“Anthropocene”: A Look at Climate Change Through the Arts

Art and science are coming together at the Ann Street Gallery in Newburgh, NY to expand the public conversation on climate change. In a group exhibition called Anthropocene, artworks of various mediums explore the diverse impacts of this pressing issue.

In choosing Anthropocene as a title, the show highlights the fact that humans are the major cause of the Earth’s current transformation. The word, modeled on the names of geologic epochs, is widely used to describe the age we live in today where human activity is the dominant influence on the environment.

Curated by Virginia Walsh, the show features the work of: Darcie Abbatiello, Michael Asbill, Brigitte Amarger, Caitlin Cass, Reenie Charriere, Mariah Conner, Michael Fishcherkeller, Susan Fishman, Melissa Fleming, Stephanie Garon, Helen Glazer, Eloisa Guanlao, Colleen Keough, Dakotah Konicek, Rena Leinberger, Jonathan Barry Marquis, Gregory Martin, Daniel W. Miller, Sarah Misra, Itty Neuhaus, Maye Osborne, Elaine Quave, Jamie Rodriguez, John Shlichta, Gianna Stewart, and Uros Weinberger.

Anthropocene is on view from February 24 through April 7. The Ann Street Gallery is located at 104 Ann Street, Newburgh, NY. Gallery hours:
Wednesday – Thursday: 9 AM to 12:30 PM and 1:30 PM to 4 PM
Friday – Saturday: 11 AM to 5 PM

The opening reception is scheduled for Saturday, February 24th from 6:30 to 8:30 PM.

“Energy: 300 Million Years” by Melissa Fleming is one of the pieces in the show. Credit: Melissa Fleming

 

Weather and Art: “Love of Winter”

Today is Valentine’s Day, a holiday when chocolate treats and images hearts abound. But for me, it is George Bellows’ Love of Winter that always comes to mind as we mark the mid-point of what is usually New York City’s snowiest month of the year.

A longtime personal favorite, this 1914 painting captures the spirit of those who embrace the season. Filled with the blurred movement of skaters on a frozen pond and accented with spots of bright color that pop against the snow, it conveys the joy of being out in nature on a cold winter day.

While Bellows is better known for depicting scenes of boxing matches and urban life, art historians say he enjoyed the challenge of painting the varied lighting conditions produced by a snow-covered landscape. In fact, he wrote a letter to a friend in January 1914 complaining about the lack of snow in the New York City area that winter. He said, “There has been none of my favorite snow. I must paint the snow at least once a year.” Then, about a month later, his wish for snow was granted and this painting was created.

Love of Winter is part of the Friends of American Art Collection at the Art Institute of Chicago.

“Love of Winter”, 1914 by George Bellows. Collection of the Art Institute of Chicago

Art and Climate Change: “In Human Time”

The inaugural exhibition of The Climate Museum in New York City has brought art and science together in an effort to expand public understanding of climate change. 

“In Human Time” explores the intersections of polar ice, timescales, and human perception. Installed at the Sheila C. Johnson Design Center at the Parsons School of Design (the museum is looking for a permanent home), the exhibit is divided into two parts. The first of which (December 20 – January 15) displayed Zaria Forman’s large-scale image, Whale Bay, Antarctica No. 4. Depicting calved glacial ice grounded in shallow water, it could easily be mistaken for a photograph captured in an instant. However, a time-lapse video alongside the piece reveals it to be a pastel drawing created by hand over many weeks.

Ice Cores. Credit: Peggy Weil

The second part of the exhibition (January 19 – February 11) focuses on the Arctic and highlight’s Peggy Weil’s 88 Cores. This slow-paced video is essentially one continuous pan that takes the viewer nearly two miles down into the Greenland ice sheet and more than 100,000 years back in time. Photographs of ice cores as well as artifacts and media that offer a science context to the Arctic ice accompany the artwork.

“The Climate Museum’s mission,” according to its website, “ is to employ the sciences, art, and design to inspire dialogue and innovation that address the challenges of climate change, moving solutions to the center of our shared public life and catalyzing broad community engagement.”

The exhibition is on view through February 11, 2018, at :
The Arnold and Sheila Aronson Galleries
Sheila C. Johnson Design Center
Parsons School of Design
66 Fifth Avenue, New York City

For more information, visit http://climatemuseum.org/home

“Whale Bay, Antarctica No. 4″, Pastel on Paper, 84″x144”. Credit: Zaria Forman.

Climate Communication: Using Art to Get Beyond the Numbers

Climate change is a complex scientific subject with a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its causation and diverse impacts. However, as important as all that information is, not everyone responds well to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art, which taps into human emotion and tells visual stories, can help create new pathways to understanding this vital issue that affects us all.

On Tuesday, January 9, I will be giving a presentation titled “Climate Communication: Using Art to Get Beyond the Numbers” at the 98th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society in Austin, Texas. The theme of this year’s conference is “Transforming Communication in the Weather, Water, and Climate Enterprise“.

Building on my previous interdisciplinary art-science projects, this talk will review the results of a recent national survey that shows how art can help to broaden the public conversation on climate change. It will also highlight specific artworks that speak to the assorted impacts of this critical issue and its possible solutions.

Credit: AMS

Weather and Art: Charles Burchfield at the Montclair Art Museum

The weather was a muse for artist Charles Burchfield (1893-1967) and is the subject of a special exhibition of his work at the Montclair Art Museum in New Jersey.

“Charles E. Burchfield: Weather Event” displays more than forty paintings and sketches of specific atmospheric phenomena as seen by the artist in the Buffalo, NY area during the early part of the 20th century. Co-curated by Dr. Stephen Vermette, a climatologist at SUNY Buffalo and Tullis Johnson, the archive manager at the university’s Burchfield Penney Art Center, the show is a thoughtful blend of art and science.

Grouped by themes, such as the sky, cloudscapes, changing seasons, heat waves, and moon halos, the wall text for each piece highlights the artistic processes involved and explains the meteorology portrayed in the different scenes. Some of the artworks are also accompanied by a phone number that viewers can call on their cell phones to listen to a simulated weather forecast for the specific date and location depicted in the image.

Burchfield was a visionary artist for his time and was given the first solo exhibition ever offered at the Museum of Modern Art (MoMA) in New York City in 1930. He was also an imaginative interpreter of nature. To convey the non-visible aspects of the natural world, he developed a vocabulary of various signs and symbols. These included chevrons in the sky to show wind and undulating lines across the landscape to express heat. He was truly captivated by the workings of the atmosphere and in 1943 said: “To me, the artist, interested chiefly in weather—all weather is beautiful, and full of powerful motion.”

The show is on view at the Montclair Art Museum through January 7, 2018.

“Sunburst”, 1929-31 by Charles Burchfield. Credit: Burchfield Penney Art Center.

Energy Flow: A Wind Powered Public Art Installation in Pittsburgh

On a recent visit to Pittsburgh, PA I had the opportunity to see “Energy Flow”, a wind-powered art installation on Rachel Carson Bridge. It was created in 2016 through a collaboration between environmental artist, Andrea Polli, and WindStax, a Pittsburgh-based wind turbine manufacturer.

Using sixteen small vertical axis wind turbines to power 27,000 LED lights, the piece produces a rainbow of colors up and down the bridge’s vertical supports. The light show visualizes the local wind speed and direction in real time as detected by an onsite weather station. The project also has battery storage to power the lights for up to twelve hours when the wind is not blowing. In essence, this artwork turned the bridge into a micro-grid – a single location where power is produced, stored and consumed.

As a site-specific art installation, it honors the environmental legacy of Rachel Carson (1907-1964). She was a native of the Pittsburgh area who went on to become a marine biologist and famous environmental writer. Her books, such as “Silent Spring”, are widely credited with inspiring the environmental movement of the 1960s that eventually brought about federal laws like the Clean Air Act.

The project also highlights Pittsburgh’s new focus on technological innovation and sustainability. Once known as the “Smokey City”, because of all the pollution that billowed from its plethora of mills and factories, Pittsburgh has refocused its economy and remade its image. Situated at the confluence of three rivers – the Allegheny, Monongahela, and Ohio – it is home to an astounding 446 bridges and is now often referred to as the “City of Bridges”. The Rachel Carson Bridge was originally, and rather simply, called the Ninth Street Bridge after it opened in 1926. It was renamed on Earth Day 2006.

“Energy Flow” was only expected to be up for a few months to celebrate Pittsburgh’s Bicentennial. But due to popular demand, its run has been extended through the end of 2018.

“Energy Flow” Wind/Light Installation on Rachel Carson Bridge, Pittsburgh, PA. Credit: Covestro LLC

Art Installation Marks the 5th Anniversary of Superstorm Sandy

Five years ago today, Superstorm Sandy slammed New York City. Its record storm surge flooded many low-lying areas and claimed the lives of forty-four people across the city. Of that number, twenty-four were on hard-hit Staten Island.

To mark this anniversary, local artist Scott LoBaido created a temporary installation in his home borough. Honoring each local victim, he constructed unique figures out of chicken wire and battery-operated LED lights. Scattered across Midland Beach, the display is a poignant reminder of the deadly storm and the dangers of rising sea levels. It is on view through 11 PM on October 30.

Art installation honors Sandy victims on Staten Island. Credit: Staten Island Advance

Wearable Artwork Raises Awareness about Air Quality

The air we breathe is not always good for us. Air pollution has been linked to a number of health concerns, from asthma to heart disease, and even cancer. To raise awareness about this issue, artist Dominque Paul has created a dress that changes colors to indicate how safe the air we breathe actually is. It’s called Air Quality Interactive Wearable.

With the exception of smog and wildfire smoke, air pollution is not something we can always see with the naked eye. To make it visible, Ms. Paul uses an Air Beam, a portable device that measures the amount of small particles (PM 2.5) in the air. These are particles that are less than 2.5 microns or 0.0001 inches in diameter. Using the Air Beam’s calculation, a color from the EPA’s Air Quality Index is assigned to the dress. These colors range from green for good air quality to yellow, orange, red, and purple, which indicate increasing levels of pollution.

Ms. Paul created this wearable art piece as part of a residency program with IDEAS xLab, a non-profit organization that uses art to raise awareness about public health. Watch the video below of her “Air Walk” in the South Bronx section of New York City.

Panel Discussion: Art and Sustainability in the Anthropocene

Climate change is a complex scientific subject with a plethora of data-rich reports that detail its causes and diverse impacts. Not everyone, however, responds to facts and figures or charts and graphs. That is why art, which taps into human emotion, can help create new pathways of understanding and raise awareness about this critical issue.

On Thursday, July 13, I will be discussing the intersection of art and climate change as part of a panel at the 24th International Conference of Europeanists in Glasgow, Scotland. Moderated by Julie Reiss of Christie’s Education, the panel is titled “Art and Sustainability in the Anthropocene”. My fellow panelists include Martha Schwendener (New York Times), Weiyi Chang (University of British Columbia), and Patrizia Costantin (Manchester School of Art).

This annual conference is organized by the Council for European Studies (CES), whose mission is to produce and support multidisciplinary research about Europe. They are “particularly committed to supporting research that can play a critical role in understanding and applying the lessons of European history and integration to contemporary problems, including those in the areas of global security, sustainability, environmental stewardship, and democracy.” The theme of year’s event is sustainability and transformation.

Credit: CES

Earth Muse: Art and the Environment at the Heckscher Museum

Nature has inspired artists for centuries, and today the subject seems more relevant than ever. In Earth Muse: Art and the Environment, an exhibition at The Heckscher Museum of Art, contemporary artists explore the natural world from a variety of perspectives.

Curated by Lisa Chalif, the exhibit offers a new experience of familiar landscapes and reflects on society’s impact on the environment. Artists include: Brandon Ballengée, Peter Beard, Alex Ferrone, Melissa Fleming, Winn Rea, Barbara Roux, and Michelle Stuart.

The show runs through July 30, 2017. For a full list of events during the course of the exhibition, including a gallery talk with some of the artists on April 30, please click here.

The Heckscher Museum of Art is located at 2 Prime Avenue, Huntington, NY 11743

Credit: The Heckscher Museum of Art