As conversations around our relationship with the environment grow ever more urgent, artists continue to offer new ways of seeing – ways that slow us down, sharpen our attention and invite reflection beyond headlines and statistics. Contemporary art has become a vital space for considering how we inhabit the world, how we notice its changes and how we might respond with greater sensitivity and responsibility. This selection of five Aesthetica Art Prize artists brings together painting, sculpture, installation and photography that examine the world around us – from moments of observation to reflections on fragility, transience and care. Together, they reveal how art can act as both witness and proposition: recording what is at risk, while imagining new forms of connection between humans and the environments they shape.
In a signature outdoor painting installation, Anthony Garratt responds to the landscape and history of North Wales. High and Low or Uchel ac Isel comprises one four-and-a-half metre long painting installed on the mountain lake of Llyn Llydaw on Snowdon, while a second painting was placed deep in an abandoned slate mine. Both were filmed as natural processes took effect on them over time.
In many of Jim Jacobs’ sculptures, tree limbs are grafted to milled lumber, wooden tools, furniture and human hair. These works – gangly, elegant, contrived, fragile, and at times, self-destructive – are reflections on our peculiar relationship with the natural world. “Whether we see nature through the lens of a steward or a romantic, our disproportionate impact on the environment will always distinguish us as a species.”
Alexej Sachov is a Ukrainian-German artist and diver. His work merges photography and painting to spotlight the beauty and fragility of the underwater world. Sachov studied rocket engineering and photography and his work advocates for environmental protection. His style transforms underwater photography into contemporary art, bridging the gap between the terrestrial and aquatic realms.
Ingrid Weyland
Ingrid Weyland’s photography taps into the age of Anthropocentrism – the role of the human hand physically and dramatically shaping ecosystems. The collages, building on the parameters of “expanded photography”, include images from Argentina, Greenland and Iceland. The final compositions explore layers of potential – the remnants of untouched landscapes still visible underneath the crumple zones.
Jeremy Underwood
The Human Debris project draws attention to the precarious state of the environment in Houston’s waterways through the creation of site-specific sculpture from abandoned and discarded objects. Jeremy Underwood challenges viewers to reflect on modern consumer culture and our relationship to our environment, by photographing and then leaving his creations to be discovered by others.
Words: Emma Jacob
The Aesthetica Art Prize is open for entries. Submit your work. Deadline 31 August.
Image Credits:
1. Ingrid Weyland, Topographies of Fragility I, (2020). Image courtesy of the artist.
2. High and Low / Uchel ac Isel, 2016. Painting, installation, film and music. 500cm x 250cm and 450cm x 250cm. Photo: Richard Broomhall.
3. Crest. Maple grafted to apple branches, 83in x 138in x 92in. Courtesy of the artist.
4. Image courtesy of Alexej Sachov.
5. Image courtesy of Alexej Sachov.
6. Ingrid Weyland, Topographies of Fragility VI, (2020). Image courtesy of the artist.
7. Image courtesy of Jeremy Underwood.
