In ‘Anthropocene,’ environmental warning signs have never looked more beautiful

By Rob Thomas | Madison.com

If you don’t know what you’re looking at, the images can be quite beautiful in an abstract way.

Ivory tusks stacked into abstract sculptures the size of huts. Water reflecting the golden streetlights of a flooded piazza in Venice. A massive mountain of garbage, in which the discarded bits of plastic form a pointillist painting of blue and white dots.

We’re used to documentaries that celebrate gorgeous scenes of the natural world, but “Anthropocene: The Human Epoch” adds a discomfiting twist, presenting beautiful images of some of the ugliest things that humans are doing to the planet.

The arresting nature of the images, the sheer scale at which these projects are transforming the planet, may hit viewers in a different, more visceral way than the typical environmental documentary.

Read the full review here.