shipping containers collide with the environment in mary iverson’s mix media paintings

MARY IVERSON DEPICTS THE CLASH BETWEEN GLOBALIZATION AND THE ENVIRONMENT

seattle-based landscape painter, mary iverson, creates artworks that depict the clash between globalization and the environment. juxtaposing found photography with intersecting lines that result in shipping containers, the artist uses oil, acrylic and ink to offer a vision of post apocalyptic scenarios.

‘my paintings explore the balance between the environment and industrial activities, inspiring conversations about our complicated relationship with nature,’ reads the artist’s profile.

all images by mary iverson

SHIPPING CONTAINERS INVADE WELL-KNOWN SCENARIOS

in her paintings, mary iverson portrays well-known scenarios that have been invaded by shipping containers. from the port of seattle to pyramids in cairo, her paintings inspire conversations about the causes and consequences of climate change.

‘iverson’s shipping containers can be seen as metonymic stand-ins for a whole system of distribution for objects that we deal with every day,’ said justin lincoln in an excerpt from the catalog statement for egress at the sheehan gallery in WA. ‘these paintings, until recently, left us with little clue of what they might contain. they are like scientific conceptual “black-boxes” which are put into place to sidestep our actual material understanding. we might see these containers on a dock or train and have only a vague sense of what they may contain or how those materials might be used. this parallels directly with the distribution of data on the net. the analog and digital worlds of things echo each other.’

by destroying the landscapes, mary iverson uncovers the gross excess and collateral damages of the shipping industry, and ultimately, commercialism.