In their exhibition statement, the curators of the multimedia exhibition Ecstatic Land describe having been inspired by the etymology of the word ecstatic — the Greek ekstasis means “to stand outside oneself.” According to curators Daisy Nam and Dean Daderko, “In nature, and particularly in the vast expanses of the desert, one can experience physical contact with the earth while being emotionally and psychologically transported elsewhere.” This sort of elsewhere, however, is not necessarily another physical location. For each of the artists included in the exhibition, deep immersion in their environments has caused inner and outer landscapes to merge. “Nature” comes clearly into view as a state of entanglement between the experiencer and the experienced.

The works included in Ecstatic Land invite us to suspend any perceived sense of individual boundary, and to become part of the landscape. This purview contrasts starkly with US and European art historical movements of the 19th and 20th centuries that objectified the surface of the earth, either by literally sculpting it or by portraying it as a scene to be gazed upon by a removed observer.

But land-inspired art in an age when huge swaths of our shared world are being clear cut, mined, drilled, and desertified is something else altogether. The luxury of detached observation does not exist at a time in which art becomes most meaningful when defaced in acts of despair and defiance against the meaningless of art on a dead planet, while multi-billionaires, desperate to save only themselves, build rockets to Mars.

Η συνέχεια εδώ.