Exhibition on view January 20 – May 21, 2018
Acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky brings environmental issues to our attention through awe-inspiring and often abstract images that document industrial sites. The photographs are a reflection of our times, and show the complex effects that global manufacturing, and the demands of first world consumers have on the planet. From aerial views of oil fields in Nigeria, to salt pans in India, to Italian Carrara marble quarries and nickel tailings in Sudbury, his stunning large-format photographs made over the past three decades bear sublime witness to the reality of current environmental issues. This exhibition celebrates a recent gift of 76 photographs donated by the artist to the AGH; the largest donation he has made to a museum.
Edward Burtynsky’s distinctions include the TED Prize and the Governor General’s Awards in Visual and Media Arts. In 2006 he was awarded Officer of the Order of Canada and currently holds seven honorary doctorate degrees. Burtynsky lives and works in Toronto and is represented by Nicholas Metivier Gallery in Toronto
https://www.artgalleryofhamilton.com/…Exhibition on view January 20 – May 21, 2018
Acclaimed Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky brings environmental issues to our attention through a …
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Who is Edward Burtynsky?
Who is Edward Burtynsky?
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Who is Edward Burtynsky?
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edie Burtynsky is a leading Canadian
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photographer and we’re really proud to
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be able to include a show of all his
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work at the Art Gallery of Hamilton so
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we just put up the solo exhibition that
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has over 20 photographs and it’s on the
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occasion of a gift that he gave to the
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Art Gallery of Hamilton of over 76
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photographs which are now in our
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permanent collection so as a
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photographer he approaches his subjects
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with an artistic lens but really digs at
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some of the political issues going going
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on in the scenes so he has travelled the
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world looking at the crisis’s of
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environmental and human impact including
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oil water farming irrigation and
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resource extraction all around the world
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Burtynsky actually is from Ontario and
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has roots in the region so he grew up in
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st. Catherine’s and that’s where his
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interest in manufacturing actually began
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so in his early career he spent quite a
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bit of time photographing in Ontario and
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this is a good example it’s one of his
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well known images looking at the Sudbury
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Basin which is actually still the
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world’s largest source of nickel and
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what appears to be lava is actually
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nickel and it’s turned red because of
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its oxidization process so in the early
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days he really was looking at how people
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interact with the landscape and then how
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how we use the things that come out of
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the earth such as minerals minerals and
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metals such as this this image is a good
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example of how Burtynsky incorporates
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documentary photography along with
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formalist aesthetic approaches so what
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appears to be sort of a modernist
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inspired painting is actually a
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photograph and as in many of his works
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he’s hovering over the earth anywhere
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between 500 to 5,000 feet in a
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helicopter looking down upon what is
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saltpans in this image so these are
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field in which salt is extracted from
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where in other bodies of work such as
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oil he’s looking at the many
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complications and environmental
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detriment of extracting this math sort
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of massive extraction processes the salt
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pans is a bit of a quieter and more
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symbiotic relationship between humans
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and the earth the human body actually
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needs salt and this is a 400 year old
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tradition in this place so he doesn’t
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really answer a lot of questions with
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the environmental issues but presents
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them through this very compelling
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aesthetic bringing out the issues at
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hand
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you
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