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“The work selected by FotoFest for this 2016 Biennial looks at the beauty and diversity of life on Earth alongside the imprint that human beings are leaving on the planet. Collectively these works can be seen as a call to a new vision, a new way of seeing the Earth and our relationship to it.”
Girls with Sacks, 2007.
Young girls drag sacks of rubbish they collected during a days work. They walk across a heavy steel plate roadway which stops heavy vehicles sinking into the rubbish.
From the series Smokey Mountain and Recycling Phnom Penh, 2007-2010.
Photo credit: Courtesy of artist Nigel Dickinson
To create the Pictures of Garbage series, Vik Muniz worked with the catadores, or pickers, from the world’s largest landfill: Jardim Gramacho in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist Vik Muniz
The artworks at the exhibition depict topics such as climate change, industrialization and urbanization, biodiversity, water, the use of natural and human resources, human migration, global capital, commerce and consumption, energy production and waste.
“It is time again to ‘see’ the beauty and wonder of this planet. How do we stimulate people to actually care about the Earth and what is happening to it? What can art do in this regard?” Watriss said. “We have found that many artists are looking at these same questions and exploring how they, as individuals and members of a society, relate to the natural world around them.”
Titan Crane, Hotellneset Coal Harbour, Longyearbyen, Spitsbergen, Norway, 2012
. From the series The Metabolic Landscape, 2011-2016. Photo credit: Courtesy of the artist Gina Glover
The exhibition will feature pieces from artists who hail from nine countries across Europe, Asia, and North and South America. Many of the artists will travel to Houston to participate in lectures, tours and other programs during the Biennial.
Scroll down to the photos at the bottom of this post, and you’ll notice that mankind is finding ways to survive on a warming planet, where hurricanes are getting stronger and droughts are hitting harder.