natura-lism

The Age of Digital Nature

In an age where technology is taking over even our perception of nature and nature itself is succumbing humanity’s devastating consumerism, there is an inevitable detachment from nature that humans are experiencing. The origins of it date back to the beginning of industrialisation. Many artists since, have conveyed this subject in their various artistic expressions.

Today the digitalisation of nature and environmental degradation go hand in hand. On the one hand the actual contact with nature is fading away and on the other, there is a desire to archive it. This year however has brought the entire world to its knees and has served for many as an enlightening moment to reconnect, being part of our natural environment, recognising its fragility.

The exhibition brings together the work of 12 emerging artists that advocate a reconciliation with nature, conveying the reality and fiction that lies behind the current issue. Moreover, the exhibition highlights the paradox of the digitalisation of nature through the actual digitalisation of art and how its experience to the viewer has entirely changed. Dimensions, colours, and forms take on a completely new identity, stimulating and simulating a collective memory of desire and nostalgia.

The exhibition will look at mysticism, history, fear and premonition, escapism, and hope that nature will prevail to coexist with human beings and perhaps even communicate with each other.

Digital scanning of Jewish primordial agricultural products by Anna Skladmann will be showcased alongside mythological drawings and sculpture by Henry Hussey questioning the history and origins of men and womens’ relationship with nature. Conceptual geological photographs by Fabio Barile and the interrupted landscapes by Laura Pugno are challenging the exhaustion of our perception of nature in a traditional art historic way: how do we see nature? Moreover, the black and white polaroids of nature morte ‘leftovers’ by Laura Letinsky and the organic plastic bags by Naomi White look at man-made damaging consumerism and the haunting image of life without nature. The alchemic reactions made by nature itself on Pietro Pasolini’s work however give some hope that a transcendental ‘collaboration’ with nature is still possible. The large utopic ceramic sculptures of sea coral by Giovanni Vetere as well as the photographic collages of hybrid insect-men inhabited plants by Dominique Paul are both coming from a dreamlike post-anthropomorphic world they both lead the viewer into. A number of photographs of digitalized nature by Mark Dorf will be questioning however how far the digital world can go in replacing nature, underlining the undeniable truth that it cannot be replaced. The work of Thomas De Falco addresses similar issues through a strong materiality. Organic sculptural forms made with ropes, cables and threads similar to roots, lament a visceral interconnection between technology and nature. Lastly the show will present two polaroids by Cyrus Mahboubian representing a far memory of a forgotten landscape.