Unsustainable

François Bucher’s acrylic light boxes are made with PET plastic and polarized film—materials that will likely never deteriorate or decompose naturally, acting as a burden to our environment. The significance of the light phenomenon occurring within each sculpture is multi-fold. When placed between two linear polarized filters, PET plastic expresses the phenomenon of birefringence (a ray of light is refracted into two rays heading in different directions). The resulting abstract images seem to float inside the acrylic structures, or to mimic abstract gravitational waves. Polarization is also linked to Bucher’s interest in non-linear time: “PET plastic is a derivative from fossil fuels, made entirely of ancient biological life; therefore, it has a molecule akin to the one in our DNA. It is interesting to note that this phenomenon of light—anisotropy and/or polarization—is the most important tool when engaging with the exploration of deep time, including both the seconds after the Big Bang and the geological history of our own planet. Oil wells are also discovered using anisotropy.”

peter campus’ later work is largely devoted to the working waterways of Long Island. These videos, both alternatively abstract and realistic, are gloriously hued. Works such as providence combine the riotous colors and loosely structured forms of early fauvism with a brilliant saturation and pixelation that could only be achieved in the digital era. Other works deconstruct the observed landscape, transforming it into a rumination on the effects of light and movement across various surfaces. These videos explore communal experience and cognition, and how and when we arrive at a shared understanding of the surrounding world.

David Opdyke makes art that explores globalization, consumerism, and civilization’s abusive relationship with the environment. His hand-modified landscape postcards offer a bracing commentary on the impact of the climate crisis on the American landscape. The works explore the themes of climate displacement and migration and bring humanity to the center. In Opdyke’s hands, these postcards are transformed from snapshots of early twentieth-century leisure into emissaries from different futures—visions of spectacular manifestations of the climate crisis.