AS THE environmental apocalypse promised by the UN’s men in white coats rumbles ever nearer, it’s hardly surprising that many artists choose to engage with it, often blurring the line between art and protest as they do so. But is the work that results from this engagement likely to be any good?
The curator and critic Dean Kenning doesn’t think so. Earlier this year, he wrote in Art Monthly magazine: “God forbid that there should be an ‘eco-art’. Art’s inherent energies are dissipated as soon as it is called upon to support a cause.”
On
one level it’s not hard to see the truth in that statement. Certainly, much of the political or “message” art produced during the last century has failed to stand the test of time, and in most cases its only enduring appeal lies in its kitsch value. But every now and then, an artist will break the mould and come up with a piece of work that says something pertinent about a contemporary issue while simultaneously saying something universal.
Kerry Morrison would never make such bold claims for her art – she’s far too modest for that – but she is unquestionably an artist whose work straddles the timely/timeless divide. From 14-28 October, she will be working in and around the village of Birnam in Perthshire, setting up her “Concern” cart, a sort of mobile studio on wheels, at various key points, and handing out moss-filled “Concern” bags to anyone who stops and asks for one, in exchange for nothing more than their contact details.
“The moss bags are, in effect, bags that are capable of bio-monitoring the atmosphere,” she explains. “Moss takes everything in – it breathes through its skin. It doesn’t feed through roots because it doesn’t have any. It takes all of its nutrients from the air, so anything and everything that is in the air goes into the structure of the moss. It doesn’t block out certain things because it doesn’t want to monitor them, like some computer programmes do.”
Each of Morrison’s “Concern” bags contains about ten grams of moss, washed with distilled water and therefore primed and ready to measure the air quality wherever it ends up.
“Each bag needs to be left in the atmosphere for a certain amount of time and then the mosses need to be washed again, then dried and analysed. If all 300 bags go out into the locale, then anybody working at a university who has access to the right equipment can in effect go to those bags and start that process.”
Whether any budding ecologists decide to make use of this network of moss bags or not, the bags in themselves are emblematic of the direct link between the pollutants we pump into the atmosphere and the plants around us that we rely on to suck it up. So does that make this “eco-art” – art that is called on to support a cause?
“No,” says Morrison, emphatically. “I’m simply doing what all artists do, which is responding to the world around me. I think that’s the basis of all art. Painters do it, sculptors do it – it’s simply our personal response to the environment.”
But if that can do some good in the process, then so much the better, right?
“If it can activate or act as a catalyst or create changes then yes, how fantastic is that?” says Morrison. “But art doesn’t have to do that, it doesn’t have to have a motivation.”
Morrison is just one of a number of artists involved in a new project called the Birnam Art Trail, organised by the Perthshire Visual Arts Forum, which runs until 28 October. Locals and visitors to the town will also be able to see large-scale photographs of animal eyes by Sam Clark, an installation inspired by Birnam oak trees and stained-glass windows by Elaine Allison and Patricia Bray, and an exhibition of semi-abstract landscapes and still lifes by Glasgow artist Laura Hunter. There will also be an exhibition of work by Japanese art collective ECHO and music from the Japanese artist band Yomigaeru.
At the heart of the Art Walk project, however, is a group show called In Transit. Artists from as far afield as New Zealand, Germany, Spain and Japan have been invited to create works of any size or shape that respond to the theme of “connection or travel” and then post them to the Birnam Institute. All the pieces received will be exhibited there along with their packaging, in a nod to the journeys they have made. And of course, when the show is over, all this packaging will be either reused or recycled.
• The Birnam Art Trail, various venues, Birnam, until 28 October. Forfurther information and a map of the trail, visit
www.pvaf.org.ukThe full article contains 827 words and appears in The Scotsman newspaper.
