Art and
Communication
www.ryerson.ca/ric/
According to Ryerson Image Centre director
Paul Roth, art opens the most effective channel
for change; “It allows the conversation to take
place.” With its exhibition, Edge of the Earth:
Climate Change in Photography and Video,
Toronto’s RIC has set out to prove that art can,
in fact, ignite shifts in ideology.
Curated by Dr. Bénédicte Ramade, the
exhibition gathers visual chapters from
different artists who focus on niche effects of
climate change, collectively contributing to
the “larger story” of the planet’s tumultuous
narrative. Rather than portraying the
consequences of climate change that we
experience today, Edge of the Earth provides
context for how our daily habits and industrial
practices add to the damage.
The exhibition opens with the work of
Naoya Hatakeyama, whose photography
recorded blast impacts from limestone mining
operations. “The pictures are not of climate
change or a changing environment,” Roth
explained, “They’re pictures of the industrial
operations that led to the environmental crisis
that we face now.”
Roth goes on to present Joel Sternfeld’s
jarring photography, which bore witness
to the reaction of attendees in the 2005
United Nations Climate Change conference
in Montreal. Sternfeld “photographed the
reaction of people at the conference listening
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Documentation view of Hicham Berrada’s Celeste, 2014.
Amandine Bajou. Courtesy of the artist and kamel mennour, Paris
ABOVE: Three part series for ryerson image centre
BELOW: Mishka Henner, Wasson Oil Field, Yoakum County, Texas, 2013. From the
series The Fields, pigment print. Courtesy of the artist and Bruce Silverstein Gallery