Where the Anthropocene turns obscure, an essay by Christopher Squier
/Dissolve invites you to consider the dirt and grease that comprise much of the matter by which industrial and postindustrial landscapes are made. In “The Anthrobscure: Earthworks, Coal Mines, and Michel Gérard’s Geological Investigations of the Underground,” Christopher Squier uses the “Anthrobscure” as a framework for examining artworks that operate outside of the often pristine landscapes of today’s Land Art destinations. The essay rearticulates the Anthropocene as a visual experience which moves one toward obscurity; we are in an optically-centered era that employs strategies of obfuscation to cover, stratify, and sanitize its contaminated landscapes.
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