Finding Inspiration in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge
“The creatures of our planet have given me everything yet they ask for nothing in return. Giving voice to these majestic
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Author: Chantal Bilodeau
Creating a List of Climate Change Plays
Last Updated: April 7, 2019 Where are the climate change plays and who are the playwrights writing them? We are looking to create a comprehensive go-to list so anyone searching for material related to this issue can have this resource available. Below is what we have found so far. What else is out there? Note: This list should by no means be considered an endorsement of the individual plays. It is simply a compilation. Also, in some cases, climate change is featured prominently while in others, it is only a backdrop for the story. 3rd Ring Out – Zoe Svendsen (UK) / immersive theatreA Cool Dip in the Bare Saharan Crick – Kia Corthron (USA)AD2050 – Gurpreet Kaur Bhatti (UK)Arctic Oil – Clare Duffy (UK)Arctic Requiem – Sharmon J. Hilfinger with music by Joan McMillen (USA)As The Globe Warms – Heather Woodbury (USA)As The World Tipped – Wired Aerial Theatre and Without Walls (UK) / aerial theatreBaby – Doppelgangster (UK/Australia)Baked Alaska – Riding Lights (UK)Between Two Waves – Ian Meadows (Australia)Buzz – Benjamin Kunkel (USA)By The Water – Sharyn
Telling the Climate Change Story
There are many ways to tell the climate change story. It can be told in numbers organized in charts or graphs – the tools preferred by scientists. Or it can be told in a myriad of artistic ways as evidenced by the categories on this blog. For painter and photographer Diane Burko, the climate change story is best told in large-scale images that capture both the majesty of the depicted subject, and the poignancy of its potential demise. Inspired by the science of climate change, Burko’s paintings and photographs invite us to revere what we have, and to understand that despite its magnitude and seemingly unlimited resources, our earth is at risk and requires as much nurturing from us as we do from it. The merging of the aesthetic and the rational in a single experience invites us to confront our own understanding of, and response to, climate change. In the interview below, Burko talks about her two current projects: Politics of Snow and Polar Investigations. For more on these projects, see also this excellent post on the World Policy Institute Blog. You have had
Teresa Posyniak’s Beautiful Losers
Teresa Posyniak is a painter and sculptor best known for her work with encaustic, using hot beeswax to create rich, sensual surfaces that incorporate textures, drippings, splatters and layers of tinted, glowing colors. She is also an artist exploring climate change issues in Calgary, Alberta – a city that boast over 100 energy companies, mostly in the oil and gas industry. One of the fasted growing economy in Canada, with the tar sands literally in its backyard, Calgary does not play well with those who criticize its economy’s main driver. Yet artists still find a way to make their voices heard. Note: The photos included in this post are studio shots of works in progress that will become part of Beautiful Losers: My Carbon Sink Muses. Each photo is a detail of a much larger installation. There will be at least 9 columns in total. Tree forms will number about a dozen. Bleached Forest will be one much larger piece with many more elements. You’ve provided this blog with a
Connecting Earth and Art
Susan Hoenig is a painter and sculptor whose work is deeply connected to the spiritual aspect of nature – the mysterious and intangible part of
Crossing a Line
Alanna Mitchell is not an actor. It’s one of the first things she tells you in Sea Sick, The Play, which she recently performed
On Earth Day 2014: Record the Earth
What can you do to celebrate Earth Day this year that shows your commitment to the well-being of our planet, contributes to scientific research and demonstrate an artistic sensibility to the environment that surrounds you? According to Dr. Bryan Pijanowski, Professor of Landscape Ecology at Purdue University, the answer is: Record the Earth. Through his website, Global Soundscapes, Dr. Pilanowski is calling on people from around the world to record one million soundscapes today. The recordings can be done using their app, Soundscape Recorder, and uploaded onto their server. Using the theory that acoustic signals are the prime marker of the health of our environment, these soundscapes will then be used to assess the dynamics and conditions of our ecosystems. So Happy Earth Day everyone. Now get out there and record! ______________________________ Chantal Bilodeau is a playwright and translator whose work focuses on the intersection of science, policy, art, and climate change. She is the Artistic Director of The Arctic Cycle – an organization created to support the writing,
Climate Change Couture
Catherine Young is a Filipina artist-scientist-designer-writer-explorer working on human perception and the environment. How did she earn the right to
Feeling Climate Change
Danielle Nelisse is an abstract artist noted for painting large scale contemporary abstract art in oil on canvas. She also happens to be a private investigator and an immigration attorney, an unusual combination of skills and interests that gives her a unique perspective on the human condition. Her Urban Ecology | Climate Change Series was recently shown at the Encinitas Civic Center Gallery in Encinitas, California. A follow-up to her Transformative Geopolitics Series, which “was inspired by discussions in California and elsewhere about how to resolve international border issues, multiple identities, inequality, and the ways that exclusion of foreign nationals can dominate contemporary geopolitics,” Danielle’s Climate Change Series expresses “her inner reflections about the complexities in dealing with urbanization, climate change, and natural disasters.” Bold-colored, dynamic and complex, her work makes it impossible to intellectualize an issue we so easily (and sometimes, readily) like distance ourselves from. Instead, it invites us to deeply and courageously feel our feelings, and perhaps recognize that there is
Invisible Teamwork
Bethany Bartran is an Oklahoma-born painter currently living in The Netherlands by way of Houston, San Diego, St. Louis, Los Angeles, Boston and Athens, Greece. She describes her work as “(r)evolving around global, cultural, scientific & political ~ communications, atmospheres, and pollutions… and not necessarily in that order.” Additionally, as an artist married to a climate scientist for more than a decade, the imagery and issues surrounding this topic have slowly worked their way into her work (see her website and Flickr page). I am especially fascinated with how she appropriates scientific imagery we have all become familiar with, and invites us to look at it in a different way. How did you become interested in addressing climate change in your work? When I was younger, I didn’t have any particular focus in my work. I was just showing what was around me, my idiosyncratic take on my surroundings. For example, I’d paint my dreams, or the way the light hit the