Even with today's global narrative hammering home the point that we must take better care of the environment, you may be surprised - and fascinated - by one sculptor's creative response to that challenge.
Highlighted in the exhibition "Field Guide: Markus Baenziger" at Haverford College's Cantor Fitzgerald Gallery is the fresh perspective of a Swiss-born artist from Brooklyn new to Haverford's faculty. The intensity of focus and feeling in his work is strong, and the images become key elements in the tale this show tells, often capturing a sad, resonant - and occasionally high-spirited - beauty.
It's said that Baenziger, who uses plastic resins, found objects, and cutting and carving techniques, puts the plastic back into nature, and also that he puts nature back into plastic. But that tells only part of the story. More important is his yen for beauty, whether unspoiled in nature or in bits of manufactured detritus he combines with natural objects. Awed by the confusions and chaos of despoiled environments, he invites viewers to ponder them anew in such pieces as Drift, which combines twisted copper wire, tin, and bits of conch shell, or Me and I, carefully crafted floral look-alikes of synthetic resin and copper filaments. Despite its deliberate artificiality, Me and I somehow conveys an upbeat note. Even the ornery floating object Flotsam has power, shapes that go around and come around, indeterminate and faded yellow.