Suny Potsdam's 'Environmental Impact'

“Environmental impact” is a traveling exhibition that is currently on display in SUNY Potsdam’s very own Gibson galley. The exhibition uses sculptures, paintings, and photographs to explore the current issues facing our ever changing environment. While each artist uses various visual and design techniques to get their points across there are still many pieces in the gallery that share many similarities with one another.
Edward Burtynsky’s photograph Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110 made in 2003 is apart of Burtynsky’s OIL: Extraction and Refinement, Transportation and Motor Culture and The End of Oil series which showcases the life cycle of oil and its effect on our society. The photograph gives a birds eye view of a busy highway intersection. Burtynsky uses line to help define the dimensions and movement of the piece. The curving overlapping lines formed by the highways and roads gives the photo a sense of movement that encourages the viewer to try and find where and if the overlapping roads connect with one another. The seemingly endless lines additionally make the viewers eyes venture off the canvas to attempt to connect the highways to each other. The whites and grays of the highways helps the cars …show more content…
Lucia deLeiris’s oil painting Ross sea made in 2008 was inspired by one of deLeiris three trips to Antarctica and showcases the frozen ocean with the sun breaking through the clouds in the distant horizon. Unlike Burtynsky’s photograph that gives off the feel of the hustle and bustle of the city the Ross Sea uses various shades of blues and whites to give the calm feeling of stillness as the sun begins to rise over the icy tundra. Instead of having multiple subjects to focus on like Burtynsky, deLeiris’s Ross Sea focuses on a lone landscape that is almost barren with the exception of the glaciers in the far