This exhibition aims to explore how humans interact with the natural world, with the title of the exhibition, Intrusions reflecting the generally aggressive and invasive quality of these interactions. More specifically, the expedition attempts to showcase the spatial landscape on which these human-nature interactions take place. The viewer is asked to navigate a primarily empty industrial warehouse as they explore and observe the exhibition’s pieces. The strategic layout and presentation of the pieces require that the viewer explore them from various angles, becoming more aware of the space these pieces occupy. The pieces themselves incorporate a variety of different media and traditions to reflect diverse perspectives of human-nature interaction. Through the exhibition experience, the viewer should be made aware of how humans displace, exploit, and reduce the natural world. The ultimate goal is that the viewer walks away from this exhibition with an acute awareness of their role as an intruder in the natural world and that this awareness will translate into a conscious effort to reduce their impact on the environment. The layout of the exhibition is structured to provide a journey for the viewer that gradually increases their awareness of humanity’s impact on the environmental world. The location chosen for the exhibition, an empty industrial warehouse, should also serve as an example of humanity’s impact, and this will become evident to the viewer as they read the welcoming statement. Before entering the warehouse, the visitors will read the welcoming statement which will be posted at the entrance. The statement demands that the viewer perceive the exhibition, and the warehouse, as an intrusion into the natural world, and perceive themselves as an intruder. This statement should heighten the viewer’s awareness of their own role in the issues of environmental degradation and exploitation that they will confront within the exhibition. This viewer’s awareness of their role as an intruder will continue to increase as they explore the exhibition, which is divided into four rooms, each revolving around a different theme. In general, the subject matter of the pieces becomes less abstract and more literal with each room. The first room, Nature Revisiting, is intended to heighten the viewer’s spatial and bodily awareness in relation to natural objects. The pieces featured in this room are all made from objects gathered from nature. The only exception is Olafur’s Sun branch sculpture which includes painted glass and wire, but still contains the natural element of driftwood. The room’s layout is unorganized, mimicking the spontaneity of nature. The viewer might be required to step over the branches of Balengée’s Dying Tree and may visit Goldsworthy’s pieces in any order. The viewer may even accidentally or purposefully alter Goldworthy’s unguarded sculptures. This room is entirely about the individual’s relationship with the natural world. The viewer is expected to reflect on their own history and philosophy of human-nature interaction, and interpret each piece as they wish. The layout and subject matter of this room can be easily related to the Minimalist tradition, as the pieces are very much focused on the physical materials of the natural world. The room’s layout also employs an element of theatricality by requiring the viewer move and explore in order to fully experience and appreciate the pieces. This theatrical experience increases the viewers’ awareness of their own body in relation to the natural objects that surround them. The second room, Self-Destruction, continues this theme of spatial awareness by requiring an element of theatricality as well, but the subject matter of the piece, Cai’s Head On, is more easily consumed. The viewer should understand that the wolves’ positioning and crashing points towards the cyclical nature of destructive action. The wolves themselves suggest an environmental subtext that encourages the viewer to relate the piece to human-nature interaction. The piece’s structure encourages the viewer to explore it from all angles, giving them plenty of time to dissect the piece and its potential meaning. Once the viewer reaches the third room, titled Death By Abundance, the overall message of the exhibition should become quite clear. Orozco’s Mobile Matrix placed in contrast with his Sandstars installation, should be an evident reference to humanity’s pollution of the oceans, and by extension, our overall negative impact on the Earth. The dead whale’s skeleton, when placed in relation to the debris below it, becomes a symbol for the loss of animal life as a result of human intrusion. As the viewer walks around and observes every single object, they might examine each object’s individual effect on the oceans, specifically how each object poses a threat to sea life. And, they should realize that most of these objects are objects they themself have owned and discarded in the past. By the time the viewer reaches the fourth room, The Evidence, they should have a heightened awareness of their role as an intruder. The fourth room conveys humanity’s intrusion into the natural world quite literally through the use of photographic evidence. The three previous rooms, which consisted solely of sculptures and three-dimensional objects should have placed the viewer in a spatially-conscious mindset. The fact that the photographs are displayed in cube-like structures with four adjacent digital screens also keeps this sense of bodily awareness going, as the viewer is required to continuously walk around the structures to view the photographs. Hopefully, they can use this spatial perspective to dissect the photographs presented, noticing the way humans have created entirely new landscapes, destroying those of the natural world. Perhaps, they may even imagine themselves visiting or observing the spaces shown in these photographs. The viewer, who has explored their relationship with the natural world in the previous rooms, should consume this photographic evidence with a consciousness of their own contribution to the environmental abuse pictured. Before they exit the exhibition, the viewer will read the closing statement which will be projected on the wall in giant letters. The statement reads, “This world is not yours. Step carefully.” Ideally, the viewer will leave the exhibition more conscious of the space they occupy, and how that space was occupied by the natural world and its creatures before it. The viewer will continue their daily life with a consciousness that will make them less inclined to displace, manipulate, and alter the natural world. They will understand the need to create a balance between the human and natural world, and will discourage the production of human spaces and human objects that intrude upon the natural world.













