FEATURE
Hannah installing works at Ssone , 2021 Image by Vickie Biggs
WHEN ARTIST RHYMES WITH ENVIRONMENTALIST
Sustainable art is not just about producing works of art that drive home environmental messages . It ’ s also about how that art gets produced . Sleuth ’ s Yaelle Raccaud learns about the work of Hannah Fletcher , an artist working to make her photography more planet-friendly .
Sustainable art emerged in the late 1960s and early 1970s , with the rise of conceptual art and its driving principle that artistic production was more important than the finished product itself . The threat of nuclear destruction from the Cold War and growing evidence of humanity ’ s impact on the planet only added urgency to the notion that art needed to be sustainable – in both form and substance . Artists such as Robert Smithson began creating so-called land art , which champions a creative process that is in harmony with the environment .
Fast forward to today and questions of sustainability and eco-responsibility are more prominent than ever . Many aspects of society are being rethought , and the relationship between art and its surroundings is no exception .
Take Hannah Fletcher , for example . A plant-based photographic artist based in London , Fletcher has been working since the 2010s at making her practice more environmentally friendly . She is part of a growing army of environment-focused artists looking to change the way creatives create . Working with photographic materials primarily , she makes her analogue photography as low impact as she can , by using organic materials easily available to her .
How does she approach her work ? “ There used to be this thought-process that artists sacrificed everything to produce their artwork , and that ’ s a really detrimental process that I think we need to start reversing ,” she said .
“ I always try and work in a way that is low-impact on our environment . So , making my own photographic chemistries , or trying to work with what ’ s around me . And then I also incorporate the waste of the materials into the process itself and address them and think about the waste management .”
Alongside her personal work , she works to help others take steps in the same direction . She is the co-director of London Alternative Photography Collective , and founded the Sustainable Dark Room in 2019 , with a presence in Leeds and online .
The past two years and the lockdown have revealed a significant rise in interest in sustainability in the arts .
“ Suddenly , people were stuck at home , they weren ’ t necessarily going to their studios and their places of work , and they were looking at what was in their homes , what was in their gardens , and we were giving these processes and recipes that just used things from your garden or your kitchen cupboards . It ’ s about accessibility to the processes as well , which is a big part of sustainability . It ’ s not just about the planet , but it ’ s also accessible to a much wider range of individuals .”
Fletcher actually thinks the term ‘ sustainable art ’ is problematic , because it suggests that one can be completely sustainable . But she thinks it is a push in the right direction . “ It ’ s about getting people interested in how their practice can be more considerate to the environment and how they can make more conscious choices as well .”
Yaelle Raccaud
24 SLEUTH ISSUE 5