Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Environment

Erin Hernandez / Staff Writer / The USD Vista

The Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego (MCASD) will be featuring the exhibition Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Environment from now until Feb. 1 in its downtown extension on Kettner Blvd. The museum admits all people under the age of 25 for free with proof of ID.

The exhibition holds the works of eight artists who used modern art to depict the relationship between man and nature as they perceived them from their travels to different parts of the world.

The MCASD has artist Rigo 23’s Teko Mbarate, which means Struggle for Life, as the first display upon entering the exhibition. Rigo 23 took inspiration from his travels to Canaéia, Brazil. His photographs show locals from the Quilombola, Guarani and Caicara communities building the canoe using natural building materials, such as bamboo and banana trunk.

Anne Hamilton used amplified cone gloves to present her pre-recording of animal sounds and other noises. She calls her audio art made during her time in the Galápagos the Galápagos Chorus. The sound resonated into the other rooms, creating a fascinating blend of visual and audio.

Mark Dion drew inspiration from his time spent in Indonesia. He seems to have been particularly influenced by the Komodo National Park, which was founded in order to act as a preserve for the endangered Komodo Dragon in the early 1980s. He added Mobile Ranger Library, watercolor and colored pencil drawing on paper, to the collection. The same room has a wall with numerous Samsung TV screens all showing documented recordings of wildlife, including elephants and giraffes.

Dario Robleto’s pieces do not purely stem from its visual effects but rather from the significance of various items put together. A glass case with dark wood pushed against a wall does not seem all that remarkable, however, a closer look shows the multiple frames each containing a description of an extinct species. Another glass case, which Robleto calls The Ark of Frailty, stands next to this sad monument creating a contrast with its white painted wood. The frames within this case have descriptions of Lazarus species, which is a species that was once considered to be extinct, only to be rediscovered later. Each description finishes with the year that the species was lost and then found.”

His piece, Love Has Value Because It’s Not Eternal, includes a hand blown glass beaker filled with passion flowers, amber, and other plants as well as an audio tape with the recording of the glaciers melting and couple’s heartbeats.

The museum offers visitors a chance to create like Robleto in its Response Lounge. At the end of the exhibition, the Response Lounge has a small table with jars of dried rose petals, Dead Sea salt, audio tape with the recording of endangered whales and much more. Each person gets the opportunity to make their own unique blend of plants, recordings and such.

The goal of this extensive collaboration is to show the delicate relationship between man and nature. In Rigo 23’s words: This project addresses these destructive forces by suggesting that all we do is interconnected.”