John Dahlsen is a gifted and prolific environmental artist working with materials found on the beaches of his native Australia.
His diverse body of artwork includes stunning driftwood sculptures, totem poles made from beach reclaimed flip-flop shoes, discarded Coke bottles, ocean buoys, and ocean reshaped plastic object assemblages, paintings and filmmaking. His award winning, critically acclaimed art has been featured in numerous art shows, museums and galleries around the world. A regular on the international lecture and teaching circuit, Dahlsen has also organised environmental art shows around the globe, to further not only an appreciation of art but also to foster consideration for how we (mis)treat the environment.
We caught up with the extraordinary artist to ask a few questions about his evocative environmental artwork.
Please describe your artwork for us.
The central concerns of my work are with contemporary environmental art practice. I have for many years been working with found and recycled objects, most hand-picked by myself from somewhere along the Australian Coastline. In fact it literally amazes me to think how many times I have bent over to pick up the many thousands of pieces of plastic debris that made up that aspect of my art, each piece jostled around for who knows how long by sand, sun and ocean, their form faded and rounded by the elements.
The unabated dumping of thousands of tons of plastics has been expressed in my assemblages, installations, totems, digital prints and public artworks. And yet, despite my outrage at this environmental vandalism, I returned to the beach daily to find more pieces for my artist's palette. In an uncanny way, these plastics, as I sorted them and arranged them in my studio took on an unspeakable, indefinable and quite a magical beauty, which always fascinated me.
During the latter part of 2005 and into 2006, I created a new body of environmental artwork, a series of Synthetic Polymer paintings on Belgian linen, based on the subject matter of plastic "purges" - plastic fabricator machine end waste. This work, considers cycles and recycling. I began re-presenting paintings of sculptures that are inherently plastic fabricator machine end waste. The use of plastic materials and their place in the evolutionary motions of recycling are important to me in constructing these images.
I see the real need for the massive social transformations that are essential, to adequately deal with such crises as the depletion of fossil fuels and climate change. I hope this work can be a timely reminder to us all of the limited supply of these petroleum based materials, which is a direct result of our current collective global mass consumerism.
Have you always worked with reclaimed items?
My creative medium shifted from abstract painting to working as an environmental artist, as a result of an artistic accident during the mid 1990s. I was collecting driftwood, on a remote Victorian Coastline, with the intention of making furniture and stumbled upon vast amounts of plastic ocean debris.
The initial collection of these objects consisted of approximately 80 jumbo garden bags full of beach found litter.
I knew that an unseen intelligence was at work and soon realized the potential of a giant palate. Then I began the selections of yellow colored plastics to make up its own pile in the studio, then the red, then the blues, the rope & strings, the plastic coke bottles, the thongs. etc. Soon the floor of the studio did resemble a giant painters palate.
This whole new palette of color and shape revealing itself to me immediately affected me; I had never seen such hues and forms before which enabled me to make new environmental art.
Since then, for approximately 10 years, I scoured Australian beaches for found objects, much of which I found as washed up ocean litter. I have since discovered this is a worldwide phenomenon, affecting beaches on a global level. I bring these plastics back to my studio to sift, sort, and color-code for my assemblages, sculptures and installations. As I worked with these objects, I became even more fascinated by the way they had been modified and weathered by the ocean and nature's elements.
My challenge as an artist was to take these found objects, which might on first meeting have no apparent dialogue, and to work with them until they spoke and told their story, which included those underlying environmental messages inherent in the use of this kind of medium.
Do you think people are moved to activism and/or appreciation of the natural world by your artwork? Is this your intention?
I see that by making this art, it is a way of sharing my messages for the need to care for our environment with a broad audience. I feel that even if just a fraction of the viewing audience were to experience a shift in their awareness and consciousness about the environment and art, through being exposed to this artwork then it would be worth it. This stems from the fact that I believe presently humanity is at a critical point in time, with our planet currently existing in a fragile ecological state, with global warming hastening unheard of changes, all amplifying the fact that we need all the help we can get.
This is my way of making a difference, and at the same time I’m sharing a positive message about beauty that can be gained from the aesthetic experience of appreciating art, as well as giving examples of how we can recycle and reuse in creative ways. These artworks exemplify my commitment as an artist to express contemporary social and environmental concerns. By presenting this art to the public it will hopefully have people thinking about the deeper meaning of the work, in particular the environmental issues we currently face.
John Dahlsen’s website is an entertaining and thought provoking insight to his creative abilities: http://www.johndahlsen.com
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written by Jack , December 05, 2009