I’ve been working on the drawings for this since 2010. I stopped making work that nobody wanted and decided to make absolutely unsaleable 15ft long drawings that might possibly raise awareness around climate change. I started this blog because I need support to keep at it, so let me know what you think.
THE PROJECT
Year 2041: the action places the audience in the sensory overload of a futuristic multi-image media room where they learn that a series of strange drawings has been recently discovered in a derelict building. TV crews are not allowed in to film the discovery but this “selected” group is going to have access. Leaving the intensity of the media room, they crawl slowly through a long, low tunnel wearing protective coveralls and headlamps, gradually reconnecting with a slower contemplative mindset. Entering a series of rooms covered in murals, a Werner Herzog style narrator poses speculative questions about the images, evoking deep reflection. Who did these? Listening to him as they scan the walls, the group learns how previous decades of disregard for the ecosystem outstripped the planet’s resources to the point of no return; and that society’s focus on profit and growth, rather than interconnectedness, led to famine, conflict, and death.
This project has been created in response to accelerating and irrefutable evidence of climate change. It is aimed specifically towards young people, as they are the ones about to inherit a global disaster. Using an immersive form of installation and theater, the project directs the audience’s response to climate issues through a comparison of ancient and modern information technologies. Central to the production is a series of ten mural-sized narrative drawings in charcoal that record fictitious historical events related to climate change and appear to have been drawn directly on the walls.
A Journey Through Time and Space
Some questions answered:-
How does the project take an original and imaginative approach to content and form?
Through a combination of theatre and visual art rather than scientific information viewers are challenged to examine the deeper societal causes of climate change. The project engages viewers both intellectually and experientially, by first jettisoning them into a fast-paced technologically dominant environment (THE FUTURE), then forcing a slow crawl back into a quiet, cave-like space (THE PAST). The FUTURE reduces the ability to think or respond intelligently through informational overload. The PAST provides physical engagement with the environment through restricted movement and limited light source while simultaneously offering primitive static images that play on intuition and history.
What kind of impact – artistic , intellectual, communal civic social etc. will the project have?
The project will raise awareness and offer opportunity for reflection to a concerned public. A non-art venue such as a derelict building in a city center would help create an ambience of mystery and surprise. I anticipate this functioning as a fulcrum around which scientific and related events can be programmed. The elements of entertainment in the project – the suiting up, the tunnel to the cave, will provide a circus- like atmosphere, appealing to a broad audience, and especially young people. As it travels on to other cities the ancillary events will expand and change according to local interests.
Who are the specific audiences/communities that I hope to engage through this project.?
The murals explore, in a non-alarmist, story-book manner, those aspects of contemporary living that have impacted the environment including consumerism, depletion of natural resources, the meat industry, disposable plastics, etc. Because the project is experiential as opposed to an Al Gore type lecture it aims to reach beyond the converted to a broader audience including one that has been resistant to the subject. It also offers a teaching tool for schools and colleges. The intention is to encourage people who have not thought much about theses issues to take action and prepare for the global crisis that is looming.
This is important work, Erica, and hard to do because it’s so painful to contemplate these issues. Doomsday scenarios are popular with young people now because they feel what is happening, whether they consciously acknowledge it or not. Make your drawings and sound the warning. You may be playing Cassandra’s role, but you’re part of a noble chorus (whom you call upon for support in the links in your blog).
Deborah
Wow, Erica — this is fantastic. The drawings bring together many years of your work, they are visually very powerful. I admire your taking action by directly using your art to do what we know to be true — Art saves lives. I am inspired by your dedication to this project and plan to share this with my students. I didn’t know you received the Pollock/Krasner grant, CONGRATULATIONS!! Keep at it.
Marie
Wow, Erica! The work and its message are so compelling. What a visceral way to bring these issues to our attention.
Erica
The drawings are gorgeous. I am totally lost in each one. I support your concept 100%. I have 2 responses:
1. I admit that I may be thick but I was wondering why the elephant dying off before the other animals? Is there a significant reason in terms of science, in terms of esoterica, in terms of you personally? I wonder if that info can be also communicated
2. If you are thinking that this would be geared toward young people, do not be surprised that they will know something about this. In fact, there are probably units on climate change in school. Besides being taken to this place where they are asked to be urban archeologists, what can they discover that is not in a school unit plan? How are you treating them not as middle or high schoolers but as citizens of the world? What are they looking for in this amazing piece? What directive are they given in order to understand the past and the future and their role in it? This is a quest, Joseph Campbell style or like the father’s quest to his son in the novel, Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close.
Please keep going, Erica!
Best
Mari
I think the description of the project clarifies some of your questions. The project is a catalyst or fulcrum around which other related, perhaps more directive activities or education can be formed. The project really asks – from a future perspective – what have we valued? The idea of the funeral for the last elephant is the recording of a significant historical event symbolizing the extinction of species in general. So each image asks questions rather than provides answers.
I am frantic to see this work! I LOVE what you do and this looks exceptional on line. Go Erica GO!
This project is an infinite, multi-layed venue of query…a profoundly expressed tapestry of man’s path of resistance and consequencial role in denying his unique responsibility to preserve the existance of all life. Erica has presented a beautiful tapestry of profound importance…
Thanks Donnie for your response. I’m about to get the project out into the world through a new website. Let’s hope it makes a difference.