Cries of the Anthropocene: Creative Practice in response to climate change

Visual Art Exhibition Review | Brian Rope

Cries of the Anthropocene: Creative Practice in response to climate change - Various Creative Practice Circle members

The Chapel, Australian Centre for Christianity and Culture (15 Blackall St, Barton, ACT, Australia)

2 – 24 April 2025, 10 am - 3 pm, Wed – Sat (closed Easter weekend)

After a successful exhibition at Wagga, Cries from the Anthropocene is now in Canberra. From poetry to painted car bonnets, the exhibition reflects growing concern about climate change. Creatives from Beechworth to Bathurst and in between (including in Canberra) have joined in response to climate change and its effect on us in their parts of Australia and the world.

The Creative Practice Circle is a network of creative and performing arts practitioners and researchers, born out of Charles Sturt University in 2016. The group meets regularly via Zoom and shares what is happening in the worlds of the members. One of the common threads holding them together is concern for the planet and all its inhabitants. How can they, as concerned creatives, help encourage everyone to act in the face of climate change? The Circle’s research theme for 2024-25 is “Cries from the Anthropocene – How might we respond?” Just one of the suggested research questions was: How might the arts intersect with the grief and anxiety of living in the Anthropocene?

The artworks are very diverse. There are hand-stitched stories which speak to issues of habitat. A variety of artwork media note the decline of the iconic Bogong Moth. Poetry makes the language and issues of the climate crisis accessible. Call to action posters provide ideas and information about small actions they can be taken to address climate change. Here is a selection of installation images that I took at the show to provide readers with a visual idea of the diverse artworks. 

Hazel Francis – Our Paths with Nature - Postcards

Frank Prem – I sing (a car a train an aeroplane)

 Scan the QR code on the above image and have a listen.

Donna Caffrey – Cal to Action posters

Claire Baker – broken (n)aimless (mixed media - foam packing sheets, embroidery thread, adhesive dots, broken shells, pebbles, glass splinter, ink)

Dr Tracy Sorensen – The Blue House (work in progress)

And I have to ask, is The Blue House casting a shadow on the wall behind in the form of a church steeple? This work by Sorenson comes with a QR code too (below). Scan it and check out what it reveals about augmented reality.

Detail of one of the Seven books of tears by Barbel Ullrich – tears that are sobs and tears in our world’s fabric. 

These seven huge books are extraordinarily beautiful – and you are allowed to turn the pages to look at them all.   

Toni Hassan – a four-part installation (acrylic on a reclaimed car bonnet, digital photo printed on rag paper with gouache moths on watercolour paper, textile mask with transfer prints and elastic). The part not shown in these images is a 3:47” (looped) stereo channel video.

These (and the other artists represented in this exhibition) are not the only creatives addressing the climate change issues. An article in https://www.researchgate.net/publication/385060095_Artistic_Practices_in_the_Anthropocene reviews Western perspectives (in a fruitful dialogue with non-Western perspectives) regarding the climate emergency and artistic experiences amid the ongoing debate about futures currently at stake in the climate crisis or climate emergency. It suggests, correctly in my view, that if the climate crisis ignited in the Anthropocene is a shared crisis - both political and aesthetic - then art, inseparable from life and hence nature, holds a crucial role in nurturing care and the potency of imagining other possible worlds.

Four years ago, the National Visual Arts Editor of ArtsHub, Gina Fairley, wrote After two summers that couldn’t be more different – from drought and fires to heavy rain – conversations about the Anthropocene, and artist activism around climate change, are ripe for new resolutions. Fairley suggested that a less recited stanza from Dorothea Mackellar’s much loved 1908 poem, My Country, captured the mood of Australia’s climate crisis, 110+ years on:

Core of my heart, my country!

Her pitiless blue sky,

When sick at heart, around us,

We see the cattle die –

But then the grey clouds gather,

And we can bless again

The drumming of an army

The steady, soaking rain.

It is good to see all the artists represented in this exhibition continuing to explore the critically important matter of climate change. Together they have created an excellent exhibition with much to look at, read, view on video, and think deeply about. I strongly encourage all who are able to visit the show in person.

This review is also available on the author's personal blog here.

Into the Forest

Photography | Brian Rope

Into the Forest | Eva van Gorsel and Manuel Pfeiffer

M16 Artspace, Gallery 1b | UNTIL 4 SEPTEMBER 2022

Partners Eva van Gorsel and Manuel Pfeiffer are regular exhibitors at M16 Artspace. Their 2020 joint show Facets exhibited interpretations of the Australian landscape they had seen during a lengthy journey. Their works complemented each other as they revealed the same facets. Then, in 2021, they brought us Congruent-Incongruent using numerous diverse techniques and media to create varied, interesting and pleasing artworks.

Their 2022 exhibition Into the Forest aims to raise awareness of the role our forests have on our planet, our climate and our lives by showcasing the beauty of mostly regional treescapes and woodlands using imagery, sculpture and a sound installation. Along with growing numbers of people around the world, they recognise that the importance of forests cannot be underestimated.

Pfeiffer has a background in earth system sciences, graphic design and arts and shares a deep appreciation of the environment with Van Gorsel who was a principal research scientist in atmospheric sciences before turning to photography. The two artists asked themselves why it is important to show and appreciate the beauty of our natural environment and have offered an answer.

“In science we have pointed out the dangers of climate change before anyone cared to listen. With climate extremes now so extreme that they are getting hard to ignore many more people are aware that urgent action is needed. Many artists were early uptakers of that message. There is a long tradition of showing natures beauty. But many artists now also show the impact our disrespect of nature has on ecosystems. This is important work that is critically needed. But it is key that we do not get lost in despair. That is why we think it is important to show and appreciate the beauty of our natural environment. I think we are at a turning point where it becomes important to again remind us of what we can keep - if only we set our minds and actions to it.”

Van Gorsel’s works here are, perhaps, more traditional than she has shown in their previous two joint exhibitions. They are fine examples of this genre of photography, showing us numerous wonders of nature in our forests – birds, mist, and understory vegetation are just some examples. In every case, the available natural light is used beautifully - as all photographers should strive to do. Monochrome is used sparingly, but to great effect. Shallow focus is used wonderfully in others.

Eva van Gorsel_Into The Forest II_Namadgi

Eva van Gorsel_Mist_Gundagerra NR

Eva van Gorsel_Last Light_Namadgi NP

 

Eva van Gorsel_Aglitter 03

Pfeiffer’s contributions are equally pleasing, showing us the sights of the forests through his chosen media. A set of artworks of trees, bark and fungi using colour pencils on paper are simply lovely, with their wonderfully balanced light and peaceful hues. Others painted with acrylics on canvas, such as Dreaming Xanthorrhoeas, are equally successful.

 

His three pieces using wood are special features in the exhibition. A mixed media piece, The Wise, 2021, is the standout for me. Glass, a suspended small rock gently moving, wood and more combine beautifully into a piece to explore, a piece that also says much about nature.

 

Manuel Pfeiffer_BarkA

 

Manuel Pfeiffer_Dreaming Xanthorrhoeas

Manuel Pfeiffer_At The Coast

All the artworks take us into the artists’ views of nature. They make us feel good – enabling us to see the colours, hear the sounds, smell the scents. All give us some comfort. And they make us want to be amongst the calming effects of forests and connecting directly with nature through our senses, seeking to reduce the gap that we have opened between us and the natural world. This exhibition very much invites us to reflect on how we humans have impacted the natural environment, and to ask ourselves what we as individuals must now do.

This review was published online by The Canberra Times on 30.08.22 here. It is also on the author's blog here.