Earth as Art . . . Sometimes

Does a collage about diapers qualify as Earth art? How about an asphalt and barbed-wire sculpture? Or an abstract painting with the word earth in the title?

As part of an exhibit coinciding with San Diego’s Earth Day 1990 celebration, Ellen Phelan, a local artist and art historian, spent hours this week struggling to decide what is and isn’t Earth art, or “eARTh.”

About 150 works competed for 40 spots in the exhibition, which opens today at the San Diego Art Institute in Balboa Park. As the show’s juror, Phelan had to choose, and it wasn’t easy.

“I get visual glut quite easily--or, as Henry James called it, an intellectual headache,” said Phelan, a veteran juror of art shows. “But this was the most difficult time I’ve had.”

The problem came down to points of view. In the big picture, of course, any art created here, on the solar system’s fifth-largest planet, should technically qualify. But Richard Carter, who organized the show as a member of the San Diego Earth Day 1990 Coalition, wanted Phelan to be a bit more discriminating than that.

“Have I been assigned by the Earth-art gods to say yes or no to Earth art? No,” said Carter, himself a free-lance graphic artist from Del Mar. “But someone has to put their butt on the line and say, ‘That’s it.’ ”

By Carter’s definition, Earth art has a message. It is political, educational, thought-provoking. It is not Elvis’ likeness painted on black velvet.

A painting titled “Eco-Disaster Marker” is one of Carter’s favorites in the show. It depicts a bleak, rocky terrain marked by a periscope-like tombstone. In the eye of the scope is a colorful representation of what, one assumes, once was a blue stream, green pine trees, a snow-covered mountain. The marker reads: “Circa 1990 A.D. Eco-Disaster Marker 2469013. Yosemite U.S.A.”

Another piece, an angular sculpture titled “H2O--No!,” is a polluted beach scene created out of sand, shells and cigarette butts. The fish below the surface of the water are nothing but skeletons, and a jar of unidentified ooze hangs nearby.

Then there’s “Ohnozone,” a collage of panty hose, telephone wire, egg shells, light bulbs, soap wrappers, toothpaste tubes and other trash. A power plant appears to be exploding, while underground lurks the Point Loma sewage outflow and a garbage landfill.

All works in the show are for sale, at prices ranging from $125 to $4,000. Prize money in the show came from a grant received by the Earth Day coalition.

Phelan rejected the diaper collage, which lists how many diapers are thrown away each day and includes labels from diaper manufacturers.

“That falls out of the category of what I would consider an art statement,” she said. “That’s a visual statement. . . . Anything that’s too obvious isn’t art.”

But Carter acknowledged that, the more abstract the piece, the more subjective its earthiness became.

“Someone could easily say, ‘This is the way I feel about the Earth,’ ” he said. “What could I say to that?” Phelan said she looked for pieces that were simple but had “a sense of mystery”--like one of the three $100 prizewinners, “From the Museum of Precious Articles,” an egg-filled bird’s nest in a glassed-in case.

“We could all read into it,” she said. “It wasn’t so completely stated that there wasn’t anything left to the imagination. It starts putting the questions back on you.”

Another winner was “Burnt Legacy,” a fiery canvas featuring tree limbs spattered with red and orange paint. “It asks you the question: Is it fire?” Phelan said. “Is it destroying our woods?”

The third winner was an interactive piece by Chula Vista artist Larry Dumlao, who mounted old-fashioned weather maps and X-rays of human and animal lungs on the gallery’s windows, letting light shine through.

The piece is intended to get people thinking about the atmosphere they breathe, Dumlao said, and he intended for it to be disturbing.

“People don’t like to see other people’s insides,” he said.

The free exhibit runs through April 29. A one-day exhibit featuring the 110 artworks that were not included in the main show will be held on Earth Day, April 22, at the Spanish Village in Balboa Park. Among other things, the show will feature an “urban forest”--piles of newspapers designed to represent the trees they are made of.