Forces of Nature: New Perspectives on Art and Changing Environments

This paper looks at the respective practices of Ilya Dolgov (b. 1984, Voronezh, USSR; lives and works in San Diego, USA) and Kerem Ozan Bayraktar (b. 1984, Istanbul, Turkiye; lives and works in Istanbul). Inspired by Bruno LaTour’s notion of “crowding” of our lives by “[s]pokespeople, machines, instruments, characters, angels, manufactured objects”, and complex landscapes of neoliberal modernisation in Post-Soviet Russia and Turkiye, both artists independently arrive at unique crossings of technology and gardening.

For the last five years, Ilya Dolgov has been developing sciaponics, part philosophical treatise, part gardening manual, based on the notion of ‘shadow’ plants that survive beyond the requirements of proper decorative or agricultural cultivation. Dolgov’s spatial practice has consequently moved away from the conventions of the white cube towards a private lab/social club environment that fosters dialogue beyond the categories and hierarchies of art.

In his installations and experiments with generative AI imagery, Kerem Ozan Bayraktar looks to construct and design “green” spaces that allow for multiple uses and display an intertwining of various functionalities. Inspired by cybernetics and recent ecological thinking, Bayraktar finds “[s]imilarities between biological replication and self-replication of cultural spaces”, as María Inés Plaza Lazo notes in her review of the artist’s practice. In their advance toward a meta-position vis-a-vis the artworld frameworks, the artists present a novel way of thinking on ecology, plants, and the future of interaction between organic lifeforms.

This paper will reflect on Abbas Akhavan’s 2022 exhibition study for a garden at Mount Stuart on the Isle of Bute. It will address three broad areas; reading Akhavan’s work ecologically; the artist embedded onsite and the practicalities of sustainable art and exhibiting practice on a Scottish island.

Akhavan’s work is breathtakingly beautiful, but with the precision of a butterfly’s proboscis it probes the relationship between humans and non-humans and our navigated routes through and with nature. This paper will pull back some of the layers in this particular exhibition to reveal the depth of the artist’s enquiry into interconnectedness.

Mount Stuart’s invitation to commissioned artists is to respond to an aspect of the house, its history, collections and grounds. Customarily, there will be a handful of site and research visits between initial meeting and exhibition install. This is not Akhavan’s chosen methodology. Rather, he arrives on location and embeds himself in all aspects of a place; striving for a dwelling perspective in a condensed period of time. This paper will discuss the implications and outcomes of this approach.

In the poem Akhavan commissioned for the exhibition publication, Gerry Loose wrote “all things flowing upwards”. These words provide a neat starting point for this paper’s reflections on the challenges of adopting sustainable practices in making art. In conclusion, the paper will demonstrate how these areas are themselves interconnected and speculate as to how Akhavan’s practice and methodologies will be manifest in the Canadian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale.

The painting Polder Het Grootslag shows a very early imagination of a ‘typical’ Dutch polder landscape, in which all kinds of human and nonhuman activities can be discovered. Some 300 years before, however, this area was a large peatland that rose high above sea level. Peat had been one of the most important earth-shaping forces in the creation of the Dutch landscape. And yet, this formative chapter in the history of the landscape itself has not been visualised in historical artworks.

For the upcoming exhibition on landscape at the Rijksmuseum, planned for 2027, Kantelberg is researching ways in which we can give voice to this multitude of non-human forces that have been constituting the landscape alongside humans.

The Rijksmuseum is the Dutch national museum of art and history. Its collection spans from the Middle Ages to the 21st century and predominantly revolves around human histories. However, the history and temporality of landscape is not bound to human imagination and time.

In this paper Kantelberg will explore the potential of integrating archaeological and geological objects, such as stratigraphic profiles and soil samples, as carriers of non-human (hi)stories and aesthetics. In particular, she believes that exhibiting these objects in combination with artworks might enable us to move beyond the much debated nature-culture dichotomy and to visualise a more integrated narrative of the landscape as a living whole. In this way, we can do justice to the interconnectedness of human and non-human (hi)stories that together constitute the landscape.

How can the field of astronomical photography, viewed through the lens of new materialism, alter our collective perception of ecology? How does the coalescence of astronomy and materiality alter our perception of analogue photographic processes?

In this time of ecological catastrophe, it is important to readdress our tangible, material connection with the universe and our planet. By analysing this interaction between astronomy, new materialism, and photography, new insights are provided on how this convergence of theories alters our understanding of the natural world. The thesis demonstrates the interconnectedness between the universe, humans and photographic materiality. It discusses the importance of investigating the materials that we use daily, with a specific focus on waste produced by the photographic industry.

Analogue astronomical photography uniquely allows us to understand the intimate connection between the cosmos and the earthbound. Silver is found in distant stars, yet it can be mined from the depths of our Earth and used to create photographic images. Calcium is also found within stars such as our Sun, yet it is also a building block of bones and teeth, which can then be processed to make gelatin. In this text, King draws upon her own reflective practice; she has taken long exposure photographs of the stars in international dark sky locations and observatories. The methodology of this practice-based research is informed by Donna Haraway and Melody Jue, who advocate for an embodied experience of landscape. This research builds on Donald Schön’s concept of reflective knowledge. King discusses photographic artists working in and with the landscape, including Garry Fabian Miller and Susan Derges.

This presentation delves into the forces of nature through the lens of early ecologically oriented art, focusing on the pioneering work of Joan Jonas (born 1936, New York City), a key figure in the development of performance, video, and installation art.

By analysing her seminal film entitled Wind (1968), Mueller will explore the inherent dynamic interplay between bodies, environmental forces, and cosmological thinking that unfolds within a minimalist landscape on the shores of a Long Island beach, the film’s setting. More precisely, Mueller will situate Wind within the broader scope of Jonas’s early oeuvre, especially her early outdoor works, which mostly consist of performances.

However, as the first work in this series, Wind is not realised as a performance per se, but as a 16mm film. Mueller argues that the choice of medium is not accidental; it foregrounds the artist’s profound interest in the ambivalences between movement and materiality – an interest that transcends binary oppositions such as control and surrender, stability and transformation.

Ultimately, by centring wind as both a physical and symbolic force, Jonas’s film raises critical questions about the relationship between organisms and their environment in a time of shifting socio-political conditions. The goal of this presentation is to offer a nuanced understanding of the artist’s conceptual framework not only in relation to movement and materiality, but also regarding the way in which this pioneering work of early Ecological Art engages with different environmental forces.

This paper presents an in-depth analysis of Arte Sella, an innovative land art project located in Val di Sella, Italy, which since 1986 has transformed the Alpine landscape into an ever-evolving open-air museum. The presentation will explore how Arte Sella redefines the concept of artistic exhibition in a natural environment, challenging traditional notions of museums and creating a unique dialogue between art, nature, and viewer.

The artists of Arte Sella work in close collaboration with the environment, using local natural materials such as wood, stones, and leaves to create ephemeral installations designed to evolve and, ultimately, return to nature. This innovative approach to land art prioritises collaboration with natural processes, avoiding permanent interventions on the landscape and reflecting a broader trend in contemporary land art. Arte Sella distinguishes itself through its concept of an “open-air museum,” which extends across three interconnected exhibition paths and challenges traditional definitions of artistic display.

Through the analysis of specific works and methodologies employed by the artists, this presentation aims to contribute to the broader discussion on the role of contemporary land art in the context of environmental changes and natural landscape conservation, while also exploring the political and historical dimensions of mountain environments as settings for complex geopolitical narratives.

This paper explores the complex intersection of digital technologies, artistic practice, and environmental documentation in the context of Antarctica’s rapidly changing landscape. As climate change accelerates, our technological means of witnessing these transformations becomes simultaneously more sophisticated and more problematic. This research investigates how the limitations and disruptions inherent in satellite imagery and digital visualisation create new narratives about our relationship with remote environments.

This talk examines how non-human visioning systems particularly satellite technologies formulate a unique language that helps us comprehend climate breakdown. Through her research-centric practice, Quinn investigates how these imaging technologies reveal planetary systems in collapse: a simultaneous collapse of distances, data, and temporalities.

Central to this inquiry are the “slippages” and “errors” that frequently occur within these technological systems, which she argues create revealing disruptions in our understanding. The presentation will unpack how these modes of non-human capture allow us to access the near real-time acceleration of the Anthropocene. Quinn will demonstrate how we might piece together meaning precisely at the moment when technology fails to grasp environmental complexity and discuss strategies for picking apart the concealing and revealing of data, unfolding the often-obscured language of landscape imaging to create new narrative possibilities.

Through examining the glitches and breakdowns in satellite imagery of Antarctic ice formations, this work contributes to emerging dialogues about planetary concerns, offering alternative approaches to visualising environments under constantly changing conditions when trying to grasp the human layer within geological time.

Sekules will start in the deep past to explore how art and environment have interconnected for different reasons, depending on historical circumstances, terrain, materials, technology, climate, skills and economics. She will choose case studies, aiming to explore different ways and reasons why the environment has been approached artistically.

These might include reflection upon the transposition of different phenomena in unusual or contrasting contexts, such as leaf ornament in architectural settings; observational studies aiming at empathy, greater understanding or decoration, such as nature murals or paintings or textiles. Sekules will look at animism and the use of natural imagery as part of attempts at propitiation of unruly or chaotic forces, and at examples of where this has been, and is increasingly being recognised across the world. She will address some of the impact of ownership and how this relates to both social and environmental control, and at manipulation of landscapes for reasons of creating wonder, spectacle or order. Sekules will consider broader issues of extraction, materials use, engineering on the one hand, and conservation and protection on the other.

Finally, she will explore some artistic constructs and methods which might aim to be in harmony with nature, to affirm its power, or draw attention to its dangers and the forces threatening it.

Sekules will conclude by exploring some of the options available now, from the perspective of running a contemporary art gallery specialising in art and environment.

Coastal erosion is a serious concern in the UK. The ongoing project, WHEN IT’S GONE, IT’S GONE, references Climate Central’s 50-year flood map, anticipating significant land loss to the UK coast, but particularly Norfolk and Cambridgeshire. The communities of Great Yarmouth, Hemsby and Happisburgh are some of the most severely affected by coastal erosion with climate refugees left unsupported and vulnerable following the loss of their homes.

This socially engaged research project by Norfolk based researchers-artists-educators focuses on the stories and lived experience of residents in the coastally eroded areas. It applies Deleuze’s concept of Rhizome (Deleuze and Guattari, 1980) as well as practiced co-creative strategies to produce ambitious interlinked film, photography and cyanotype-based outcomes.

Over the last two years the project team have been documenting the changing landscape of the Norfolk Coast through film and photography on the North and East Norfolk Coast. Simultaneously, it has delivered several community workshops underpinned by the five steps to wellbeing; connect, learn new skills, be active, take notice and give to others, with the aim of empowering participants and embedding coastal perspectives into artworks to create catalysts for change.

With a screening of the titular pilot film on a 360 degree screen in the Immersive Visualisation and Simulation Lab at Norwich University of the Arts, alongside cyanotype outcomes from the workshops delivered, the project aims to raise awareness about coastal erosion and its impacts to the locals and the nation.

Glaciers are dynamic yet precarious bodies – repositories of deep time, sites of slow disappearance, and evidence of planetary transformation. As they retreat, they embody what Rob Nixon (2011) terms ‘slow violence – a form of environmental degradation that unfolds beyond human perception.

This paper explores how glaciers, and the artistic responses to them, challenge our understanding of time, materiality, and non-human agency. Drawing on glacial engagements in contemporary art – including the disappearing soundings of Katie Paterson, the acoustic explorations of Cheryl E. Leonard, and Wayne Binitie’s ice-core installations – this paper proposes glacial thinking as an artistic and philosophical method.

Glacial thinking is an act of attention, a slowing down to witness environmental processes at the threshold of visibility. Just as Roger Ackling’s solar burnings register forces of sunlight, and Sarah Casey’s work erases itself under the Alpine sun, glaciers inscribe their histories in layers of ice, only to be undone by warming temperatures. Glaciers resist easy capture; their scale exceeds human proportion, their transformations evade immediate apprehension. Yet they leave traces – calving icebergs, released sediments, shifting landscapes – that invite artistic dialogue.

This paper considers how contemporary art navigates these temporal and material complexities, using site-specific practice, ecological dramaturgy, and ephemeral media to engage with the forces of environmental change. In doing so, it asks: how might we think with glaciers before they vanish? And what does it mean for artists to collaborate with, rather than merely document, an environment in flux?

How can we learn from fungi and lichens in the face of deforestation? How might we decompose our ecological grief amidst the destruction of our land?

Theatre of Decomposition (ToD) is a creative research method and performance practice born from these questions, reimagining ecological crises through the lens of fungi – the primordial composers and decomposers of the natural world. ToD evolved through a year-long ethnographic study with citizen scientists in Mi’kma’ki.

The ancestral and unceded territory of the Mi’kmaq people (specifically in the area known also as Nova Scotia, Canada). Between March and September 2024, the citizen scientists camped on a logging road to halt the imminent destruction of the Goldsmith Lake Wilderness Area. Amid their grief over deforestation, they searched for at-risk lichens to demonstrate the value of preserving old-growth forests. One of the most frequently reported species was Sclerophora peronella, a lichen measuring less than 2 mm. Yi wanted to capture and bring to the stage, to the gallery, and beyond the forests, the transforming bodies, expanding senses, and emerging performances that arise when attention is focused on this small world.

At its heart, ToD engages with the discourse of grief and celebration, offering poetic and physical approaches to reconsider our relationship with fungal bodies – mushrooms, lichens, and microbiomes both within and beyond the human body. Drawing on the words of Nina, one of the citizen scientists, ToD advocates for an integrated perspective: “a body in the forest,” through deepening our connection with other fungal bodies.