Michael Handley is a contemporary sculptor whose work explores the intersection of environment, material transformation, and ecological instability. Drawing on processes such as wildfire, evaporation in arid climates, erosion, and atmospheric change, Handley creates works that blur the boundaries between sculpture, installation, and photography.
His practice situates itself within and beyond the traditions of Conceptual, Land and Environmental art, questioning how materials themselves carry the traces of time, space, and cultural beginnings.
Much of Handley’s work addresses human intervention and natural process. Using materials like silver, wildfire retardant, and chemically altered surfaces, his sculptures often stage conditions of instability—works that shift, corrode, evaporate, or shimmer, time, and environment. For Handley, materials are not static: they move operating as bridges across time and space, connecting present ecological conditions to deep histories and the sources of cultural events.
Handley’s recent projects include hybrid sculpture-photograms (TOFA2025, Breeze, Spirit Walker) and large-scale silver-plated steel sculptures that act as environmental reflectors, registering light, weather, atmosphere, and the passage of time.
By weaving together Land Art history, Environmental sculpture, and contemporary climate discourse, Handley’s practice contributes to a growing field of artists redefining how we think about the transformation of nature, time, and landscape. His work invites viewers to reimagine instability, atmosphere, and material transformation as sculptural forces resisting permanence, yet bridging time and cultural space.
I remember two distinctive things about growing up in the 80’s. The first is watching the movie ‘Back to the Future’ on VHS. It was the first time I saw a movie dealing with themes of generational advancements and the compression of time. These themes made me feel like anything was possible, at any moment, to anyone. I still believe I can travel through time if I can get my car up to 88 mph and somehow throw a banana peel into the engine of my car at the same time. The second was reading a National Geographic article about global warming, which focused on a hole in the ozone layer over Australia. When I read this article, an urgency and bewilderment was brought out in me. It was the first time I realized we could break the earth.
Like so many others throughout history, I find myself creating and performing ceremonies, prayers, and rituals in the hope of connecting myself with the earth. This connective urge has led me to develop specific processes and use materials referencing the cause and effect of environmental and natural manipulation.
My learning of our ability to manipulate nature has amplified my fascination with the processes used to manipulate it. As new examples of environmental destruction are released, a new chapter titled "No Return" has been submitted for environmental recovery, and visions of that ‘Back to the Future’ time machine come rushing in.
At this point, the rhetoric around Climate Change and Environmental Degradation is so convoluted with the pointing and passing of responsibility, cause and effect - I honestly feel like a bobblehead. Once again, I ask myself, how are we able to break the planet?