From 19 September 19 to 31 October 2019, the Swiss Institute in New York, in partnership with the Lower Manhattan Cultural Council, is presenting the first personal exhibition in an institution of the artist Michael Wang, himself a New Yorker. The exhibition is a continuation of his project Extinct the Wild, unveiled to the public in 2017 at the Prada Foundation in Milan. The artist’s installation is making a statement about fauna and flora – namely, that if they no longer exist in the wild, their fate today lies wholly in human hands. Like a scientist, Michael Wang orchestrates a set of greenhouses containing around 46 plants, germinating lichens and algae. Each species is historically known to have been part of the natural landscape of New York City. However, to date, no plantations exist…. so… Michael Wang’s work intervenes as a means of reintroducing extinct nature, albeit through artifice. Extinct the Wild is like an ecological resuscitation lab, with the herbaria on display the ghosts of a living world the city has forgotten.

© Michael Wang

From September 19 to October 31, 2019 – LMCC’s Arts Center at Governors Island | Lower Gallery – New York

Find more information about Extinct in New-York, here. 

Find all the articles from Impact art News n°11 — September 2019