In A Realm for Reflection, Sebastian Gonzalez Quintero contributes to broader conversations on climate change by examining specific sites of environmental transformation using digital media. Whether focusing on the bacterial makeup of the Charles River in Boston, the melting glaciers of the Tolima volcano in Colombia, or rising sea levels around coastal cities, Quintero’s body of work calls attention to dramatic shifts in topography and worrisome variations in climate. Yet in addition to highlighting various transnational environmental concerns, Quintero finds ways to more closely involve the viewer, and himself, in the work – going beyond simply identifying and pointing out our role in manufacturing the crisis, and instead facilitating a closer engagement with the content, the digital media that articulates it, and the outdoor spaces that many of works were presented in initially.
In each of the pieces in the exhibit, Quintero develops a provocation: either a discursive, material, or performance-based strategy that brings viewers closer to the issue at hand. For example, in GREEN IS NOT ALWAYS GOOD (2021), a video documenting a site-specific projection that took place in 2021, Quintero focuses on the cyanobacteria blooms in the Charles and Muddy Rivers in Boston. Not only does he point out the risks that these overgrowths of algae pose to existing water ecologies, but he does so by unsettling the esplanade as mere “recreational space.” By projecting satirical phrases onto the water (the title of the work is one such phrase) and distributing educational materials about the blooms and local movements to address them, Quintero disrupts the public’s usual experience of the esplanade. By actualizing and articulating the work at the source (the Charles and Muddy Rivers), Quintero offers a way for members of the public to engage more meaningfully with the space in front of them, both visually through projections and discursively through materials. Viewers can access the distributed resources here.
Elsewhere, Quintero approaches his site-specific engagements with a method that combines performance, the moving image, and an emphasis on duration. In PAÑITOS DE AGUA TIBIA / BAND-AID SOLUTIONS (2022), Quintero focuses on rising sea levels around coastal cities, but at the core of the work is a critique of our inability to effectively respond to processes of environmental decline; an unfortunate shortcoming that gains even more resonance because of Quintero’s method. Onto a bank of sand at the water’s edge at Revere Beach (MA), Quintero projects a video that depicts two individuals (himself and a collaborator) drying a floor with small cuts of cloth. Due to the positioning of the sand bank, the two appear as if they’re attempting an insurmountable task: drying the endless cycle of waves that crash constantly against the sand. The ineffectiveness of their actions becomes more apparent as the tide rises – not only increasing the sheer amount of water necessary to soak up, but also eroding the precarious sandy structure that provides the visibility and physical backing for the projection. As the sand disappears and falls apart, the performers are caught in thin air, their labor now even more useless and perhaps even obsolete.
Of the work, Quintero writes that “this interaction between human intervention and natural conditions aims to emphasize the futility of our current efforts to address and mitigate the consequences of climate change.” Indeed, the work suggests that our “solutions” are not well suited for the task at hand, and that ultimately, individual actions are not enough within a context that still lacks well-established structures and institutions that are willing to address ongoing catastrophe.
While A Realm for Reflection illustrates the way visual art more broadly can add to existing climate discourses, it might also suggest that digital media is particularly equipped for this project. In other works in the show, Quintero demonstrates how the digital can communicate data-based markers of climate change, as well as the more symbolic, affective, and speculative contours of these realities. And by incorporating both, Quintero produces work that is both informative and introspective – fostering experiences that within our current context of climate urgency, might force us to make that crucial link between feeling and tangible action.
Artist’s Biography:
Sebastian Gonzalez’s work focuses on climate change and environmental issues using moving image, video projection, interactive media, and site-specific interventions. He was raised in Bogotá, Colombia, where he earned a B.A. in psychology and a graduate certificate in photography at Universidad Nacional de Colombia. Sebastian also holds an MFA in Film & Video from Massachusetts College of Art and Design, where he taught as adjunct faculty for the Film/Video and Studio Foundation departments. He is currently a PhD student in Interdisciplinary Design and Media at Northeastern University.