Artists create new visions to tackle climate change

The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change published its April 2022 report Another reportThe dire state of the planet. As extreme weather events become more common, it is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the climate crisis. It is commonplaceAll over the globe

Recently, the Pew Research CenterIt was found that more than 66% of Canadians are concerned about climate change and willing to make changes in their lives to combat it.

Faced with sluggish, NonexistentOr even intentionally obstructiveBoth corporate and political entities are taking action, but people are also taking steps to ensure that we meet our goals. Climate targets are critical.

Many of these people come from the creative industry. Increasingly concerned about the crisis, artists around the world — including well-known names like Ai Weiwei, Banksy Edward Burtynsky, not to mention a swathe of celebrities — have been JoinGlobal initiatives and protest movements to accelerate A just energy transitionAttend to the ecological emergency.

Canada is experiencing the same. Art-based initiatives in Canada are not only sounding the alarm, but also to imagine and research new behaviours and activities necessary to make Canada a cultural leader.

Climate initiatives based on the arts

Recently, I was invited to join the climate art collective. TRAction and alongside Cree/Métis artist Chantal Stormsong Chagnon, I have been working on the launch of the Climate Art Web/Web d’Art Climatique (CAW-WAC). This grassroots initiative was created by artists for artists with support from the Canada Council for the Arts (CCA) and Calgary Arts Development.

CAW-WAC aims to connect artists from across the country working in environmental justice, Indigenous knowledge and climate change.

We are currently preparing to host our first online gathering on May 23, 2022. Artists like Monique Mojica and Joyce Majiski, JackyQrunnut (ArtCirq), Hitoko OKada, Yolanda Weeklys, Beau Wagner, Lou Sheppard and Starr Muranko will present about their environmentally-focused work.

The gathering will also feature the launch of a newly designed Climate Art Map — an online mapping resource of artists, projects and organizations across the country. The map uses ecozones, Indigenous land rather colonial borders in an effort to decolonize cartography practices.

Some of the artwork highlighted on the map interrogates people’s relationship to the species they’re endangering through human-induced global heating. My recent site-based performance piece, The Coming SilenceTo consider the concept of extinction, he uses the idea of a natural-history museum display.

And we aren’t the only ones doing this type of work. Sectoral Climate Arts Leadership for the Emergency (SCALE/LeSAUTAnother recent initiative is ) which aims to connect concerned artists with organizations. SCALE is a national hub that helps to develop effective strategies, align activities and foster leadership in the creative sector to address the climate crisis.

Climate art practices are becoming more common across the country. From disciplinary Declarations of emergency podcasts discussingClimate art initiatives, to support efforts to Green the theatreAnd develop Sustainable curatorial Practices — non-profit organizations, university-based centres and artist-led initiatives have been stepping up to contemplate and model prototypes for a cultural shift.

Climate artists can help you see the future

These efforts demonstrate how artists can be visionaries in times of crisis. They’re finding ways to highlight detrimental behaviours, Collectively organize and act Explore concepts from the greater-than-human worldThat does not harm, but rather heals the planet and our connection with it.

Yolanda, a Montreal-based artist offers an example of how artists may draw from the natural world in order to shift our thinking. Her project is: Nomadic Nests, she creates human-sized habitations that resemble giant bird’s nests. Using materials found on site, Weeks’ nests help people imagine — and also physically inhabit — a different way of living on the land.

Scientists, journalists, educators, citizens, and scientists are all desperately looking for such models, as scientific warnings have had very little impact on policy. It is difficult to imagine people embracing a cultural shift in order to combat climate change without having a vision of what this shift would look like.

This vision is exactly what concerned climate artists can offer. A vision of tangible networks, activities, behaviours and lifestyles that, rather than damaging the planet, support planetary — and personal — health and well-being.

Such a vision is impossible to come soon, given the increasing frequency of environmental catastrophes in the news and in our daily lives.