More than many environmental artists, the work of Brandon Ballengée bridges the gap between research biology and art. He combines a fascination with fish and amphibians with the techniques of commercial art photography.
In 1996 Ballengée began collaborating with scientists to create hybrid environmental art/ ecological research projects. Since then he has had numerous exhibitions nationally and internationally in which he presents photographs and biological samples of the creatures he collects. He is involved directly with field research and uses the visual impact of science to engage the public in a discussion of broader environmental issues.
http://www.pbs.org/art21/artists/dion/index.html#
ReplyDeleteI feel like we've probably talked about Mark Dion in class, but he's still worth looking into. One of his pieces that I especially like: he brought a dead tree into a gallery and catalogued every living thing he found on it in the gallery.
I love Dion's work. He also did a cool piece called The Great Munich Bug Hunt where he brought a dead tree into a gallery and, in collaboration with an entomologist, catalogued all the insects in the rotting tree...
ReplyDeleteVery interesting stuff.
Another interesting piece he did was Wheelbarrows of Progress (with Wm. Schefferline) - actually, he's really done a lot of environmental stuff.