In 2010, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill disaster dumped an estimated 4.9 million gallons of oil into the Gulf of Mexico, causing significant environmental damage that persists to this day. A new art exhibit showing at Furman attempts to make sense of the devastation.
Called “Descent,” the exhibit by Sarah Schuster, a professor of art at Oberlin College in Ohio, wrestles with the ways in which human actions lead to environmental degradation. The Gulf oil spill disaster, which inspired the premier piece, functions in her work as a metaphor for the human ability to not only create but destroy, and the piece documents what might considered an internal search to the reason for why human beings are so destructive. Other pieces in the show incorporate similar motifs, such as those of natural disaster.
Schuster began the piece after viewing images of the oil disaster and seeing how it impacted life at the bottom of the ocean, which she has referred to as an “interior outer space.” Some believe geothermal vents that emit methane gas at the bottom of the ocean support the life of newly discovered organisms that use methane gas to create energy, but as a result of the oil spill the vents are no longer distinguishable, destroying many of the places where scientists believe such organisms could have developed.
The different pieces in the show vary in meaning as well as texture and color, yet they are all thematically linked by their concern with the ways human insist on controlling nature. Schuster not only captures the destruction but creates beauty out of it, making a way for viewers to reflect on their humanity.
Schuster studied art at both Boston and Yale University, and she’s been working on “Descent” for several years. After visiting Furman three years ago for an external review of the university’s studio, the art department asked her to return and let the university exhibit her work.
“Descent” has appeared at other galleries as well, including The Play Gallery in Istanbul, Turkey, at the Allen Memorial Art Museum in Oberlin, and the C.E.R.E.S. Gallery Museum in Manhattan. Schuster’s exhibit will be on display through Nov. 1 in the Thompson Art Gallery of the Roe Art Building.