Radical Nature–Art and Architecture for a Changing Planet
1969–2009
19 Jun–18 Oct/09
The beauty and wonder of nature have provided inspiration for artists and architects for centuries. Since the 1960s, the increasingly evident degradation of the natural world and the effects of climate change have brought a new urgency to their responses. Radical Nature is the first exhibition to bring together key figures across different generations who have created utopian works and inspiring solutions for our ever-changing planet.
Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys , Agnes Denes , Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n) , Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.
This is a worthy exhibition showing "radicals" work in an area that will no doubt become more of an extreme influence on our designed development. The show of work is broad and the time span of the collection demonstrates there is a lot to learn from the radicals of the past as well as the present. This exhibition communicates to the voyeur in differing effects, I have no doubt that ten people will all have different experiences to the exposer of some of the film and installations. There is a lot to digest in the work and so all of what is on show requires time. The irony is the point of this exhibition is how much time do we have?
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