The Cleveland Museum of Art

Collection Online as of December 21, 2025

Color photograph of a bright orange liquid like a river cutting through dark, barren land, save for a row of bare trees against a hazy grey sky on the horizon in the upper left. The orange liquid, with faint rows of ripples, emerges from the lower left of the photograph, winding out, before turning back in and exiting on the central right.

Nickel Tailings #34, Sudbury, Ontario

1996

Edward Burtynsky

(Canadian, b. 1955)
Canada, 20th century
chromogenic process color print
Framed: 89.5 x 119.9 x 3.2 cm (35 1/4 x 47 3/16 x 1 1/4 in.); Mounted: 80.7 x 111.1 cm (31 3/4 x 43 3/4 in.)
Gift of Fred and Laura Ruth Bidwell in honor of Tom Hinson 2010.491
Location: Not on view

Description

Nature transformed by industry, as it has been here, is the predominant theme of Burtynsky’s work. The vibrant rivers in these images seem to be lava flows but are actually nickel tailings, the waste products of metal extraction and mining activities. Simultaneously beautiful and horrifying, this industrial vista is a striking observation of the devastation humans can wreak on the landscape.
  • Artist; Laurence Miller Gallery, New York; Fred and Laura Bidwell, Peninsula, Ohio; Cleveland Museum of Art
  • {{cite web|title=Nickel Tailings #34, Sudbury, Ontario|url=false|author=Edward Burtynsky|year=1996|access-date=21 December 2025|publisher=Cleveland Museum of Art}}

Source URL:

https://www.clevelandart.org/art/2010.491