Observed Structures, 2019 -
Photo credit: Xavier McInally, 2019
Photo credit: Steve Mardon, 2019.
Even among artists who are advocates of climate change activism and explore this through the lense of contemporary art making, there are still issues concerning the measurable benefits of activities associated with awareness raising and inciting of social change. Such inclinations, while admirable, are often caught up in a pervasive eco-art language based on naturalism or an edifying didacticism, which can be limiting in both effect and affect. There seems something quite complicit in attempting to make contemporary art as a kind of cultural capital which addresses anthropogenic climate change. To alleviate this tension, Eyles refers to Kleinian notions of ambivalence, and references Susan Best’s explicit framework which insists on acknowledging attempts of repair, or to account for situations where repair cannot or has not been reversed. In Observed Structures, the ubiquitous gabion cage is framed as a redeeming, ambivalent structure imposed into the landscape. These cages are filled with a kind of stone aggregate, often as well as cement rubble, “murderous part-objects” into which “something like a whole” is formed.
Photo Credit: Cody Wood, 2020.