Transition in Contemporary Art: Time, Identity, and Environmental Change

As Pablo Picasso once stated, “Art washes away from the soul the dust of everyday life.”

This quote has always resonated with me, particularly in relation to how transition operates within contemporary art. As an artist, I experience transition daily—physically through material, technique, and form, and philosophically through the evolving process of making.

My work often begins with an awareness of accumulation: particles, pigments, gestures, and traces that gather over time to create form. These layers reflect the environments we inhabit—spaces that are constantly shaped by natural forces, movement, and change. Our surroundings, and our state of being within them, are perpetually in flux.

In this post, I explore how themes of transition in contemporary art are expressed through time, identity, environmental change, and political movement. While this is a vast subject, I focus on several key approaches artists use to make transition visible—both conceptually and materially.

Image: Timepieces (Solar System), by Katie Paterson, 2014, photo: Periodico

Growth, Evolution, Passage of Time and Cosmic Change

Our human condition on Earth is dictated by transformations. On a singular level we are born, we grow, we die. On a larger scale, as a species, we evolve to our surroundings and physically change over many generations. From the micro to the macro, the patterns of our everyday biology are intricately connected to the patterns and laws of the Universe.

Katie Paterson is a Scottish, multi-disciplinary artist that explores ideas of ecology, geology, deep time and cosmic change. Her work Timepieces (Solar System), consists of nine clocks affixed to a wall, with each telling the time of one of the eight planets in our solar system, as well as Earth’s moon. The clocks show a visual representation of how the passage of time varies in different locations in the solar system.

Image: Law of the Journey, installation by Ai Weiwei at the 21st Biennale of Sydney

Geopolitical, Societal and Cultural Shifts

Everything in the natural world is moving and shifting constantly, yet is forced to interact with physical borders that humanity has installed. Ideas of personal and cultural identity tend to move hand-in-hand with constant change and transitions. As a Russian migrant living in the USA, I know a few things about this!

Artists that explore geopolitical, societal, and cultural shifts usually engage in critiquing power structures. This can include: exploring personal or communal identity; confronting globalized conflicts; responding to resource crises; and navigating themes of migration, displacement or inequality.

Chinese artist Ai Weiwei engages with ideas of the global refugee crises, censorship, and human rights. At the 21st Biennale of Sydney he presented a 60-metre-long boat which was crowded with hundreds of anonymous refugee figures. The inflatable boat and figures were fabricated using rubber and manufactured in a Chinese factory. The same factory also makes the inflatable vessels used by refugees attempting to cross the Mediterranean Sea.

Image: Oil Fields #2 Belridge, California, USA, 2003, by Edward Burtynsky

Environmental and Climatic Transitions

The impact of human industry on the planet is changing Earth's climate and environment rapidly. Although all humans are complicit to a degree, it can be difficult to quantify how our day-to-day lives are impacting the local environment, let alone locations on the other side of the world. The Anthropocene is a new geological epoch that is defined by humans becoming a dominant force shaping Earth's systems. This term isn’t just being propagated by scientists, it’s also becoming more frequently used in the arts.

Artists that engage in these themes of environmental and climatic transition usually endeavour to make the abstract tangible. They tend to be motivated to engage audiences with urgent themes such as ecosystem collapse, pollution, critiquing consumption, and damaging industrial practices.

Canadian artist Edward Burtynsky creates aerial photographs that reveal the vast scale of industrial impact on different locations around the world. His photographic projects look at destructive mining and quarrying practices, as well as the water and oil industry. Each series is conceived over long time spans. He spent ten years working on his Oil series when he travelled the world to document the effect of oil on our lives. He wanted to expose the rarely seen mechanics of its production and distribution.

Burtynsky believes that although the sites he presents in his work are bleak, there is hope, and with enough traction, there can be a cumulative effect on humanity – things can change overnight.

Are you interested in the themes of transition in art? Let me know your thoughts by leaving a comment below.