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Five Artists Who Treat the Earth as Both Medium and Beneficiary

Agnes Denes, Mary Mattingly, Maya Lin and their peers plant eco- and climate-conscious art in civic spaces to raise questions about land, food and who has access to both.

Environmental art encompasses many practices. Artists have moved mountains, built jetties and constructed forms from nature’s detritus, and that’s just in the modern era. The goal is usually more than aesthetic; it’s also to highlight the need for conservation and to open up conversations. The five artists below go further, creating installations that benefit the ecosystems in which they exist and giving back to the lands they temporarily occupy.

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It’s work that naturally and intentionally blurs boundaries. Mary Mattingly’s installations have included water filtration systems and floating gardens like Swale, a barge of edible plants launched next to a concrete plant in the South Bronx in 2016. As the artist told Observer, “An activist campaign often needs a clear demand, and education generally assumes that something known is being communicated. Art can remain unresolved. It can be contradictory, symbolic, impractical, beautiful or strange. And art gives me permission to work differently. Swale, for example, wanted to make a contradiction visible: food was growing abundantly in front of you, it was freely available, and the fact that this felt unusual exposed something about how we organize public space.”

Creating climate-friendly art, especially at great scale and in public spaces, is daunting, complicated and often draining. It isn’t collectible, nor is it the kind of work that gets a gallery opening. “These projects are definitely not the easiest way to sustain an art practice. They require fundraising, maintenance, permits and a lot of invisible labor,” Mattingly reflected. “But they allow me to learn alongside collaborators and visitors to make something that can have a life beyond the object itself. It’s exciting and affirming to build together and realize something out of the ordinary, a rupture in daily life.”

The artists below have substantial careers, make a living from their........

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