STRAIGHT TALK
with Alexis Rockman
Photo credit: Dorothy Spears
Alexis Rockman is
an artist who works
with the issues of
climate change, genetic
modification of food,
pollution, evolution,
and the anthropocene,
creating large-scale
paintings and painting
series. Beginning this
line of work in the 80s,
Rockman has gained
international renown
for his critique of
human activity on our
environment. Rockman
lives and works in New
York City.
By Julia Buntaine
Editor-in-Chief
dioramas, I realized that the landscape that
was used for describing ecology no longer or
may never have existed. I decided that many
of my expectations from institutional dioramas were at odds with what had been going
on in the world—these images pretended
that humans didn’t exist. With this in mind,
I decided to show the human and post-industrial revolution impact on these ecosystems. I
AR: I always felt there was something miss- also felt that this was challenging not only in
terms of painting; it was also exciting politiing in the dioramas when I would visit these
museums—a darker, more idiosyncratic story. cally. At that time, I was starting to think
There also seemed to be a tremendous collec- about activist thinking, and I felt there were
a lot of lessons from the civil rights movetive consciousness to American post-World
War II pop and scientific culture that hadn’t ment and feminist and gay rights that might
been tapped in art. This seemed a good place be used in the eco-activist movement. This
was a time when AIDS crisis was emerging,
to start in 1986. At first, I was excited to
and I watched not only friends die but also
make paintings and watercolors that were
the mobilization of the gay community as a
more abut my love of museums. As my ideas
force for positive change.
developed, I thought it would be interesting
to start to include iconography that wasn’t
found in natural history imagery—pollution, JB: For almost 30 years your exhibited work has
surrounded the themes of ecology, human and anitrash, environmental destruction, and invamal relationships, genetic modification, evolution,
sive species. As I started to travel more to
so-called ‘wild places’ depicted in many of the and domestication, to name a few. From your point
JB: Your first series, “Natural History,” is reminiscent of the American Museum of Natural History
diorama displays that captivate kids and adults
alike. Unlike those illustrative dioramas, however,
your paintings depict scenes that would not always
be found in nature, combining elements that reveal
deeper relationships or speak to complex issues.
How did you come to create this type of work?
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