MAN-MADE LANDSCAPE

Video Art
2021

Around the 17th to 18th century, one of the principal genres of art was landscape painting. Painters would go to the countryside to seek peace outside the city and to paint the scenery. This made me think, “If those painters were living in today’s society, what kind of art would they produce?” Addressing current environmental issues, Man-Made Landscape comments on how those same landscapes have changed drastically over time. The focus of the work was to highlight that these environments were the result of human doing and not just nature. From the serene countryside with birds singing, it changed into a crowded civilization with factories and big cities. All the sounds were overlapping in a cacophony that snowballed into overwhelming noise pollution. This is the reality of our landscape now.

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Artworks Used:

Distant View of the Meadows at ’s-Graveland, Pieter Gerardus van Os, 1817

Peasant Kermis, David Teniers (II), c. 1665

River View, Joost Cornelisz. Droochsloot, 1650

The Whale-oil Refinery near the Village of Smerenburg, Cornelis de Man, 1639

Hilly Landscape near Wageningen, Abraham Johannes Couwenberg, 1833 – 1844

Source: Rijksmuseum