Exhibitions
Gustav Metzger: Earth Minus Environment
The first major exhibition of the late environmental activist artist Gustav Metzger (1926 – 2017) in Cornwall
Gustav Metzger is recognised as an increasingly important artist, who used art as a form of activism, to raise awareness of the utmost issues challenging the planet. From as early as the 1940s, he believed that environmental destruction was the most urgent challenge of our time.
Earth Minus Environment, turns to Metzger’s environmental campaigning and takes its title from a sculptural idea he proposed for the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. The exhibition navigates what is meant by the word 'environment', encouraging visitors to think critically towards the systems and ideologies that perpetuate environmental harm.
Earth Minus Environment brings together three key works that relate to the UN proposal. Mass Media:Today and Yesterday (1971/2022) and Strampelde Bäumf/Flailing Tree (2010/2022) are presented in the gallery, whilst the sculpture Mobbile (1970/2022) is sited in the garden outside.
All three artworks point to the environmental consequences of our everyday habits, activities and attitudes. But the artist also invites us to imagine otherwise, so we might develop more harmonious and sustainable relations with each other and with the world around us.
This exhibition is supported by the Gustav Metzger Foundation and co-curated along with Dr. Lizzie Fisher of Northumbria University, and Lauren Keeley.
Earth Minus Environment, turns to Metzger’s environmental campaigning and takes its title from a sculptural idea he proposed for the UN Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro, 1992. The exhibition navigates what is meant by the word 'environment', encouraging visitors to think critically towards the systems and ideologies that perpetuate environmental harm.
Earth Minus Environment brings together three key works that relate to the UN proposal. Mass Media:Today and Yesterday (1971/2022) and Strampelde Bäumf/Flailing Tree (2010/2022) are presented in the gallery, whilst the sculpture Mobbile (1970/2022) is sited in the garden outside.
All three artworks point to the environmental consequences of our everyday habits, activities and attitudes. But the artist also invites us to imagine otherwise, so we might develop more harmonious and sustainable relations with each other and with the world around us.
This exhibition is supported by the Gustav Metzger Foundation and co-curated along with Dr. Lizzie Fisher of Northumbria University, and Lauren Keeley.
CREDIT
