Art in the Age of the Anthropocene
By Hannah ChaleW
Bottomland Chimera
metal, sugarcane,disposable plastic waste, lime, recycled paint, paper made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), ink made from brick, copper, goldenrod, fossil fuel pollution, indigo, oak gall, and sheetrock, soil, living plants
90” x 115” x 85” 2023
We are living in an era of global warming with an uncertain future. My work is specifically rooted in Southern Louisiana, where I live, as a microcosm of our shifting time. It unearths the historical legacies that got us here to help imagine a different path forward.
“I make work that connects fossil fuel extraction and plastic production to their roots in the white supremacy and capitalism that have fueled the exploitation of people and the landscape from the times of colonization and enslavement.”
My works draw viewers into an experience that bridges past and present with visions of the future ecosystems that might emerge from our culture’s detritus if we fail to change course.
I connect my message with my medium by divesting my work from fossil fuels as much as possible through my material choices, how I power my work, and by not accepting fossil fuel funding. By working this way, I offer a slower, more intentional paradigm of engaging with our surroundings as an antidote to the short-sighted extractive consumption that has gotten us to this precarious moment.
In art pieces ranging from works on paper to large-scale installations, I bring together unlikely materials in combinations that are often beautiful. These works draw viewers in to stay with the art that, on closer inspection, has a deeper burn that implicates them in our collective realities—inviting the viewer to re-examine their place in this greater network.
How do the choices we make today and our inaction implicate us in this potential future? My work creates space to imagine what else could be possible now and beyond; it inspires viewers to think about what individual and collective changes are needed for a just transition from fossil fuels and plastic to ensure a livable future for all beings, including our descendants.
in, over, through
Metal, sugarcane, lime, recycled paint, disposable plastic waste, soil, living plants. Dimensions variable. 2019-present. Photo featuring dancer Kaitlin Guerin by CFreedom
This ongoing outdoor installation in my studio courtyard is my vision of what future gardens might look like based on our current societal addiction to fossil fuels and their byproducts. In this work, I’m creating a “garden” combining unlikely materials to help shift the viewer’s perspective both on our role on this planet and on the paradigm of the extractive industries as an inherent part of this landscape.
Petroplexus
Iron oak gall ink, ink made from sheetrock, on paper made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”) over rebar
This drawing examines the effect of the petrochemical industry on the landscape of Southern Louisiana in the present and into the future. The drawing substrate is made from a combination of sugarcane, the staple chattel slavery crop, and shredded plastic, much of which was refined just upriver In Cancer Alley.
11’ x 8’ x 2’
2019
Tremblante
Metal, sugarcane, disposable plastic waste, lime, recycled paint, living plants, soil, paper made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), iron oak gall ink, ink made from sheetrock
72” x 48” x 60”
2021
La prairie tremblante, or trembling prairie, is the local term for the floating marshes endemic to Louisiana; marshes that are not anchored to the soil beneath. This sculpture is inspired by this natural adaptation to our watery landscape and imagines what might become of our built world, specifically the petrochemical infrastructure that litters our Southern Louisiana environs when seas rise. This living sculptural drawing has a watering system built into it, the industrial pipes of fossil fuel facilities now act as conduit to nurture the plants in this new ecosystem.
Bottomland Chimera
Just as the wetlands are decimated by the oil industry, the drawing breaks apart, revealing the welded understructure that doubles as the pipeline infrastructure lying beneath our state and coastline. Even as our coast is eroding and sinking and sea levels are rising, petrochemical companies continue to actively exploit our landscape and poison our communities. This drawing imagines the ecosystems that may emerge from our cultural detritus if we do not hold these companies accountable and demand a different future.
Bottomland Chimera (close up)
metal, sugarcane,disposable plastic waste, lime, recycled paint, paper made from sugarcane combined with shredded disposable plastic waste (“plasticane”), ink made from brick, copper, goldenrod, fossil fuel pollution, indigo, oak gall, and sheetrock, soil, living plants
90” x 115” x 85”
2023
This installation imagines the hybrid future ecosystems that will emerge out of our current age if we fail to change course. Welded pipe forms connect at loci where aggregate of organic (sugarcane, lime) and synthetic (plastic) matter coalesce into planters for living plants. Plants made from “plasticane” paper (sugarcane and plastic) and painted shades of green sourced from pigments found in my Southern Louisiana landscape (copper, fossil fuel pollution, goldenrod, indigo, oak gall, and sheetrock) emerge and co-mingle with the pipes seeming to have mutated from or been grafted to these industrial forms.
Hannah Chalew is an artist, activist, and educator from New Orleans, Louisiana. Learn more about her work at hannahchalew.com.