Picturing Pollution
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October 23, 2009
During her career Robin Michals has turned her camera on various aspects of New York City, including recycling, its neighborhoods and its waterfront. Her latest project focuses on one of the less picturesque aspects of Brooklyn: its brownfields.
"Toxi City: Brooklyn's Brownfields," opening at Brooklyn Lyceum Sunday, includes 30 photographs of abandoned industrial sites in the borough, many of contaminated with one substance or another. Some, such as a onetime shipyard near the Red Hook Ikea, sit vacant. The Fulton Works gas plant, on the other hand, now houses a swimming pool and handball courts. Some have been cleaned up; others remain pretty much as they were when abandoned. In all of them, Michals believes, danger may lurk.
"As we careen toward the greater impacts of climate change, brownfields remind us of the damage we are willing to inflict on the environment for the benefits of industrialism," Michals has written.
The exhibition will remain on display at the Lyceum at 227 Fourth Ave. in Brooklyn through Nov. 8.
For more information on Michael and her project, go here.
For visiting hours and other exhibition information, visit the Brooklyn Lyceum.
