Defining the Anthropocene and its Artwork

Before delving into the topic of Anthropocene art, it is important to understand what is meant by the term “Anthropocene.” While the exact timeframe of when the Anthropocene began is very controversial with starting dates ranging from the discovery of fire to the 1950s, what the Anthropocene entails is generally understood as the environmental changes caused by humanity. These environmental effects are typically extremely damaging and range from “mass extinctions of plant and animal species, [to] polluted…oceans [to the] altered…atmosphere” (Stromberg).

However, in his essay “Scale Critique for the Anthropocene,” writer Derek Woods contends that while the Anthropocene is based on “observations of humanoid influence in the molecular makeup of the biosphere…[s]cale critique shows that the subject of the Anthropocene is nonhuman” (Woods, 134). He argues that instead of the Anthropocene focusing solely on humanity, the subject of this new geological epoch should, in fact, be assigned to “the sum of terraforming assemblages composed of humans, nonhuman species, and technics” (Woods, 134). Therefore, the very nature of the Anthropocene “names the disempowerment of human beings in relation to terraforming assemblages that draw much of their agency from nonhumans” (Woods, 134). ​

As a result of this new understanding of the Anthropocene, the art of the Anthropocene must also be re-examined. Writer Gabriella Giannachi explores a new perspective on Anthropocene art in her article “Representing, Performing, and Mitigating Climate Change in Contemporary Art Practice.” Giannachi proposes that Anthropocene artists utilize at least one of the three following strategies in their artwork: “[r]epresentations [for] emphasizing visualization and communication; [p]erformance environments [for] emphasizing immersion and experience; [i]nterventions [for] emphasizing mitigation and behavioral change” (Giannachi, 125). She argues that any combination of these ideas can be successful in terms of achieving the individual artist’s goals for their artwork. Giannachi offers an example of “intertextual and intermedial forms” that could be integrated to create notable and unique pieces. Her example is the combination of “modernist uses of ‘shock’ with romantic notions of the ‘sublime’ and postmodernist discourses on trace and erasure” (Giannachi, 131) in order to devise a novel piece of Anthropocene art.

David Maisel: Artist of the Anthropocene

The best illustration of the definition of Anthropocene art mentioned earlier is the work of aerial photographer David Maisel. His work features the negative environmental impacts of human development and progress. Maisel’s work adheres to the proposed definition as he is able to capture the overwhelmingly massive scope of the destruction caused by deforestation, mining, and other environmentally-degrading activities. He then compiles his work into collections that range from 20 to 30 photographs on average.

In order to successfully get the right angle for his photographs, Maisel “hires a local pilot to take him up in a [plane]...and then…from 500 to 11,000 feet in altitude, he cues the pilot to bank the plane” (Gambino) so that he can have a properly-leveled shot. Maisel details more of this process as well as his mission in a recent interview with KQED Arts. The goal Maisel hopes to accomplish with his photography is to simply show what effects human development has had on the surrounding environments without offering a possible solution to the catastrophic damage. Maisel’s goal fits with Giannachi’s first proposed artistic strategy of representation that focuses on starting a conversation about the negative impacts of climate change on the earth.

In this overview of Maisel as an artist of the Anthropocene, the following three of Maisel’s photography collections will be examined: “Terminal Mirage,” “The Mining Project,” and “The Forest.”

Terminal Mirage

In “Terminal Mirage,” Maisel features the region surrounding the Great Salt Lake in Utah. Over time, the area has been utilized for a variety of development projects, which has resulted in dramatically altered landscapes. The majority of the images in the “Terminal Mirage” depict the damages caused by mineral evaporation ponds. As shown in the pictures, the multi-colored liquids are actually natural water sources that have been acidified as a consequence of the industrial pollution. In Maisel’s description of the scenery, he equates the land’s transformation into a gridlike pattern to the creation of a “new map” (“Works”). This new network is created as “[p]revious scars are covered over, and cycles of negation and erasure expand into a grid system overlaid on the barren lake” (“Works”).

However, one of the photographs in “Terminal Mirage” highlights a different use of the land around the Great Salt Lake. Just a few miles away from the lake, Maisel photographed “a munitions storage facility [that] hous[es] nearly 30 million pounds of aging mustard gas and nerve agents” (Helfand). There are at least 900 storage units on the land, with Maisel describing their appearance as if they were “a Donald Judd installation or…some kind of suburban housing’” (Helfand).

The Mining Project

“The Mining Project” is of a similar nature to “Terminal Mirage” as it mainly focuses on other damaged water sources. This collection, as the name suggests, features the effects of mining in Montana and Arizona. One of the major impacts on the surrounding landscapes is caused by “the calamitous practice of cyanide and sulfuric acid heap leaching, [which is] employed to extract microscopic particles of precious metals from mined ore, which…permit[s] these deadly solutions to contaminate surrounding groundwater” (“Works”). As with “Terminal Mirage,” the photographs of “The Mining Project” emphasize this acidification of local water sources.

Maisel also includes a few photographs of the more visible human impacts on the environment in the form of the open pit mines. In his explanation of the series, Maisel details the history of mining practices in the United States and abroad and the lack of federal regulation that would work to protect the environment from these projects. However, he also concedes that the consumerist nature of the modern world, as well as his own work, are indebted to the minerals extracted from the earth and the destructive processes used in such extraction (“Works”).

The Forest

Out of all of Maisel’s collections, “The Forest” is definitely one of the most compelling. It features the remains of a clear-cut forest in Maine as Maisel photographs “log flows in…rivers and lakes" (Gambino). As the photographs were taken aerially per Maisel’s usual style, the fallen trees appear to the viewer as twigs or matchsticks lying on the ground. However, the altitude at which Maisel has taken the pictures truly captures the overwhelming scope of just how much of the forest has been decimated. The destruction was caused by “‘whole-tree harvester[s]’” that make “the scale…nearly impossible to decipher” (“Works”). In addition to his photographs, Maisel often includes a related essay that reflects the content of his collections. For “The Forest,” Maisel used writer Kirsten Rian’s essay “The Language of Logging.”

In Rian’s essay, she refers to several of the individual photographs from “The Forest” in order to provide concrete visual cues for her descriptive narration. She describes “[t]he images…[as] a finger across a scab of earth, across the vacancy of what’s left” (Rian). Part of Rian’s essay compares older methods of deforestation to the more efficient, albeit highly destructive, techniques utilized today. She writes that “[i]n the old days it was saws and axes,” but now it is “[d]elimber slasher buncher multifunction machines [and] clam-bunk skidder loaders” (Rian). She recognizes not just the technological shift, but also the linguistic change in the terms used for describing the deforestation methods when she writes that there are now “[s]o many words, the politics of the sound of destruction; of misplaced power; of floating, dead trees” (Rian). This description holds true for not only the decimated forests of Maine but also for the environment at large.

To view more of David Maisel's collections, click here.

Sources

Gambino, Megan. “The Strange Beauty of David Maisel's Aerial Photographs.” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 26 Apr. 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/the-strange-beauty-of-david-maisels-aerial-photographs-43093531/

Giannachi, Gabriella. “Representing, Performing and Mitigating Climate Change in Contemporary Art Practice.” Leonardo, vol. 45, no. 2, 2012, pp. 124–131., doi:10.1162/leon_a_00278.

Helfand, Glen. “Death from above: How David Maisel Turned 'the New Area 51' into Land Art.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 5 May 2017, www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2017/may/05/david-maisel-photography
Rian, Kirsten. “The Language of Logging.” Essays, David Maisel,

www.davidmaisel.com/essays/the-language-of-logging/

Stromberg, Joseph. “What Is the Anthropocene and Are We in It?” Smithsonian.com, Smithsonian Institution, 1 Jan. 2013, www.smithsonianmag.com/science-nature/what-is-the-anthropocene-and-are-we-in-it-164801414/
Woods, Derek. “Scale Critique for the Anthropocene.” The Minnesota Review, vol. 2014, no. 83, Jan. 2014, pp. 133–142., doi:10.1215/00265667-2782327.

“Works.” David Maisel, http://davidmaisel.com/works/