Following Guido van Helten's provocative reimagination of Jean-Paul Sartre's No Exit, The Environmental Gaze: Reading Sartre through Guido van Helten's No Exit Murals offers an environmental reading of Sartre's theory of the gaze (le regard). Joe Balay argues that while Sartre is commonly associated with the longstanding humancentric bias in Western thinking, a closer reading shows that his phenomenology of vision involves a powerful environmental story. On the one hand, this is demonstrated by the way that the social worldview contributes to a progressive alienation from our bodies and the natural world around us, culminating in the loss of the Earth in Sartre's play. On the other, Balay argues that the artwork serves as a pivotal interruption of this alienation, inviting us to see the world anew through an inter-human-natural mode of perception that we might call the environmental gaze. In this way, this book makes a strong case for the significance of Sartre's work and for the place of art in facing our environmental reality today.
Joe Balay is associate professor of philosophy at Christopher Newport University.
A work of honest reflection, a rigorous imagination, and serious scholarship, Balay has made genuine contributions to the study of Sartre, but--and in this one finds the heart of its originality--also to questions of art, perception, nature, and care for the environment. A pleasure to read, this book opens one's eyes.--Dennis J. Schmidt, Western Sydney University In this strikingly original book, Joe Balay discovers new possibilities for us to understand the current environmental crisis. Focusing on Guido van Helten's No Exit murals in Reykjavik, Iceland, Sarte's celebrated play of the same name, and a range of Sartre's writings, Balay examines what he calls the 'environmental gaze.' The result is not only a trenchant analysis of the 'ocularcentric anthropocentrism' that belongs to Eurocentrism, but also a prescient reimagining of le regard in the context of our new ecological reality. Clearly written and well argued, this book brings into relief the significance of Sartre and the legacy of his thought for our times.--Theodore George, Texas A&M University This is an invigorating and inspiring introduction to the Australian street artist, Guido van Helten, and his haunting murals in Reykjavik. 'Gazing' at the sea, the land, and its inhabitants and visitors, these evocative images are derived from a 1961 Icelandic performance of Sartre's No Exit. Balay deftly explores the work of Sartre and his contemporaries in the context of these remarkable and now damaged works.--Jason M. Wirth, Seattle University
