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RESEARCH PRODUCT

The Possibilities and Potential Pitfalls of Contemporary Global Environmental(ist) Imaginaries: The Human/Nature Project and Philip Krohn’s EARTH Sticker

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Located at the gradually emerging juncture between the current discourses on the global and art in ecocritical scholarship, this article explores how contemporary works of art such as EARTH Sticker (2005) by the North American artist Philip Krohn and artist residency and exhibition projects such as Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet (2008) parse, represent, and imagine the political, socioeconomic, cultural, and especially ecological implications of globalization. EARTH Sticker and two contributions to Human/Nature, the sculptures Sapukay: Cry for Help and Teko Mbarate: Struggle for Life by the Portuguese artist and current San Francisco Bay Area resident Rigo 23, present different environmental imaginaries that challenge and simultaneously rely on the material contexts and conditions on which the increasingly globalized production of art is always predicated. As Krohn and Rigo 23 demonstrate, even art that is created in an environmentalist context ( Human/Nature ) or with an ostensible activist purpose ( EARTH Sticker ) cannot escape this double bind. To identify this dilemma is not to dismiss these works of art as self-contradictory failures, but to highlight precisely Krohn’s and Rigo 23’s important insights with regard to this embedment for other global environmental imaginaries and particularly for further ecocritical analysis. Emphasizing the material and institutional conditions, current means and sites of cultural production, and technologies for the dissemination of information, these works of art thus foreground and perform what is often erased from the equation and from critical analysis. Resumen Situado en la poco a poco emergente coyuntura entre los discursos sobre lo global y sobre el arte en la ecocritica, este articulo examina como trabajos de arte contemporaneo como EARTH Sticker (2005), del artista norteamericano Philip Krohn, y residencias de artistas y proyectos de exposiciones como Human/Nature: Artists Respond to a Changing Planet (2008) analizan, representan e imaginan las implicaciones politicas, socieconomicas, culturales y especialmente las ecologicas, de la globalizacion. EARTH Sticker y dos contribuciones a Human/Nature, las esculturas Sapukay: Cry for Help y Teko Mbarate: Struggle for Life del artista portugues Rigo 23, actual residente del area de la bahia de San Francisco, presentan diferentes imaginarios medioambientales que desafian y al mismo tiempo dependen de los contextos y las condiciones materiales en las que se fundamenta la produccion de arte, cada vez mas globalizada. Como Krohn y Rigo 23 demuestran, incluso el arte creado en un contexto medioambiental ( Human/Nature ) o con un proposito aparentemente activista ( EARTH Sticker ) no puede escapar esta coyuntura. Identificar este dilema no es desestimar estas obras de arte como fallos contradictorios, sino precisamente poner de manifiesto las importantes apreciaciones de Krohn y Rigo 23 en lo referente a esta inclusion para otros imaginarios medioambientales y en particular para un mayor analisis ecocritico. Poniendo enfasis en las condiciones materiales e institucionales, los actuales medios y sitios de produccion cultural, y las tecnologias para la difusion de informacion, estas obras de arte ponen de relieve y representan lo que a menudo se elimina en la ecuacion y en el analisis critico.