16
BAMOS
June 2017
Articles
Can art put us in touch with our feelings
about climate change?
Joëlle Gergis, ARC DECRA Climate Research Fellow, School of Earth Sciences, University of Melbourne
Penny Whetton, Honorary Research Fellow, University of Melbourne
What does climate change look like in Australia? Are we already
seeing our landscapes shift before our eyes without even
realising it?
Perhaps thought-provoking art can help us come to terms with
our changing world, by finding new ways to engage, inform and
hopefully inspire action. For hasn’t art always been the bridge
between the head and the heart?
With that aim, the ART+CLIMATE=CHANGE 2017 festival,
organised by CLIMARTE, featured 30 specially curated
exhibitions running from April 19 to May 14 in galleries across
Melbourne and regional Victoria, following on from their
previous award-winning festival in 2015.
Changing landscapes
One of the festival’s exhibitions was Land, Rain and Sun,
featuring more than 100 landscapes dating from the 19th
century to today, curated by gallery owner Charles Nodrum
and captioned by us to offer a climate scientist’s perspective on
the works. We also collaborated with CLIMARTE directors Guy
Abrahams and Bronwyn Johnson to bring the idea to life.
The exhibition, featuring Australian artists including Sidney
Nolan, James Gleeson, Eugene Von Guerard, Louis Buvelot,
Russell Drysdale, Fred Williams, Michael Shannon and Ray
Crooke, was designed to help start a conversation about what
climate change might look like in Australia.
Curating an exhibition of artworks as seen through the eyes of a
climate scientist poses a challenge: how can we help make the
invisible visible, and the unimaginable real?
As we sifted through scores of artistic treasures, there were a
few works that confronted us in unexpected ways. The first was
Cross Country Skiers (top left), painted in 1939 by renowned
South Australian artist John S. Loxton. It depicts the Victorian
High Country heavily blanketed in snow, as two skiers make
their way through the beautiful wintery landscape.
When we saw this image, we realised that in decades to come
this work might be considered a historical record, serving as a
terrible reminder of a landscape that vanished before our eyes.
Top: John S. Loxton, Cross Country Skiers, Victorian High
Country, c. 1939. Watercolour on paper.
Bottom: James Gleeson, Delenda est Carthago, 1983. Oil
on linen.
Next page: Imants Tillers, New Litany, 1999. Synthetic
polymer paint and gouche on canvas.
All images provided by the Charles Nodrum Gallery.