Burtynsky: OIL
Burtynsky: OIL
Top Floor & Barbara Lloyd Galleries, 5th & 4th Floors
19 May - 1 July 2012
Oxford Tire Pile, #4, Westley California, USA, 1999
Oxford Tire Pile, #4, Westley, California, USA 1999 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Ed Burtynsky Oil Refineries.
Oil Refineries #22, St. John, New Brunswick, Canada, 1999 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Ed Burtynsky, Shipbreaking
Shipbreaking #13, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2000 © Edward Burtynsky © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Edward Burtynsky Oil Fields
Oil Fields #22, Cold Lake, Alberta, Canada 2003 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Edward Burtynsky Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA 2003
Highway #1, Intersection 105 & 110, Los Angeles, California, USA 2003 © Edward Burtynsky © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Edward Burtynsky Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA 2008 © Edward Burtynsky
Breezewood, Pennsylvania, USA 2008 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Edward Burtynsky Socar Oil Fields #6, Baku, Azerbaijan 2006
Socar Oil Fields #6, Baku, Azerbaijan 2006© Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Ed Burtynsky, Alberta Oil Sands #2
Alberta Oil Sands #2, Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada 2007 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
Edward Burtynsky Recycling #2, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2001
Recycling #2, Chittagong, Bangladesh 2001 © Edward Burtynsky Courtesy Nicholas Metivier, Toronto / Flowers, London
INFO
"In 1997 I had what I refer to as my oil epiphany. It occurred to me that the vast, human-altered landscapes that I pursued and photographed for over twenty years were only made possible by the discovery of oil…”
- Edward Burtynsky
Canadian photographer Edward Burtynsky has travelled the world to chronicle the effect of oil on all our lives, and to reveal the rarely seen mechanics of its production and distribution.
This exhibition shows three sections from Burtynsky’s series OIL: Extraction and Refinement, Transportation and Motor Culture and The End of Oil. The works depict landscapes scarred by the extraction of oil, and the cities and suburban sprawl defined by its use. He also eloquently addresses the coming end of oil, as we face its rising cost and dwindling availability.
Burtynsky's colour photographs render his subjects with a transfixing clarity of detail. From aerial views of oil fields and highways ribboning across the landscape, to derelict oil derricks and mammoth oil-tanker shipbreaking operations, we are confronted with the evidence of our dependence on this finite resource.
Edward Burtynsky (b.1955) is one of Canada's most respected photographers. His photographic depictions of global industrial landscapes are included in the collections of over fifty major museums around the world, including the National Gallery of Canada, the Bibliotèque Nationale in Paris, the Museum of Modern Art and the Guggenheim Museum in New York.
Edward Burtynsky: OIL was organised in close collaboration with Huis Marseille Museum for Photography in Amsterdam, Gallery Nicholas Metivier in Toronto and the artist himself.
Supported by
