If Art Could Raise An Alarm For Climate Change

A solo exhibition titled 바카라�Deep Within바카라� (Arushi Arts) by Delhi-based artist Roy Thomas addressed the fast-changing climate conditions, what he calls the 바카라�anxieties바카라� of possible realities. Using the oil medium, he invites us to bear witness to a hypothetical world within the depths of the ocean and compels us to look within ourselves and question our neglect towards nature and society. 

For the past few years, artists around the world have been overcompensating for the lost time with dozens of art shows confronting climate change. Why now? Maybe, it is because of the rampant wildfires and heatwaves, or because of the unpredictable weather conditions. The truth is that artists have realised the need to address the issue directly and now. While some choose to rail against the societal indifferences explicitly, others prefer to be more subtle.

Roy focuses on some of the most famous sculptures from around the world, historical and contemporary. In one of his paintings, we see the Statue of Liberty submerged in the ocean with an anchor reaching it and divers swimming around it. Befittingly, he calls it the 바카라�Unliberated ocean". In his version of a forgotten Michelangelo바카라�s La Pieta, we see Jesus and Mary sunken in the bedrocks; in Auguste Rodin바카라�s famous nude bronze The Thinker contemplating in the deep waters as light casts a halo on him.

바카라�The things we celebrate right now calling them the most precious, whether an idol or an object or a building. Whatever it is, it has an age after which it will disappear before our eyes,바카라� Roy says. 바카라�Be it Michaelangelo바카라�s sculptures or Didarganj Yakshi, right now these are the sculptures which are very precious to us. We keep them in museums. But can go underwater due to the fast-changing climate and due to global warming. Those who have the knowledge, are very seriously discussing it.바카라�

An art graduate from Thiruvananthapuram, Kerala, and a postgraduate from the College of Art, Delhi, Thomas has been painting for as early as he can remember. Over the past three decades, he has conducted many art shows across continents and won several accolades for it. He draws inspiration from history, contemporary and spirituality, and connects it with the hyperrealities of our lives.

바카라�I read about the Statue of Liberty going underwater in some 23,000 years. And look how tall it is. Imagine the rise in water level for that to happen. That바카라�s when I thought I바카라�d paint these sculptures underwater,바카라� Roy says.

Roy바카라�s paintings often address many burning issues. 바카라�Everything is political,바카라� he says, adding that although sometimes he approaches a painting with a newspaper clipping in his mind, other times it just happens to become a topic of political discussion. 바카라�More than the political, my concern is about humanity. I feel that it is very normal, considering the world around us and I am just very aware of it. My paintings are not to show whose side I바카라�m on but rather about my ideology which is something more humanitarian,바카라� he elaborates.

The Deep Within collection also showcased Roy바카라�s version of the lion capital from Ashoka바카라�s period submerged to the ocean floor; the statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Gautam Buddha, and that of BR Ambedkar, fallen into the abyssal depths. Like their fading ideologies, what if their statues are also forgotten?

Environmentalist Bill McKibben, in an op-ed in Grist, made some of the most striking points about global warming. He says, 바카라�If the scientists are right, we바카라�re living through the biggest thing that바카라�s happened since human civilization emerged바카라�But oddly, though we know about it, we don바카라�t know about it. It hasn바카라�t registered in our gut; it isn바카라�t part of our culture.바카라�

In 2015, for his solo exhibition titled 바카라�Uninterrupted Tales바카라�, Roy made a pointed political statement with a central theme of innocence against the backdrop of peace and violence, jungle and civilisation. One of his paintings in that collection was of a newborn sleeping on shattered glass in the Gaza conflict zone. When asked if he chooses to juxtapose this sense of calmness with such grave issues, Roy says that he simply presents the spiritual nature of the objects he is representing. However, he makes a poignant remark questioning the need for violent arguments. 바카라�We need more peaceful talks. We need negotiations through discussions.바카라� 

Perhaps, art can also be that platform to negotiate through discussions. Many artists around the world have tried to build a climate consciousness among their audience through their art. In 2018, at Times Square, New York City, a climate-change scenarios art project showed how the city would look by 2100 when water levels are expected to rise by up to six feet. Through a downloadable app, Mel Chin바카라�s 바카라�Unmoored바카라� makes people look up through their phones to experience an incoming flotilla of boats around existing buildings, creating a nautical traffic jam.

Other famous artists who address climate change through their art include Icelandic artist Olafur Eliasson, who creates completely immersive installations to make viewers re-connect with their natural environment; Stacy Levvy and her large-scale sculptural works that focus on ecological degradation and environmental issues; Cai Guo Qiang, who is known for his innovative and politically charged installations to examine the societal problems of his homeland; and many others.

All these artists, who have understood the gravity of the matter, have only one thing to tell their audience: we바카라�re losing time. The world we see before us is dying. We need to register it in our imaginations, and art can only help so much with that. In McKibben바카라�s words: 바카라�Therefore, it falls to those of us alive now to watch and record its flora, its fauna, its rains, its snow, its ice, its peoples. To document the buzzing, glorious, cruel, mysterious planet we were born onto, before in our carelessness we leave it far less sweet.바카라�