Terrarium 

Konstantin Korobov’s painting, “Terrarium,” presents us with a tree, self-contained within a glass enclosure. This image resonates with the social history of our present moment, where anxieties around environmental degradation and the isolation of modern life pervade. Painted in the twenty-first century, the tree stands as a poignant symbol, set against a geometric, minimalist interior. It can evoke both the tradition of landscape painting, and the artificiality of modern institutions, that categorize, contain, and organize the natural world. The figures around it suggest a hushed and reverent audience. We may ask what they are doing in this modern museum of nature. Is the painting critiquing our impulse to separate ourselves from nature? To truly understand the role of this artwork, we can investigate the history of environmental movements and social theory of our present era. In doing so, we can understand the painting as part of a larger conversation about the politics of nature.