The Toxic SublimeEdward Burtynsky's grandly scaled photographs of industrial wastelands and detritus

radiate a beauty as fearsome as it is spectacular. His recent retrospectiveconfronted viewers with the tme (hut not quite hidden) cost of fulfilling our consumerist desires.

BY CAROL DIEHL

February 2Q06

The empire of man over things depends wholly on the arts andsciences. For we cannot command nature except by obeying her.

—Sir Francis Bacon, A^oi m Organum, 1623

Tbat we are the inhabitants of a world overcome by the objectswe've wrought is crushingly self-evident in Edward Burtynsky's

large-scale photograpbs of vast, unnatural terrains created by themacbines, excavations and accumulated detritus of modern civiliza-tion. "Manufactured Landscapes," tbe artist's traveling retrospectivethat ended its run at the Brooklyn Museum in January, is an extensivegroup of photographs of astonishing breadth and narrow concentra

tion, taken as Burtynsky traveled from bis native Canada to points inthe U.S., Europe, India, Bangladesh and China to document examplesof the extreme alterations in nature and bumankind engendered byour relentless consumerism.

These are places tbat most of us, as tourists, would probably neversee and can hardly begin to fathom. Among them are beaches dedi-

Edward Surti/nsky: Bao Steel #8, Shanghai, 2005, dye-coupterprint,40 by SO inches. Photos this article courtesy Chartes Cowtes Gattery, New York;Robert Koch Gattery, San Francisco; and Nichotas Metivier, Toronto.

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Uranium Tailings #12, Elliot Lake, Ontario, 1995, dye-coupler print, approx. 30 by 60 inches.

cated to salvage, where mammoth rusting hulls of ships are descendedupon daily by armies of Bangladesbi men, even boys, wbo hack away atthem witb rudimentary tools; 40 million discarded tires piled togethernear Westley, Calif.; rivers and rivulets glowing red with tbe oxidizediron runoff from nickel production; oil fields and refineries, copperand coal mines, and the severely sheared walls of yawning marble andgranite quarries. In China, which Burtynsky bas surveyed in depth, bebegan with a photographic elegy for the cities, villages and farmlanddevastated by preparation for the immense flooding of the YangtzeRiver tbat will result when tbe Three Gorges Dam, the world's larg-est hydroelectric engineering complex to date, is completed. Laterhe turned his attention to factories, botb functioning and abandoned;heaps of recycled telephone dials, aluminum cans and plastic toyparts; aerial shots of urban renewal in a supremely congested Shang-hai and seemingly limitless symmetrical arrays of Chinese workers incolor-coded garb.

Wbat's even more unexpected tban tbe alien locales Burtynsky por-trays is tbat tbese depictions of ravagement emanate an overwhelming

beauty, for despite his choice of suhject matter these photographsare, before anything else, works of art, Far from using tbe flattened,deadpan approach cultivated by many contemporary photographers,Burtynsky, witb a painter's eye for color and a sculptor's eye for form,displays an uncool preoccupation vritb composition and light. His grit-ty subject matter is rendered in a romantic way, and it is this incon-gruity tbat makes tbese pictures so compelling. If Burtynsky portrayedtbe degradation at these sites as unmitigated, we'd feel assaulted andmaybe turn away; it would be just too much to absorb at once. Instead,tbe deft seduction of bis art keeps us transfixed. Wbile always awareof the devastated nature of wbat we're viewing, we keep on lookingbecause there's always some visual pleasure to engage us, whether inthe lyrical graphic and sculptural elements we take in from far away,or in the minute, sharp-focused details that are revealed up close.

At tirst glance, Shipbreaking US, Chittagong, Bangkok (2000), oneof the few pbotographs that emphasize a traditional landscape horizonline, appears to depict the skyline of a water-edged city made ruddyby the warm rays of early morning sunlight. On closer inspection, the

February 2006

massive odd-shaped sculptural elements in tbis play of light and shad-ow suggest the ruins of an ancient metropolis unknown to Westerners.The spectacle dwarfs a row of figures, illuminated via cbiaroscuro andevenly spaced across the mid-line of the image as if choreographed,toting a thick rope that begins and ends outside the picture frame. Inthe foreground the sky is reflected in pools of water on a beach wbereevery pebble is distinguishable. There is nothing in this treatment tointimate that these are poorly paid laborers engaged in the dangerousoccupation of breaking up ocean-going ships for salvage. While Bur-tynsky's shipyard photographs have the look of old-master paintings.Oil Refineries ii27, Oakville, Ontario (1999) is equally appealing in aSheeler-esque way: a seemingly endless grid-upon-grid of silvery metalpipes, punctuated by color only in the smallest details, such as a bluevalve wheel or a wrap of yellow "Caution" tape in the distance.

One could have a field day in this exhibition, playing the arthistorian's game of "name that reference." Sure, that veined

white marble quarry wall Is a dead-ringer for a Diebenkorn, the detail

Burtynsky insists he's not "ceiebratingor condemning" anything. However,his choice of subject matter ieads tosome obvious conciusions.

of a Chinese wire yard looks just like a Pollock, that pile of basbed-up oil cans suggests so many Chamberlains, and tbe monumentalrusted-steel remains of ships rising out of the sand could be Serras ordi Suveros. However, such references do little more tban tell us thatBurtynsky has looked at a lot of art and learned from it. What's morerevealing is to consider Burtynsky's work in relation to tbe oversizesweeping panoramas of Turner, that cultivator of atmospbere, wbo,in The Fighting Temeraire (1838), used as his subject the poignantimage of a once-proud ship heing tugged away to be dismantled. AsTUrner documented the hirth of the Industrial Revolution, BurtynslQ'appears to be recording its demise. When, in Rain., Steam and Speed(1844), Turner painted a locomotive hurtling straight at us, it is as ifhe was aware tbat it was a harbinger of monumental change to come,And it's unlikely tbat be cbose to paint Slavers Throwing Overboardthe Dead and Dying: Typhoon Coming On (1840) because it was justanotber maritime scenario. Tbere's a palpable humanism at work inTurner, as in Burtynsky, altbougb (or perhaps because) botb artistsdepict people as all but lost in tbe immensity of tbeir environment,while those who actually command the action are never evident.

Burtynsky's attachment to the land and the people wbo work on it

Rock of Ages #4, Abandoned Section, Adam-Hrie Qnarry, Barre, Vermont, 1992,dye-coupter print, approx. 34 by 27 inches. Tom Tfiomson MemoriatArtGatlery, Owen Sound, Ontario.

Just as Tiirner documented the birthof the Industrial Revolution,Burtynsky appears to be recordingthe moment of its demise.

China Recycling #8, Plastif Toy Parts, Guiyu, (Juaiigdong Province, 2004, dye-coupler print, 39 by 49 incties.

is deeply bound up with how and wbere be was raised. He was hornin 1955 in the city of Saint Catherines, on Lake Ontario in Canada,whicb be describes as "a country witb a small population and a vasthinterland." Canada's endless landscape gave him the sense that "weare just a momentary presence inhabiting tbis place." His father, animmigrant from the Ukraine, worked ("like everyone else," Burtynskysays) on the production line at General Motors. His father was alsointerested in photography, at one point buying an entire darkroom fullof equipment from a local widow and asking bis son, wbo was betterversed in English, to read the manuals and figure out bow to use it.From nigbt courses in photograpby Burtynsky took later while workingas a printer (he also worked on tbe assembly lines and tried gold min-ing), be went to the Ryeson Polytechnical Institute in Toronto, wbereone of his teachers gave bim tbe assignment that bas informed bis lifeever since: "Go out and make a set of images tbat speak to tbe idea ofthe evidence of man."

Most of Burtynsky's work is done before he snaps the shutter. In

advance of each trip, he carries out extensive research, readingeverything from novels set in the area to government reports. "Forsix months before going to tbe shipyards," he says, "I was thinkingabout how to approach it, trying to find a time of year when tbeatmospherics would be good, where it wouldn't be pouring rain or

50 degrees Celsius. . . .I arranged for a fellowto hire a boat and runalong the whole shoreand photograph everyship that was being dis-mantled. I asked bimto make me a map anddraw a line where thesun comes up and goesdown, so I would knowwhere tbe ships wereand bow tbe sun wasgoing to play on them.We also charted out thetides." Once at the site,Burtynsky clearly takesa lot of time to frameit in tbe large-formatviewfinder camera hetotes with him, and itis througb tbis activityof composition that heeffects the alcbemicalconversion of a toxicand often dangerousvista into one of sub-limity. Back in thedarkroom he does notsignificantly alter theoutcome in any way."What you see," hesays, "is what therewas." Burtynsky insistshe's not "celebrating orcondemning" anything.However, his choice ofsubject matter and itsrevelatory power leadto obvious conclusions,

and, after seeing tbis work, it's nearly impossible to view one'sSubaru, Radio Shack alarm clock or beloved iPod as anything butfuture landfill. D

"Manufactured Landscapes: Tti.e Photographs of Edward Burtymky" opened at theCable Factory, HeMnki (Sept. 29-Oct. 15, 20031, and traveled lo the Art Gallery ofOntario, Toronto /Jan. 24-Apr. % 20041; the Musee d'art contemporain de MontrealfOcL 8, 2004-Jan. 9, 2005J; lit^e Mvseiim of Photographk Arts. San Diego (Mar 20-June 5,20051; the Cantor Center for Vifual Art, Stanford /June 29-Sept 18, 2005/; and theBrooklyn Museum. [Oct. 7, 2005-Jan. 15, 2006j. "Edward Burtynsky: China"appearedat the Robert Koch Gallery, San Franasco (Sept. 15-Oct. 29, 2005J, and the CharlesCowles Gallery, New York lOct. 6-Nou 5, 2005}. "Edward Burtymtky: The China Series"debuted at- the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art, WinstonSalem, N.C. fOct 22,2005-.}an. 8, 20061, and will travel to tiie Boca Raton Museum of Art jApr. 12-June 18,2006}; the Presentation House Gallery, Vancouver (Sept. 18-Nou 5, 2006J; the TiiflsUniversity Art Gallery, Medford, Mass. (Jan. 15-Mar. 31, 20071; the Samek Art Galleryat Bticknell University, Lewsburg, Pa. (Aug. 17-Oct. 7, 2007/; and the Jordan SchnitzerMitseum of Art at tiie University of Oregon.. Eugene (Jan. 15-Apr. 30, 2008/.

Author; Carol Diehl is an artist who aiso writes about arL

122 February 2006

Shipyard #13, Qili Port, Zhejiang Province, 2005, dye-coupler print, 49 by 39 inches.

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