2 Degrees @ CCAS (2016)

2ยบ

2ยบ DANIEL BONSON G.W. BOT DAVID BUCKLAND Sร REN DAHLGAARD JACKY GREEN ANNIKA HARDING TIMOTHY JAMES JOHNSON ANDREW STYAN CURATED BY ALEXANDER BOYNES

IN MEMORY OF ROBERT FOSTER

Other than life and death, climate change will be one of the only universal experiences in our lifetime. 2° is an exhibition about climate change, it’s effect on the present and the struggle to avoid environmental disaster. Based on pre-industrial temperatures, a rise of two degrees Celsius is widely recognised as a threshold above which global warming risks become irreversible - a brink we are about to cross.

2° engages audiences with humor, seduction and intrigue, to raise awareness of our changing climate through contemporary art. This exhibition features Daniel Bonson, GW Bot, David Buckland, Søren Dahlgaard, Jacky Green, Annika Harding, Timothy James Johnson and Andrew Styan, and is supported by Climarte.org who promote the arts for a safe environment through their international programs and networks. Along with thousands of other artists around the world, this group has responded to one of the most pressing issues of our time, their collective voices bringing them together as a movement. Creative responses to global warming are by no means limited to the visual arts, musicians as diverse as Anohni, Jackson Browne, Arrested Development, Julian Lennon, Ngaiire and Michael Jackson are but a few of the artists who have voiced their concerns through song. Similarly writers and academics such as Tim Flannery, Naomi Klein, David Suzuki and Bill McKibben have been outspoken activists, with their environmental concerns evident in fields as diverse as architecture, industrial design, cinema, food and fashion. As usual, the arts are responding to one of the most pressing issues of our time, their vastly disparate approaches add weight to a global movement involving potentially tens of thousands of practitioners.

David Buckland’s End of Ice (2006) is a personal response to the effects of disappearing ice, rising sea levels, and the build-up of toxic chemicals in the pristine landscape of Antarctica. Shot on one of Buckland’s many trips to the most delicate ecosystem on earth, the work is presented as a large-scale video projection, hypnotically unfolding over the course of 42 minutes. As the sun gradually sets over the distant mountains of Antarctica, waves rhythmically lap around the base of a giant iceberg. Constant erosion by tiny waves and the gentle rocking of the iceberg gradually produces a deep sense of unease, as it becomes apparent what’s going to happen: it has to fall. This is exactly what Buckland wants us to witness: we can see the effects of our actions; we can see the impending disaster; yet still we watch in a state of inertia. End of Ice is a profoundly beautiful and meditative work that asks its viewers to observe a tipping point against the backdrop of the setting sun. Just as we have no power to stop the sun from setting, we have no power to stop the iceberg from cracking and falling into the ocean. Buckland has deliberately created a lengthy durational work that slowly builds to an ultimate climax, an analogy for how people living through a changing climate do so with the knowledge of what is to come, even though they may not bear witness to the consequences.

DAVID BUCKLAND End of Ice (still) 2006, SD Video, 42’00’’

ANNIKA HARDING Precipitative Chnage, 2016, acrylic and enamel on cardboard, 77cm x 90cm

In contrast to the work of David Buckland, Annika Harding’s work has directly developed from witnessing extreme weather conditions in the recent Australian summer and the Finnish winter, synthesising incongruent elements of her experiences of climate change into her new series of paintings. Between December and February she experienced daily rainfalls of 200mm in far north Queensland, and -30° in Finland, however one consistent factor was that the average temperatures were rising faster than normal, and unseasonable or extreme weather conditions were experienced in both climates.

This series of work sees Harding explore her own complex relationship with our changing climate. The works show a separation between the achromatic figures and the environments they inhabit, making them appear alien in the landscape. In Precipitative Change (2016) a cloud-seeding contraption sits centrally in the composition, pumping silver iodide into the atmosphere in the hope of creating more snow. In stark contrast to this environment, a rainforest experiencing an early wet season flanks the vista. In a subtle play on words Harding hints at a double meaning, where precipitative pertains to rain, but also the act of hastening or bringing about prematurely. The exaggerated perspective of the image made by the rainforest’s edge goes far into the center of the image, the vanishing point obstructed by the cloud-seeding contraption. This composition subtlely implies an inability to see the future of our environments, and while technologies used as a quick fix may comfort us in the short term, they ultimately deny the issues and don’t address the cause.

Timothy James Johnson is a Maningrida based artist of Arnhemland, approximately 500km east of Darwin, who makes work that represents the damage caused by industrialisation of the landscape. Primarily working as a painter, Johnson has seen dramatic changes to his country and depicts the stark realities of mining and climate change. The Country is Too Late (2016) represents his homelands destroyed by the mining industry, with fish skeletons strewn amongst dead trees. When asked about the work, he describes “…dead fish, floating on top, dead seagull, no good water. They been gone from coal mining, gas, that’s why I draw this picture. We’ve got to try to stop it before it’s too late. We fight for it.” Johnson’s art exposes not only the effects rising temperatures have on the land, but also how it affects the culture connected to it. With knowledge, stories and traditions about the land being disrupted by climate change, an Indigenous perspective is essential in the conversation.

Johnson’s second work Fresh Water Dreaming (2016) illustrates a Yellow Belly Black snake and a fish entangled in a rapidly disappearing waterhole; a tightly confined composition symbolises water sources evaporating too early as the seasons slip out of kilter. While the animals struggle together against the devastating effects of drought on his country, Johnson suggests that habitats for many species have already been lost, but there is still time to fight for what remains.

TIMOTHY JAMES JOHNSON The Country is Too Late, 2016, acrylic and ochre on canvas, 76cm x 76cm

DANIEL BONSON Pelican, Barramundi and Salmon with Ghost Nets, 2016, acrylic on canvas, 45cm x 45cm

Similarly another Maningrida local Daniel Bonson makes paintings that combine new mediums such as fluoro pigment with motifs such as Rarrk (a traditional form of line work unique to the Aboriginal artists of Arnhem Land) to speak of his environmental concerns. Bonson is a senior Burarra man, and is the custodian of the flying fish totem from the saltwater moiety group Jowunga. Bonson’s Swordfish with Big Storm Coming to Murrangga Island (Crocodile Island) (2016) depicts a surging sea overshadowed by ominous clouds, and addresses his concerns with the increasingly dangerous condition of the ocean. He states: “Storms come, really big storm, and he make really rough sea and the fish, it’s enjoying it, playing… but we can’t travel with that storm, otherwise it will take us away. Each storm is kind of like cyclone season.”

When speaking about Pelican, Barramundi and Salmon with Ghost Nets (2016), Bonson says “…fishing boat and plastic, it’s ruining our fish, and pelican probably eat all the dead fish... the sun it’s very hot, much hotter these days.” Bonson has witnessed direct evidence of change and the effects on his community’s traditional food sources, fracturing the timeline of ritual and ceremony that has existed for 50,000 years. Weather events that effect major cities often overshadow extreme conditions in remote communities already under threat, and least able to adapt or relocate. Aboriginal culture draws upon thousands of years of knowledge to understand delicate ecosystems and their seasons, yet they are witnessing the destruction of their environment faster than they can adapt, and survive.

G.W. BOT Air, Fire and Earth Glyphs, 2015, mild steel, 250cm x 700cm (approx)

G.W. Bot is a Canberran artist with a deep affinity for the Australian landscape and it’s Indigenous history, with the past forty years of her practice primarily focusing on the Monaro plateau and the Murrumbidgee River system. Drawing her name from the earliest French recording of the wombat: ‘le grand Wam Bot’, G.W. Bot openly declares her appreciation for Aboriginal culture and its totems. Through this uniquely spiritual connection with the land she has developed a symbolic language expressing an alternative history recorded through characteristic (or representational) glyphs.

Air, Fire and Earth Glyphs (2015) is an imposing wall-mounted sculpture, cut from sheets of mild steel. By consciously working with metal removed from the earth, the artwork uses both visual and material language to tell a story through tree-like silhouettes, ghostly reminders of what once grew on the land. Over time the surfaces of the glyphs rust and take on an earthy quality, enhanced by burying the steel, retrieving it for further work, and burying it again in a possible endless cycle. In this process, the connection between the artwork and the landscape is reinforced, each resurrection gradually decomposing the steel back into the earth. Bot’s artwork embodies the ephemeral, ghostly qualities of the landscape, and the fragility of the environment that creates it.

The delicate balance between people and the land is something that Garrwa artist Jacky Green is passionate about. In the 1870s pastoral development began on his country in the southwest Gulf of Carpentaria, and with it countless massacres where his ancestors were killed. His work is an emotional testament to the history and contemporary life of his people and country, and the way in which pastoral settlers and mining companies have damaged it. His particular area of interest is the vast imbalance of power that exists between mining companies, who extract valuable minerals to gain wealth, while the traditional owners of the land remain in abject poverty.

In the middle of Green’s painting Wounded Heart (2014) a mine has been gouged from the landscape like an upside-down heart, and on either side stand Aboriginal people who represent the polarity of life choices in the twenty first century. One man stands proudly and protects his country, culture and sacred sites, while the other can only think of money, selling out to miners, frackers and outsiders. Green states “…we got a lot of pressure on us from government and people who want to take our country and stop our Law. This wounds us. It hurts us real bad like taking a spear in the heart of our culture, the heart of our life.” Green’s artwork reveals the complex tangle of exploitation, desperation and the devastating effects this has on the land, and the indigenous people that inhabit it. The development and expansion of the McArthur River Mine has not only destroyed Green’s country, but also his community that has been exploited in the process.

JACKY GREEN Wounded Heart, 2014, acrylic on canvas, (collection of Seรกn Kerins)

In the darkened space of Andrew Styan’s multimedia installation the audience is confronted by what appears to be a giant meteor hurtling towards them. As one’s eyes and ears adjust, the sound of lapping water becomes apparent, a second projection of a buoy floating in the darkness is revealed, and a unique technical contraption comes into view. With further investigation, the device that houses a rotating lump of coal is revealed to be the live image source for the projection. Styan sets up an illusion that turns a natural mineral into something truly menacing, and by doing so makes a direct comment on the production of fossil fuels caused by coal mining, it’s combustion and the export industry that is omnipresent in his hometown of Newcastle. An adjacent video of a bobbing buoy signals the threats posed by global warming caused by these industries. Through unpacking the process by which the image is produced, Styan reveals the industrial practices that degrade the land, and suggests ways to make positive changes that might prevent future damage. The Bell Buoy is a powerful work that plays upon the visual tropes of sci-fi films and the fear of an impending collision with an object from outer space; the ultimate twist being that the greatest threat lies beneath our feet.

ANDREW STYAN The Bell Buoy (installation photograph), 2014, mixed media, dimensions varable

Rising sea levels are a consequence of the increase in average global temperatures, with small islands in the South Pacific and Indian Ocean already experiencing the reality of higher tides. Danish artist Søren Dahlgaard’s work The Inflatable Island (2013 – ongoing) is a soft sculpture that represents a part of the Maldives, a country made up of 1200 coral islands in the Indian Ocean. A child-like playfulness is evident in the sculpture, which is reminiscent of a giant blowup pool toy, allowing Dahlgaard to initiate a serious discussion about the issue of climate refugees. An inflatable piece of the Maldives may seem out of place in Canberra in 2016, but the reality of low-lying populations migrating to less affected neighbouring countries has already begun. Dahlgaard understands the power of humour as a tool to initiate conversation, and develop empathy for different cultures around the world that are suffering from changing weather systems. Just as the work addresses the issues faced by climate refugees, it too ‘migrates’ around the earth. Before this exhibition, the island was shown in the 2013 Venice Biennale, and has travelled around urban and remote areas of Poland, Denmark, Spain, USA, New Zealand and Australia. The migration of Dahlgaard’s inflatable islands act as a symbol of the journeys that have been made by climate refugees, and aims to start positive conversations about why and how these islands are disappearing, and what can be done to help those people affected.

SØREN DAHLGAARD The Inflatable Island (Kangaroo Island), 2016, photograph, 70cm x 100cm

SØREN DAHLGAARD The Inflatable Island (Mount Hotham), 2016, photograph, 70cm x 100cm

The exhibition 2° brings together artists that have created work reflecting on the cause of our changing climate, how it is currently affecting our lives, and the ways in which it will effect our future. The discussion that the artists engage in is political, social, cultural, economic, and is one of the few global issues to surpass religion, nationality, wealth, or language. The scientific evidence is present, and the human experience of that evidence is mounting. Whether looking at the cause, effects, or the future of earth’s climate, the artists in 2° add new perspectives and knowledge to the conversation, and all come together on the same issue: climate change is already happening, and we must do something about it before it is too late.

Alexander Boynes July 2016 G.W. Bot is represented by Beaver Galleries, Canberra, and Australian Galleries, Melbourne and Sydney Thank you to Climarte for their support in realising this exhibition.

Thank you to the Drill Hall Gallery, ANU, and Seán Kerins for loaning works from their collections for the exhibition.

2º

Curated by Alexander Boynes Catalogue by Alexander Boynes

CANBERRA CONTEMPORARY ART SPACE FRIDAY 15th JULY - SATURDAY 20th AUGUST 2016 GORMAN ARTS CENTRE, 55 AINSLIE AVE. BRADDON CANBERRA A.C.T. Tues - Fri 11 - 5 & Sat 10 - 4 | www.ccas.com.au

CCAS IS SUPPORTED BY THE ACT GOVERNMENT, AND THE AUSTRALIAN GOVERNNENT THROUGH THE AUSTRALIA COUNCIL, IT’S ARTS FUNDING AND ADVISORY BODY.