Unchopping a Tree

For International Women’s Day 2015, we celebrate Maya Lin, the artist, sculptor and architect whose What is missing? foundation and ongoing multimedia multisite memorial creates science-based artworks and installations to help global audiences make the link between habitat destruction, biodiversity loss and the sixth mass extinction. “What is missing?” focuses not only on what has already been lost — the past — but also on the present and the future: what work is currently being done across the globe in terms of conservation and habitat protection, and how can we visualize plausible future scenarios that balance human needs with those of the natural world.

“As an artist, perhaps I can put these issues in a new light—to get us to think differently about what the issues are and what the solutions could be,” she explained in an interview with Artspace magazine.

Watch her powerful but disturbing short film about deforestation “Unchopping a Tree”

The final message of this film is that through saving trees we can reduce emissions AND save species: “Together we can save two birds with one tree.”

In 2014, Ms. Lin was awarded the prestigious $300,000 Dorothy and Lillian Gish Prize, given annually to “a man or woman who has made an outstanding contribution to the beauty of the world and to mankind’s enjoyment and understanding of life.”

According to the New York Times’ ArtsBeat, Ms. Lin will use this award to continue working on “What is missing?” — a global map and public library to which anyone can contribute: sounds, stories, photos of species that we remember from our past which are no longer here.  A great way to participate in a unique interactive global climate change art project. Upload your images, share your stories here.

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Joan Sullivan is a renewable energy photographer based in Québec, Canada. Since 2009, Joan has focused her cameras (and more recently her drones) exclusively on solutions to climate change. She is convinced that the inevitable transition to a 100% clean energy economy will happen faster – and within our lifetimes – by creating positive images and stories that help us visualize and embrace what a post-carbon future will look like.  Joan collaborates frequently with filmmakers on documentary films that explore the human side of the energy transition. She is currently working on a photo book about the energy transition. Her renewable energy photos have been exhibited in group shows in Canada and the UK. You can find Joan on Twitter and Instagram.