Nature has had a long history as a popular subject in artistic production. Many have argued that representations of nature in art are closely linked to the social perception of the natural world during a given historical period. In recent years, concerns over environmental realities such as climate change are reflected in representations of nature in contemporary art.

This exercise is an attempt to map out some of the new ways in which nature is imagined in contemporary art. Within the small body of work we are presenting, nature emerges as a threat, a mutation and sometimes, an anthropomorphic fantasy. In all cases, nature is no longer reduced to two dimensions, flattened into scenery or dominated by an anthropocentric model. Instead, thereí¢â‚¬â„¢s been both a saturation and deconstruction of the notion of landscape. With increasing social anxieties about the environment, nature is perceived as an active agent capable of mutating and devastating our every day life.

Contemporary representations of landscapes critically deconstruct the picturesque and nature emerges as surreal and at times apocalyptic space. Using a range of media, and at times, an entirely new palette, artists are re-imagining our relationship with natural systems as alien and chaotic. Moving away from ordered and controlled notions of nature and towards decidedly unscientific representations, the works reflect an understanding of nature that is obscured and complicated by our urban existence and the looming threat that the fast changing environment poses to it. Furthermore, given our high-tech, urban centered, consumer driven world, the idea of a harmonious relationship with nature is absurd. This absurdity is prominent in the fanatastical fiction of landscapes in the Mash Gallery.

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By Leila Pourtavaf and Andria Hickey

Image by Sarah Anne Johnsoní‚