by Lanxing Fu

On a weekend in June, I sat in a blackbox theatre for three days with a group of mostly strangers.

We talked. We ate. We laughed. We challenged. We listened.

I heard the same refrain over and over again those three days. Wow, I’m so happy to be with others for once. It’s nice to be… un-lonely.

The Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening, hosted in Boston on 8-10 June 2018 gathered people together around a common purpose: to galvanize the community around making theatre and live performance in the age of climate change, to dissect and challenge the present ideas in this emerging field, and to distill all this talk into concrete, positive actions. Our earnest surprise at feeling seen and the joy of solidarity in people who felt they had spent years, decades, their entire lives talking into a void about the intersection of performance and climate are testament to how needed this convening was.

After we took some time to understand the landscape of this intersection of climate and performance, we broke off into groups to develop ideas for action. There were hard questions to ask and attempt to answer. Whose voices were not represented in the room that needed to be there? How can we use our collective power, and the many twisting, interconnected arms of this work to nourish our communities and our non-human brethren? What kinds of shifts in thought do we need to undertake ourselves as we work to shift larger consciousness? How can our collective action outrun the changing atmosphere? It was rich. It was inspiring as hell. The breadth of skills and knowledge expanded my mind like crazy. The voices in the room were beautifully articulate at calling in others who were not. It was far from smooth and sometimes contentious. We all fought the urge to perform when the microphone was in our hand and the cameras were on our faces. Some got lost in the language. Others struggled to be heard. We were as human as can be, as human as any group of humans trying to do something together— the weight of our own egos held in taut balance with strong, strong passion for our collective goal.

The weekend had started off with a cold splash of water to the face. We learned in our opening conversation that The Guardian’s Carbon Countdown Clock gives us just over eighteen years until we exceed the IPCC’s 2C carbon budget, if our emissions stay as they are now. Eighteen years to figure this mess out. Eighteen years to put systems in place to take care of people as the effects of climate change get worse and worse, to shift radically the way we relate to each other, our economy, and the land. In the same span of time as it takes the average American kid to journey from infanthood to adulthood, we need to “fucking save the planet.”

From this urgency, this joy of togetherness, this friction of brains and bodies meeting, grew an idea like a sprig of bamboo racing towards the sun. One working group, though I cannot separate this group from the work of the group at large, seeded the idea of a Climate Commons for Theatre and Performance. An expression of our desire for horizontal connectivity, the Climate Commons takes its shape from mycelia, the underground, branching, threadlike fungal colonies that can grow to the size of 1600 football fields. We imagine that this is a network of interconnected nodes of activity at the intersection of performance and ecology, sharing knowledge, strategies, resources like mycelia share sustenance, across vast distances and through all forms of terrain. These nodes could potentially consist of geographic clusters of people already present at the conference; Miami, Boston, New York City, New Orleans, DC, Los Angeles, Standing Rock, Amherst, São João del Rei, London, Abu Dhabi. And it should necessarily expand to include people and geographies not present in the conference, in the Global South, in rural communities, in the Arctic, in the East. You can visit the HowlRound Theatre in the Age of Climate Change Convening page for updates on our progress with Climate Commons, and to learn how to get involved as it grows.

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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

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The least we can say is that 2018 has been challenging – politically, socially, environmentally. At times, many times, it seemed like for every step forward, we took two steps back. Not only did the political pendulum swing dangerously towards authoritarianism this year, but basic civil rights were taken away, and our sense of safety was severely challenged by an onslaught of natural disasters.

The publication of the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change in October, which warned that we have less than fifteen years to lower our carbon emissions and keep warming under 1.5 degrees Celsius, also contributed to this unease. Our window of opportunity for preventing the worst is closing fast and the actions being taken by those in power are still dreadfully inadequate.

But still, life goes on and we have to find ways to push ahead despite the challenges; in fact, we have no choice but to embrace the challenges. So, to mark the end of the year and the metaphorical turning of the page, the Core Team of Artists & Climate Change asked a few people what gives them hope. What makes them get out of bed in the morning? How do they stay positive in the face of so much uncertainty? We invite you to answer the question too, by leaving a comment below. We all need these beacons of light as we embark on a new year and get ready for what lies ahead.

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Eve Mosher

Susan Hoffman Fishman: Eve Mosher is an environmental artist living and working in New York City. Her large-scale interactive, public art projects address cultural and social issues of the urban ecosystem. One of Mosher’s most well-known work is High Water Line | NYC, which she first created in 2007 and has since adapted for the cities of Miami, Philadelphia, Delray Beach and Bristol, England. The project uses art to visualize how climate change will specifically impact individual communities. I chose Eve because I am particularly drawn to the way in which she develops inventive and effective ways of engaging the public in her work.

Eve: I have been closely watching the school strikes on behalf of climate change solutions, which were started by Greta Thurnberg in Sweden and then taken up by students in the UK, Australia and Germany. (and on Friday, December 7th, by young people in New York City). These young voices rising up around the world are speaking their own generation’s truth.

We have solutions, we have the knowledge for combatting climate change, which are available from indigenous people, scientists, individuals working in and with the land and water, etc. but world leaders lack the will (right now) to make these changes. It will take a shift in culture to move more people to action around climate solutions. And the culture shift is already being tackled by many active and passionate cultural producers around the world. Artists, musicians, performers, designers and others are showing us all what is possible.

With a rising up of voices and a shifting of culture around climate solutions, we can make a new world. I read plenty of articles around climate disasters, I am not blind to that, but imagining a world in which the solutions are realized, where there is more justice, better infrastructure and radical ideas that are reshaping our environment – that is what gives me hope.

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Modesto Flako Jimenez

Chantal Bilodeau: Modesto Flako Jimenez is a Dominican-born, Bushwick-raised theatermaker, producer, and educator. He is best known for original productions and three signature festivals – Ghetto Hors D’Oeuvres, One Catches Light, and Oye! Avant Garde Night! – produced with his company Oye Group. In 2018, Flako became the first Dominican-American Lead Artist in The Public Theater Under The Radar Festival with his show Oye For My Dear Brooklyn. He was also a guest speaker at the 2018 Artists & Climate Change Incubator, has worked extensively with Superhero Clubhouse, and is someone I love to turn to for some good, down-to-earth insights.

Flako: To be honest, what gives us hope in terms of climate change at the Oye Group is the younger generations of kids working hard to learn more about our environment and ways to protect it.  When we were kids, we weren’t spending nearly enough time in school learning about how to recycle, compost, or use materials in an eco-friendly way. Now, through our involvement with New York Public Schools, we  are seeing that kids are striving more and more to use things in an environmentally friendly way. It’s inspiring me to make more steps in my life and my art to be more green and hopefully inspire the generations older than us to do the same.  

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Blake Sugarman

Julia Levine: Blake Sugarman is a multidisciplinary artist based in Brooklyn, NY. He finds expression as an actor, musician, poet, and activist but is best known for his unusual solo performances which have been described as “spoken word and installation art in a theatrical duet.” Earlier this year, I wrote about Blake’s latest solo piece, Prelude to the Apocalypse (For What It’s Worth). I wanted to circle back to Blake, in the context of his involvement with Sunrise Movement during this midterm election year.

Blake: The thing that gives me hope right now is the radical new leadership we’re seeing emerge in the fight for a Green New Deal. Young people from Sunrise Movement helped get Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez elected and now she’s walking the talk and sticking by our side. Together, Ocasio-Cortez and Sunrise made waves last month after a sit-in at Nancy Pelosi’s office and are forcing a more meaningful and urgent conversation around climate. The call for a “Green New Deal” seems to really resonate with people in a way that market-driven climate policies in the past have not. I think the “12 years” slogan (based on the latest IPCC report) could be a game-changer too as it shakes people from the delusion that this is something we can afford to put off. Democrats can no longer just say “climate change is real” and move on to something else – young people won’t let them. Sunrise came back to Capitol Hill in December with even greater numbers. I was able to attend this time and was very inspired. I urge you to tell your representative to “support the creation of a Select Committee for a Green New Deal” in the House. This could be a big moment!

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Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI)

Joan Sullivan: In my previous post, I explained that “While renewable energy art is not yet mainstream, it is definitely headed in that direction, thanks in large part to the Land Art Generator Initiative (LAGI), whose tagline Renewable Energy Can Be Beautiful speaks for itself.” Founded in 2009 by co-directors Elizabeth Monoian and Robert Ferry, LAGI is a bold multi-faceted, multidisciplinary global collaborative platform to accelerate the energy transition by challenging creatives – artists, architects, designers, landscape architects, engineers and scientists – to design site-specific public art installations that generate carbon-neutral utility-scale clean electricity. It is called solutions-based art: part renewable power generators, part large-scale public art installations. More than any other organization, LAGI is helping us all to visualize – to imagine – what our post-carbon future will look like. And it promises to be beautiful.

Elizabeth & Robert: The thing that most keeps us grounded is the gravity of this time in human history – the great energy transition. The naysayers and denialists are still out there, but it’s easier to remind ourselves of how inevitable the transition is when we see how community groups, municipalities, and businesses have taken up the mantle. Global investors and reinsurers are issuing warnings louder than the climate scientists, pointing to a carbon bubble of soon-to-be stranded assets. The falling price of solar and other renewable energy technologies means not only that their implementation will continue to increase, but that their use can become more democratized as well. It opens up opportunities to use clean energy technology in creative and inclusive ways, and to engage the community in the design of the distributed energy systems and microgrids that power their neighborhoods.

While it may not be so easy to see the forest for the trees (especially when they are burning), we are already living in a new culture of stewardship. The 20th century ways of thinking about systems and infrastructure design through the lens of dominion over nature are falling away. As creatives living during this time, we have an opportunity to help design beautiful renewable energy landscapes that can stand for generations and serve as monuments to future generations, reminding them that, when we awoke to the crisis of anthropogenic climate change, we did our best to respond to the challenge.

What gives us hope are youth climate activists and innovators such as Georgia Hutchinson, age 13, who won the top prize of $25,000 at the Broadcom Masters nationwide STEM competition for middle-school students for her invention – a data-driven dual-axis solar tracker for solar modules that can locate the sun at any time by relying on geospatial information and publicly available databases. Her innovation may have just brought the price of solar down yet again, and we’re looking forward to seeing how her generation will bring forward the heyday of the great energy transition in ways that are equitable and beautiful. 

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Mike van Graan

Chantal Bilodeau: Mike van Graan is the President of the African Cultural Policy Network and an award-winning playwright. He is the 2018 recipient of the Sweden-based Hiroshima Foundation for Peace and Culture Award in recognition of his contribution to the fight against apartheid, to building a post-apartheid society and to the interface of peace and culture both in South Africa and across the African continent. Mike is also one of the 50 playwrights writing for Climate Change Theatre Action 2019 and someone who lives in one of the regions most affected by climate change.

Mike: According to Greenpeace, Africa contributes relatively little to global warming and yet as a region, it does – and will increasingly – suffer the effects of climate change with 180 million Sub-Saharan Africans estimated to die by the turn of the century as the result of unpredictable rainfall patterns, lower crop yields, higher food prices and increasing desertification.

There is an urgent need for changes in
economic structures, political leadership and culture to arrest and reverse
climate change, and the greed, intransigence and selfishness reflected in
societies that currently enjoy globally hegemony tends us towards pessimism.

But my generation has lived through the collapse of the Berlin Wall, the break-up of the Soviet Union, the demise of apartheid, the ridding of dictatorships in various Arab countries, not least through sustained active citizenry. History appears to happen in cycles and while we may be in a dark cycle now, through active citizens globally, the wheel WILL turn and, and history will smile on greater humanity.

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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

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Environmental artist Xavier Cortada is highly passionate about the reality of rising seas, the loss of biodiversity and how the inevitable floods to come will literally “drown” his hometown of Miami, Florida. In response to this urgent existential threat, Cortada has focused much of his recent work on climate change within his own community, including: (1) Underwater HOA, an inventive participatory project using 6000+ lawn signs happening this month in Pinecrest, Florida; (2) Global Coastlines, an exhibition of his Antarctic ice paintings currently taking place at Pinecrest Gardens, a 20-acre park in Pinecrest, and; (3) his ongoing mangrove Reclamation Project now in its twelfth year. Cortada’s commitment to creating art on climate change in general, and rising seas in particular, was influenced by a number of pivotal experiences in his life. In a recent phone conversation, Cortada and I discussed the circuitous path that led him to this moment as well as the conceptual framework behind his work.

To begin with, Cortada did not always make art. With graduate degrees in business and law, he entered the professional world in 1991 working with juvenile delinquents and gang members as what he called “a community-based problem solver.” In subsequent years, as he conducted similar projects in numerous developing countries, he started using art as a problem-solving vehicle that provided participants with a non-threatening way to express themselves and develop connections with one another. At the same time, he was honing his community building skills.

Reclamation Project

Cortada became a full-time professional artist in 1996, but it wasn’t until 2006 that he developed his first large-scale environmental art project. As he explained to me, it was the destruction of his “beloved mangroves” for the purpose of widening the road along an 18-mile stretch connecting the continental US to the Florida Keys that moved him to create the participatory eco-art project entitled Reclamation Project. Serving as breeding grounds for fish and protection against erosion during storms, mangroves are vital for coastal ecosystems in tropical and sub-tropical climates. Today, 50% of the world’s mangrove forests have been destroyed. Cortada’s goal was to invite individuals in the Miami-Dade County to learn about and then participate in addressing the disappearance of this important native vegetation.

For the initial project, community volunteers gathered mangrove propagules (seedlings) and planted them in plastic cups that were installed in a grid format in shop and restaurant windows along Lincoln Road in Miami Beach during the international art fair Art Basel 2006. Three weeks later, when the propagules matured, they planted them at designated areas on the coastline, “reclaiming the place for nature.” This process continued from 2006-2012 until the Miami Science Museum agreed to host the project as its on-going citizen volunteer coastal restoration project, which continues today and follows the original model developed by Cortada. Reclamation Project has also been installed in numerous other sites across Florida and outside the state. Cortada calls the project “art in the service of science” and is so significant that a curriculum on the mangroves has been developed by the Science Museum and taught in every public school in the county.

 Global Coastlines

 Just as the destruction of a stretch of mangroves in his own neighborhood became a pivotal event in the development of Cortada’s art, so too was his experience as a National Science Foundation Antarctic Artists and Writers program fellow in 2006-2007. As he described it,

Sitting in the McMurdo lab, I saw the spectacular mountains and valleys. Scientists brought back sediment samples and natural elements… it was an extraordinary experience to see the micro elements that created the continent.

Cortada began to improvise with the materials at hand and for the first time, created abstract, conceptual pieces, which reflected the melting ice that scientists said would be coming to coastlines all over the world. In all, Cortada made 100 of these images using sea ice, sediment and mixed media. Thirty-eight paintings have been shown in previous exhibitions – the remaining sixty-two have never been seen and are currently on view at Pinecrest Garden, Florida, where Cortada now serves as an artist-in-residence.

Underwater HOA

 In partnership with the Village of Pinecrest, Florida, the University of Miami’s Abess Center for Ecosystem Science and Policy, Florida International University Sea Level Solutions Center as well as Eyes on the Rise, and using the community building skills he has honed over the years, Cortada developed Underwater HOA (Home Owner Association), his latest large-scale, participatory art project. Beginning on December 2, 2018, and coinciding with Art Basel (December 6-9), Cortada encouraged 6000 households in Pinecrest, “to place lawn signs on their properties that designate how many feet of glacier ice must melt before the individual properties are fully under water.” The numbers on the signs range from 0-17. By mapping the town in this way and putting images from his ice paintings on the signs themselves, Cortada is involving an entire community in asking the question, “What are we going to do about this problem?” As he explained to me, he is “making the invisible visible.” He is bringing the reality of melting ice and rising tides to participants’ homes and doorsteps, the personal places that are supposed to feel safe. Cortada’s choice to use what he calls “strange, conspicuous lawn signs,” which call to mind political election paraphernalia, is a nod to the political factors that are holding back solutions to this inevitable danger.

An HOA or home owner association is usually associated with the group of individuals/families who, together, determine the rules and fees that will govern condos or other forms of common property. HOA is part of the project’s title because, beyond the lawn sign installation, Cortada has developed a homeowner association for the families that participated in “Underwater HOA.” It is Cortada’s hope that by creating a vehicle for them to come together to talk with one another about sea level rise, he is creating a “cadre of informed and sophisticated residents” who will work together and with relevant entities to “start problem solving for the future.” Although Cortada admits that he is often depressed, angry and frustrated by the lack of progress towards a solution to climate change issues, he considers himself an optimist and “still believes in the ability of mankind to get this right” before Antarctica comes to town.

(Top image: Xavier Cortada, Underwater HOA sign marking how many feet the sea must rise in order to flood this property, 2018. Courtesy of the artist.)

This article is part of Imagining Water, a series on artists of all genres who are making the topic of water a focus of their work and on the growing number of exhibitions, performances, projects and publications that are popping up in museums, galleries and public spaces around the world with water as a theme.

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Susan Hoffman Fishman is a painter, public artist, writer, and educator whose work has been exhibited in numerous museums and galleries throughout the U.S. Her latest bodies of work focus on the threat of rising tides caused by climate change, the trillions of pieces of plastic in our oceans and the wars that are predicted to occur in the future over access to clean water. She is also the co-creator of two interactive public art projects: The Wave, which addresses our mutual need for and interdependence on water and Home, which calls attention to homelessness and the lack of affordable housing in our cities and towns.

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Artists and Climate Change is a blog that tracks artistic responses from all disciplines to the problem of climate change. It is both a study about what is being done, and a resource for anyone interested in the subject. Art has the power to reframe the conversation about our environmental crisis so it is inclusive, constructive, and conducive to action. Art can, and should, shape our values and behavior so we are better equipped to face the formidable challenge in front of us.

Go to the Artists and Climate Change Blog

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