Allora & Calzadilla

The Nature of Conflict

The Nature of Conflict combines the display of real objects with the deceptively painterly amalgamation of their content as the subject of a photograph. Here Allora & Calzadilla condemn the worldwide threat of violence caused by the high desirability of oil and water. Caught in the light, the patterning of the two liquids in the print creates attractive rainbow-like pools, a distanced comment on pollution. This trace on the ground is an aestheticized piece of evidence of a real heavily loaded problem for nature and society. The artist’s critical stance is poetically and precisely rendered to encourage debate about politics, power and ecology through art. Pure, life-enhancing natural resources are presented as potentially explosive substances in metal or plastic containers. Such absurdity is made visible in the direct dialogue of cause and effect in this presentation which is then amplified by the title, The Nature of Conflict, which adds to the imagination of extended dangerousness. Allora & Calzadilla have created a meaningful and at the same time subtle visual formula for the summary of their alarmed analysis of a current global issue.