Ursula von Rydingsvard with Martin Friedman at NYPL Feb. 4

Art21 and the Mid-Manhattan Library
present

a film screening and conversation

Art:21—Art in the Twenty-First Century Season 4 episode Ecology.
After the screening Martin Friedman, Curator, Writer, and Director Emeritus of the Walker Art Center, will join Ursula von Rydingsvard for a conversation and Q&A session.

Monday, February 4th, 2008 at 6:30pm

Mid-Manhattan Library
The New York Public Library
40th Street and 5th Avenue, 6th floor
New York, NY 10016
212-340-0871

Elevators to access the 6th floor.
All events are FREE and open to the public.

About Ecology

How does our culture influence and affect our understanding of the natural world? Ecology delves into the work of four artists who explore the relationship of nature and culture, including the submission of wilderness to civilization, the foundations of scientific knowledge, the impact of technology on biology, and our relationship to the earth forged by working the land. This episode was shot on location in New York, NY; Los Angeles, CA; Chicago, Il; Rochester, MN; Seattle, WA; Astoria, OR; Cape Disappointment, WA; King County, WA; Beach Lake, PA; and Williamstown, MA.

Ursula von Rydingsvard uses sculptures as a means to express the memories of her childhood. Her studio is filled with massive cedar sculptures, which she painstakingly constructs layer by layer. The end result is a complex and unpredictable surface for viewers to explore and experience.

Robert Adams, working closely with his wife, created Turning Back (1999-2003), which illustrates deforestation in the West, a practice that Adams describes as “not just a matter of exhaustion of resources. I do think there is involved an exhaustion of spirit.”

Mark Dion explains, “I’m not one of these artists who is spending a lot of time imagining a better ecological future. I’m more the kind of artist who is holding up a mirror to the present.” Viewers follow him on a journey during which he brings a “nurse log”—a fallen Hemlock tree which is home to a wide variety of flora and fauna—into the heart of Seattle.

Iñigo Manglano-Ovalle’s interest in architecture, politics, and science underscores much of his work. His various exhibitions are featured in the documentary including Random Sky (2006) façade in Chicago, for which computers process weather data at the installation site to generate a visual representation of climate conditions.