Artistic Curation for Climate Change Awareness by Isha Singh

ARTISTIC CURATION BY: ISHA SINGH

INTRO This artistic curation explores the relationship between contemporary works and how they raise awareness for climate change. The most important thing we can do it educate others because that will lead to change. In order for people to realize what is truly going on, awareness must be made. This critical review of works will provide a deeper look into how awareness for climate change is being made.

COURTNEY MATTISON

COURTNEY MATTISON The first work that draws attention to the effects of climate change is by Courtney Mattison. Courtney Mattison is famous for her large ceramic sculptures that depict coral bleaching. The coral bleaching phenomenon is caused by the warming of our oceans and the changes in the pH level. This specific piece showcases the reality of what coral reefs go through. The first time I saw one of her works I was confused, I wondered why the work only contained color in certain areas. This isn t what a coral reef looks like, I thought, but the sad reality is that this is what a coral reef looks like. Most coral reefs are dead, leaving them with no color. Upon realizing this, her work made me devastated, this is what coral reefs look like. Most people have never seen a coral reef and never will see one, at least one that isn t alive. Their colors fade and they are eventually turned white. This white color is the skeleton of the coral. At the middle of her sculpture, there are numerous beautiful and vibrant colors, but she creates a juxtaposition by making the rest of the sculpture a bone-dry white color. This forces us to look at the stark difference, it provides both a before and after image within the same piece. The sizes of her works are huge. This is because it highlights the large impact coral reef bleaching will have on the world. This work ties into the theme of our class by depicting destruction caused by the climate change and drawing attention to the climate crisis. Our class circles around the idea that we need to respect the Earth and the first step for that is raising awareness. This is exactly what Courtney Mattison is doing. Her work reminds me a lot of the Anthropocene documentary, the way they flash through strong imagery that conveys a message about the human impact is very similar to what Mattison is doing with her sculptures. She is taking a reality that isn t talked about too much and forcing us to look at it. Despite it having no words, we can understand the impact. Coral reefs support the whole marine ecosystem, without them, many animals would be left with no protection, or food, and the entire food chain would collapse which would impact our food chain. Coral reefs are a key species that have lived for hundreds of millions of years, yet because of humans, they can t survive.

Wake Up America Miley Cyrus

WAKE UP AMERICA MILEY CYRUS A song that sparks awareness of climate change is Wake up America by Miley Cyrus. This song is all about how we should be helping the Earth. This song being sung my Miley Cyrus is crucial because she is a large celebrity who have a lot of influence, especially among younger generations. Making younger generations aware of climate change will help evoke change in the future. She knows that a great deal of people look up to her and she decided to make a song with a great message behind it. This song is to make a difference, it was made to start educating everyone about the state of the world and telling us that we should do something about it. The song title is simply a call to action, stating that we need to be aware of what is going on around us regarding Earth s state. The first few lyrics start out through questioning us about our treatment towards Earth, saying Oh, can you take care of her? Oh, maybe you can spare her (Cyrus). The tone Cyrus uses in this song is very accusatory and dominant, which goes into describing the anger she feels towards America for not doing anything. The way Cyrus personifies the Earth into a female is very interesting to me because it has a lot to do with ecofeminism. This reminds me of the Merchant-Ecofeminism reading we did. The way humans think about nature and the world is in a nurturing way, much like a mother, hence mother nature and referring to the world as her. I would say that this song goes with radical feminism in ecofeminism. Cyrus wants people to take action, her song is political because it is raising issues about how our society is reacting to the climate crisis. At one point, Miley Cyrus directly calls out the ignorance towards the climate crisis, Everything I read's 'Global warming', 'going green I don't know what all this means But it seems to be saying C'mon, wake up, America We're all in this together It's our home so let's take care of it You know that you want to You know that you got to And everything you do matters. After this she addresses her age and how young she is. She knows that climate change is harming the world and she is asking others to join her in trying to stop it. This raises attention for the climate crisis in a more direct way than the sculptures by Mattison, but it can t show the change that is going on, unlike Mattison s sculptures.

The Lorax Movie

THE LORAX MOVIE Just like how Miley s demographic is more for the younger and newer generations, The Lorax conveys the message of helping Earth to young kids. This will help ensure that as they grow up, they will care about the Earth. In The Lorax, there is no nature, no real trees or real flowers or real plants. Air is sold by a big, evil corporation. The only way to ensure that you will be able to breathe, to survive, is by purchasing air from this company and putting it in a water jug dispenser looking contraption. Everything is made out of plastic, the bushes, flowers, literally everything you can imagine. A young boy hears about trees and goes on a quest to find them. The city is surrounded by walls, this is to ensure that nobody can go out. He takes his bike out and upon seeing the real world is scared. He stumbles across an old house where he inquires about trees. Upon inquiring, the boy, Ted, is told the story of what happened to the trees. This is an instance of retelling, much like in Indigenous cultures, stories are orally passed down. The story revolves around a man, Once-Ler, who figures out how to harvest the trees. He cuts them down and makes thneeds, a soft multi-use object. Everyone is fascinated by them, and the demand goes up. As this happens, Once-Ler starts cutting down more trees, causing industrialization. The thneeds are becoming mass produced and as a result, more trees are being cut down and the environment is suffering. This theme of industry versus nature can be seen in How Everything Can Collapse when the rise of industrialization is discussed. Because this happened so quickly resources were depleted at a high rate. This is what causes the massive change in environment and what causes extinction. Many animals, like the fish, were forced to move because the factory that makes thneeds was polluting the waters with oil. Upon hearing the horrors of what really happened, Ted wants to make things right. Luckily, Once-Ler has one tree seed. Once-Ler urges Ted to fix the environment and go back to the town where he can plant the seed. This passing of a sacred seed from one to another can be seen in The Seed Keeper. Rosalie gets the seeds while finding out her cultural identity and background. Ted gets the seed when finding out what happened to the trees. Both these seeds are planted to represent new growth in oneself, and in society. When Ted plants the seed, everyone realizes that they can breathe without needing to buy oxygen, this realization sparks a want for change. They start to care about the environment and change their ways. By watching this, children can become aware of how important nature is to us. They will value the Earth and work actively to help it.

2.5 SECONDS ANYA ANTI

2.5 SECONDS ANYA ANTI Anya Anti is a world renown photographer whose work depicts issues important to herself. The artwork I will be discussing from her is 2.5 Seconds. The title of this work is in reference to the relativity of time that humans have been alive for. If Earth has existed for one whole day, 24 hours, then humanity has only been present for 2.5 seconds. When I first read this, I was in shock. We have evolved in such little time and rapidly took over. This is exactly what the Anthropocene Epoch is about. Humanity, in its short time, has had such an influential, negative, impact on the world. We have changed the state of the Earth in the 2.5 seconds that we have been here for. The Anthropocene documentary shows the flashing images of humanity s impact on the environment. The showing of images in the documentary is done so in short increments of time, much like humanity and Earth. Anya Anti s 2.5 Secondsproject features numerous photos depicting the effects of climate change. The photo from this project that I ll be focusing on is of Anti fishing while there is only plastic in the ocean. The stark contrast of her bright yellow jacket with the blue and bland shades of the rest of the photo provide commentary on what the world once was. Humans have dimmed the Earth through trying to make advancements. The creation of plastic has done so much for us (in a positive way) while doing so much for the Earth (in an enormously negative way). We all know that there are tons of plastic in the ocean but something that you might not know is that in a few years, there is predicted to be more plastic in the ocean than fish. I think this image is extremely powerful, someone who is looking at it without context might be confused at first. But, as they look at the image longer, they can recognize the tones of climate change within the photograph. This photo puts perspective on single use plastic. Single use plastic is part of our everyday lives, yet we think nothing of it. Corporations are mass producing plastic and waste that ends up in our oceans, but nobody stops them. We have changed Earth so much that in the future, when fishing for food, we will end up catching plastic bags. We forced the ocean to eat our plastic up and it will do the same to us.