Carbon Ecologies Carlton Hotel and Studios, Melbourne, Australia, October, 2008
Carbon Ecologies was a micro-survey of carbon projects realised over the previous ten years and including five new projects. The exhibition was timed to coincide with the first in the “Carbon Cycle” of works, executed over the spring equinox in 1998. This was the first of numerous works in various countries focussing on carbon related ecologies, materials, and systems in art and non-art contexts. These project, some of which were re-presented in the 'Carbon Ecologies" exhibition, looked at deforestation, the coal industry, charcoal production, alternative energy, and climate change as well as questioning the role of artists and their activities in realtion to environmental issues.
The centre piece of the exhibition was an installation “Brown Out”; a simulated coal face, using brown coal from the Mattingley coal mine near Bacchus Marsh. Brown coal burnt in real time to generated the electricity which lit the exhibition. In addition a reprisal of the 1999 piece “Carbon Cycle 2” was installed, this time using black as well as brown coal. A series of photographs documenting the interface of carbon management and consumption in different countries, and a number of painted works around carbon, such as series of paintings commissioned by a signwriter in Phnom Penh, were also shown. Videos documenting oil spills and coal mining were also screened. >>>download the pdf for more information
