Nine Artists Who Answered Earth's Call: A Decade of Environmental Art

Starting from the 2009 COP15 climate conference in Copenhagen, this article reviews a decade of environmental art. Jens Galschiot's 'SevenMeters' (2009) used red lights to mark potential sea levels if Greenland's ice melted. Chris Jordan's 'Midway: Message from the Gyre' (2009) documented albatross deaths from ingested plastic. Gabriel Orozco's 'Sandstars' (2012) at the Guggenheim New York displayed 1,200 trash objects from Isla Arena. Isaac Coordal's 'Waiting for Climate Change' (2012) featured cement figures watching the ocean, shown in Belgium and later at Nantes' Château des ducs de Bretagne. Naziha Mestaoui's 'One Beat, One Tree' (2012) at the Rio Earth Summit allowed viewers to plant virtual trees that grew to their heartbeat, with real trees planted for each virtual one. Olafur Eliasson's 'Ice Watch' (2014) at COP21 in Paris presented melting Greenland icebergs on Place du Panthéon. Agnes Denes' 'Living Pyramid' (2015) at Socrates Sculpture Park in Queens, New York, was a grass-and-earth pyramid. John Gerrard's 'Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas)' (2017) digitally simulated the first major oil well, with a black smoke flag, shown at Somerset House London and Desert X in Coachella Valley. Superflux's 'Mitigation of Shock' (2019) reconstructed a hypothetical 2050 London apartment adapted to climate change.