Witness to Deforestation: Interview with Richard Mosse

A Powerful New Film on the Amazon |   Richard Mosse’s urgent new film, Broken Spectre, depicts the destruction and devastation of the Amazon – an area which spans 6.7 million km2 and is often referred to as the “lungs of the earth.” Today, we're sharing an extract from our recent conversation with the artist.         A: Broken Spectre presents desolate landscapes in colour. What approaches did you take when capturing the footage, and why? RM: I’ve used a range of media, so it shifts gears in quite violent ways. A custom-made multispectral video camera mounted to a helicopter captures the systematic clearing of land for agriculture. Satellite cameras reveal dieback with unsettling clarity. The false tonal palette, created from wavelengths between visible and infrared light, differentiates between healthy and dying plants. Tropical skies turn black and the forest glows white like embers. As an artist, I am engaging with both the visual’s aesthetic and scientific qualities. I feel the imagery is successful if it can echo ubiquitous photographs of burning trees that we’ve already seen and become inured to.       A: The rainforest is mapped on a macro and micro level: featuring satellite imagery, portraits of the indigenous Yanomami community and zoomed in depictions of plants. How does it differ from other representations of the ongoing crisis? RM: Broken Spectre incorporates elements of global cinematic styles, from the tonality of Italian neo-Realism to Cinéma vérité. What emerges is a kind of chimera rather than a single narrative. Yet every frame is testimonial footage of the Amazon’s destruction, including processes of ecological catastrophe and environmental crimes. I guess it is that ambiguity – the tension between art and documentary, science and the imagination, beauty and tragedy – that might make it feel new. These stylistic leaps are not always easy on the viewer.     A: In 2021, The Guardian hosted a masterclass on reframing eco-anxiety – reflecting feelings of hopelessness towards the climate emergency. How do you tap into this conversation here? RM: The Amazon seems so far from home for many. Yet, we are very complicit in its destruction. On a day-to-day basis, we enjoy the “fruits” of deforestation, from eating cheap burgers or sitting on leather seats in luxury cars. It was very challenging to highlight the impact of these actions. I don’t think many people fully understand the vast scale and systematic organisation of the situation. I do not want the piece to tell you what to think or what to do. I want the viewer to sit with that eco-anxiety, to feel the ambiguity of the situation, but more importantly, to understand what is unfolding.     Richard Mosse: Broken Spectre  National Gallery of Victoria until 23 April 2023   Read the full interview »           Images: Richard Mosse, Broken Spectre, 2022 (still) Courtesy of the artist and Jack Shainman Gallery, New York.

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