Exhibition Wall text in charcoal:
The Air of the Now and Gone
Curated by Kirsty Robertson and
Sarah E. K. Smith
Featuring artists Maude Ares, Christina Battle, Erin Johnson,
Colin Lyons, Caroline Monnet, Cynthia Girard-Renard, Niloufar
Salimi and Hanae Utamura, and guest writers Siobhan Angus,
Elaina Foley and Kristi Leora Gansworth
Crisis, catastrophe and disaster abound in contemporary discussions of
climate change and its impacts. Such sentiments are so pervasive that we seem to have tipped into what author Cal Flyn describes as a "'yearning for the apocalypse." Given the extent of the damage, a slide into apathy and despair seems inevitable, while calls for hope offer only an empty retort. Are there alternatives?
'Thank You," the poem by Ross Gay that gives this exhibition its title,
reminds us we are all connected to each other and to the natural world.
The Air of the Now and Gone explores our kinship with the environment,
seeking to engage other respon&es, including empathy, wonder, joy,
persistence, interdependence, attentiveness, connection and flourishing.
Our goal as curators is to resist naivete, and to move beyond hope to
engender radical engagement.
The artists featured in the exhibition aim to counter apathy and complicate optimism about the future. Their works ask visitors to refuse to look away from the wicked problem of climate change while engaging a spectrum of resonant and unexpected emotional responses.
Now in Ottawa! 'The Air of the Now and Gone,' an exhibition that aims to counter apathy and complicate optimism about the future. On exhibition until May 4th.
Co-curated by @kirstymrobertson.bsky.social & @smithsarah.bsky.social
Image: Wall text in charcoal (K. Robertson)
cuag.ca/exhibition/t...