Hey Singapore! I’m speaking about my PhD research at the Southeast Asian Arts Forum at Nanyang Academy of Fine Arts this August 4th! The theme is “Sustainability 2.0: Coding the World that will Remake Itself”, the forum features creatives and collectives from across Southeast Asia and focusses on the concept of sustainable consumption and production to promote the spirit of collaboration and discovery. Register now at https://seaartforum.nafa.edu.sg
Update: Thank you, Singapore!
I am happy to be invited by the Education Community of Practice of the Obama Foundation to give a talk for their Expert Workshop series to Obama Foundation alumni on Wednesday, July 12th. I’ll be speaking about how the arts can be a catalyst for various causes, elaborating on creative strategies, fundraising, and human psychology. I’m grateful for the opportunity to contribute to my fellow leaders’ amazing work.
About the talk:
How can the arts contribute to systems change? In this talk and workshop, we delve into creative strategies for organisations to utilise the arts to benefit their causes, from sensory projects to highlight climate issues to workshops to promote education, from activities to scale audience engagement to games that drive expert conversations. How can investing in our imagination become a catalyst for societal transformation? A collective workshop on using these strategies will follow the talk.
While I am in my final PhD months, I am honoured and excited to have been selected for ABC’s Top 5 Arts Media Residency for early career researchers. Five successful applicants in Arts, Science and Humanities will spend two weeks “in residence” at ABC Radio National in Melbourne, working with some of Australia’s best journalists and broadcasters. The ABC TOP 5 is a unique opportunity for talented young researchers to go behind-the-scenes with the ABC’s expert communicators. This is such a great way to cap my PhD journey, and I’m looking forward to communicating about my research to the wider public. Thank you to the jury for a lovely conversation. Congratulations to my fellow Top 5 and see you in a few months!
ABC Top 5 Arts is presented in partnership with the University of Melbourne and the Australia Council for the Arts.
Below is a pdf of the full media release courtesy of the ABC. Also here: https://www.abc.net.au/radio/programs/top5/abc-rn-is-welcoming-australias-best-and-brightest-young-minds/102553870
The munich creative business week (mcbw) is Germany’s largest design event and also international platform for the Bavarian creative and design industries. The mcbw is organized by bayern design, the competence center for knowledge transfer and collaborations around design in Bavaria. It connects topics, disciplines, industries and perspectives. The annual theme of the this year’s mcbw is “Why disruption unleashes creativity” and will take place from May 06-14, 2023. Find out about their events at www.mcbw.de.
Stoked to have been interviewed by the awesome Oliver Herwig for their magazine. You can find the physical version in the events in Munich. Dankeschön!
Citation: Young, Catherine. Interview. By Oliver Herwig. munich creative business week magazine. 2023, 54-57.
The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store (2014) is featured on One Earth, Cell Press’ flagship sustainability journal.
Rising temperatures, sea level rise, superstorms, biodiversity loss, and many other climate impacts endanger the wellbeing of the Earth, which will result in unprecedented damages and losses including many scents and the memories we have of them—the smells of oceans, forests, food, just to name a few. The Ephemeral Marvels Perfume Store (T.E.M.P.S., or “time” in French) is an artist-created perfume line of scents that are threatened due to the climate crisis. These perfumes are created by the artist, Catherine Sarah Young, using chemical distillation and standard perfumery techniques. During exhibitions, visitors are allowed to smell the perfumes. As smell and memory are closely related, viewers are invited to reflect on how potentially losing these scents could affect their lives and hopefully be inspired to preserve them and take action on the climate crisis.
One Earth provides a home for high-quality research and perspectives that significantly advance our ability to better understand and address today’s sustainability challenges.
Hurray for artwork having a DOI. Cite away: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.oneear.2023.03.009
Download the pdf here.
Here are some photos from the !Do Something group exhibition with The Weighing of the Heart, courtesy of the UNSW Library. Thanks so much!
The Weighing of the Heart casts the ashes of the catastrophic Australian bushfires of 2019-2020 into human heart sculptures.
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Exhibition text:
Climate Change is the dominant wicked problem of our time: there is no single solution; the boundaries are difficult to define; and it is influenced by complex, interdependent and rapidly changing factors.
Canadian designer Bruce Mau’s influential book MC24: 24 Principles for Designing Massive Change in Your Life and Work declares that “new wicked problems demand new wicked teams”. In response, the Wicked Collective was established in 2021 by a committed group of academics from the UNSW Faculty of Arts, Design & Architecture (ADA), including Dr Teresa Crea, Dr Rebecca Green, Prof Stephen Loo, Emma Mills and Emma Peters. Wicked Collective believe that artists, designers, academics, and students need to work together across disciplinary boundaries to effectively respond to the wicked problems confronting us.
!Do Something is the first project of Wicked Collective. This exhibition presents creative responses and interventions to the wicked problem of Climate Change by showcasing work that relate to one or more of the seventeen United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
!Do Something was shown at UNSW Main Library as part of the ADA Now Festival 2022 from 12 September to 18 November 2022.
From November 11-14, I was at Orpheus Island (Goolboddi) Research Station to participate in Reef Ecologic’s Reef Restoration and Leadership Workshop. During the four days, we snorkelled the Great Barrier Reef, learned how to make coral nurseries, and engaged with each other’s expertise. I was with marine biologists, rangers, and agritech experts from Queensland and the Torres Strait.
The Great Barrier Reef and the rest of our oceans are a great source of artistic inspiration and needs all of us to care because of increasing climate impacts. I can’t wait for the projects that will come out of me after this.
Thank you to Reef Ecologic’s Adam Smith, Jo Stacey, Nathan Cook and your amazing staff and interns, as well as my fellow participants whose love for the oceans is very inspiring. This was one of the tightest ships I’ve been on and I’ve learned so much in the past few days!
Just came back from a week in the south coast of New South Wales in Australia with the class I am auditing in UNSW, Indigenous Knowledge Partnerships on Conservation and Caring for Country. I tagged along with a group of Master of Environmental Management students, which was very inspiring.
On Day 1, Uncle Noel taught us about fire regimes and cultural burning in Triplarina Nature Reserve and Sussex Inlet. The next day, Auntie Lynne Thomas took us to the amazing Gulaga National Park on an epic rainy bushwalk. On Day 3, Uncle Graham took us around beautiful Tathra Headland National Park followed by places in Bournda National Park. Finally, Uncle Bruce Pascoe, author of Dark Emu, spoke to us about Aboriginal agriculture and his farm.
It was wonderful to have been on this trip and a relief I returned just in time to Sydney for this. Thank you, Professor Dan Robinson and your epic class!
I’m participating in The Curatorial Thing of SixtyEight Art Institute in Copenhagen. Register for the free public program here: https://madmimi.com/p/7b97a41 (I’m speaking on Day 4)
Text and image by SixtyEight Art Institute:
| THE CURATORIAL THING (5th Edition) |
| Announcing our Public Programme for ‘Audacious Landscapes’ |
| Organised by SixtyEight Art Institute |
| 1 – 8 October, 2022 |
| SixtyEight Art Institute is pleased to announce the schedule for public lecture events of our upcoming curatorial intensive programme, The Curatorial Thing, organised under the Audacious Landscapes theme and framework. This week-long gathering will explore SixtyEight Art Institute’s research on climate art histories to critical discussions of future imaginaries in a warming world and incorporate critical approaches on climate grief and regenerative thinking through art, architecture, and design.The 1-8 October 2022 meeting period will be shaped by workshops between participants and invited speakers, site and studio visits, and lecture-based events open to the general public. These public lectures will take place at The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen. All lectures will be available (physically) to the public for free and seats are open on a first-come, first-served basis. The Curatorial Thing will also be streamed (virtually) for a nominal fee for anyone interested in following our programme. |
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| SixtyEight Art Institute is hosting all the public lecture events online for the upcoming edition of The Curatorial Thing. You can choose individual days or the entire week-long sequence. See the links below to register and access our event streaming options. One-day registration Week-long registration |
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| Saturday, 1. October 13.30 – 15.30 Public Lecture Programme Critical Visions in a Warming World The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen Gothersgade 140.Anne Haaning, visual artist and Research Fellow, The Norwegian Artistic Research Programme, NO/UK/DK.KEYNOTE: T.J. Demos, art historian and cultural critic, Professor in the Department of the History of Art and Visual Culture, at University of California, Santa Cruz, US. 17.30 to 19.30 Installation Opening Anne Louise Blicher, Grief Shrine Part of the Climate Thanatology project Sharp Projects Gallery, Blegdamsvej 38. —Monday, 3. October 17.00 – 21.00 Interactive Shadow Theatre Part of the Climate Thanatology project LiteraturHaus, Møllegade 7 (Three 40-minute performances, advance registration is required).The Bird Ladies HenBlakstad Productions in co-production with Animalske Productions(NO), silo portem, sound art duo (UK), Catharine DeLong, harpist (US).Three performances of 40 min., limited to 20 people for each performance.Starting at 17.00; 18.30; and 20.00. All performances are free of charge.Please follow this LINK to register for The Bird Ladies. – –Tuesday, 4. October 18.00 – 21.00 Public Lecture Programme Climate and Cultural Art Histories The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen Gothersgade 140.Mathilde Helnæs, curator, Sorø Kunstmuseum (DK).Luamba Muinga, curator, cultural researcher, writer (AO).KEYNOTE: Andri Snær Magnason, writer and documentary filmmaker, author of On Time and Water (IS). – –Wednesday, 5. October 18.00 – 21.00 Public Lecture Programme Image and Media in Climate Communication The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen Gothersgade 140.Catherine Sarah Young, artist, Manila/Sydney (AU/PH).Jørgen Bruhn, intermediality and ecocriticism specialist, Professor of Comparative Literature, Linnaeus University (SE).KEYNOTE: Diedrich Diederichsen, writer and cultural critic, Professor of Theory, Practice, and Communication of Contemporary Art, Institute for Art History and Cultural Studies, Vienna (AT).– –Thursday, 6. October 18.00 – 20.00 BOOK LAUNCH Climate Thanatology by Heidi Hart Published by Really Simple Syndication Press SORTE FIRKANT (Blågårdsgade 29, 2200 Copenhagen) – –Friday, 7. October 18.00 – 21.00 Public Lecture Programme Engaging with Place: Ruin, Memory, Regeneration The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen Gothersgade 140.Maddie Leach, artist/Senior Lecturer in Fine Arts, University of Gothenburg (SE/NZ).Ash Sanders, climate writer and activist (US).KEYNOTE: Darren Parry, former chairman of the Northwestern Band of the Shoshone Nation, author and founder, Boa Ogoi Cultural Interpretive Center (US). – –Saturday, 8. October 12.30 – 15.30 Public Lecture Programme Regenerative Architectures in Climate Art History Perspective The Faculty Library of Social Sciences building of the University of Copenhagen Gothersgade 140.Ariana Kalliga, independent curator, New York and Athens (GR/UK).Angela YT Chan, researcher, curator, and artist (UK).KEYNOTE: Beatriz Colomina, architecture historian and theorist, Howard Crosby Butler Professor of the History of Architecture, Princeton University (US). For a full list of BIOS follow this LINK |
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| ABOUT OUR FIFTH EDITION OF THE CURATORIAL THINGThe Curatorial Thing is our annual intensive programme for curators, artists, researchers, and the public, from 1 – 8 October 2022. Using the Nordic notion of a ‘thing’ – an old concept for a meeting place, an assembly of the community, or as the precursor of the modern term ‘parliament’ – we have invited 18 individuals or groups of artists, designers, and curators for a series of day-long closed workshops. In addition, we are organising a lecture programme for the general public that will feature leading figures operating in and outside the Nordic Region. This year’s edition of The Curatorial Thing will build on SixtyEight’s ongoing exhibition programme, Memoirs of Saturn, which envisions potentials for prosperity in a warming world.We have chosen the title AUDACIOUS LANDSCAPES, from a 1938 poem by Muriel Rukeyser on witnessing an industrial landscape with “clouds over every town” that “indicate the stored destruction,” foreshadowing our own time. As this carbon buildup has led to global climate crises, curatorial practices have become a form of witness. In developing The Curatorial Thing, we read “audacious” as a paradox of capitalist hubris and the risk of imagining better possible afterlives. Using this paradox as a starting point, we consider “landscape” beyond framed artworks in museums, as art objects take on new roles in the public sphere.Our twofold goal is to move participants’ thinking from art histories of grief to imaginative proto-histories of thriving, especially in profoundly changed ecosystems, and to move critical inquiry from a modernising to an ecologising mindset. We aim to find a triad of contextual histories, climate narratives, and innovative spatial-natural theories that can enable us to foster a new climate art history. Therefore, the workshops and keynote lectures of this meeting will not only focus on the aftermath of climate-related art histories to aid us in thinking forward but will also explore climate grief as a moving bio-physical space to seed new and active imaginations. To this end, we want to investigate how art can inspire larger-scale solutions for a warming world and, at the same time, find the historical lineages that can give us both the hermeneutic and contemporary tools to sustain critical spaces, such as those that can nurture and support these new imaginations.The Fifth Edition of The Curatorial Thing is organised/curated by Heidi Hartand Hugo Hopping for SixtyEight Art Institute and is made possible with the generous support of the Novo Nordisk Foundation. Hosting partners in Copenhagen are LiteraturHaus, The Faculty Library of Social Sciences at University of Copenhagen, Statens Værksteder for Kunst, and Assistens Kirkegård. |
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| SixtyEight Art Institute is an artistic/curatorial research organisation looking to uncover, develop, and further exchanges between artists and curators and their creative labour. See our current exhibition The Late Shop on view from 9 September to 14 October 2022. This exhibition is part of our two-year programme of exhibitions, Memoirs of Saturn, which is kindly supported by the Danish Arts Foundation, Det Obelske Familiefond, Beckett-Fonden and Københavns Kommune Rådet for Visuel Kunst. |
Catherine Sarah Young 