Taking a slight departure from how artists have previously been profiled in this almanac, I’m featuring an artist who is part of a group show titled Indicators: Artists on Climate Change, currently on at Storm King. The artist who got my attention is David Brooks. At Storm King, he drew inspiration from the landscape and local ecosystem to speak to broader issues impacting the environment, global climate trends, and human ways of life, and believes that a great challenge of addressing climate change is that its effects are often imperceptible.
Scattered throughout the woods of Storm King, Brooks has created thirty bronze castings of ephemeral, biodegradable natural objects found on the grounds—such as tree roots embracing rocks, or delicately intertwined branches—and permanently affixed them next to the subjects from which they were cast. As future weather patterns alter the site in unknown ways, these intimate replicas will act as time capsules.
Brooks has stated, “I’m asking viewers to reconcile the intimacy of apprehending the sculptural object in the quietude of the woods with the vastness of the sculpture’s potential lifespan of thousands of years. Such a reconciliation of disparate perceptions is similar to how one might introspectively experience the conflicted notion and existence of climate change.”
Visit Storm King and find his 30 bronze castings