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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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A D V E R T I S E M E N T
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House Paint
Our mental images of what life was like in centuries past are dictated to a surprising extent by art. The continuing growth of the world’s population and the increasing numbers of people living in suburban spaces have made artists re-evaluate the interaction between humans and their environment.
Sprawl: Aspects of Human Agency in the Landscape uses the works of three artists to take this issue into the 21st century. Dornith Doherty’s photographs imitate a detached, documentary feel, but the animals and plants in these photos are always carefully posed to create a specific tableau. Gary Retherford sticks closer to home by taking inspiration from the way American suburbanites landscape their yards. His mixed-media landscape fragments include test tubes and topiary bushes. Sally Packard’s sculpture, painting, and video installations take a more traditional environmentalist view of the way humans impinge on the natural world.
As an adjunct to the show, Arlington Museum of Art is also running a smaller exhibit about humans whose creations become part of the landscape. However, Architects as Artists doesn’t show us any buildings. Instead, it explores the forays that architects have made into other branches of visual art, and how their experiences in painting, drawing, sculpture, photography, and video have affected their architectural work. These shows should be good for a few new ideas, whether they’re about an artist’s interdisciplinary development or about our changing relationship with the ecosystem.
Sprawl: Aspects of Human Agency in the Landscape runs thru Jun 15, and Architects as Artists runs thru May 11 at Arlington Museum of Art, 201 W Main St, Arlington. Admission is free. Call 817-275-4600.
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