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.

Demo of the Narration

  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.