INDICATORS: “Artists on Climate Change” Art Exhibition
Long time ago, over the years, till date, artworks have been used to serve different purposes on Mother Earth. It depends solely on artist’s idea, imagination, reason, or creativity behind a piece of art.
The statistical distribution of weather patterns, which is referred to as climate change, if the said change lasts for an extended period of time, is caused by various factors such as variations in solar radiation that are received by the Earth. Now, a number of contemporary artists with different media have come together with an exceptional common goal, to address the above situation - Climate change.
These artists together with Storm King Art Center are working toward the achievement and success of this summer season: one of a kind exhibition that goes by the theme “Indicators: Artists on Climate Change”. Artworks are aimed to address and show diverse effects caused by climatic changes from scientific, cultural and psychological perspectives. The exhibition will be on view until the month of December this year.
The Storm King Art Center, located on New York’s Hudson Valley, is a 500-acre outdoor museum, which has dedicated itself since early 1960s to organize and steward the hills, grassland, and forests of its site and surrounding landscape where art lovers and art intellectuals get to access large-scale sculpture. Many of the artists created new, site-specific works that use the Art Center’s unique landscape and location, although it already has eleven of the artists that have created outdoor installations, which will be on view throughout the entire summer.
The artist Maya Lin who is working on indicators: The Secret of Life of Grasses, has long taken climate change as an inspiration for artistic skills. Her indicators displays include three ten - foot - tall tubes that each house a single stalk of prairie grass. The clear tubes do show extensive roots of native grass that have been reintroduced into the Museum’s landscape for this summer exhibition. Maya’s indicators aim at absorbing carbon as a potential solution of climate change and restoring the soils and grasslands, as well as reforming man-kind’s agricultural practices.
Gabriela Salazar’s Matters in Shelter indicators reflects on the devastation that was felt by Puerto Rico, during the Hurricane Maria in the September 2017. The blue tarp creates a place of refuge and recalls the temporary protective coverings that were used during the recovery effort.
Its floors are built from blocks that are made of concrete building materials while other blocks are made of unstable, homemade, coffee-based clay.
The “Indicators: Artists on Climate Change” exhibition is co-curated by Nora Lawrence and David Collens who is a curator as well as the director at Storm King and curator, along with the curatorial assistant Sarah Diver.
Gabriela Salazar and Maya Lin will be showcasing their indicators alongside others artists, such as: David Brooks, Hara Woltz, Mark Dion, Ellie Ga, Justin Brice Guariglia, Allison Janae Hamilton, Jenny Kendler, Mary Mattingly, Mike Nelson, Steve Rowell, Tavares Strachan, Meg Webster and the Dear Climate collective.