i / Anthropocene
The Anthropocene is an uneasy concept to behold—the term formally describes a geological epoch to follow the Holocene, a quantitative determination of the human impact on our Earth system that implies a planetary reset.
Scaled to ice ages, merging tectonic plates, and mass extinctions, the Anthropocene becomes an acknowledgment and harbinger of catastrophe.
This prophetic inclination to understand the Anthropocene constructs the epoch as an explicit geochronological event, an onset of irreversible implications that we must now reckon with. The notion of accelerating to our doom, however, composes a false ecology of our planet, specifically undervaluing the agency of both humans and nature as they navigate our world together.1 Humans are undeniably a central force of the Anthropocene, as scholars consider their shift from biological to geological agents of impact.2 However, this standpoint enforces the concept of anthropocentrism that places humans as the dominating species over other life forms, revoking the agency of nature and diverting from the intra-species complexities of human society that expand cultural, social, and political narratives necessary to flesh out the stake of the Anthropocene.
This exhibition proposes a shift in perspective that considers the Anthropocene, instead, from a locus of biocentrism. In doing so, it reframes the planetary system as a dynamic, symbiotic relationship between anthrop and nature. Rather than a singular cause-and-effect narrative, the Anthropocene becomes a calibration of catalysts and activation energies that push the threshold of the Holocene toward the advent of the new epoch.3 At its core, the biocentric persective depends on the practice of ecological or environmental reflexivity, defined by a self-realization of the anthropogenic effects on our landscape that leads to an increasing awareness of the consequence of human actions.4
Crucially, the Anthropocene prompts a “new way of being-in-the-world.”5
ii / Martin Johnson Heade
Martin Johnson Heade and the Anthropocene explores the psyche of artist and conservationist Martin Johnson Heade (1819-1904), who is uniquely situated at the crux of the disputed start of the epoch and the cultural impetus of environmental reflexivity.6 His oeuvre spans ca. 1850 to ca. 1900 and inhabits the transition state between two proposed dates: the Industrial Revolution (ca. 1800/1850-) and The Great Acceleration (ca. 1950-).7 The later period confronts the effects of human activity through a series of empirical indicators that reveal a significant trend of global ecological detriment.
Global environmental indicators of impact on Earth systems: Figure 1. (b) taken from Will Steffen, Jacques Grinevald, Paul Crutzen, John, McNeill, “The Anthropocene: conceptual and historical perspectives,” Phil. Trans. R. Soc. A. 369, (2011): 848-852.
Heade's production is also concurrent with the publication of seminal evolutionary biology and ecology texts that invoke the theory of biocentrism by considering nature on a planetary scale; however, this interest revives conflicting practices of collection and conservation.
Amidst the Icarian swells of nationalism and expansion in 19th-20th century America, Heade grapples with finding a balance between the catalytic forces of humans and nature. Parsing his visual and written reflections in the context of the Anthropocene offers one of many perspectives that informs our understanding of the origin and trajectory of the epoch. In alignment with the biocentric Anthropocene, Heade's work telescopes multiple strata—inspired by the biogeological world around him and sustained through intimate observations, anxieties, and ecological reflexivities.