krisannebaker.com
Ecological Artist - activist works concerning water quality, availabilty and rights.
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Opening shot of 'The Delicate Balance of BlueGreen (Algae)' 2011 digital underwater video installation with 71 painted driftwood blocks from 'Nature Nourishes', an ecological multimedia group exhibition at ArtSpace, Hartford, CT, August, 2011. Curated by Lori Robeau and Karen Talbot.
Click here to view a brief CLIP from the INSTALLATION:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iyK9xt7L3pk
"Krisanne Baker’s installation The Delicate Balance of BlueGreen demonstrates the fragile equilibrium of nature by spotlighting blue-green algae, one of the most basic forms of life, and how it is a foundation to our world’s food system. As current practices have proven disruptive to this stability, BlueGreen stresses the value of these microscopic organisms and why it is critical to restore nature’s essential balance." Lori Robeau and Karen Talbot.
Sea turtles of Culebra, Puerto Rico, swim through a close up shot of 'The Delicate Balance of BlueGreen (Algae) digital installation by Krisanne Baker. Photo credit - Maria McMahon © 2011
'The Delicate Balance of BlueGreen (Algae)' questions human made systems which continue to try to force nature into submission. BlueGreen algae has been documented as one of the oldest forms of aquatic life dating back hundreds of millions of year prior to the appearance of humans. Today, algal blooms induced by chemical waste in our waters threaten aquatic habitats and life. The outcome of this continued degradation will have a devastating effect on oceanlife and eventually humans - as we are all made of shared water - the waters of this planet cycle through each and every one of us continually on and on . . .
ARTIST STATEMENT
Entropy into Regeneration: ‘REGENERENTROPIC’
Robert Smithon’s concept of entropy -- or the spiraling process of things falling apart -- and the way our culture continues to layer refuse conversely inspires my work toward sustainability in our environment and culture. By engaging the viewer in an internal dialogue on the results of unsustainable cultural practices, the new work explores a theme of regeneration; or how we might reverse the energy in an entropic situation into one of renewal or sustainable growth. I like to call this new term ‘regenerentropic’. The meaning of this multi-media work is not embodied solely by the objects, but by the concept to improve and care for our ecologies, as well as begin a dialogue and inspire action between the work and the viewing public.
Today, the water crises are complicated and are often governed by myriad politics and privitization of waters. In ‘Commonwealth’, Hardt and Negri encapsulate my concepts by saying ‘The notion of the common does not position humanity separate from nature, as either its exploiter or its custodian, but focuses rather on the practices of interaction, care and cohabitation in a common world, promoting the beneficial and limiting the detrimental forms of the common.” In order to start, Baker says, “We can all begin by making small changes in our lives, person-by-person it’s possible to turn the tide of environmental degradation.”
Water is our lifeblood.
My work as an ecological artist and activist conceptualizes concern for humanities’ unsustainable practices and the vulnerability of water -- from the local to the global. We are drawn to its danger and of great necessity to sustain our lives. We are seduced by waters' beauty; mesmerized and awed by its' power or soothing meditative qualities, and have taken it for granted for far too long. Faced with environmental uncertainties, we need to rethink assumptions concerning conditions within reach of and beyond our own experiences. It's necessary to remember the limits of the give and take system between this planet and its inhabitants--that person-by-person, it is possible to turn the tide of our current failing environment and humanity.
Oct./Nov. RE-installation of 'The Delicate Balance of Blue/Green (Algae)' at
'ReMake,ReUse,ReNew
Maryrove College, Detroit
http://www.fest21.com/en/user/notsciencefiction
http://www.ecofuturist.org/ecoartaction/krisanne_baker.html
http://www.hydromemories.com
Upstream to Downstream: (In Our Bloodstreams) 2010 DVD 2:10 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vrgZsL2v0RU
(Click above link to watch this Eco-Art Water Quality Public-Service-Announcement Documentary Short)
Official Selections:
Maine International Film Festival, Waterville, ME
MIFF By-The Sea, Bar Harbor, Maine
At the 2010 Woods Hole Film Festival 'Upstream to Downstream (In Our Bloodstreams) 2:11 was paired with Chanda Chavannes' Feature Documentary 'Living Downstream' 2010
New England Film. com Audience Award for Best Experimental Film
Geography of Hope Film Festival & Ecology Conference, Pt. Reyes, CA
FilmOneFest, New Jersey
CamboFest, Phnom Phen, Cambodia
Uist Eco Film Fest, Taigh Chearsabaugh, Scotland
Greening the Beige, Bejing International Film Festival, Beijing, China
The systems of our culture, of which we are all participants, dump unfathomable amounts of pollutants and DNA altering chemicals into our streams and rivers which eventually end in the ocean. However, what goes around - comes back around, either by drinking water, consumption of contaminated foods, or loss of marine habitats’ ability to sustain life. This eerie short examines a need to restructure our water, waste, and energy systems - but first our way of thinking.
World Water Crises: Potential Effects/ Cumulative Effects 2009 DVD 1:52
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yI09d68vsnU
http://ecofuturist.org/ecoartaction/index.html
Includes artist abstract on "What's In YOUR Water?"
(detail image above)
and published essay: "Ecological Art as Gift"
