Battle Royale (2011). 96” x 216”. Oil and alkyd on wood.
Image courtesy of the artist and Sperone Westwater.
of view, how have these things changed since you
first began creating this type of work? Are things
better than they used to be or just more complicated?
AR: On the contrary, they are far worse.
I’m very concerned. When I first started my
career, I was hopeful that we would figure it
out. I believed that human science and politics would unite, cast aside whatever idiotic
differences, and get its shit together to solve
these obvious problems—I was riding the
psychology of the somewhat naive, but reasonable, spirit and energy of the 1970s eco
movement that I grew up with, which started
with Rachel Carson’s Silent Spring (1962). In
the late 1980s, scientist friends told me about
global warming but felt we had time to figure
it out and that we would. My feelings about
this have changed for the worse, and I’m not
only terrified, but I’m angry. It’s clear we are
in big trouble. The fact that oil and other fossil fuel lobbies have succeeded in stalling and
casting doubt on these issues may go down
in history as the biggest crimes against the
SciArt in America December 2014
planet. All other issues and environmental
challenges are tied to global warming. Science is our only hope, and scientific literacy
and our culture’s relationship to science has
been a big obstacle.
JB: Your painting Battle Royale depicts a chaos
of high-contrast commotion, showing the actions
of over twenty distinct animals…as one of more
narrative works, can you talk a bit more about this
piece and what is behind it?
AR: In 2009, Dan Cameron asked me to
make a major work for “Prospect 2,” an international group show coming up in New
Orleans in 2011. I immediately realized this
was a great opportunity to make a major
Bayou painting (what else is more fun than
that?) but also to take a long look at the history of local regional paintings made about
New Orleans swamps over the centuries.
After visiting a bunch of sites, museums and
meeting with local scientists, I found the perfect painting for reference right in the New
Orleans Museum of Art, which is hanging
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