Nature

Nature, as both subject and object, has been repeatedly rejected and reclaimed byartists over the last half century. With the dislocation of disciplinary boundaries in visualculture, art that is engaged with nature has also forged connections with a new range of scientific,historical, and philosophical ideas. Developing technologies make our interventions into naturalsystems both increasingly refined and profound. Advances in biological and telecommunicationtechnology continually modify the way we present ourselves. So too are artistic representations ofnature (human and otherwise) being transformed. This anthology addresses these issues by consideringhow the rise of transdisciplinary practices in the postwar era allowed for new kinds of artisticengagement with nature. These include the postminimalist inscriptions associated with Land art;environmentally engaged practices designed to propose novel forms of stewardship; and more recentprojects concerned with relationships between the most subtle and minute components of life and thelarge-scale appearance of the world. These projects unsettle the most basic operations of"natural" personhood and identity. Including a wide range of writings by and aboutartists, juxtaposed with influential texts from diverse theoretical bases, this collection providesan overview of the eclectic scientific and philosophical sources that inform contemporary art'sinvestigations of nature.

Jeffrey Kastner is a New York--based writer and critic and senior editor of Cabinet. A regular contributor to Artforum and the New York Times, he has written extensively on contemporary art in numerous catalogues and journals. His books include Land and Environmental Art.