Art cannot stop global warming, but it can become a special tool

Author:Chestnut Time:2022.09.15

Global climate change has never been related to everyone's life as it is now. As early as the 1980s, sensitive artists began to express their attention to this issue in their own way. Different from political and economic means aimed at reducing emission reduction, art is to inspire people to take action by stimulating collective imagination.

Ecological difficulties

Whether it is extreme weather, the extinction of species, the rise of the sea level, and the exhaustion of resources, global climate problems have really entered the lives of ordinary people from distant nature. In the high temperature of 2022, some experts once proposed that this may be the coolest year in the next ten years. Although this prophecy lacks sufficient theoretical basis, it is undeniable that global warming has effectively affected our daily life.

exhibition site

Since the 1980s, the keen artist began to cooperate with scientists to bring the initiative of climate challenges into the forefront of culture and art, and to make artistic creation a diverse appearance. Through a variety of and immersive expression, art has become a powerful tool for people to perceive climate change and understand and act.

From September 10th to September 25th, the "critical and symbiotic" climate action week art public welfare exhibition was held at the Gallery Yinggai Gallery of the 798 Art District of Beijing 798 Art District. Wang Naiyi was the curator.

exhibition site

As an independent curator who focuses on climate change and ecological crisis issues, Wang Naiyi invited 15 vanguard artists from the world to re -think of the dependence of his own and nature in a diverse way, and jointly examine the urgent climate crisis, explore arts How to effectively participate in and promote climate actions.

Zhang Tianyi "Plant Smart Plan" 2021

Picture © Zhang Tianyi

A transparent sphere with a diameter of nearly two meters is placed in the center of the exhibition hall. The green and the flash of the plant and the flash of electronic components jointly build an ecosystem in the sphere. This is the ecological art device of the artist Zhang Tianyi, "Plant Smart Plan", which won the "Honor Award" of the Links Electronic Art Festival Starts Prize in 2022.

"Plant Smart Plan" details

In this self -contained ecosystem, a natural biological chain has been rebuilt. Insects of insecticide, sprinkle, and fertilization are autonomously completed by the biological chain, and no manual intervention is required. The artist uses "ecological relations" as the starting point, and the non -"human centerism" based on deep ecology has created a new value.

We often regard human intervention as the original sin of climate change. When we start to reflect on this problem, we start trying whether there is still a chance to return to the natural ecology.

The exhibition is based on "climate care". It aims to use the impact and reflection of climate change in a way to reduce the impact and reflection of climate change. Discuss the alternative ways to face the climate crisis, and also bring artistic thinking to the realization of the beautiful vision of "carbon neutrality".

In order to respond to the proposal of China's dual carbon target on September 22, 2020, and to the world that China responded to the ambition of climate change, the World Natural Foundation (Swiss) Beijing Representative Office (WWF) proposed the "Climate Action Week" in September 2021, 2021. This concept improves the public's understanding and understanding of climate change issues through carbon neutralization and public welfare communication projects, promotes cross -domain climate cooperation, and jointly cope with the challenges brought by climate change.

Human and Nature

If it wasn't for the heat of the summer of 2022, how can we personalize the impact of climate issues on nature? The real -time generation art device created by artist Kana, "Beyond the Earth", is based on the abstract vision of Beijing weather and population data. These data affect the form and texture of the landscape in real time.

Kana "Beyond Earth" 2022

Picture © Kana

The work is uncertain because of the high degree of autonomy given by the artist, showing the artist's pessimistic perspective of unpredictable climate change. The work explores the macro relationship between man and nature, and has the ethereal state of the weather, and the painful human factors make the sight blur.

We were the community of destiny connected to nature's pulse, and the natural interest. It is quite ironic that the current global warming speed is faster than any time since records. Human beings have become a natural force that cannot be ignored. We are both the initiative and the fate of themselves. All kinds of facts are like ripples in the lake, and they are accompanied by the test of the overall system of economy and even human society.

Sasa Subaka "Horizontal is a cycle: 蟋蟀 Farm" 2020

Image © Sasa Subaka was taken by MAID HADžIhasanović

The artist Sasa Subaka sound art device "Horizontal is a cycle: 蟋蟀 Farm", which is a typical case of forcibly intervention in nature for human pleasure. At the same time for human consumption. The artist combines the sound of the breeding container and the habitat, and the sound of the puppet echo in the exhibition hall, reminding us to the operation of the capitalist consumer society and the intervention and destruction of natural habitats.

We are accustomed to ourselves with "the master of nature", and we use everything for me to use, excessive mining and obedience. We have forgotten that we are related to "the existence of each other entangled with each other". Lose Wilson mentioned in "What is Nature" that the mistakes that we often make is "when people define nature, they often regard themselves as observer and explorer, rather than see ourselves as nature as nature a part of". exhibition site

Art cannot directly stop the global warming, but it can awaken our cognition. In cities and artificial nature, we can retrieve the cognition of the true appearance of nature. The outdoor window of the exhibition hall exhibits the artist Liu Tong's origami device and Xiao Ge's photography.

Through Liu Tong's wonderful hand, a huge paper -made "White Whale" was suspended in the window. The work was made of a complete square paper. After a large number of rigorous and complex mathematical calculations in the early stage, the design compromise lasted for one year. And finally won the Guinness World Record. The artist hopes to raise the public's awareness of environmental protection, so that the cute species of White Whales will always stay in our world forever.

Shao Ge's animals around the world have made us see the beauty of real nature. These seals, zebras, elephants, and flamingo that occasionally appeared under the camera. They did not know the existence of the artist. In the most natural state, the artist captured the daily life of animals in nature Essence

Xiao Ge "Seal Group" 2015

Picture © Xiao Ge

Xiao Ge's "Firebird Tribe" 2016

Picture © Xiao Ge

Xiao Ge "Hard Moving" 2016

Picture © Xiao Ge

Only when you understand that you need to be stored together with other animals, plants, and material in the event, can you truly listen to everything and be awesome. The well -known scholar Donna Halavi advocates a model of "beneficial to coexistence", that is, "humans and animals and plants participate more deeply to participate in each other's lives". In this model, "there is no so -called dominant master, all actors are coexisting together."

The audio -visual image device entangled by the artist Robedina Cyanani, "Underwater Interweaving", based on the concept of "tentacles" of Donna Halavi, that is, the ability to perceive the world through empathy with others to perceive the ability of others , Discuss the possibility of establishing an emotional relationship between humans and human entities.

Robe Dina Cyanani entangled it

(Soriya Crespo, Felicken McCord) "Underwater Interweaving"

2021-2022 Filmed by one Jc Ketis/Kino šIška

The artist tracks the silk of the Great River clams and uses it as the visual representative of the "other". This kind of marine creature, which has always caused curiosity of scientists, has died of diseases caused by environmental changes. Artists conduct research and explore the use and improve new biological materials to avoid threatening the survival or habitat of certain creatures.

It is true that whether "people" or "non -human" are important subjects, and people do not have the uniqueness of action. For "people", the demands of "non -human" are easily ignored by us. However, the power of non -human beings cannot be underestimated. When humans do not add restraint, they will naturally give warnings with their long and stable power. Facing the ecological crisis such as climate change and decline in biological diversity, the power that is beyond the control of individual life is more slowly reminded to remind us that the neglect of it will cause greater disasters.

Look forward to the future

Whether Jia Xinyu showed his understanding of nature with painting, or Qiu Yu's sound art device "Vibration Time" created by Qiu Yu's leaks of coffee, he was awakening human perception of nature from a new perspective.

Qiu Yu "Vibration Time" 2022

Picture © Qiu Yu

On the left is Jia Xinyu's work, and the work of Qiu Yu on the right

In Qiu Yu's device "Micro Sound", in real time, the micro -image information of the leaves specimens of plants through a microscope and converted into changing electronic signals. Through the algorithm, the sound of different frequencies and sounds is synthesized. "Symphony" is played by a speaker matrix like a flower in the middle of the device. The display screen above the device can observe the changes in the image and signal data of the corresponding plant microcontroller.

Qiu Yu's "WeChat" 2021

This "natural voice" of artificial participation is exactly the powerful way for us to return to the sound of nature. Through these voices, let us think of humans as part of nature, and has always been coexisting with nature.

The artist Su Yongjian Barriyun's "When Breathing can Words" created a participating and interactive device space, trying to evoke people's face -to -face perceptual experience. The participants' bodies are connected by white cloth, and they can only see each other's heads and look at them. They are like bubbles that swim in the space.

Su Yongjian Barriyun "When Breathing can Words" 2022

When the carbon dioxide sensor in the bubble detects the participants' breathing, the "tentacles" device above the head will swing around. When the two pairs of tentacles move closer to each other, they will make a scream similar to birds. At this moment, breathing and tentacles have become the language of communication and perception of each other between people, and our body is like a state of returning to animals. Excuse me: As a member of nature, how should we redefine the relationship between each other?

History cannot be reunited. Looking back at how far history is, we will face the future. All reflection and awakening are for us to imagine and find future problem -solving ideas in existing problems. Mark Dorph "New Nature" 2021

The artist Mark Dorph's audiovisual image device "New Nature" presents the audience's future visual and auditory exploration that is usually called "nature". This is also the ideal future nature of the artist's mind. The future depicted here is not the enlightenment of Hollywood films, nor is it a solution like Silicon Valley Utopia. This is a strange future. Each corner is full of mystery and a beautiful and humble technology-organic mixed planets system.

The climate crisis comes with all the gestures, and our ultimate fate will be wrapped in it. Art may not be able to directly control and change climate problems, but it can become a tool that evokes collective imagination and inspires people to take action. It stimulates people to understand climate change and respond to climate challenges in its own unique way. Art as actions -aims to speak, but not just sound.

Text ｜ Gu Bo, Zhang Huohuo

Photography ｜ Wang Donghan

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