INCOMPATIBLE ELEMENTS

Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski

25 May 2012 - 23 June 2012

CCAS Gorman CUBE

In our technological society, nature and culture strike us asdistances apart. The natural world is in a dire state of crisis due to the chronic human obsession with the idea of ‘progress’. Incompatible Elements, the most recent project by long term collaborative team Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski re-presents this relationship between nature and our culture. Their large digitally manipulated satellite images present beautiful landscapes in crisis due to climate change. Embedded in these fragile places are poetic texts. At first hard to find, these texts speak to the viewer. This manipulation of digital pixels reflects human manipulation of the land. But there is also a sense of harmony. Spilling from waterways, winding into the land and emerging on the ridges of mountain ranges, these words bring the land to life and tell a story of culture and nature moving together in the same realm. A certain responsibility is implored for this fellow living being. (Isabelle Morgan, 2012).

Image: Josephine Starrs and Leon Cmielewski, Incompatible Elements, 2010-12, Video and sound installation with prints