Ecotopia's Edgy Nature

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In a lofty address that at times resembled a campaign speech, the chief executive of Wal-Mart Stores, H. Lee Scott, said that “we live in a time when people are losing confidence in the ability of government to solve problems.” But Wal-Mart, he said, “does not wait for someone else to solve problems.” Mr. Horowitz said Wal-Mart had room to improve, however. Its next goal, he said, should be to stop selling the least energy-efficient products, rather than simply introducing better models.

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Ecotopia's Edgy Nature

Social Culture Emily Approved

Written by Emily Davidow

Harri Kallio, Domain du Chasseur #1, Mauritius, 2001

Ecotopia - The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video
September 14, 2006–January 7, 2007

Dodo birds and power plants looming large in the windows of the ICP grab your attention before you even enter the strange and compelling world of Ecotopia, The Second ICP Triennial of Photography and Video. Ecotopia's artists explore our complicated relationship with nature in all its glory and heartbreak, ambiguity and anxiety. This powerful collection of photography, video, installation and interactive programs offers fresh perspectives on climate change, industrialization and the hazy boundaries between natural and artificial.

Highlights include videos that immerse us in the perspective of other species:

Catherine Chalmers's Safari takes us on an wild ride through the drama of evolution with a cockroach as our guide. Though it feels like we're traveling through the jungle, she selected the reptilian, mammalian and insect actors and filmed on location in a terrarium in New York. The frogs are particularly alluring.
Glimpse the world as chickens, falcons, cows, sheep, wolves, armadillos and even tumbleweeds might in Sam Easterson's videos shot with specially mounted cameras.
Sail down the Pearl River with six turtles on a log and contemplate China's rapid industrialization in Amphibious (Login-Logout), by Jennifer Allora and Guillermo Calzadilla.

Clifford Ross's Mountain XIII

Mountain XIII by Clifford Ross

Other standouts:

The scale and clarity of Clifford Ross's monumentally sublime Mountain XIII. (Check out his newest bad-ass camera.)
Harri Kallio's evocative photo series, Imaginary Encounters of the Dodo and Mauritius Island, places carefully constructed models of adorable and extinct dodo birds back into their natural habitat, staging dramatic re-enactment of their lives based on eyewitness accounts, pictorial sources and physical evidence in museum.
Mary Mattingly's postapocalyptic global nomads carry their homes around on their backs.
If you can't make it to the exhibition, check out the New York Times multimedia tour with curator Brian Wallace and the images available on ICP's site . There's also an excellent exhibition catalog, Ecotopia: The Second Icp Triennial of Photography And Video, printed on recycled paper, naturally.
International Center of Photography
1133 Avenue of the Americas at 43rd Street
New York, NY 10036
Map Phone: (212) 857-0000