In ‘Atacama,’ Renewable Energy and Mining Converge in a Stunning Bird’s-Eye View of Human Impact

Valle de los Vientos Wind Farm, Atacama Desert, Chile (2017). All images © Jamey Stillings, courtesy of Steidl, shared with permission

An arid region with uncanny similarities to Mars, the Atacama Desert is sparsely inhabited by animal life but rich in mineral deposits. Located west of the Andes Mountains in northern Chile, the area is home to massive mines harvesting a third of the world’s copper and lithium supplies. These extractions date back to at least the 19th century, having scarred and damaged the landscape in the process.

The same dry, sun-soaked qualities that make the Atacama inhospitable uniquely position it as a lucrative site for generating wind and solar power, two forms of renewable energy that stand in opposition to the region’s history of fossil-fuel dependence. Santa Fe-based photographer Jamey Stillings spent part of 2017 flying over the region documenting the shift toward sustainable sources, now compiled in a recent book published by Steidl.

Dozens of aerial images fill the 160 pages of Atacama: Renewable Energy and Mining in the High Desert of Chile, juxtaposing the older mines with the newer solar and wind plants. Stillings not only captures the beautiful and saddening sights most humans will never witness firsthand but also illuminates our current crossroads: as we collectively consider how to live in ways that are less ecologically destructive, we also need to plan for realistic, and even obvious, alternatives like those available in Atacama and clearly identify how we’ll transition from one system to the next.

Atacama is available on Bookshop, and you can find more from the series, along with Stillings’ other projects, on Instagram.

 

Cerro Dominador Concentrated Solar Plant under construction, Chile (2017)

El Romero Solar Photovoltaic Plant, Chile (2017)

Mina SQM Lithium Mine, Salar de Atacama, Chile (2017)

Aerial landscape, Atacama region, Chile (2017)

Pampa Elvira Solar Thermal Plant located at Minera Gaby Copper Mine, Chile (2017). ‘Atacama’ book cover

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The BBC’s Award-Winning ‘Planet Earth’ Returns for a Thrilling Yet Alarming Third Series

The BBC’s award-winning series Planet Earth returned this month with eight episodic documentaries that showcase the most awe-inspiring, miraculous, and seemingly impossible-to-capture sights of the natural world. As usual, the stunning footage is paired with the iconic voice of now 97-year-old Sir David Attenborough and captures a wide range of animal life, from a rhinoceros lumbering through city streets to flamingoes attempting to nest among the flooded lands of the Yucatán Penninsula.

Shot in 43 countries for the past five years, the episodes are thematic, focusing on ecosystems like oceans and forests or topics like extreme living conditions and human impacts. As should be expected with anything planet-related in 2023, critics are warning that this season is as beautiful as it is frightening. The series includes the usual animal antics and predator vs. prey relationships, along with necessary adaptations and struggles faced by life on a planet facing catastrophic collapse and habitat destruction.

Watch the trailer above, and mark your calendars for November 4 when Planet Earth III premieres on BBC America in the U.S.

 

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Over 100 Spectacular Artworks Line an Australian Beach for the Annual ‘Sculpture by the Sea’

The Glue Society, “Hot with A Chance of a Late Storm” (2006). Photo by Louise Beaumont. All images courtesy of Sculpture by the Sea, shared with permission

From a beefy seated gorilla to a sleek shell with human legs, a spectacular collection of public artworks currently populates the walk from Bondi to Tanarama beaches on Australia’s southwest coast. Celebrating its 25th year in this location, the annual Sculpture by the Sea festival showcases more than 100 pieces in various mediums, styles, and sizes, all bordering the Pacific Ocean. Through early November, visitors to the two-kilometer stretch will encounter Gleb Dusavitskiy’s enormous pair of wings that soar into the sky, geometric shapes of translucent color by Emryn Ingram-Shute, and The Glue Society’s gloopy, melting ice cream truck, which debuted in the event’s 2006 edition.

Although temporary, Sculpture by the Sea is one of the largest outdoor sculpture parks in the world and on view through November 6. See more from the 2023 edition on Instagram.

 

Gleb Dusavitskiy, “I Believe I Can Fly.” Photo by Tyr Liang

Emryn Ingram-Shute, “No Colour in War.” Photo by Tyr Liang

Top left: Eiji Hayakawa, “Giant in the Forest.” Photo by Charlotte Curd. Top right: Markus Hofer, “Serum.” Photo by Henri Fanti. Bottom left: Laurence Edwards, “Man of Stones” (2022). Photo by Charlotte Curd. Bottom right: Osamu Ohnishi and Masako Ohnishi, “HITSUJI Hideout.” Photo by Henri Fanti

Tsukasa Nakahara, “Water Blocks 19-11” (2021). Photo by Charlotte Curd

“Keep Walking.” Photo by Charlotte Curd

The Glue Society and James Dive, “Hot With the Chance Of A Late Storm” (2006-2022). Photo by Charlotte Curd

Juan Pablo Pinto and Cristian Rojas, “The Hermitage.” Photo by Charlotte Curd

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Wind Animates Vibrant Fabrics in Thomas Jackson’s Ephemeral Environmental Installations

“Tulle no. 046” (2022), Nantucket, Massachusetts. All images © Thomas Jackson, shared with permission

Ethereal sheets of tulle appear to hover in spectral motion over meadows and in copses of trees in Thomas Jackson’s latest photographs. “If there’s a theme I’m focused on this year, it’s the relationship between the materials I use to make my installations and the landscapes they inhabit,” he tells Colossal. Each ephemeral installation (previously) responds to the surrounding environment, changing shape as it interacts with the wind. Often documented during the golden hour, the layers of thin fabric shift to become more or less opaque, overlapping into various color combinations in the light.

Recently, Jackson has begun to work with silk and continues to incorporate other everyday materials into his pieces, like plastic cups or aluminum trays. This past summer, he and a team of 60 volunteers coordinated the installation of “Collaborative Nature,” a public art project in a park in Tiburon, California, consisting of about 800 fabric “puffs” that responded to the wind, stuck into the ground with thin fiberglass stakes.

Jackson focuses on sustainability, taking a “leave no trace” approach to dismantling the installations when they are complete and recycling the materials into new projects. He says:

It would not be incorrect to say that I make art about nature with materials that represent a threat to nature itself. It’s contradictory, I know, and to a large degree, that’s the point. In fact, I think we’re all grappling with a similar contradiction in our daily lives. We revere nature and want to preserve it (most of us at least), but we also want to enjoy the comforts and conveniences of our petroleum-based, industrial economy. I want my work to exist in the space between those two incompatible desires. At the same time, I want viewers to consider what a sustainable equilibrium between ourselves and the natural world might look like.

Find more of Jackson’s work on his website, and follow updates on Instagram.

 

“Tulle no. 51_v2,” (2023), Serenbe, Georgia

“Collaborative Nature,” (2023), Tiburon, California

“Tulle no. 039” (2022), Neskowin, Oregon

“Tulle no. 44_v1” (2022), Nantucket, Massachusetts

“Cups no. 6” (2023), Serenbe, Georgia

Nantucket, Massachusetts

“Tulle no. 052” (2023), Serenbe, Georgia

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Five Copper Petals Dramatically Enclose a Bamboo Yoga Studio in a Lush Bali Village

All images © Lumi Shala

A yoga and meditation studio in Bali welcomes visitors to relax and stretch under an airy bamboo canopy. A recent project of the local architecture firm IBUKU, “Lumi Shala” is a copper-coated structure with scalloped roofing that layers like five overlapping petals. The metallic covering is met with interlaced bamboo infrastructure inside, as those same botanical-like forms sweep upward in massive arches and “reflect warm golden light onto the bellies of the blonde bamboo ceilings inside, inspiring feelings of lightness and freedom,” the designers said. Earthen walls also support the roof with gaps that allow seamless movement between interior and exterior and sunlight to stream into the space.

“Lumi Shala” is one component of IBUKU’s larger plan for the yoga studio, and you can find more on the firm’s site. (via Dezeen)

 

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Let’s Get Digital: Toshiya Masuda Recreates Retro Technology as Pixelated Ceramic Sculptures

“Low pixel CG ‘Recollection playlist 2.'” All images © Toshiya Masuda, shared with permission

Retro digital aesthetics meets analog techniques in the ceramic sculptures of Toshiya Masuda. The Japanese artist (previously) fuses the low-resolution, pixelated imagery associated with early virtual worlds with quotidian objects from a similar time in pop culture history. Blurry cubes of painted clay form a bright red boombox and cassette tape, a pair of high-top Converse, and a Polaroid camera with a crinkled photo emerging from its slot. By melding the two disparate forms, Masuda creates what he calls an “image gap,” an uncanny feeling in which the unreal is made tactile.

Nostalgic and youthful, the sculptures reflect technological evolution and our increasing reliance on devices. Masuda tells designboom:

I am 46 years old now. I remember when I was in primary school, computers became widespread, and by the time I was a university student, these were followed by smartphones and tablets. It was like the dawn of the digital age. I am part of the generation where digital objects gradually increased their presence in our lives… One of the most important things for me when I create my work is to make sure that it expresses the times in which I live.

A few years back, Keiko Art International produced a short film documenting Masuda’s process and thinking that’s worth the watch. You can find more of his work on his site.

 

“Low pixel CG’Memory container 2′”

“Low pixel CG ‘Super Idol'”

“Low pixel CG ‘All Star’”

“Low pixel CG’Recollection Playlist'”

Left: “Low pixel CG ‘Withering Flowers.'” Right: “Low pixel CG ‘Family Taking Refuge from a Bombing Raid’ (V&A collection)”

“Low pixel CG ‘Transition'”

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Precisely Aligned Paint and Fabric Camouflage Cecilia Paredes Amid Lush Botanical Backdrops

“Tapestry” (2023). All images courtesy of Ruiz-Healy Art, shared with permission

In a pair of companion exhibitions, Peruvian artist Cecilia Paredes (previously) expands on her lavish collection of “photo performances” to explore the fluid relationship between our bodies and environments. On view now at two Ruiz-Healy Art locations, the solo shows encompass new works that continue Paredes’ unique methods of camouflage and disguise. The artist swathes herself in densely patterned fabrics and paints any visible skin with the same motif, which she perfectly aligns with the backdrop to create disorienting and endlessly intriguing images that blur the contours of her body.

Both exhibitions, Walking in My Galaxy Blue and The Weaving of Dust, are wide-ranging in their interpretations of surrounding environments as they draw on the cosmos, forests, and ornamental vessels fit for domestic interiors. The self-portraits develop Paredes’ interest in the correlation between personal identity and external forces, questioning how we understand and present ourselves in relation to the outside world.

See the exhibitions at Ruiz-Healy Art through November 3 in New York and November 18 in San Antonio, and keep up with Paredes on Instagram.

 

“Chrysalis” (2023)

Left: “Dafne Tall” (2022). Right: “Dafne in Repose” (2022)

“Clorinda” (2022)

“Cupcake Rose” (2023)

“Walking in my Galaxy Blue” (2023)

“Rose Garden” (2023)

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