Joseph Smolinski : GROUND CONTROL at Swarm Gallery, May 15 – June 21, 2009

Ink, watercolor, and graphite on paper, 26 x 40 inches framed

Joseph Smolinski is in curious awe of nature. Through developing societies, tragedies of war and natural disasters, trees continue to regulate our climate, improve our water quality and clean our air. The oldest and largest organisms on our planet have survived a history longer than we can seem to remember. Images of trees permeate his work not only through its religious, political and personal histories but also as means to question technology and the future of the natural world.

One day Smolinski came across a giant fake tree looming above the interstate landscape. This pseudo-biotech hybrid was erected to camouflage the cellular communication transmitters beneath its fronds. In this vision, parasitic cell tower trees populate the landscape in many forms that become historical landmarks, roadside curiosities and subjects of natural disasters.

Watercolor and graphite on paper, 22 x 15 inches

Through these explorations, Smolinski wondered what else the tree could become. He began reading about wind power and its aesthetic opponents that lead him to the Tree Turbine project. It is clear that wind generated electricity is a clean sustainable alternative to climate-warming fossil fuels. He concluded that if these opposing groups disguised their cell towers as trees then why not a wind turbine? In 2008, Smolinski presented a video and series of sculptures, drawings and documentation of a 20-foot tall prototype at Mass MoCA as part of the exhibition “Badlands: New Horizons in Landscape.”

A three-part installation in the gallery titled, “Taking Back the Jetty,” (image below) comments on a future where the oil companies have succeeded in their quest for oil defacing the pristine view from Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty in Utah’s Great Salt Lake. The last resort to preserve this site, perhaps more devastating than the first, is a very powerful and dramatic act.

High definition digital animation, Ed 1 of 5

GROUND CONTROL brings these projects together to reflect on our current interactions with the landscape. It poses questions about the notion of control of the environment and envisions an optimistic and apocalyptic view of the future.

The exhibition opens at Swarm Gallery, Oakland CA, May 15 – June 21, 2009.

More images and information | www.swarmgallery.com