Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – Blue Sky with World Trade Center

Agnes Denes, American

Wheatfield – A Confrontation: Battery Park Landfill, Downtown Manhattan – Blue Sky with World Trade Center, 1982

In 1982 Agnes Denes took it upon herself to change the landscape of lower Manhattan. She decided to change the ordinary sculpture work she did to be a moving and interactive installation for the concrete jungle that was lower Manhattan. Denes planted a wheat-field over a landfill that previously added to the degradation from Manhattan. She wanted to show the shocking juxtaposition between the skyscrapers and the simple wheat-field. The wheat-field is something that can sustain human life, and Manhattan is the center of the modern world. The twin towers in the background also play into the idea of how as much as our world progresses, there is always tragedy that exists amongst the progress. Denes took it upon herself to include the peoples who live and work in lower Manhattan to participate in this eco-art. It poses the question that in today’s world what seems like it would be more human – Skyscrapers or a wheat-field? Label by Annabel Bentley

Carbon Dioxide Concentration

Simon Lewis, British, born 1980

Carbon Dioxide Concentration, 2014

In the introduction to her book, Artwash, Mel Evans writes that, “The Keeling Curve is an artwork in itself:...each dot signifying a new set of possible challenges” (16). Evans’ assertion that the curve is art in and of itself is a compelling one, if indeed one of the many purposes of art is to generate thinking, the sharp and dizzying uptick at the end of the graph surely leads us to wonder: what happens next? This rendering of The Keeling Curve bears unmistakable resemblance to a supply curve (though, admittedly, there seems to be a bit more fluctuation in Keeling Curve data from year to year than what appears here), in which price and quantity are engaged in a positive (not in the value judgment sense) race towards some asymptote in a/the catastrophic future. Price, which exists on the x axis on a supply curve, is replaced, fittingly, by carbon dioxide concentration in the earth’s atmosphere. Label by Jay Jolles

License to Kill

Liberate Tate, United Kingdom

License to Kill, 2012

In “License To Kill'' by Liberal Tate, there is a group of about 9-10 women dressed in all black with black cloth over their faces - all carrying large buckets of oil with the logo of BP displayed on them. These women then walk to the entrance of an art museum and empty the buckets of oil directly into the entrance area to make a statement on oil sponsorship in that museum as well as others. This art is encapsulating in its darkness seen in the dark black of the women’s clothes and in the dark black buckets of oil they carry - symbolizing not only oil, but the dark implications it has on the health of the world. This display of art brings faraway issues directly into people’s presence and brings light to the oil spill which affects everyone in the world, no matter the distance. Label by Callie Sties

License to Spill

Liberate Tate, United Kingdom

License to Spill, 2010

Liberate Tate’s performance protested British Petroleum (BP)’s sponsorship of Tate at a time when the corporation’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico was ongoing. Artist- activists spilled “oil” throughout Tate Britain’s interior and exterior during its summer 2010 party in a series of performance moments. In this still, giant, discarded “oil” cans (or perhaps miniaturized oil barrels) emblazoned with BP’s logo sit in a slick of “oil” on the sidewalk. The logo’s bright greens and yellows and starburst shape evoke plants, flowers, and sunshine, a stark contrast to the jet black of the cans and now-painted concrete. Though minor in comparison to BP’s oil spill, the abandoned cans signal that this performance was not without ecological impact. In March 2016, Tate announced the end of BP sponsorship. Liberate Tate declared victory. Tate’s current sponsors include BMW, Microsoft, and airline Qantas. Label by Morgan Brittain