SAN DIEGO — The first thematic group show from the newly established ICA San Diego, Surface Tension presents a sophisticated exhibition of video-based pieces by seven international artists, … Another strong piece is Ulu Braun’s collage-like video “Westcoast” (2010), an epic panorama of environmental destruction. Like a modern-day Hieronymus Bosch painting, the work possesses intricate detail, a cacophony of things happening at once, with Braun effectively employing bizarre shifts in scale to create a claustrophobic effect. A combination of the ocean surface and busy capitalist activity, we witness humans and animals alike navigate a polluted environment in freefall, pushed over the brink by our exploitation of the ocean and its inhabitants. It is terrifying.
Elizabeth Rooklidge, hyperallergic.com,