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New-to-me artist

Has anyone heard of Christopher Marley?

I read/listened to this piece on him a couple weeks ago: https://www.npr.org/2018/01/15/576566280/oregon-artist-turns-dead-creatures-into-beautiful-compositions

Is this eco-art or just fancy taxidermy?

Comments

  1. MC GreenleafJanuary 28, 2018 at 3:17 PM

    I'm not sure Marley's work strictly counts eco-art. Though Marley is using nature to create art, and his intentions seem to be to get people more interested in various species of animals, it seems like his work is leaning towards an anthropocentric view. Rather than drawing the viewer to the natural world and showcasing its beauty, he is instead choosing to box the natural world and bring it to the viewer. His work seems to me to be more focused on what nature can do for people, rather than what people can do for nature. He's removing the animals from their context in the world for the sake of letting people see them in a completely different and pristine environment, which I personally don't think counts as eco-art.

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  2. UnknownJanuary 28, 2018 at 7:35 PM

    Marley is an interesting comparison to Andy Goldsworthy. Both artists used materials found in nature to create their sculptural/photographic work. Goldsworthy works in the environment he found his "tools" in. As the article points out, Marley isolates his specimens from their natural environment. While aesthetically pleasing, I agree with MC that this work does not feel definitively like Eco-Art.

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