The Modern Art Notes Podcast

Each week, artists, art historians and authors join host Tyler Green to discuss their work

Menu

Skip to content
  • About the show
  • Subscribe
  • Tyler Green
  • Advertisers
  • Contact us

No. 46: Richard Misrach, Kate Orff

Episode No. 46 features artist Richard Misrach and landscape architect Kate Orff.

The episode spotlights “Petrochemical America,” a new book by Misrach and Orff. The book examines the industrialized Mississippi River corridor between Baton Rouge, La., and New Oreleans. The region is infamous for its density of petrochemical plants and for high rates of disease, particularly cancer.

The book features Misrach’s pictures, commissioned by the High Museum of Art in Atlanta, and landscape architect Kate Orff’s “Ecological Atlas,” a series of narratives that establish a relationship between Misrach’s photographs, the region and man-made and ecological forces. An exhibition of Misrach’s and Orff’s work is on view now in the project room at Aperture’s New York gallery through October 6. (The book is also published by Aperture. Amazon lists it at $30 off.) Misrach’s ‘Cancer Alley’ pictures are on view at the High through October 7.

Misrach’s work is in the collection of virtually every major museum in America. He is best known for his large-format color pictures of dramatic, often disastrous human interventions in the landscape. He has also made moving photographs of disasters, such as the 1991 East Bay Fire and the aftereffects of Hurricane Katrina. MAN Podcast host Tyler Green reviewed Misrach’s extraordinary post-Katrina book “Destroy This Memory” here and here.

On the second segment, Orff discusses her contribution to the project. Orff is the principal of SCAPE, a landscape architecture and urban design office. Her practice revolves about how to encourage and enact sustainable development and biodiversity through landscape. She teaches at the Columbia Graduate School of Architecture, Planning and Preservation and her work has been exhibited in museums such as the Museum of Modern Art.

Air date: Sept. 20, 2012.

The cover of "Petrochemical America."

The cover of “Petrochemical America.”

Richard Misrach, Norco Cumulus Cloud, Shell Oil Refinery, Norco, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Norco Cumulus Cloud, Shell Oil Refinery, Norco, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Sugar Cane and Refinery, Mississippi River Corridor, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Sugar Cane and Refinery, Mississippi River Corridor, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Roadside Vegetation and Orion Refining Corporation, Good Hope, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Roadside Vegetation and Orion Refining Corporation, Good Hope, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Holy Rosary Cemetery and Dow Chemical Corporation (Union Carbide Complex), Taft, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Holy Rosary Cemetery and Dow Chemical Corporation (Union Carbide Complex), Taft, Louisiana, 1998.

Richard Misrach, Burnt Forest and Half Dome, Yosemite, 1988. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Richard Misrach, Burnt Forest and Half Dome, Yosemite, 1988. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago.

Orff2

A two-page spread from Kate Orff's Ecological Atlas in "Petrochemical America."

A two-page spread from Kate Orff’s Ecological Atlas in “Petrochemical America.”

A two-page spread from Kate Orff's Ecological Atlas in "Petrochemical America."

A two-page spread from Kate Orff’s Ecological Atlas in “Petrochemical America.”

Post navigation

← No. 45: Stephanie Barron, Raymund Ryan
No. 47: Carrie Mae Weems, Aimee Levitt →
Widgets
Blog at WordPress.com.
    • The Modern Art Notes Podcast
    • Customize
    • Sign up
    • Log in
    • Copy shortlink
    • Report this content
    • Manage subscriptions
 

Loading Comments...