ABSTRACT
Two artworks by Colombian artists that draw attention to the degradation of Colombia’s River Cauca provide case studies to help think through the complexities of effective artistic response to environmental disaster. Alicia Barney created Río Cauca in 1981–1982 to highlight the problem of urban and industrial pollution. In 2016–2017, Clemencia Echeverri exhibited Sin cielo, a video installation, showing the contamination of waterways caused by gold mining. Both expose capitalism’s polluting effects, but their approaches reflect different historical moments calling for distinct strategies, revealing the kind of contextual difficulties that eco-artists must creatively navigate. Both artists harnessed techniques of Western culture connected with totalizing knowledge and social control. Río Cauca exhibits the trappings of scientific investigation. Sin cielo uses aerial perspective, associated with surveillance. The artists take advantage of these techniques’ impact in ways that overflow their normal functions. Barney’s installation seems a promise of what has been and still could be, questioning notions of Western progress. Echeverri’s is apocalyptic, wherein humans are revealed as significantly impacting but not controlling natural processes. Where Barney’s work appeals to rationality, Echeverri’s channels affect. Each challenges contemporary viewers to question what eco-art can achieve in this moment of climate catastrophe.
