ABSTRACT
Judging by the growing number of collaborations among artists, environmental groups, and scientists worldwide, it appears that art and science are celebrating their second vows after a centuries-long divorce. The urgency of contemporary environmental challenges has soldered visual artists and scientists together, doubling the potential of their creative minds to better fix our ailing world. Artists mediate between hard, and often complex, facts and the public; they disseminate information and raise awareness, facilitate community building, and contribute hands-on solutions for pressing ecological problems around the globe. The environmentally aware artists examined in this chapter, Basia Irland and Watershed Sculpture duo Daniel McCormick and Mary O’Brien have turned their attention to the present state of rivers to produce, armed with scientific fact, and in concert with biologists, ecologists, and conservationists, ‘art on the river’ as a commentary and source of policy solutions to environmental problems in river basins.
Valerie Behiery PhD is an Assistant Professor of Art History at Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.
