Ecological art is the best of once mutually exclusive worlds. Melding art, ecology and community action, it helps us develop an appreciation of the environment, contemplate our values, move us to political action and broaden our understanding of our place in the world.

"I'm You" by artist Jackie Brookner. (Brandi Stafford photos) | ZOOM |

        It goes beyond traditional art forms and materials, resting not in museums or galleries but in landfills, nuclear fallout sites, polluted rivers and city sewage systems.

        The work may enhance an environment previously unnoticed or underscore human neglect. It may challenge the viewers' behavior or encourage them to change their behavior for the greater good.

        Ecovention at the Contemporary Arts Center through Aug. 18 is a fascinating collection of 40 projects that have transformed ecologies throughout the world — including Cincinnati.

        “By focusing on realized projects, Ecovention offers workable models that can be duplicated in our community,” says Sue Spaid, curator of the show with Amy Lipton of Ecoartspace, a non-profit organization dedicated to raising environmental awareness through art.

        “About 25 percent of the works articulate local problems and conditions. Organizations such as the Mill Creek Restoration Project, Cincinnati Nature Center, the City of Montgomery, parents from the New School and the Civic Garden of Greater Cincinnati volunteered their expertise,” Ms. Spaid says.

Aviva Rahmani"s "The Transformation of Degradation" expresses a view of the environment. | ZOOM |

        The concept of sculpting the land rather than capturing it with paint on canvas came to the forefront in the 1960s. It included everything from land art to simple sculptures made of natural materials.

        As issues such as global warming, AIDS, nuclear accidents, terrorism and threats to our food supply through epidemics such as Mad Cow Disease altered our day-to-day existence, some artists took an active role, using their work to make the world a better place.

        Interacting with members of a community and the land they sought to transform, the artists were able to invent functional sculpture that removed PCBs from the soil or added plant life to landfills.

        “Small acts count,” says Susan Leibovitz Steinman, who transformed Federal Reserve Plaza, downtown, into a biointensive garden. “Everyone who donates to a project is part of the process.”

        One Straw Revolution Garden: Demonstration Biointensive Garden is a study in donations; it is constructed entirely of scavenged parts.

Tera Galanti"s "Beautiful Moths (Fly)" surprises viewers with its use of real moths. | ZOOM |

        Cincinnati businesses donated the straw, PVC pipe, glass doors, violin cases, cast iron, plastic flowers, sticks and plants Ms. Leibovitz Steinman needed to construct her raised bed garden.

        “We also created a dialogue with people standing along Fifth Street waiting for the bus,” she says. “The whole project is improvisational.”

        The garden takes its name from One Straw Revolution, a book by natural farming pioneer Masanobu Fukuoka. With Mr. Fukuoka's method, biointensive farmers plant densely, never till the soil, use chemicals or prune. The addition of beneficial natural predators for pest control and planting lots of different types of plants are encouraged.

        Ms. Leibovitz Steinman's One Straw garden demonstrates how healthy, organic food can thrive anywhere, even in settings such as a concrete plaza or a backyard contaminated by lead.

        The glass doors salvaged from a solarium reveal each layer of decomposing waste from the CAC's last exhibition and gives viewers a ringside seat to the process of composting. The irrigation system made from the PVC pipe links the individual beds to crate a unified system.

        “I consider the PVC pipe connections drawing in space,” she says. “Everything is connected to everything else, and it ends up looking gorgeous. It has this wild look in the center of the city.

        “And, everything has a life after the project — the plants will be harvested by the garden center, who will donate the fruits and vegetables to the food bank.”

IF YOU GO

What: Ecoventions     When: Through Aug. 18. Hours: 10 a.m.-6 p.m. Monday-Saturday, noon-5 p.m. Sunday     Where: Contemporary Arts Center, 115 E. Fifth St., downtown     Admission: $3.50, Mondays are free     Information: 721-0390

        The similarly named George Steinmann initiated the Forum for Sustainability, a research center in the Priluzsky region of the Komi Republic in Russia in 1996. Here the boreal Taiga forest is much like the forests of Western Europe and northern Canada 1,000 years ago.

        “This is where the last big pristine forests in Russia are,” says the Bern, Switzerland-based artist. “I made a sculptural intervention as a gift to the local people. It's a cultural and biomonitoring station.”

        The station made from local wood accommodates 10 to 12 people and offers a room for study and education, a community room with cooking facilities and a sauna — it was designed by Helsinki architects Heikkinen-Komonen.

        The project is aimed at conserving the virgin forests and stresses medicinal plants — Mr. Steinmann has gone so far as to harvest the plants and create the medicines — and other economic alternatives to cutting down the trees.

        At the CAC, you will see architectural plans of the building, photographs of the women healers and samples of medicinal plants and the medicines Mr. Steinmann made.

        “I met with the local people and learned about their homeopathic medicines and medicinal folklore,” he says. “It has local economic potential — selling to the pharmaceutical companies. I believe in helping for self help.”

        Tera Galanti's sculptural “Beautiful Moths (Fly)” is a whimsical environment crafted from fabric, foam, wood, wire, paper and plastic ties. Silk moth cocoons are mounted on a large bulb — the result looks a bit like the end of an ear of corn.

        Alternating off a central stem are turquoise foam pillows. (“In case the moths fell, I didn't want them to hurt themselves,” Ms. Galanti says.) Mounted around the base are floral transparent “nets” where female moths lay in wait of the males hatching on the bulb.

        “It has to do with domestication,” she says. “Silk moths are the only insects on the planet that have been domesticated. It's a huge industry in Asia. Not only for silk thread but they are a food source, as well. It's ironic we use them here to teach children about metamorphosis.”

        Ms. Galanti's project seeks to return the insects to the wild.

        Silk worms have been bred to have shorter wings and are unable to fly; Ms. Galanti's environment attempts to reverse this.

        The female moths' pheromones, the natural scents that attract the opposite sex, encourage the males to fly to the “nets.” Thus the moths bred will be flyers.

        It's an ingenious controlled experiment and a wake-up call to the viewer when she realizes the moths are real. Ms. Lipton suggests in the show's catalog it is this type of novel experience that changes public attitudes.

        I found all the projects interesting and the collective call to action of the artists inspiring.

        “It is the rare art exhibition,” Ms. Spaid says, “that galvanizes a community around issues as important as ecological ones.
       

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