Coldfire/Kilamanjaro

Georgia Papageorge, Kilimanjaro – Southern Glaciers, 1898, 2010, mixed media on canvas, with inkjet print taken from the earliest known photograph of the glaciers, and lines of poured ash from the ash cone of Kilimanjaro itself, 

230 x 140 cm

sourced from:

Coldfire/Kilamanjaro  by Georgia Papageorge, a South African artist.
The red lines are taken from temperature graphs

"The mountain that came to be known as Kilima 'njaro' (Mountain of Greatness) is the tallest freestanding volcanic mountain in the world, with a unique, self-contained ecological system that makes it an ideal barometer of climate change. Papageorge's renderings of Kilimanjaro, in which she applies vertical striations of poured volcanic ash - running tears for an irreparable loss - transform it into an iconic African symbol of mourning."

"The geological and sociological sense of schism or rift within Africa and indeed the rest of the world, increasingly asserted itself in the artist's consciousness. She explores this as a key metaphor in her art. Eventful journeys undertaken from Pretoria up the Great East African Rift Valley to Tanzania and back in 2006 and 2007, provided Papageorge with such shocking fresh evidence of the effects of climate change as well as the highly illegal and dangerous charcoal trade that is carried out in most Central African countries, that her focus shifted from earlier ideas about transcendence, to the urgent matter of documentation."

Having just found this I feel quite inspired. This artist has taken a first hand experience of climate change/loss/a sublime landscape/tangible location(ash), and transmuted it into an art experience which provokes an emotional response in a viewer. I'm sure over time looking at the image I'll be less convinced - I think that there is definite potential to expand on this kind of juxtaposition - especially given the plethora of scientific imagery and historical photography I have access to - it would be also nice to look at current imagery potentially - lots to bounce off - finally thinking in (visual) art terms.

Also:


List of artists who use science!!!

Climate change/eco artists

The Copenhagen debacle, in which our world leaders completely failed to see the bigger -non monetary- picture, has at least pushed climate change/the destructiveness of humans on nature back into the spotlight. Although there will always be cynics and strong debate as to our ability to measure climate change in the past through carbon testing/geology etc... it is hard to argue that we are GOOD for the planet. Especially at the moment with the number of endangered species, both plant and animal, rising and air and freshwater quality decreasing.

John Key needs his head re-screwed on. The financially driven shortsightedness of the national government is unbelievable, and they're destroying the 'clean green' image of New Zealand for one of our biggest industries- tourism. Not that we are clean or green, BUT we have the potential to be, and a large number of international visitors come to New Zealand to experience the nature of the country. Twitch.


So with that in mind, I've been browsing a few pretty cool exhibitions with a climate change/eco driven focus.

Acid Rain by Bright Ugochukwu Eke.

RETHINK — Contemporary Art & Climate Change is "an exhibition of 26 works created by trendsetting Nordic and international contemporary artists working in the intersection between art, culture and climate change."

It's interesting. I really like this quote, which comes from Bruno Latour's A Plea for Earthly Sciences which IMHO should be compulsorary reading for every literate adult on the planet....:

" Everything that earlier was merely given becomes “explicit”. Air, water, land, all of those were present before in the background: now they are explicitated because we slowly come to realize that they might disappear —and we with them."

Pretty much sums it up doesn't it?  There are a few more pictures on Greenmuze.

Royal Academy of Arts (UK) at the GSK Contemporary is currently running Earth: Art of a changing world

There's a neat little highlights gallery here. Interesting to see Cornelia Parker and Mona Hatoum in there. Parker's work in particular is an adaption of  what she's done before, but it's still effective. 

Find more videos like this on artreview.com

Antti Laitinen, who is also part of the exhibition at GSK,  is a Finnish artist, and you can see a fair bit of his It's My Island exhibition in the video above. 

All in all a lot to think about in relation to my own work + dissertation, and the honours proposal that I should be thinking up by January 5th.. hmmm..