FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

 

Edward Burtynsky:

Before the Flood

 

January 2 – 31, 2004

 

 

EDWARD BURTYNSKY has a sense of adventure comparable to his nineteenth-century predecessors.  His worldwide quest to photograph extraordinary landscapes created by human industry has previously taken him to quarries, mines, shipbreaking beaches, and sites of oil production.  Most recently BURTYNSKY traveled to the construction site of history's most ambitious dam, located on the Yangtze River in the People’s Republic of China.

 

Begun in the fall of 2002, BURTYNSKY’s Three Gorges Dam Project depicts the world’s largest hydroelectric engineering project.  The dam itself is of unprecedented proportions, and the resulting redefinition of the landscape required the relocation of millions of people.  BURTYNSKY also photographed these upriver sites of mass-displacement where residents of now submerged towns systematically destroyed their homes at the behest of the government, only to recycle many of the materials for rebuilding on higher ground.

 

With the Three Gorges Dam Project, BURTYNSKY continues his exploration of the relationship between man, nature, and "progress."  Using a large format viewfinder camera to capture the compositions in situ, BURTYNSKY’s work is punctuated by remarkably rich detail.  Within the vast landscapes one finds unexpected reference points such as machinery, people, bricks, and striped tarpaulins.

 

BURTYNSKY’s works are included in distinguished museum collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York; Museum of Modern Art, New York; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa, Ontario; and Museum of Fine Arts, Houston. A mid-career retrospective, Manufactured Landscapes, organized by the National Gallery of Canada, will be on view at the Art Gallery of Ontario, January 24 – April 4, 2004, and at the Brooklyn Museum of Art in Fall 2005.

 

Before the Flood, a catalogue with essays by Gary Michael Dault and Lucas Lackner, is available ($25). A special slip-cased version of Before the Flood, edition of 100, includes a Giclée print ($750).

The exhibition will be on view at the Charles Cowles Gallery, 537 West 24th Street, between 10th and 11th Avenues in Chelsea.  Hours are 10am to 6pm, Tuesday through Saturday.

There will be a reception for the artist on Thursday, January 8 from 5:30-7:30 pm.

For further information or photographs, please contact the gallery.

 

Above image: Three Gorges Dam Project, Dam #4, Yangtze River, China, 2002, chromogenic print, 40 x 50”