Man might be able to erect soaring skyscrapers on postage stamp-sized plots of land but nature remains unimpressed. If the recent Tsunami in Japan taught us something it's that our efforts to yoke nature to our needs is futile at best. "The Wilderness," the new exhibit opening Sunday at the Miami Art Museum explores the real or imagined boundaries between our notions of tamed or untamed nature MAM's associate curator, Rene Morales says.

At a time when we are constantly reminded that we are destroying the

planet, the exhibit reminds us how vulnerable we remain when nature

decides to strike back. "Several of the works in this group exhibit question the assumptions of our dominion over nature," Morales says.

On display you'll find a  provocative selection of film and sculptural

installations  by artists Darren Almond, David Brooks, Tacita Dean,

Christy Gast and Allan McCollum - in addition to works by Matthew

Buckingham, Aramis Gutierrez and Fernando Ortega.

Among these is a sprawling installation by Alan McCollum in which the

artist joined forces with scientists and employed small rockets to

trigger lightning strikes into sand. The bolts created fulgurites which

he had replicated in a souvenir shop before arranging them in a stunning

display at MAM.

In his video installation Arctic Pull, Darren Almond isolates a lone

figure battling the frozen gloom of a tarry Siberian night reminding one

of man's epic struggles to conquer uncharted lands.

"In different ways, each work dramatically underscores the

intertwinement of nature and the human sphere, while evoking some of the

psychological, political, ethical and ecological ramifications of our

historical tendency to conceive of them as separate entities," Morales

explains.

"While we may never fully escape the idea that we stand above or outside

the natural world, it is within our power to confront this assumption

critically," Morales adds. "In this way, we may yet find new ways to

mitigate its most destructive consequences".

miamiartmuseum.org.

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