Art, Ecology, and Climate: Pollution and Contamination

One of several e-museums devoted to ecological and climatological topics, these artworks engage with forms of human activity—industrial, consumer, agricultural, transportation-related—that add ecologically harmful elements into air, water, or land. Many of the artworks in the e-museum are also relevant to an environmental justice framework. Though some of the works have a social documentary quality, each of them–documentary or not–implies some kind of stance towards the industries, practices, and environmental impacts it depicts. We invite you to think critically about how different works use form, content, and style to create these stances, especially when considering their different aims and target audiences. How do these works make visible something that is largely invisible? How do they give everyday forms of pollution the status of notable events?

More images of pollution, contamination, and emissions can be found throughout the Art, Ecology, and Climate E-Museums, including “Power and Energy,” “Extraction,” “Atmospheric,” and “The Anthropocene.”