The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store and The Weighing of the Heart are featured in the online exhibition, ‘Changing climate, changing practice,’ in Bader + Simon gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio and curated by AC Panella, Ph.D. and Emma Logan. Thank you for having me! View the exhibition here.
It was a pleasure speaking with Tamara White, founder of Bader + Simon Gallery in Cincinnati, Ohio. How cool to connect all the way here in Sydney. We talk climate change deniers, bucket lists, whom I want to be stuck with in an elevator, and a theme song to my life. Thank you for having me!
Listen to the interview here.
Hello, Fulbright friends, I’m finally on this cool network we have. Come say hi and let’s collaborate!
Cover photo from the series, Experiments in Nature (edition taken in the Amazon rainforest, Brazil)
Check out this kind article about my work on art and climate on Arts Help. I’m chuffed to be in a publication that believes art is a vehicle for social change. Writer Phoebe Bulotano focussed on my work in Manila and the Amazon Rainforest.
An important correction is that the ‘Seawall’ project is by artist Poklong Anading; I have a minor contribution to the installation in that some of the Apocalypse Project works are in it.
“Founded on the principle of art making the world a better place, Arts Help is the largest digital art publisher, with a community of 20 million members. The United Nations 17 Sustainable Development Goals serve as the framework that guides the mission of the organization.”
Thank you so much!
View the article here.
I’m on the list of 10 Women Leading the Fight Against Climate Change by environmental news website Earth.Org. I feel humbled being among a list of amazing humans, including Elizabeth May (Leader of the Green Party of Canada), Marina Silva (Minister of Environment and Climate Change, Brazil), Kimiko Hirata (Executive Director at Climate Integrate, Japan), Eleni Myrivili (UN Chief Heat Officer, Greece), Dayle Takitimu (Co-Chair, Miisterial Advisory Committee, Aotearoa/NZ), Dorte Krause-Jensen (Professor, Aarhus University, Denmark), Melina Laboucan-Massimo (Founder of Sacred Earth Solar & Co-Founder and Senior Director of Indigenous Climate Action, Canada), Nicola Kagoro (Chef, Zimbabwe), and Winnie Cheche (Climate activist, Kenya). Thank you so much!
View the list here.
I’m chuffed for one of my awesome PhD supervisors, Prof. Claudia Tazreiter, to use my photograph for her upcoming talk in the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna on 18 January 2024. Coincidentally, we met there in 2018 when I was the one giving a talk (in the exact room!), and this started a chain reaction of me eventually moving to Sydney in 2019 to do my PhD, which I submitted last month.
I took the image of this ship that ran aground in the Philippines in 2017 as artist-in-residence of Plan International, where I visited youth in Lewoleba in Indonesia; Chiang-Mai in Thailand, and Tacloban in the Philippines. In Tacloban, a local tricycle driver took me around the city to witness the aftermath of Supertyphoon Haiyan that devastated Tacloban in 2013. The image shows a fishing vessel that had run aground Philippine soil during Haiyan.
Working with children and youth who were affected by the climate crisis is one of the most impactful and humbling times of my artistic practice, and I am still grateful to Plan for the opportunity to co-create artworks on climate with them.
The residency was facilitated by Plan International’s offices in Indonesia, Thailand, and the Philippines as well as the International Climate Initiative (IKI) based in Berlin. More on the residency outcomes here: https://www.international-climate-initiative.com/en/news/article/interview_to_know_the_colour_of_water/
Details of Claudia’s talk here: https://www.akbild.ac.at/de/universitaet/veranstaltungen/ausstellungen-vermittlung/2024/rundgang-2024/new-borders-of-migration-and-displacement-local-and-global-connection-and-collaboration-of-marginalized-life
December 2023, Chiang Rai, Thailand — Last month, I was really honoured to contribute to the artist, Poklong Anading and his Shared Residence project presented at the 2023 Thailand Biennale in Chiang Rai.
From Shared Residence:
Situated at the Chiang Rai Provincial Administrative Organisation (CRPAO) School’s train library, the project called for local artists to share their works that anyone can borrow for the duration of the exhibit. In return, the borrowers should leave something valuable for them.
In this multidisciplinary installation, Anading collaborated with Thai scientist Dr. Panate Manomaivibool and his research on microplastics. Also included were some of Anading’s ongoing works:
From Poklong Anading:
In his “anonymity” series, for example, various human subjects hold mirrors in front of their faces to reflect the blinding light of the sun back at the camera. These unrecognizable figures become legible only through the social and economic markers of their clothing and their surroundings. In another series titled “every water is an island,” Anading video-records the light reflected by water in reservoirs, waste treatment plants, and other bodies of water. He cups his partly opened hand over the lens to create a shifting aperture, as though to hold and sift the flow—meditating on how civilization is shaped by water and how water, in turn, is shaped by civilization.
My essay, The Microplastic Fantastic, tied both artist’s and scientist’s research. You can read it below.
Photos courtesy of Poklong Anading / Shared Residence
Thank you, all!
From 9-20 October 2023, I was in residence at the Melbourne studio of the Australian Broadcasting Corporation (ABC) as one of their Top 5 Arts recipients for early career researchers. Here’s how it rolled:
This has been one of the best residency experiences of my life, thanks to the generosity of the ABC RN producers and presenters and my fellow Top Fivers whose work and advocacies are incredibly inspiring. I am looking forward to working with you all in the next stages of my practice!
Hello friends! I have a couple of contributions to the public showcase by the Climate Community of Practice of the Obama Leadership Network for Climate Week NYC from September 18-22 in the beautiful historic #403 building in Governor’s Island, including an exhibit of The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store, an olfactory artwork featuring perfumes of scents that are endangered from the climate crisis. This work is nine years old and I am both happy and sad that it remains relevant in these times.
Below is the official invitation via Climate Week NYC by the Obama Foundation, including the public showcase and the invite-only event on September 20:
On September 20 alumni from Obama Foundation leadership programs working on climate issues around the world will come together in a hybrid (in-person and virtual) event during 2023 NYC Climate Week to share their perspectives and experiences on leadership, advocacy, and organizing. Organized by the Obama Leadership Network’s Climate Community of Practice, this event will feature remarks from Obama Foundation leadership, followed by a showcase of diverse climate leaders’ work, then an interactive fishbowl discussion with diverse participants from the public, academia, civil society, the private sector, and philanthropy. Together, participants will learn from each other about how to connect individual and collective efforts to minimize the harms of climate change, including on the most marginalized groups, and work together towards a brighter, more climate-resilient future. Lunch will be provided.
Before and after this event, a physical Obama Climate Leaders Showcase Exhibition will remain free and open to all members of the general public to visit throughout Climate Week (September 18-22) at historic building #403 on the unique and climate solutions-focused Governor’s Island anytime between 7am-6pm.
In-person event time: 1 – 4 pm ET
Virtual event time: 1:30 – 3 pm ET
Register here.
Image by the Obama Foundation
Hong Hoang, a climate activist from Vietnam and an Obama Foundation scholar, is currently facing unjust detention in Vietnam. You can read more about her case here: https://www.protectclimateactivists.com/freehong/
A movement, #FreeHong, is currently under way, as is the broader movement #FreeHongFreeThemAll, in support of all the other climate activists in unjust detention.
In these times, standing up for climate action carries risk—you and me included. After lots of discussion with Liangyi Chang, my fellow Obama Leader and Asia Managing Director of 350.org who is a friend of Hong’s, I am honoured to design the logo for the movement. Below is an image of a Fire Sunflower (sunflowers being Hong’s favourite flower), showing ‘fire’ petals around an Earth centre.
Here is a black and white version:
After much back and forth with Liang, we resisted the tight, more symmetric design on the left and decided for the final design on the right. A looser, shabbier ‘sunflower’ is a better fit for a design for activists, who work to subvert the rigid, oppressive systems we have today. Note that the fire ‘petals’ don’t actually touch the planet—symbolic of how climate activists worldwide are fighting for climate action to prevent more destructive wildfires and other climate impacts.
Please feel free to download and use for your own activism!
Catherine Sarah Young 