The sky is a beautiful deep blue, the color of a perfect spring afternoon creeping its way toward summer. It’s Spring Break and I’m lying in the grass with my friends after a long day of skateboarding and I hear the bees buzzing in the distance, the grass is rustling in the spring wind, almost like chattering conversations. I see sun rays beaming down, I feel the stress steam off my body, the birds are chirping loudly. The noise of the city seems far-off and non-existent. At this moment, I started to feel very appreciative and very connected with nature. I feel that a lot of times, in the age of phones and screens, people forget to stop and appreciate the Earth. This perfect spring afternoon was the genesis of this project, it was the seedling that gave me the inspiration to do my curated exhibit based on climate change and artists who are outspoken about it, expressing it in various beautiful and unique ways.

These artists were carefully selected and curated for this art exhibit because they all captured the same sense of urgency and impact of climate change that really stuck out to me when I first saw these artists’ works. From Olafur Eliasson’s haunting yet surreal “Ice Watch” to Banksy’s controversial murals sparking conversations about the current state of the world and its countless wars. These artists all used their unique mediums, from carving ice sculptures to spray painting murals across towns, yet their messages all follow the same singular motif, which is the overarching message that our world is suffering from our own hands. We are the cause of our own demise and we are facing the greatest loss of our lives and it’s happening fast.

My selection process is not calculated or chosen by the popularity or notoriety of the artist but by how these certain art pieces made me feel. For me, a great piece of artwork can sometimes invoke feelings that sometimes aren’t even within your current headspace or thought. It can invoke unnecessary feelings, or bring forth feelings that are repressed within yourself. For this curated exhibit, I wanted to select artists who are outspoken about the state of our world, in particular, the narrative theme of climate change, which I believe is the biggest fight of our generation. Starting with Olafur Eliasson’s Ice Watch, Waterfall, and Riverbed. The “Ice Watch” exhibit consisted of large blocks of glacial ice harvested straight from the Arctic and brought over to various locations in freight ships as seen in the exhibit. The mammoth-sized blocks of ice are then placed in public settings for nearby onlookers to be captivated by the strange giant out-of-place blocks of ice, a reminder of the powerful force of Mother Nature.