Oil exhibit hits home

Burtynsky sheds new light on dark topic

By Marie King

From Alberta to California to Shanghai, Canadian photographer and artist Edward Burtynsky has travelled to capture imagery chronicling humanity’s dependence on the oil industry. He brings the issue forward in his exhibit “Oil”, which runs from May 7 to August 15 at The Rooms.

“Nature transformed through industry is a predominant theme in my work,” Burtynsky claims, “I search for subjects that are rich in detail and scale, yet open in their meaning.”

The collection includes large-scale photographs which depict the extraction, production, and use of oil. Burtynsky’s aim is to show a “life cycle” of oil, from initial extraction to dependence and obsession and, finally, to the “end of oil.”

In the midst of the ongoing deepwater oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico, which experts believe could last several years, the sobering reality of the oiling industry’s negative impact is now tangible. Wildlife experts say that this incident could have a lasting effect on the food webs of wildlife in the gulf ecosystem.

In early May, Chevron Canada began drilling the Lona O-5 oil well about 430 km northeast of St. John’s. It is located 2.5 kilometres beneath the surface of the water – Canada’s deepest offshore oil well. It is nearly a kilometre deeper than the well that’s been leaking since April 20 in the Gulf of Mexico.

The Canadian Oil and Gas Industry employs approximately 230,000 people within its two main sectors. The majority of people rely heavily on oil in their everyday lives, and in ways that are not often obvious. Burtynsky’s exhibit presents us with a side of this world that most of us do not see on a regular basis.

A number of images display the desolate expanses of land, punctuated by hundreds of oil rigs in Alberta and California.

“When you see pictures of California, you don’t see this,” stated Kelsey Barry, fourth-year biochemistry student at MUN and concerned environmentalist.

Oil refineries in Saint John, New Brunswick and Oakville, Ontario depict harsh, futuristic labyrinths of pipes, wires and concrete. Our dependence on oil is exemplified by photographs of Volkswagon dealerships in Shanghai, and advertisements for corporations like McDonalds and Exxon Mobil that line the streets.

“It’s startling to get such a raw picture of the process and impact of oiling all at once,” said Barry after viewing the collection. “It’s easy to be ignorant to just how reliant we are on the industry, and the cost that has.”

Edward Burtynsky’s art exhibit “Oil” is on display at The Rooms until August 15. For more information, visit www.therooms.ca.

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