Edward Burtynsky
19 May - 01 July 2012
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| © Edward Burtynsky
Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA 2003
Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers,London |
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EDWARD BURTYNSKY
Oil
19 May - 1 July. 2012
"In 1997 I had what I refer to as my oil epiphany. It occurred to me
that the vast, human-altered landscapes that I pursued and photographed
for over twenty years were only made possible by the discovery of oil…”
- Edward Burtynsky
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has travelled the world to
chronicle the effect of oil on all our lives, and to reveal the rarely
seen mechanics of its production and distribution.
This exhibition shows three sections from Burtynsky’s series OIL:
Extraction and Refinement, Transportation and Motor Culture and The End
of Oil. The works depict landscapes scarred by the extraction of oil,
and the cities and suburban sprawl defined by its use. He also
eloquently addresses the coming end of oil, as we face its rising cost
and dwindling availability.
Burtynsky's colour photographs render his subjects with a transfixing
clarity of detail. From aerial views of oil fields and highways
ribboning across the landscape, to derelict oil derricks and mammoth
oil-tanker shipbreaking operations, we are confronted with the evidence
of our dependence on this finite resource.
Edward Burtynsky (b.1955) is one of Canada's most respected
photographers. His photographic depictions of global industrial
landscapes are included in the collections of over fifty major museums
around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the
Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art and the
Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Edward Burtynsky: OIL was organised in close collaboration with Huis
Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Gallery Nicholas Metivier
in Toronto and the artist himself.
www.photonet.org.uk
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