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REPRESENTATIONAL ARTWORK
This tangible and real-world exhibit invokes a completely different emotion than other environmentally focused pieces as it truly allows the people to see what they are losing as the consequences of climate change continue to occur.
1. Olafur Eliasson, Ice Watch
Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic artist, has created many pieces that highlight the effects of climate change on the environment. For this piece specifically, he brought 12 giant pieces of an iceberg from the fjord that stretches off the coast of Greenland to Denmark. He placed these pieces in front of Copenhagan's city hall for all to view. This piece highlights climate change in action and allows people to directly perceive these changes right in front of them. The viewers were able to touch these icebergs and even climb on them as they melted, making this an entirely interactive experience.
The melting of this fjord where these pieces of the iceberg were taken from has already raised the height of the ocean by 1/10 of an inch. This may not seem like a major increase, but this small impact can have catastrophic effects, such as flooding, erosion, and the loss of marshes and wetlands for coastal ecosystems.​
2. Agnes Denes, Wheatfield - A Confrontation
summer, 1982
The wheatfield was placed on a landfield in lower Manhattan facing the Statue of Liberty. Two blocks from Wall Street and the World Trade Center, the $4.5 billion location provided an even deeper meaning to the piece. The absurdity of using such an expensive piece of land to simply harvest wheat attracted a lot of public attention.
With many months of planning and research, Agnes Denes and her team created a 2-acre wheat field in May of 1982. This field was created by digging 285 furrows in the dirt by hand and then cleaning up all of the garbage and debris within the soil. The wheat seeds would then be placed by hand and covered. Every furrow took multiple hours to complete. For months, the seedlings were taken care of with an installed irrigation system, weeding, as well as fertilization. On the 16th of August, the healthy wheat was collected resulting in almost 1000 pounds of the fresh grain.
Wheatfield represented the corruption of waste, world hunger, and ecological concerns. The contrast between the large city buildings and the golden field called attention to misplaced priorities of human civilization. The harvested wheat was transported to exhibits around the globe where the seeds would be collected and planted in impoverished communites.
3. Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty
The gradual erosion, shifting water levels, and salt encrustation transform the piece itself into a living record of environmental change. As the earthwork evolves, it becomes a visual and emotional reminder of nature's fragility, prompting a deeper awareness of what may be permanently altered or lost due to human impact.
Robert Smithson’s Spiral Jetty, created in 1970, is one of the most iconic works of Land Art and reflects his fascination with geology and the passage of time. Located on the northeastern shore of the Great Salt Lake in Utah, the piece consists of a 1,500-foot-long coil made of basalt rocks and earth that spirals out into the pink-hued water. The location was chosen for its remote setting and the work interacts constantly with the natural environment—sometimes submerged by rising lake levels, at other times fully visible and encrusted with salt. Spiral Jetty invites viewers to experience art in a shifting landscape, far removed from traditional gallery spaces. By immersing themselves in the physical site, viewers become part of the artwork's ongoing dialogue with nature and time.
The site of Spiral Jetty has been dramatically affected by fluctuating water levels in the Great Salt Lake, which have been influenced by both climate change and human activity. The shrinking of the lake threatens local ecosystems, increases toxic dust storms, and disrupts habitats for migratory birds. What may appear to be a simple shift in waterline is, in reality, a sign of profound ecological imbalance with far-reaching consequences.