Eco art is one of the trends of contemporary art. This art is a subcategory of environmental art. which considers the set of activities for the interaction between the artist and the environment and is ongoing with common principles and different features. Eco art is placed in the general category of environmental art with a conceptual approach. Eco Art is actually the abbreviation of Ecological Art. Eco is used for "biosphere" and environmentally friendly topics. Considering that researchers in many fields use these words interchangeably, this type of art refers to a movement that is sensitive to environmental issues. This art considers the collaboration of the artist with other human groups with a social approach. Many trends in contemporary art use collaborative processes. Recycling and reviving nature is one of the most common approaches of this art. Also, friendship with the environment plays an important role as a method. These arts are considered as a way of social-environmental interaction. Ecological art emerged from the late 1960s and became a common trend in contemporary art in the 1990s along with environmental social movement. In addition to criticizing environmental issues and creative solutions to get out of it, this art has provided symbolic and poetic warnings. Eco art is performed using interdisciplinary art methods. It is a new and often experimental goal for artists. It deals with science and tries to express both the general context and the results of an "experiment" without using scientific terms. In a dialectical challenge with the environment, artists have achieved success in reaching the answer, even though it is partial and case-by-case, and they have also been content with reporting in other works. This art has used new sources of energy and to some extent has found new audiences. From this point of view, Andrew Brown's eco-art components can explore art recovery, attention beyond art and participatory processes. Today, these cases are considered as the main part of ecofeminism art approaches. By spreading environmental and feminist issues in the world, ecofeminism criticizes and protests the dominant (male) approach towards women and other subordinate types (cultural and natural). The ancient and essentialist view of "Woman-Earth" shows that a woman's relationship with the earth forms a part of her identity and pushes men back to the field of "culture" and against nature. ecofeminism is based on three main ideas: First, that women have certain behavior and values that are more compatible with nature. The second idea is that domination over nature is related to domination over women, and the structures of domination and their reasons are the same in both. The third thought considers women to be closer to nature than men, and therefore, they are potentially pioneers in terms of cultivating sustainable ways of communicating with nature. The distinction of feminists and their relationship with the environment has always been discussed from a historical point of view, and two biological (Physiology) and social (participatory art) approaches have been proposed in relation to women and the environment. Feminist artists gradually showed a preference for open spaces. They turned to a level of artistic activism by using natural processes and public art. Female artists have shown feminine tendencies and environmental concepts in their works and are searching for re-creation of fine arts and extraction from traditional art. Today, attention to participatory art has a special place in the art of ecofeminism and the whole of contemporary art. Public art in the general sense is art that is visible and accessible to people in the public space. It can be permanently incorporated into the design or fixed elements of an urban place, or it can be a temporary project such as installation art and events. The works of female artists with a conceptual art orientation are created in the form of sculpture, installation art, performance art and public art. These arts consider the use of natural processes.
Andrew Brown is a researcher in the field of eco art, the author of the book "Art and Ecology Now". He has developed components to explain and analyze the concepts in the works of environmental artists. The use of the components of Brown's eco art is a good indicator for the content analysis of ecofeminist works. Brown tries to ignore the typology of eco art and pay attention to social and contemporary trends. He classifies the behavioral components of eco art artists as follows: 1- Re/view 2- Re/form 3- Re/search 4- Re/use 5- Re/create 6- Re/act.
The components of eco art by Andrew Brown provide an index for the content analysis of ecofeminist works through fixed conceptual components and regardless of the typology of arts. The components of eco art that Brown has proposed have a clear link with ecofeminist art. Feminist art has turned to postmodern philosophy in opposition to modernism. From this point of view, it is in conflict with the modernist paradigm of art. Greenberg, critic and writer of modern art, pushes women out of the circle of fine art by looking down on the works of female painters. He did not consider handicrafts as great art and considered traditional arts to be meaningless and full of technical conflicts. In this contrast, female artists paid attention to "re/use" and "Re/create" in the connection of the environmental aspect in the production of fiber arts and handwoven works. Another approach that ecofeminist women artists use is a form of body art. The choice of the female body and its interaction with the environment are considered to express the components of "Re/form" and "Re/view". Ecofeminism tries to connect women to environmental and social issues by using collaborative processes and artistic collaboration and to protest against "definitive" and "patriarchal" trends in art by paying attention to inferior human groups. These arts are defined by the components of "Re/view", "Re/search" and "Re/act". The main research question is, what components and methods do female artists use to create works in environmental art projects and ecofeminism?
The purpose of this research is to investigate the representation of gender in ecofeminism art and it deals with the approach of women artists and its examples. This classification includes the concepts of contemporary art and the content analysis of artists' works, and it also has a great affinity with the methodology of ecofeminism. By studying the works of artists active in this trend, artists such as Agnes Dance, Basia Ireland and Neri Oxman have been selected as case studies. The results of the research show that, in general, three approaches of body art, art inspired by handicrafts (female handicraft art) and also the use of collaborative processes have been of interest to artists. In their works, women artists have addressed concepts such as: Mother Nature (Gaia) and the archetype of woman-earth. Also, the findings showed that the components of eco art are evident in the works of female artists. With the historical analysis of this art, we can conclude that, at first, the female body was presented in feminist art as a tool against the dominant patriarchal discourse. But gradually with the expansion of environmental issues and the fundamental links of feminism and nature, the approach of collaborative arts and the need to raise awareness among social groups including local communities, subordinate groups including women and children has become more important.