppesen present alternative ways of connecting to nature. The various visual approaches diverge and converge throughout the exhibition, showing how artists seek to both scrutinise and reconcile our technological, socio-economical, spiritual and political connection with the world. Confusing or “shifting perceptions” of photography is a regular theme in Thomas Albdorf’s work as his “main interest focuses on photography and sculpture – in particular, the intersection area between both practicesUsing objects in a sculptural context is a key subject in the photographer’s most recent series. Jonathas de Andrade works with installation, photography, and video to explore constructs of love and the process of urbanization, with particular emphasis on Brazil’s vibrant but often overlooked northeast region. His 2013 work “Posters for the Museum of the Man of the Northeast” (Cartazes para o Museu do Homem do Nordeste) is a series of (fake) posters for the Museum of the Man of the Northeast, an anthropological institution founded in 1979 in the city of Recife. Jeremy Ayer defines his practice as an exploration of image making. Jeremy Ayer’s images are about souvenirs or memories of certain places or actions. He thinks of them as visual echoes. There is something very intimate and familiar about these images but it is not shown overtly. It is alluded to in ways that makes the viewer start thinking of what it could be. He wishes to trigger this mechanism in a visual art form. Fabio Barile’s work is mainly focused on the study of landscape, with particular attention to geology, that has now become the subject of intensive independent investigation. He started this photographic research in 2005 with a project about coastal erosion that affects 1500 km of the Italian coastline. Melanie Bonajo exams the paradoxes inherent in our future-based ideas of comfort. Through her photographs, performances, videos and installations Bonajo examines subjects related to progress that remove from the individual a sense of belonging and looks at how technological advances and commodity-based pleasures increase feelings of alienation within the individual. Captivated by concepts of the divine, she explores the spiritual emptiness of her generation, examines peoples’ shifting relationship with nature and tries to understand existential questions by looking at our domestic situation, idea’s around classification, concepts of home, gender and attitudes towards value. Calling his approach “a little bit messy and experimental,” Matthew Brandt produces large-scale photographs through labor-intensive processes recalling the 19^th Century origins of photography, often incorporating the physical matter of the subject itself. Attuned to the history of his medium—and its resolute physicality—and inspired by classical American landscape photographs, Brandt traverses the West, photographing and collecting material samples from nature and cities. Like early inventors Louis-Jacques-Mandé Daguerre and William Henry Fox Talbot, Brandt revels in the alchemy of image making, experimenting with the effects of various materials on the development process. He has produced rainbow-washed pictures of lakes by soaking them in their own water, and photographs of swarms of sparkling honeybees incorporating the bodies of the bees themselves. Through his work, Brandt poses a fundamental question about his magical-seeming medium: what is a photograph? In his work Adam Jeppesen searches for the silence in desolate landscapes and the physical elements the artist surrenders to. The images of remote, rugged landscapes are suffused with a sense of tranquillity, reflection and contemplation. Jeppesen’s work is a search for spirituality, which is found in seclusion, but it also addresses the materiality and transience of the photograph as an object. The journey has left visible traces and blemishes on the photographs. The art works are beyond the traditional experience of space and time, nevertheless they serve as a confirmation for certain moments that nevertheless appear as the enigmatic presentation of a distorted reality. He is interested in the aesthetic value of the imperfect elements, the search for balance between purity, perfection and the damaged portion therein – the physical vestiges and imprints, which are so easily left behind and so seldom examined. The studio is an equally important part of this process as the journey itself. Troika is a collaborative contemporary art group formed by Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel in 2003. With a particular interest in the subjective and objective readings of reality and the various relationships we form with technology, they investigate the ways in which the digital world informs and crosses over into the physical one and how technological advancement influences our relationship with the world and with each other. Guido van der Werve is a Dutch filmmaker and artist. He is best known for his video documented performances in which he pushes his own body to the limits; physically testing his endurance, exhaustion and perseverance. Scenes of the artist standing on the North Pole for 24 hours, completing a 1500 kilometer triathlon, setting himself on fire, or being hit by a car on full speed are examples of his extreme actions, that are accompanied by his own musical compositions.

Participating artists: Thomas Albdorf, Jonathas de Andrade, Jeremy Ayer, Fabio Barile, Melanie Bonajo, Matthew Brandt, Persijn Broersen & Margit Lukács, Raphaël Dallaporta, Mark Dorf, Lucas Foglia, Noémie Goudal, Mishka Henner, Femke Herregraven, Benoît Jeannet, Adam Jeppesen, Wang Juyan, Anouk Kruithof, Mårten Lange, Awoiska van der Molen, Drew Nikonowicz, Mehrali Razaghmanesh, Guillaume Simoneau, Troika (Eva Rucki, Conny Freyer and Sebastien Noel), Maya Watanabe and Guido van der Werve.

Info: Foam, Keizersgracht 609, Amsterdam, Day & Hours: Mon-Wed & Sat-Sun 10:00-18;00, Thu-Fri 10:00-21:00, www.foam.org

In line with the guidelines of the Central Government concerning the coronavirus, Foam will be temporarily closed until further notice.