The new exhibit at the Chazen Museum of Art, which showcases the industrial-inspired art of Nicola L?pez, is reminiscent of eerie children’s books like “Coraline” or the unsettling effects in Terry Gilliam’s movie “Brazil.” The common link between these three art forms is they all offer glimpses into destructive worlds that seem to loom just past the horizon.
Looking around the gallery at the towering skyscrapers and vast expanses of steel, it is clear L?pez is making a statement about today’s industry-driven society. In her exhibit, she reveals the ugliness and destruction stemming from industrialization. Interestingly enough, she omitted all humans from the work itself.
According to Chazen’s website, L?pez claims the collection is an “attempt as an individual to come up with a system of navigating this overwhelming landscape instead of simply consuming [it].” As a result, the main theme consistent throughout her work is the idea that nature prevails over industry. In almost every single piece, there is a semblance of the natural world peeking through.
A perfect example of this, entitled “Half Life,” is the biggest piece in the exhibit. It spans an entire wall and covers one full corner of the room with its oxymoronic combination of squalor and splendor. Made of the requisite Mylar and woodcuts, “Half Life” utilizes L?pez’s talent for photolithography. With its juxtaposition of three-dimensional areas against stark, flat images, “Half Life” illustrates a world based entirely upon manufacturing. Despite this industrial focus, in the world of “Half Life,” satellite dishes transform into flowers, pipes spew out colorful sludge — the ecosystem’s apparent lifeblood — and the clouds above are made of smog and barbed wire. In this way, the industrial ecosystem is overridden by nature’s power and grace.
Another starkly candid piece, one of L?pez’s earlier works called “Silver Lining,” further emphasizes her idea that nature will overcome the toils of industry. In this piece, two immense smokestacks, surrounded by innumerable buildings all devoid of humans, belch out darkly ominous clouds of smog into the atmosphere. At first glance, it evokes a sense of shame and horror that life as we know it will one day be overtaken by such destructive pollution.
After taking in all the little details, however, it becomes clear the smog is made up of petal-like plumes of light and steel rods reminiscent of branches, revealing its naturalistic tendencies. Furthermore, the message becomes even clearer upon further viewing of the second smokestack. Emitting light, flowers and, indirectly, hope into the sky, it creates the titular silver lining and counteracts the negative emissions of its counterpart.
A piece called “Under Its Own Weight,” made largely of steel, certainly lives up to its name, as it lies crumpled on the ground under its sheer massiveness. The force of its apparent collapse sends a clear message to observers: technological and industrial progress will eventually topple, the cause of its own demise.
Most of L?pez’s three-dimensional art is made from a combination of Mylar, woodcuts and steel, using techniques like silk-screening and intaglio, but she also created magnificent two-dimensional fare as well. One such piece, “Strange Skies,” incorporates flat, screen-printed images of airplanes, oil spills and smokestacks among others onto sheets of Mylar, arranging them within naturalistic environments. The airplanes were placed among dense plumes of smoke, like birds flying around on a cloudy day, to show how technological advancement inevitably reflects nature itself.
Overall, this exhibit was an absolute eye-opener. The theme of nature versus humankind is an ancient debate indeed, but this exhibit illustrated its triumph in a new, innovative way. L?pez can probably expect vehement backlash for her portrayal of technology as a destructive, viral being that is eventually crushed by Mother Nature, but all of that controversy will be well worth the knowledge that she opened the public’s eyes to the power of nature.
Nicola L?pez’s exhibition runs from Oct, 17 until Jan. 3 at the Chazen Museum of Art.
