Below is the recently-produced clip for the Reality Campaign, which is working to dispel the myth of “clean coal.†It’s directed by the Coen brothers. It’s funny. And it works in consumer metaphors and symbols. Smiles below. Props to treehugger.
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Go to the Green Museum
The exhibition of new British and Australian-made films Figuring Landscapes is currently touring the UK. In this age of crisis, film writer David Berridge looks for evidence of whether artists are changing the way they depict the natural world.
Go to RSA Arts & Ecology Features
This week James Lovelock was in conversation with the journalist and writer Tim Radford in front of a packed audience at the RSA. His latest book The Vanishing Face of Gaia is currently 22 on Amazon – a remarkable achievement for a book which is not exactly a laugh a page.
In fact both James and Tim were full of humour at the RSA event, so it’s a moment before some of the facts sink in. People next to me suck in their breath at Jim’s prediction of one billion people on earth by the end of the century. We are around six billion at the moment. I join the breath suckers. Five in six of us. I’m pretty sure I heard him say that India will pretty much be gone entirely. If he’s right.
If he’s right – this is left hanging in the air and hanging in the balance.
Today a headline in The Guardian reads “Obama pulls back on early climate change legislationâ€. I see this just as I’m trying to write a positive statement for the Business Council for Sustainable Development, ten years focusing on the practical implementation of sustainable development values. There’s so much progress that has been made and now is the time to build on that, rather than gloom up on the worst case scenario. But nor should we forget it. Just as apathy had terrible consequences for so many in the Second World War, so could complacency in the face of this century’s challenges.
Note to self, get on WattzOn.com and see how you’re shaping up Crimmin before tub thumping any further.
Photo: Gansu Province, China, 2007 by Susannah Sayler, used courtesy of The Canary Project. Photo taken following the 2006 drought, China’s worst in 50 years. This is the former site of Qin Tu Hu Lake.
{The BBQ House, part of Atelier Bow-Wow’s Small Case Study Houses at REDCAT in LA}On Friday, I had the opportunity to check out Tokyo-based Atelier Bow-Wow’s installation at REDCAT. Made of recycled wood, the exhibition consists of three contraptions based on the famous Case Study Houses. It includes The BBQ House, (above), a Hammock House, and a Sunset House.
Part light and space (like Turrell, Eliasson or R. Irwin), part relational aesthetics and also an architectural experiment, these pieces are big, fun and worth seeing in person. Here’s hoping that they end up in a park or some other public space after the exhibition ends on March 29.
> Read more at artforum.com or redcat.org, see some pics of the installation on flickr.
> Atelier Bow-Wow has an extensive website as well.
> Atelier Bow-Wow has many books, such as Pet Architecture Guide Book Vol 2.
The picture above tells the story of about 30 feet. That’s how much the ground has subsided in parts of the San Joaquin Valley (at least through 1977) because of water withdrawls and the resulting soil consolidation.
Recently, the LA Times reported that the ongoing drought in California might result in no agricultural water being delivered to more than 200 water districts in California.
I’m no expert on California water policy so I’m going to keep my comments brief. But to me, a system where we are growing cotton and rice with irrigated water doesn’t make much sense. Here’s hoping some smart people some where will figure this out, because I know artists are going to be limited to doing things like reposting ominous photos (see above) of what is going on.
Go to Eco Art Blog
