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Dawn of the Anthropocene

Ligorano Reese

2015 00:04:22 United StatesEnglishColorStereo16:9HD video
Tags:
Activism, Documentation, Politics, Sculpture

Description

On September 21, 2014 Ligorano Reese installed a 3,500 pound ice sculpture of the words The Future at the intersection of Fifth Avenue and 23 Street in New York during the People's Climate March. This video compresses the 11 hour event into 4 minutes.

“A century's carelessness is now melting away the world's storehouses of ice, a melting whose momentum may be nearing the irreversible. It's as if we were stripping the spectrum of a color or eradicating one note from every octave.” 
–Bill McKibben, January 2006

Sculpture Design: Nora Ligorano
Editor: Marshall Reese
Music: Ernst Reijseger
Color Correction: Eli Friedman
Ice Sculpture by Okamoto Studio

Nora Ligorano and Marshall Reese have dedicated themselves to the art of collaboration since they first met in Baltimore. Their earliest collaborations began in video art and performance. Over three decades the artists have created hardware and software art, limited edition multiples, videos, sculptures and installations using a range of materials, traditional and digital processes.

In 2008, they began installing temporary public monuments during the political conventions, a series called melted away. These sculptures of words carved in ice are filmed, photographed and streamed as they melt away and disappear. They have presented 7 sculptures in 10 different cities at the conventions in 2008, 2012, and 2016. Ligorano Reese are currently developing an exhibition of new work, including video on the climate crisis.

Articles about their work have been published in the New York Times, Art Forum, Art In America, the Huffington Post, and seen on television and other media. They have received awards and grants including 3 NYFA fellowships as well as a NEA fellowship, two Jerome Foundation Fellowships, a Puffin grant and a number of artists residencies. They are represented by Catharine Clark Gallery and show edition work with Jim Kempner Fine Art.