Translocation and Witness in the Anthropocene Age

This paper explores how the landscape operates as an archive in the Anthropocene Age, which is so called because human beings have left a permanent geological trace on the planet. It initially explores this landscape-archive through the lens of colonial dislocation of both flora and fauna, and then moves to contemporary artists who engage with translocating organic materials to raise awareness about climate change, through asking the viewer to be witness to that object.

Global geographies been subject to colonial translocation for centuries. Flora and fauna have been moved across continents and geographic topographies have been replicated for both economic and nostalgic purposes. This literal and metaphorical uprooting of objects from the ‘natural’ world has led to the Wunderkammer, the Cabinet of Curiosities and more recently, the natural history museum. All of which mediate our (mis) understandings of these objects, and the biodiversity that they were taken from.

The contemporary artists discussed include Tania Kovats, Angela Palmer and Bryndis Snaebjornsdottir & Mark Wilson. Rather than simply displacing objects, their translocations raise sophisticated questions about these historical clichés. They interrogate how we engage with and witness difficult issues such as the effects of climate change, questioning what we need to preserve and remember in the Anthropocene Age.