EDWARD BURTYNSKY’s photographs, monumental in
both scale and subject, capture visions of nature that are outside the
realm of ordinary experience. His quest to photograph landscapes which
have been reshaped through human industry has taken him to recycling
yards, oil refineries, quarries, and shipbreaking
beaches.
BURTYNSKY's China series began in 2002 with the
Three Gorges Dam Project and the latest
work depicts both remnant and newly established zones of Chinese industrialization
and its effects on the landscape and its inhabitants. Portraying the
extreme expressions of Chinese industry, the photographs offer a privileged
glimpse into the vast social and economic transformations currently
underway in China.
BURTYNSKY uses a large format viewfinder
camera to capture the compositions in situ, creating images that are
both striking and unsettling. While maintaining his aesthetic awareness,
BURTYNSKY's new China photographs are more frenetic
than the earlier works, capturing thousands of workers on the job, eating
lunch, and changing shifts in color-coded unison. The busy activity
of the state-of-the-art factories contrasts with the antiquated plants
and desolate steel mills, which feel deserted in comparison. In continuation
of a theme BURTYNSKY explored with his Shipbreaking
series of 2000-01, he visited a shipbuilding yard in China where a fleet of freighters
are being constructed to service China's growing port network.
A mid-career retrospective,
Manufactured Landscapes, organized by the
National Gallery of Canada, will be on view at the Brooklyn Museum of
Art October 7, 2005 – January 15, 2006. There is a monograph by Lori Pauli accompanying
the exhibition with essays by Mark Haworth-Booth & Kenneth Baker and an interview
with Michael Torosian (160 pages, $55).
Edward Burtynsky: The
China Series will be on view at the Southeastern Center for Contemporary Art in Winston-Salem, North Carolina, October 22, 2005 – January 8, 2006, and then will travel nationwide.
Steidl will release a new monograph, China, with essays by Mark Kingwell, Ted Fishman, Marc Mayer and Edward Burtynsky (180
pages, $85).
BURTYNSKY’s works are included in distinguished
museum collections including the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum, New York;
Museum of Modern Art, New York; National Gallery of Canada, Ottawa,
Ontario; Los Angeles County Museum of Art; and Museum of Fine Arts,
Houston.
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 Saturday, October 8, from 6 to 8pm.
For further
information or photographs, please contact the gallery.
Above image:
Manufacturing #18, Chakun Factory,
Zhangzhou, Fujian Province, China, 2005
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