Review: GREEN HOUR: “ARTISTIC GREEN STUDIES. A CONVERSATION WITH THE ARTIST” (EVA-MARIA LÓPEZ)

Our Green Hour features not only distinguished scholars in the Environmental Humanities and related fields, but also artists. After the Nigerian poet Sule Emmanuel Egya and Canadian-Taiwane writer Jessica Lee, visual artist Eva-Maria López (Karlsruhe/Paris) talked about her work and the artistic approaches and methods she’s used throughout her career. Eva has worked on environment-related themes and topics for a long time. Her photo series “wohnzimmergrün” features greenishly-lit living room windows during soccer season (2016). Her land-art project “I Never Promised you a Green Garden” (2018) is a critical comment on the shaping power of agrochemical coporations. “We Resist” (2021) is a visual essay on “superweeds” that manage to survive on toxic sites, „Phytomining Gold“ deals with plants that accumulate toxic substances and their potential use to retrieve precious metals. “Goldmarie 21 m3” is a public installation (Pforzheim) about gold extraction on a global and local scale. In “Alpenglow” she re-interprets the relationship between waste and landscape, and in “How Green is Your Grey” she created lenticular photos that turn gravel gardens into green oases. Her most recent work is an augmented reality app that transforms paper into trees–a form of modern alchemy, perhaps, that can plant forests on concrete city squares (www.paper-trees.com), thereby contributing a very “real” idea of a “green” and climate-friendly city.

– Kirsten Twelbeck