Anthropocene: Burtynsky, Baichwal, de Pencier

by Sophie Hackett (Editor), Jennifer Baichwal, Nick de Pencier

Winner, Canadian Museum Association Award for Research in Art
A controversial idea currently under vigorous and passionate international debate that would recognize the "human signature" on the planet. Anthropocene is the latest book by Edward Burtynsky, Jennifer Baichwal, and Nicholas de Pencier to chronicle the massive and irreversible impact of humans on the Earth — on a geological scale. In photographs that are both stunning and disconcerting, Burtynsky, Baichwal, and de Pencier document species extinction (the burning of elephant tusks to disrupt the illegal trade of ivory), technofossils (swathes of discarded plastic forming geological layers), and terraforming (mines and industrial agriculture). The book also features a range of essays by artists, curators, and scientists, some part of an international group of scientists who have proposed that the Earth is now entering a new era of geological time where human activity is the driving force behind environmental and geological change — i.e. the Anthropocene. Thus the book brings contemporary art into conversation with environmental science and anthropology on a topic that urgently affects all of us. Anthropocene was published to coincide with a major international exhibition that opened simultaneously in September 2018 at the Art Gallery of Ontario and the National Gallery of Canada and the release of a film on the same topic by Baichwal and de Pencier.

Genres: Photography, Nonfiction, Art, Science

255 pages, Hardcover

Published October 9, 2018

Reviews

[Brittany · Rating 5 out of 5]

I watched the Anthropocene movie when I was on an airplane a few years ago. There's a scene in it that shows a piece of machinery that literally left my mouth agape. I rewatched it like seven times and just kept thinking "holy shit". Every time I got on an airplane after that, I checked to see if they were showing the movie, and if they did, I went to rewatch the scene. My engineering brain was losing it over this piece of equipment. As it turns out, it's the world's largest excavator (https://sudonull.com/post/21146-Mega-..., https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bagger_293, https://twitter.com/anthropocene/stat...). Needless to say, my interest was piqued and knew I had to read this. I don't have much to say about it besides the fact that it's enthralling, sad, and nonetheless, extremely important.

"Some of this is just semantics, of course, a debate about the details, not the concept itself. et from another perspective, semantics - that, at times, dismissive term used to describe the practice of nitpicking - is at the very heart of the cultural understanding of human communication and meaning-formation. Words have power, after all, and those who wield them even more."

"There is some danger to this approach because you can argue that the scale and rapidity of planetary destruction requires something more urgent, something that more stridently signals emergency. Point taken. But I still believe that lateral exploration, the open-ended conversation, can provoke transformation more deeply than hard argument."

[Stephanie Sirois · Rating 5 out of 5]

Here’s what you need to know about this book; 3 artists came together to create the “Anthropocene Project”, based off research from the Anthropocene Working Group. The AWG are a group of scientists who are working on determining if/when we have entered the Anthropocene age. Why is this important? Because the Anthropocene project looks into how the planet has been transformed by human activity.

The Anthropocene Project isn’t just text from research papers though. It incorporates photography, film, 3D technology, and revolutionary work.

Let’s talk about the book.

It starts off with discussions of why the collaborators decided to display certain aspects the way they did, as well as some background on the AWG and some academic literature. It took longer to work through and comprehend because there was so much information there. It paints in clear terms, what human activity has done to the planet, and the scientific quibbling over which time in our history marked Anthropocene (there’s some debate between it being when the US launched nuclear missiles at Japan, and left a permanent mark behind, or when the Industrial Revolution really picked up speed, where we were making weapons to destroy each other while also destroying our earth with pollution.)

The stills themselves are breathtaking. I didn’t know what I was seeing, but I wanted to stare at them. I want to take the images from this book and plaster my walls with them. They’re so aesthetically pleasing; bright colours, geometric intensity, wide landscapes. Then I would read the caption beside the still, describing the human activity involved. My horror would snap into place, as I looked back at the picture, and comprehended what I saw. My unease would only grow, as with most scenarios described in this book, there were 3 or more related stills incorporated after the initial introductory still.

The ivory mounds burning, the Dandora landfill, the phosphate mines, the marble mines, the rivers and area so toxic the artists were relieved upon their departure.

This book was amazing. It was eye-opening, gorgeous, and I have a lot to think about now.

5/5

[Pat · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a surprisingly dense book about a heavy subject. Written to accompany a profoundly moving exhibit, which I and my family did see at the AGO last year, it is a lot more than just a visual catalogue. The book is a smaller hardcover format and the Art Work that is discussed includes sophisticated photographic images that are very big indeed. So the images in the book are just a reminder of the impact of viewing the originals. This is not a coffee table art book. I had to work hard to follow the writing that included concepts just a little bit beyond me , both unfamiliar and complex. I appreciated the attempt to be included in the conversation, and the effort to bring us all into the harsh realities of a world in massive transition. The art does indeed speak to me.

[Nick Mclean · Rating 4 out of 5]

Burtynsky's photography captures the way humans profoundly alter the environment. The book is a compendium of a larger project including film, photography, augmented reality and scientific research. The term refers to a new ecological era where one species, the human, transforms life more than the combined impact of all other species. It is an extraordinary moment, for which our species is not well prepared. Burtynsky viscerally captures the staggering scale and implications of our inadvertent impact on this planet and the accompanying text provides context and scientific information. This is a companion piece to a touring Anthropocene exhibit.

[Jeff · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is an important complement to the exhibition, providing one with facts, analysis, and time that aren't available when viewing the show live. The vision of the world presented here is, of course, harrowing. The efforts of the artists to document evidence of the anthropocene, however, offer at least some hope that the clarity they seek will serve as a foundation for corrective action.

[Susan Ladan · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book goes along with the excellent exhibit by the same name that I saw at the Art Gallery of Ontario in December 2018. The exhibit was amazing and interesting on many levels. The books reads like a university text. It was informative and worth reading, but only because I had enjoyed the exhibit so much.

[Brandon Forsyth · Rating 4 out of 5]

It’s hard to look at Burtynsky’s photographs and not feel a sense of your perspective shifting, of your worldview expanding to encompass the scale of what our species has done to the planet. Some of the commentary on the photos is far too dense to be as effective as the photography, but the Margaret Atwood poems are a delightful accompaniment. 4.5 stars.

[Andy Janes · Rating 3 out of 5]

Accompanies the film/museum exhibit, gives a lot of background of the artists, their work, etc.

[Kevin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Beautiful and horrific all at the same time.

[Reena Lepik · Rating 4 out of 5]

~3.5

[Clayton Ellis · Rating 5 out of 5]

These books are amazing multidisciplinary collaboration of the Anthropocene. I will certainly use this in my future teaching about the concept and worked problem.

[Holly]

Terrifying.