Weeds and Birds: Photography Between Ecocriticism, Ecocultural Studies and Visual Ecological Culture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.31261/SSP.2023.22.02Keywords:
photography, visual culture of ecology, ecocriticism, herbology, extinction of species, Anna Kędziora, Diana Lelonek, AnthropoceneAbstract
The article analyzes works created by two Polish artists, Diana Lelonek’s “Endling” (2022) and Anna Kędziora’s “Plantae malum” (2021). Both artists move smoothly between photography and spatial installations. By displaying objects and images as though they were scientific exhibits, they address the relationship between humans and the natural environment and reveal mechanisms of exclusion and extermination. The word “endling” stands for the last representative of a species, while “plantae malum” for “weeds,” plants perceived from an anthropocentric perspective as “bad plants” and therefore intended for extermination. Lelonek’s and Kędziora’s works are not only visual and spatial, but also “intertextual” in that they weave narratives about the environment and are rich in cultural references and scientific associations. Marianna Michałowska has placed the selected case studies in the context of ecocultural studies (Ewa Rewers), ecocriticism (Timothy Clark) and the visual culture of ecology (T.J. Demos’s concept). Each of these concepts emphasizes the cultural-natural entanglements of artistic works, and – as in the case of the visual culture of ecology – the need to abandon the traditional aesthetics in favor of studies on legal, political and economic relations that influence the circulation of images.
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