THE END OF OIL
June 13 – July 31, 2009
Opening: Saturday, June 13, 6-8pm
Exit Underground
// EXHIBITION // CURATORS //ARTISTS // EVENTS // SUPPORT //
A project of SEA (Social-Environmental Aesthetics) , The End of Oil
is an exhibition of photography, prints, videos, installations and new
media that addresses human dependence on oil and other fossil fuels;
the ramifications that this dependency has on the future of the
environment and of global geopolitics; and the recent push towards
viable alternative energy resources.
In July 2008, the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Companies (OPEC)
announced that the price per barrel of oil had climbed above $130.
About five months later, in December 2008, the New York Times reported
that oil had fallen below $40 a barrel, less than a third of the July
2008 price. In the first six months of 2009, oil prices seem to have
steadied around $55 a barrel. These fluctuating oil prices are evidence
of the instability of global oil markets and reminders of our urgent
need to develop alternative fuels and forms of energy.
The works in this exhibition draw attention to and investigate the
violent conflicts (such as in Nigeria, Burma and Sudan) and negative
environmental effects that result from mining and drilling; the
politicization of the oil industry; carbon-footprinting; and renewable
energy options, such as vegetable and electric-powered cars, geothermal
energy, and solar power. The End of Oil does not prophesize a dystopian
future, but looks critically at the way in which we use and generate
energy, encouraging a dialogue on this issue for the benefit of future
generations.
SEA and The End of Oil conceived by Papo Colo.
The End of Oil curated by Herb Tam and Lauren Rosati.
FEATURING PROJECTS BY:
Khalil Chishtee; Louisa Conrad; Robert Ladislas Derr; Dominic Gagnon;
Ed Kashi; Matt Kenyon; Michael Mandiberg; Andrei Molodkin; Jo Syz
PUBLIC EVENTS
WEDNESDAY, JULY 15
7:30 – 9pm: SEA Poetry Series, No. 2
Following the inaugural reading of this series, which brought
Maine-based poet Jonathan Skinner to Exit Art, poet Marcella Durand
will read a selection of her poems and discuss her work in relation to
The End of Oil. Q & A and reception to follow. Conceived and
organized by E.J. McAdams, poet and Associate Director of Philanthropy
at The Nature Conservancy, New York City. Free. Cash bar.
Marcella Durand’s recent books are Traffic & Weather (Futurepoem,
2008), AREA (Belladonna, 2008), and The Anatomy of Oil (Belladonna,
2005). Other books include Western Capital Rhapsodies, City of Ports,
and Lapsus Linguae. Her poems and essays have appeared in Conjunctions,
The Canary, Denver Quarterly, Chain, The Poker, Verse, NYFA Current,
and other journals. She has given talks on the intersections of poetry
and ecology at Kelly Writers House, Small Press Traffic, Dactyl
Foundation, Stella Adler Studio of Acting, and other venues. Currently, she is translating Michèle
Métail’s Les horizons du sol / Earth’s Horizons, a history of the
geological formation of Marseille written within a Oulipian formal
constraint; a section of her translation appeared last year in The
Nation.
Marcella
Durand is a 2009 Poetry Artist Fellowship recipientof the New York
Foundation for the Arts (NYFA). This presentation is co-sponsored by
Artists & Audiences Exchange, a NYFA public program.
THE END OF OIL SCREENING SERIES
The End of Oil Screening Series consists of films that explore topics
such as peak oil; the impact of coal mining and oil drilling; dwindling
oil resources; and the effect of this environmental crisis on the
economy. More information coming soon.
Saturdays at 4pm.
$5 Suggested Donation.
JUNE 20 and 27
The Great Squeeze (2008)
Director/Producer: Christophe Fauchere
This film explores our current ecological and economic crisis, stemming
from our dependence on cheap and abundant energy to the point that our
demands for natural resources far exceed the earth’s capacity to
sustain us.The Great Squeeze examines the way in which the
extraction and consumption of such resources has impacted our climate,
ecosystem and civilization itself.
JULY 11 and 18
A Crude Awakening: The Oil Crash (2006)
Director/Producer: Basil Gelpke and Ray McCormack
By illustrating that our civilization’s addiction to oil puts it on a
collision course with geology, this film comes to the startling but
logical conclusion that our industrial society, built on cheap and
readily available oil, must be completely re-imagined. Featuring
interviews with field experts and on-location shots at oil fields, the
film asks questions and offers solutions regarding the most important
economic and environmental issue of our time: the looming peak of the
world’s oil supply.
JULY 25
The Power of Communtiy: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil (2006)
Director: Faith Morgan
Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Cuba’s economy suffered,
with oil imports cut by 50% and food by 80%. This film shows how the
Cuban people consequently transitioned from a highly mechanized,
industrial agricultural system to using organic farming methods, local,
urban gardens, and principles of permaculture. As the only country to
have lived through Peak Oil, the film offers alternative options to a
reliance on fossil fuels.
SEA is a unique endeavor that presents a diverse multimedia
exhibition program and permanent archive of artworks that address
social and environmental concerns. SEA will assemble artists,
activists, scientists and scholars to address environmental issues
through presentations of visual art, performances, panels and lecture
series that will communicate international activities concerning
environmental and social activism. SEA will occupy a permanent space in
Exit Underground, a 3000 square-foot, multi-media performance, film and
exhibition venue underneath Exit Art’s main gallery space. The SEA
archive will be a permanent archive of information, images and videos
that will be a continuous source for upcoming exhibitions and projects.
Central to SEA’s mission is to provide a vehicle through which the
public can be made aware of socially- and environmentally-engaged work,
and to provide a forum for collaboration between artists, scientists,
activists, scholars and the public. SEA functions as an initiative
where individuals can join together in dialogue about issues that
affect our daily lives.
Exit Art currently works with a curatorial model called ConceptPlus,
which begins with a theme or concept that is then publicized through a
call for proposals. For each ConceptPlus idea, the curators first chose
a group of artists that form the base of the exhibition. Then Exit Art
issues an international call for artists to propose new or
newly-contextualized work in response to a given theme or cultural
condition. The exhibition is then curated by Exit Art’s curatorial
staff, who view all the proposals for new work and work samples
submitted by artists and select projects to be presented and/or
commissioned for the exhibition. Every artist who submits a proposal
has equal access to the curators, regardless of their previous
experience, making ConceptPlus a highly democratic curatorial model.
Recent ConceptPlus exhibitions at Exit Art have addressed ideas ranging
from the reconstruction of global cities (Exit Biennial:
Reconstruction, 2003) to the image of America's highest office (The
Presidency, 2004), to contemporary Latino icons (L-Factor, 2005) to
neuroscience innovations (BrainWave: Common Senses, 2008). A
fundamental precept of the ConceptPlus model is to remove barriers to
cultural participation by creating exhibition opportunities limited
only by the artistic idea itself. As we have implemented this model
over the past five years, Exit Art has seen a dramatic rise in both the
number and geographic diversity of artists submitting proposals in
response to our open calls. ConceptPlus also enables us to directly
support the production of new work, as an increasing proportion of
artists propose new projects that are commissioned exclusively for Exit
Art exhibitions.
EXHIBITION SUPPORT
This exhibition is supported by the Andy Warhol Foundation for the
Visual Arts, Bloomberg LP, Carnegie Corporation, Jerome Foundation, New
York City Department of Cultural Affairs and City Council Speaker
Christine C. Quinn, O'Grady Foundation, Pollock-Krasner Foundation,
Public Funds from the New York State Council on the Arts, a State
Agency, Starry Night Fund at The Tides Foundation, Exit Art’s Board of
Directors and our members.
GENERAL INFORMATION
Exit Art is located at 475 Tenth Avenue, corner of 36th Street. Hours:
Tues. – Thurs., 10am – 6pm; Fri., 10am – 8pm; and Sat., noon – 8pm.
Closed Sun. and Mon. There is a suggested donation of $5. For more
information please call 212-966-7745.
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