Header image credit: Diane Burko, "Unprecedented" (2021)

by Anna Karch
originally created for Art Create Learn Magazine’s Fall 2023 issue

“I never paint dreams or nightmares. I paint my own reality.”
—Frida Kahlo

When it comes to understanding and acting against climate change, something is missing. Recent public opinion research by Climate Access shows that our planet’s crisis is a significant concern for most Canadians, but a large chunk of the worried is also part of a “moveable middle”—those who recognize the alarming state of things but aren’t invested in action. Why is this? From a lack of information, to anxiety, burnout and pessimism—a lot of us recognize the reality, but we aren’t necessarily moved to act.

Art as a Catalyst for Change

The definition of art can be fairly subjective—it means different things for different people. However, no matter what definition we use, most would agree that art moves people. According to the Columbia Climate School, psychology research suggests that art helps us “process, internalize, and respond to information more effectively than facts alone.” It bridges the gap between facts and feelings, and acts as “an essential ingredient to empowering the hearts of people” (Van Jones). We rely on this to inspire concrete structural change, as meaningful action begins with individually significant motivation; art fosters interest, inspiration, and action.

Representing Reality

When we think about climate change, the first things that come to mind might be melting ice caps, rising sea levels, and increasing greenhouse gases, which are important but abstract, meaning that they’re not easily felt or seen by a lot of us. As a result, climate change impacts can seem like distant issues, making it difficult to feel connected.

Art can help concretize these topics, making them more real and accessible for people's engagement. For example, take a look at these Climate Stripes developed by Professor Ed Hawkins at the University of Reading. No words. No numbers. No graphs. Just a series of vertical coloured bars, showing the progressive heating of our planet over nearly two centuries in a single, striking image.

Each stripe represents the average temperature for a single year, relative to the average temperature over the period as a whole. Shades of blue indicate cooler-than-average years, while red shows years that were hotter than average. Check out the stripes for your region here : *#ShowYourStripes*

*These graphics, present in the flags and reflected in the garden sculptures of* Depends on the Light, shows an overlap between nature and human creation.

More locally, the Windsor-Essex Art Gallery opened a Green Roof Terrace installation in 2022 titled Depends on the Light, which was produced by artist and horticulturist Julie Hall. The green roof terrace, which previously lacked diversity, was reworked to include a palette of local pollinator-friendly plants. Several symbols, appearing on flags and as eco-friendly sculptures, adorned the space as well. It was an installation that relied on reworking infrastructure, and one that produced a thoughtful space in which people and animals could peacefully coexist. As a result, it asked visitors to think critically about space-use and habitat loss, which is a significant climate change issue.

Art Gallery

The experiential and informational aspects of art serve to both pique curiosity as well as foster lasting interest. Art bridges the gap between the abstract and the concrete, between the impersonal and the personal, and it can also act as a book cover that draws people in—after all, half the battle of education is getting students to turn the page.

Eco-artist Xavier Cortada produced a moving art piece in 2007 titled Astrid—an abstract painting composed of blue splotches made by melting the very ice that threatens to flood his city. Upon viewing the painting for the first time, the public is made to inquire about the meaning and origin of the piece, sparking an interest in education. Image credit: https://www.cortada.org/2007/ice-paintings/astrid

In 2007, Xavier Cortada traveled to Antarctica to carry out a series of projects and art installations deeply intertwined with climate change. While there, he created a series of "ice paintings" using sea ice, glacier and sediment samples. The resulting collection aimed to draw a connection between the alarming climate change effects melting glaciers and his peninsula. Image credit: https://cortada.com/press/2019-press/artista-de-miami-siembra-en-conciencias-y-jardines/

Olafur Eliasson's The Weather Project from 2003, in which a recreated sun and sky were made to occupy the Turbine Hall in London, England, provided a communal dystopian experience in which people lose their traditional ways of orienting themselves. He was inspired to create this when one hot day (which came after it had snowed the previous day) sparked conversations on global warming. Image credit: https://publicdelivery.org/olafur-eliasson-the-weather-project/

Olafur Eliasson's 2018 installation, Ice Watch, saw 30 blocks of glacial ice placed in public spaces across London, England, where they were left to melt. The project, which underlines the urgency of climate change, was created with the intention of concretizing an otherwise out-of-sight-out-of-mind issue. Image credit: https://www.dezeen.com/2018/12/12/ice-watch-olafur-eliasson-installation/

In 2021, Olafur Eliasson created the Life installation in which he removed barriers between humans and flora/fauna, inviting wildlife into the Fondation Beyeler museum in Basel, Switzerland after flooding it with pond water. With the added element of live-streaming, the installation highlighted the entanglement of our lives (the real and the virtual, the human and the animal). Image credit: https://news.artnet.com/art-world/olafur-eliasson-fondation-beyeler-1960155

Appointed Goodwill Ambassador for Climate Change in 2019, Olafur Eliasson is an artist-activist who creates ecological sensorial experiences meant to bring climate change matters closer to home and ultimately mobilize people. His projects predominantly focus on renewable energy and climate action, and they are driven by his interest in the way we collectively see, co-create, and experience our environment. Image credit: https://www.luxartasia.com/2018/12/olafur-eliasson-sculptor-of-light-and.html

On a glacier, text is projected like advertisements on man-made infrastructure. According to the artist: “This image was made in a short window of time when the power of the video projector matches the light of dawn, when there is both message and ice. This fleeting moment of human excess is so short, two hundred years, but for the glacier it is barely a single breath taken.” Artwork by David Buckland. Text by Amy Balkin. Image credit: https://archive.capefarewell.com/switch/the-great-white-sale/

$As part of David Buckland's Cape Farewell Project , across fractured, melting ice, the shape of a pregnant woman is projected. The image highlights the interconnectivity between our lives and the world we live in. The woman also seems like a light$

As part of David Buckland's Cape Farewell Project, across fractured, melting ice, the shape of a pregnant woman is projected. The image highlights the interconnectivity between our lives and the world we live in. The woman also seems like a light in the dark, further implying communal strength and environmental responsibility—both to our unborn generations and to the world as a whole. Image credit: https://www.capefarewell.com/david-buckland/

Back in 2001, artist David Buckland created the Cape Farewell project to instigate a cultural response to the challenges around climate change. The mission behind it was to bring together scientists, artists, and educators to find innovative solutions and to use art to communicate the fact that the climate crisis is both real and already upon us. Via Cape Farewell, people from different fields have been able to collaborate on ecological projects, spanning from work in the rainforests of South-America to the ice-cold coast of Svalbard in Norway. Image credit: https://www.bucklandart.com/

The 2017 oil and acrylic painting Pioneers symbolically compresses time and shows the left-to-right progression from glacier, to clear water, to oil-polluted water within a lake. From the left, a mammoth skull and lively fish are juxtaposed with a shopping cart and two ships (one anchored and one sunken). Image credit: https://www.marquette.edu/haggerty-museum/alexis-rockman.php

The 2015 oil and alkyd painting Cascade similarly compresses time. It is divided into what seems to be three primary periods: the ice age, the age of man, and the fall of man. Many animals emerging from the left side move towards the right side in a mock-timeline, with most disappearing halfway through. The right side, the anthropocene, blocks animals from passing through with man-made borders (a shaved treeline, a fenced lake, and a smoking sky). Image credit: https://alexisrockman.net/great-lakes/

The 2017 oil and acrylic painting Forces of Change presents the past, present, and future. Flora and fauna become more and more sparse as the eye progresses from the left side to the right side. Specific to this painting, the center presents a Kraken-like creature with tentacles that rip off the claw of a green graple machine. On its right, huge bacterium and virus particles replace fish in the water, and on its left, fish and birds flee. Image credit: https://alexisrockman.net/great-lakes/

Artist Alexis Rockman created "The Great Lakes Cycle" series following a research tour of the Great Lakes region. A suite of five mural-sized paintings (accompanied by field drawings among other things) acted as the centerpiece of the resulting exhibition, exploring themes that emerged during his travels. The series celebrates the beauty, value, and importance of the Great Lakes, while exploring their past, present, and future. Image credit: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alexis_Rockman

In Tan Zi Xi's Plastic Ocean installation, over 26,000 pieces of discarded ocean plastic is removed, cleaned, organized, and hung from overhead in a suffocating mass. This experiencial art mimics the Pacific Garbage Patch and highlights the way in which our waste smothers ocean life. It asks us to rethink our consumption. Image credit: https://www.riseart.com/article/2485/9-artists-confronting-climate-change

Also known as MessyMsxi, Tan Zi Xi creates playful yet striking collections of art that shed a light on ocean pollution and its realities. Concerned about climate change but believing that the issue was beyond anything she could do alone, communicating through art was her first move in climate action. She began with a 2008 illustration collection, "An Effort Most Futile," and was later able to revisit the subject in 2015 when the Singapore Art Museum invited her to be part of Imaginarium: Under the Water, Over the Sea. Image credit: https://www.stirworld.com/inspire-people-singaporean-artists-create-new-dimensions-with-their-interactive-real-time-artworks

The Rock Garden in Chandigarh, India is 40 acres composed of interlinked artificial waterfalls and beautiful sculptures made from found materials. Decades ago, Nek Chand decided to collect waste materials from across his city (things like bottles, glasses, tiles, etc.), which he used to create a mini utopia. Image credit: https://www.pinterest.com.au/pin/329748003941667395/

While it was in danger post-discovery by the government in 1975, public opinion allowed the space to continue to thrive. The resulting fantasy land is a striking collage of domestic and industrial waste organized into alluring mosaics. In a way, it sets the possible blueprints of how to build a real utopia. Image credit: https://www.britannica.com/biography/Nek-Chand

Self-taught sculptor and recycled art pioneer, Nek Chand worked as a roads inspector for the Public Works Department, and built sculptures from recycled materials in his spare time. He ultimately created The Rock Garden in Chandigarh, and he was awarded the Padma Shri by Government of India in 1984 for his moving work. Image credit: https://chandigarhx.com/remembering-the-great-visionary-nek-chand-saini/

Seeing the Glass Half Full

Another big contributor to climate inaction has to do with fear and anxiety. As with any perceived threat, these emotions naturally kick in and demand fast action, but they aren’t effective for large and long-term issues like climate change. In fact, constant anxiety can lead to Continuous Traumatic Stress (CTS), as outlined by Senior Policy Planner at the Town of Essex, Jeff Watson, in his Windsor of Change Article titled “Climate Change—It's Driving Me Crazy!”

Like alarming headlines that feed into anxiety, art can tap into negative emotions too, but it can also incite compelling positivity and hope. For example, in Julie Hall’s Depends on the Light, the reworked eco-friendly space proposed a prosperous possible future—one that highlighted the importance of, as Julie stated in an interview with CBC, “the responsibility and opportunity that landowners have to participate in and restore the local ecosystem.” Her work emphasized personal agency: we all have the power to make meaningful change.

*Image credit:* *G-Pots Studio on Facebook*

As a preliminary step in catalyzing this change, we can also choose to engage in art creation ourselves. This process asks the creator to carefully observe the world, strengthening awareness of and connection to the environment. Take pottery, for example—local pottery artist Gisele Bick confirms that this craft can “enhance the user's experience and connection to their immediate surroundings, [which] can foster a deeper appreciation for the beauty and presence of the natural world.” This is partly due to the utility of a finished product, but it’s also due to the nature of working with clay; the artist needs to mould earth with their hands, which allows them to practice an empowering metaphor of our ability to mould or change the planet.

We’re in It for the Long-Haul

Sadly, climate change is a long-term problem, which—combined with disconnection from the world and feelings of climate anxiety—makes it even more complicated to deal with. Not only is it a problem that seems to be happening either physically or temporally far away from us, but it’s also a non-linear problem of an unpredictable future that asks us to prioritize long-term benefits over short-term benefits. Even if art can move people into action, it can't do all the work. What will happen in the long-run?

In psychology, behavioural change is broken down into a six-step model: unawareness, contemplation, preparation, action, maintenance, and transcendence or relapse. As we cycle through these phases, reaching the end is inevitable; actions taken to mitigate climate change will either stick or fall through, and with most first attempts, the latter can be expected. However, this doesn't mean we should stop trying.

With any meaningful change, it takes time to adjust. Getting off track doesn't mean failure; if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again. And when we find ourselves back at the starting point, inspirational art can help us get moving again.