NYC 24 Submission View

#279

Un-deniable

Submitted by: Negin Sharifzadeh


Un-deniable explores the role of art in addressing the increasingly dire global climate and ecological collapse, showcasing a diverse selection of contemporary artists whose work engages with how the fossil fuel industry, and our political and media systems, have led to the disruption of our global life systems, and the impacts this has on humanity, including the mass displacement of populations.
The work in this show varies in form—video, drawings, sculptures and performance—as well as content—portrayals of structures of power versus the bodies of activists organizing for change; explorations of the devastation of landscapes for extractive economic gain; visions of the eco-utopias we are capable of building and the dystopias that will result from colonialism and global capitalism left unchecked. But the work all comes together to help audiences grasp, on both an emotional and intellectual level, the potentially civilization ending outcome of the interrelated crises we face.
Here are some of the artists involved.

Eva Davidova’s 3D immersive digital installation, Global Modes, transposes ancient myths of Prometheus, Narcissus and Cassandra to our acute political moment of ecological disaster, information manipulation and interdependency. Jason Gandy creates physical 3D kinetic environments, inside overlooked and underutilized spaces. An oculus allows viewers to view minuscule, internal storytelling portals, reality-defying vignettes that exists inside the piece. These surreal, humorously morbid scenes often use visual distortions and false perspective to exaggerate the peculiarities of their space.

Claudia Hart’s 2D animations on Ipads are drawn from her book, A Child’s Machiavelli: A Primer on Power, which uses a child-like retelling of Machiavelli’s The Prince to interrogate systems of power and patriarchy, providing a lens into how the modern fossil fuel economy has been propped up by the same methods.

Davide Cantoni portrays forced immigration and displacement through his large-scale drawings using pencil and burnt surfaces to create emotional, intimate and contemplative spaces around global scale events that can otherwise seem distant and abstract.

Nancy Burson’s Carbon Head builds on her ground-breaking use of morphing technology in the 1980s to look at the major nuclear powers, now translated to the leaders of the countries most responsible for global warming.

While sounding the alarm, however, Undeniable is fundamentally a show built on hope, in understanding we have the solutions to overcome these crises, if only we can generate the social and political will to implement them. Undeniable aspires to provoke a reaction in its audience, to help them look into the abyss of what we are set to lose, and to move past that horror towards a more mindful, life affirming relationship between humanity and the truly fragile world that sustains us and all creatures on earth. This exhibition is inspired by the book, Being the Change; Live well and Spark a Climate Revolution. by NASA climate scientist and activist, Peter Kalmus.