Up to now, we have talked about many artists who deal with environmental issues, works created with recycled objects, as well as a 1,400kg block of ice melting under the Venetian sun, and finally, a short journey into the history of contemporary art with Kurt Schwitters, but today contemporary social ethics is at the center.
The countless works of the artists and those mentioned above, can be considered suggestive synonyms, which try to sensitize the “public” around us. In fact, the term sustainability has broad meanings, at first glance we bring it back to the environmental sciences, but it also concerns other issues of no small importance, including the ethics of good and evil and the social. Its “history” and its use (of the term sustainability) was introduced during the first UN conference on the environment in 1972.; Later, the goal of sustainable development was defined. With a well-defined environmental content profile.
Saman Oskouei e Sasan Oskouei
The vision of the two artists: unique and essential
Today we will talk about two artists Saman Oskouei and Sasan Oskouei originally from Tabriz, a city in the north of Iran, now transplanted into the “Big Apple”. Determined to leave their mark in places around the world and on urban streets, to make their ideas resound in the heads of passers-by. The two brothers engage in new conceptual perspectives, with focus: invitation to reflection.
ICY and SOT embrace the most essential themes that characterize our age, including: human rights, today’s human conditions, women’s rights, the hardships of migrants and refugees, and climate change, just to name a few.
The strong visual impact is given by the use of materials that particularly and clearly recall some historical events, and more. The oil cans are the synonym of capitalism, barbed wire and iron is the same as prison, the old rusty shovels are a still image of slavery and stolen freedom; All this gives life to a new perspective, in a dispassionate tale made up of works that recall Land Art, with a poetic tone almost like a song of fragility, simply reflecting through this wonderful form of expression that is art, ethics. social of the two artists.
After the summit of 23 September 2019 which saw the young activist Greta Thunberg as the undisputed protagonist. As an example, her words were the background to the new works of ICY and SOT and many others. An installation inspired by the work of the activist and the global environmental movement that she started.
A reverse video, and a voice, that of Greta.
In the work “Our House is on Fire”
<<I want you to panic, I want you to feel the fear I feel every day. And then I want you to act, I want you to act as if you would in a crisis. I want you to act as if the house was on fire, because it is>>
Our house is on fire, exactly.
The two created the frame of a typical house but without walls, a door and a window on nature in a fascinating place, California.
Nature’s Reflection
An ephemeral installation with a conceptual flavor of free interpretation, which certainly invites reflection. In a pastoral landscape, a human silhouette made with a mirror reflects the ever-changing sky, light, clouds and sun. An unusual shape, it stands out in an uncontaminated green lawn. An unidentified figure, lying on the grass, a surely desired gesture that emanates tranquility to the spectators.
We will find a similar installation made by ICY & SOT in Norway, in a floating shape made of plastic called “Human Reflection on ocean”. The social ethics of ICY and SOT does not stop there, present in many other works. Here, their official website.
For your information, in 2019 they joined the exhibition at the Moco Museum in Amsterdam, no less than Andy Warhol and Bansky.
Among the artists, who care about these issues, there is also Thomas Dambo. Read his story here.
