This is an extension of the 2012 “Concrete Clad” exhibition which looked at the inexorable spread of humankind over almost every continent of the globe. In particular how man is re-shaping and covering the surface of the Earth under an ever-advancing front of human architecture and development at the expense of the natural environment.
This work references “New Topographics: Photographs of a Man-Altered Landscape” by Lewis Baltz, Robert Adams, Henry Wessel, and Frank Gohlke. It was a seminal 1975 exhibition that graphically showcased the effects of urban development on humans and the land. It used stylistic images of a man-made landscape and its changing relationship with the Earth, highlighting anonymity in a characterless built landscape.
I explore whether humans are increasingly leading a dystopic existence, lost in desolate, artificial and alienation landscapes that are shutting out the natural environment. Is it in the built environment that we are experiencing an “eco-psychological crisis” due to a disconnection from Mother Nature? Are people seeking ways out of a “constructed” reality in an effort to forge a stronger synergistic bond between environmental and personal wellbeing? Do token “green” landscapes in our urban centres suffice? And is nature fighting back?