EDWARD BURTYNSKY:
IMPORTANT WORKS FROM A PRIVATE COLLECTION
Edward Burtynsky
ThreeGorgesDamProject,Dam#4 , 2002
chromogenic print
40 x 50 in.
1/5
Price on request
Between 2000 and 2005, Burtynsky travelled to China several times to document its rapidly industrializing landscape. At frst his interest was focused on the world's then largest dam ever built, the Three Gorges Dam. The monumental scale of the project raised the river over 600 feet, displacing hundreds of villages. ThreeGorgesDamProject,Dam#4is a unique work from the series as it is the only image released in black and white. Burtynsky felt that because of the complexity of the architecture of the dam, it would be too busy in colour.
After releasing the Three Gorges Dam project in 2003 in London and Toronto, Burtynsky felt compelled to return to China to capture what he realized was a much larger story. In the early 2000s, there was little knowledge about what was happening in China, let alone what it looked like. With the help of his translator, Burtynsky gained unencumbered access to factories, recycling plants and shipyards that would have not been possible even a few years later. One of the sites he visited was Baosteel in Shanghai, which at the time was the country's biggest, most modern steel manufacturer. For most of the factories, Burtynsky showcased their interiors but for Bao Steel he chose to focus on the exterior coal piles. Their immense scale evoked the pyramids of ancient Egypt.
The acclaimed exhibition Burtynsky: Chinadebuted in Toronto, London and New York in 2006, and Bao Steel #8 sold out in all of its editions quickly. It is regarded today as one of the seminal works from his China project.
Edward Burtynsky
BaoSteel#8,Shanghai,China , 2005
digital chromogenic print
48 x 96 in.
AP1
Price on request
Shipbreaking was a groundbreaking series for Burtynsky's career, lauded by curators and collectors alike for its ambition and breathtaking images. In the late 90s, Burtynsky learned from a radio program that single-hulled ships were being decommissioned after the 1989 Exxon Valdez oil spill. Insurance companies refused coverage which forced the single hulled ships to be decommissioned. Burtynsky researched where these massive vessels would be dismantled and recycled and discovered this was happening in India and later Bangladesh. He made two trips to Bangladesh in 2000 and then again in 2001.
When he arrived at the beaches where the ships were being taken apart, Burtynsky refected that it felt like something out of a Charles Dickens novel, a site from the industrial revolution. Workers walked around barefoot and without any safety gear, ripping apart the metal with their hands.
Shortly after the coordinated international release of Shipbreaking in 2001 and 2002 in Toronto, San Francisco, New York and London, it became the most commercially successful body of work of his career at that time. The subjects of the otherworldly images are often likened to Richard Serra sculptures and the narrative in the work while unsettling is also fascinating.
Edward Burtynsky
Shipbreaking#15,Chittagong,Bangladesh , 2000
chromogenic print
40 x 50 in.
AP2
Price on request
