Art and Climate Change. What’s the link?
There is more carbon dioxide in our atmosphere than in any time in history.
The world’s tropical forests are shrinking at a staggering rate, the equivalent of 30 football pitches per minute.
Most urban areas in the UK have had illegal levels of NO2 since 2010
100 fossil fuel companies are responsible for 71% of global emissions
Over 50 percent of the world's coral reefs have died in the last 30 years and up to 90 percent may die within the next century
Are you up in arms? Depressed? Angry? I sure am.
Years and years of not listening to David Attenborough is taking its toll on our earth, made heavy by human overconsumption. There have been scant scintillating glimmers of hope that imply we are looking towards a greener future, but from where I’m standing it’s not looking good.
So where does art and the sector come in? Initially, the link may not be so obvious, geography and art were two totally separate subjects at school after all, but the art sector has a huge role to play.
Art has an amazing knack for being an excellent communicator. It can tell you things about the world around you, the artist, even yourself if you listen carefully enough. For this very reason, art and culture is an amazing way to communicate the effects of climate change and furthermore how to inspire action, and how people and corporations can actually make a difference. When you look at a graph with its x and y axis, if you're anything like me you’ll grow cross eyed, and if someone starts quoting numerical stats at you it will soon be out the other ear, even if you read the facts above, how many did you remember?
But more importantly, did they resonate with you? The best way to get people to do anything is through an emotive call to action, and art does just that. Christo’s Pink Islands in Miami drew attention to the fact the islands were being used as garbage disposal units, and Agnes Denes New York Wheatfield was planted on a landfill in lower manhattan. A little more catchy than a graph, dont you think?
But the link doesn't just stop there, the infrastructure that holds the glitz and glamour of the art world up, has a huge role to play in contributing to climate change and therefore an even bigger one in turning this contribution from negative, to positive.
Of course, now art works are being driven to Frieze, rather than flying, and biodiesel has replaced fossil fuels for this fair in particular. All positive changes, but they are simply not enough.
The carbon emissions the art world produces are dizzying, slowed down by covid, there is less flying of art works and collectors alike, less waste, less pollution, but there is still work to be done.
But we dont want to stop seeing art, we dont want to stop going to our museums and galleries, and we want to experience fairs. But what if there was a way we could do all of this, without incurring a big footprint?
Whilst we wait for greener ways of travel, and museum infrastructure to catch up, I propose you pay theVOV a visit, where there is no travel, no shipping of works around the globe, no footprint.
Sustainability is a core ethos of theVOV, where we believe that not only can we have a positive environmental impact, but we can communicate respect for our earth and how we look after it, through the power of art.
Lottie @ theVOV
Psst ! If you want to be really clued up about this, take a look here:
Banks, M (2018) Creative Economies of Tomorrow? Limits to Growth and the Uncertain Future, Cultural Trends 27(5)
Oakley, K., Ball, M. and Cunningham, M. (2018). Everyday Culture and the Good Life. CUSP Working Paper No 9.https://www.cusp.ac.uk/themes/a/wp9/
Oakley, K., & Ward, J. (2018). The art of the good life: culture and sustainable prosperity. Cultural Trends, 27(1), 4–17. https://doi.org/10.1080/09548963.2018.1415408