Radical Nature: Exhibition 2009

Radical Nature draws on ideas that have emerged out of Land Art, environmental activism, experimental architecture and utopianism. The exhibition is designed as one fantastical landscape, with each piece introducing into the gallery space a dramatic portion of nature. Work by pioneering figures such as the architectural collective Ant Farm and visionary architect Richard Buckminster Fuller, artists Joseph Beuys , Agnes Denes , Hans Haacke and Robert Smithson are shown alongside pieces by a younger generation of practitioners including Heather and Ivan Morison, R&Sie(n) , Philippe Rahm architects and Simon Starling. Radical Nature also features specially commissioned and restaged historical installations, some of which are located in the outdoor spaces around the Barbican while a satellite project by the architectural collective EXYZT is situated off site.

Exhibition curator Francesco Manacorda looks at architecture in relation to nature and how architects have approached the subject in the exhibition. Architect Michael Pawlyn also expands on the subject, talking about a form of architecture called biomimicry, whereby buildings are built in accordance to its natural surroundings.

The Dalston Mill, turning a disused railway line and waste ground in Dalston into a vibrant rural retreat for the people and beyond.

Richard Buckminster Fuller, US Pavilion for Expo ’67 (1967). A giant dome, 250ft in diameter

Agnes Denes, Wheatfield – A Confrontation (1982). Two acres of wheat planted and harvested in Battery Park landfill, Manhattan, New York

Hans Haacke, Monument to Beach Pollution (1970). Antiformalist expression of environmental concern using rubbish collected from a Spanish beach

Mierle Laderman Ukeles, Social Mirror (1983). A crowd reflected in the glittering flank of the New York sanitation department’s parade vehicle, the ‘mirror truck’

Robert Smithson, Spiral Jetty (1970)