Running from 21 March till 6 July 2104 at the Singapore Art Museum the UNEARTHED exhibition explored the difficult relations between humans and Nature. Isaac Kerlow, who is the Artist in residence at the Singapore Earth Observatory, was at the EGU 2015 EOS 7 session to present the six artistic projects showed at the UNEARTHED exhibition in collaboration with his Institution (SEO).
Kerlow has a long experience as a filmmaker, visual artist and among all he is considered a pioneer in digital art. He is then bringing his original contributions in Earth sciences communication. Have a look for instance at the app Earth Girl 2, a game that prepares you for the Tsunami. In UNEARTHED, Kerlow was driving a team of six artists all of them expressing the relation between humans and nature in their own way. Chen Sai Hua Kuan, a multi-disciplinary Singaporean artist, resident of several awards and residencies, was the creator of an experimental installation that uses the power stored in wet soil to produce sound (Sound of the Earth); Zhang Xiao, a free lance photographer from China, intended to explore with his photographic project human life along the Chinese coast as well as some of its repercussions on the natural environment. (Coastline); Clara Balaguer and Carlos Casas , two artists from Philippines and Spain, with an eight channel installation intended to portray the life of Ayta people, who are thought to be the earliest inhabitants of the Philippines (Lupang); Robert Zhao Renhui, a Singaporean multi-disciplinary artist, chose a photographic installation to focus on the before and after of a natural disaster, examining the tension and fragility of landscapes and human habitations in areas subjected to such hazard (The Possibility of Knowing); Sutthirat Supaparinya, a video installation artist from Thailand, used a 3-channel video to reflect on the impact of altering the natural environment during the course of human activities such as mining or the creation of hydroelectric power (When Need Moves the Earth); Finally it was the occasion for Isaac Kerlow to present his multi-media installation Sudden Nature a project about the uneasy relationship between Man and Nature, and how this inescapable relation often oscillates between nurturing and destruction. The concept is expressed by means of a variety of media ranging from visual artworks an stenciled text to interactive installations with image and sound. The Unearthed Sudden Nature installation renew the theme already explored in the 2011 movie Sudden Nature.
The artist extracted soil from Seletar in northeastern Singapore. The soil is placed in an array of glass bottles and produces sufficient electricity to vibrate two small metal plates against each other. The impact of the metal plates creates a small hammering sound against clay bowls, made from the same soil and fired in a kiln, that amplify the sound.
A clip from the 2011 Sudden Nature movie by Isaac Kerlow
Ref:
EOS ART: Six Artistic Projects Inspired by Earth Science (EGU2015-9076)
SUDDEN NATURE – Dance from Isaac Kerlow on Vimeo.
more info about the Unheated exhibition at the Singapore Art Museum
more info about Isaac Kerlow