This week The Guardian asked artists and writers to design images of money that would be appropriate for our times. As one can imagine, numerous themes have been explored by the artists concerned. John Gray (above) and Jonathan Frantzen (below) both take up the theme of endangered species, highlighting that, once gone, they will never [...]
Archive of posts tagged extinction
Taryn Simon and Smuggled Goods
The dead bird above was labeled as “home decoration”. Photographer Taryn Simon spent 5 days at JFK Airport in New York photographing goods seized by the US postal service and the US Customs and Border Protection. She compiled over 1000 images for her series “Contraband”. Rare and threatened animal species protected through CITES – the [...]
From Vietnam to The Environment: The work of Maya Lin
Maya Lin shot to fame when, at age 21 and while still an undergraduate, she won an open competition to design the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington DC. An architect, artist and sculptor, Maya Lin has, over the last few years, turned her attention to environmental issues. WHAT IS MISSING? What Is Missing? is the [...]
Henri Rousseau for The Year of the Tiger
Henri Rousseau’s naif art paintings were mercilessly criticized during his lifetime. He struggled, and failed, to achieve acceptance by the art establishment. Within a couple of decades of this condemnation, his art was hanging in the world’s leading museums. So much for the establishment. Rousseau was fascinated by jungles and the environment they produce. His [...]
Amazonia – Lucy + Jorge Orta at the Natural History Museum, London
One of the most exciting things about this exhibition is that the Natural History Museum (MNH) has established a contemporary arts programme – of which this exhibition is a part. It is both encouraging and exciting that the NHM, traditionally focused on science, didactic education and on its collections, is leading the way – supplementing [...]
Turning Back The Clock – Harri Kallio and the Dodo
I have often wondered what the now extinct dodo bird looked like when it was still around and roaming in the wild. Harri Kallio has tried to give us an insight into this lost-forever part of our world with his series “The Dodo and Mauritius Island” Kallio undertook extensive research into the dodo, what it [...]
