Where the Anthropocene turns obscure, an essay by Christopher Squier
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MICHEL GÉRARD, OURANOS, 1988. INSTALLATION WITH COAL. INSTALLATION VIEW IN ALBI, FRANCE.
Dissolve invites you to consider the dirt and grease that comprise much of the matter by which industrial and postindustrial landscapes are made. In “The Anthrobscure: Earthworks, Coal Mines, and Michel Gérard’s Geological Investigations of the Underground,” Christopher Squier uses the “Anthrobscure” as a framework for examining artworks that operate outside of the often pristine landscapes of today’s Land Art destinations. The essay rearticulates the Anthropocene as a visual experience which moves one toward obscurity; we are in an optically-centered era that employs strategies of obfuscation to cover, stratify, and sanitize its contaminated landscapes.
Read the essay at the link below:
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