A Fable of Anti-Nature: Deflect/Distract/Disorient, 2023. Film with sound, 00:20:11.

In this film, Bolster reviews the impermanence of nature in a contested territory, Big Bend National Park on the border of current day Mexico and America. This open border is a site of immense beauty, and for now, is currently protected by the government. During the previous administration, protections were rolled back protections on many national parks and the term “anti-nature President” was coined, many of the removals are detailed as text on the surface of this film, pulled from Harvard Law School’s Regulatory Rollback Tracker, which appeared in edited form in the article 75 Ways Trump Made America Dirtier and the Planet Warmer, by Alvin Chang, Emily Holden, and Noa Yachot in The Guardian, October 20, 2020. Many have since been rescinded by Biden but a lot of damage was done to parks throughout the country in that four year period.

The artist looks objectively at epic timelines, in this case beginning at pre-history to give context to the fluidity of the idea of nations, land ownership, identity, geographical and social boundaries, hunter gatherer cultures, and conservation.

Communication: We are not the only ones talking… or Ulysses: Animal Syntax and Non-human Intelligence (2022). Five channel film piece with sound, 00:51:00.

Scientist Laurance Doyle who proved syntax (complex grammatical language) in humpback whales, found the first circumbinary planet (one that orbits two suns) on the NASA Kepler Missions, and is currently examining language with the aim of recognizing alien signals at (SETI) the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute); and Fred Sharpe, biologist and Principle Investigator at The Alaska Whale Foundation were interviewed for this meditative expanded film by George Bolster. It explores efforts to understand whale language, their collaborative hunting practices, and communication structures. Reminiscent of expeditions conducted in nature the viewer needs to look at different screens to find different appearances of these elusive leviathans. Doyle discusses Ziph’s Law which was proved initially through the examination of James Joyce’s Ulysses, and acknowledging this, Bolster uses the epic section of Leopold Bloom’s stream of consciousness on water from the novel to reflect on this initial experiment, and the cross pollination of knowledge.

The intention for making this filming, was to use the most environmentally friendly production possible, where all footage existed, travel was kept to a minimum and interviews were shot from zoom calls. Additionally, the footage was taken during research expeditions by the Alaska Whale Foundation to make sure the animals weren’t distressed, or interfered with by amateurs not used to dealing with them. The rhythm of watching for sightings which happen at random, mimicks the expeditions conducted to gain the footage. So viewers see parts of the five screen footage of humpback whales, between long shots of water and different footage in the round.

Mentor 1: Planetary Protector Margaret Race (2018). Film and sound 00:17:00.

In this talking head style film from a series on the importance of mentorship, Bolster splices together the artificiality of the green screen technique heavily associated with science fiction and a deconstructed documentary form. The piece features dissociative images to create a sense of disorientation between what we accept as real or fictional in representational terms. He then fuses this with the often bewildering facts revealed by his interviewees, sometimes staff from NASA and SETI (The Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence Institute). In this film, Margaret Race discusses her role as planetary protector for Earth at NASA, and the importance of her mentor Astronaut Scott Carpenter to her career in science.

The Moon, McMoon's, and the Moon Museum (2016). Film with sound, 00:47:11.

The Moon, McMoon's, and the Moon Museum is a film that conflates the past, present and future possibilities, suggested by space exploration. Beginning with the first art object to be unofficially sent to the Moon aboard the Apollo Twelve in 1969: The Moon Museum. Multiple narratives run simultaneously through the piece addressing: the ideas behind the Moon Museum; a multicultural narrative of human fascination with the Moon; McMoons the archive for the mapping of the Moon in preparation for the Apollo Missions and site of the Lunar Orbiter Image Recovery Project; and the Moon as a solution to the question of how we save our collective human cultural production, in the face of the environmental damage caused to this planet. It features interviews from artist Forrest Myers, and scientists Laurance Doyle, Jill Tarter (both SETI Institute) and Douglas Vakoch (METI) who discuss the Moon from a variety of perspectives.

The Moon Museum object was an Experiments in Art and Technology (E.A.T.) project instigated by artist Forrest Myers, featuring contributions from Andy Warhol, John Chamberlain, Forrest Myers, Claes Oldenberg, David Novros, and Robert Rauschenberg. Bolster's use of the documentary format is combined with multiple non-linear narratives and sometimes contrasting ideas in fact and fiction. Through this he creates an expanded discourse of ideas as opposed to a single or patriarchal point of view.

Un/natural History: Drowning Captiva (2014). Film with sound, 00:34:57.

Filmed on the Florida island of Captiva, where artist Robert Rauschenberg lived from the sixties, George Bolster’s film shows the landscape that he bought and saved from developers, and his conservation efforts following a devastating hurricane: replanting and reclaiming jungle. Serving as a microcosm/site/set the landscape represents three different time periods: Rauschenberg’s efforts symbolize the world changing optimism of the sixties, an attempt to establish rationalized moderation today in the face of the human race’s destructive evolution, and the sci-fi laws Bolster foresees coming into place to curb the damage. The figure of Rauschenberg is represented through a reimagining of his Pelican (1963) performance as a durational walk from the bay side of Captiva to the Gulf of Mexico. The graceful dance in roller-skates of the original are replaced by an awkward protracted walk on a jungle dirt road representing our difference in state from that period in time to this. Drawing on Darwinism and the idea that living through ritual, religion, and tradition; the human race is ceasing to adapt to the crises it faces. It proposes the hope for an escape from a poisoned planet through the embracing of theoretical physicist Stephen Hawking’s idea of two earthlike planets, which we have yet to evolve the advanced technology to reach. Addressing the affect of established cultural/belief systems and questioning received ideas of the afterlife that encourage a focus on the next world undermining any impetus to change behavior or adapt. The film functions as a call to all members of society to become active in issues around landscape and preservation.