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This 2015 Original Creative Work exhibited 12 mixed media artworks about anthropogenic global warming (AGW), at Armidale's Woodlands Centre, an event of ANZSEE's Conference, 'Thriving Through Transformation' & SLA's 'Road to Paris' campaign. AGW is widely regarded as the planet's gravest problem, yet the necessary mass mitigation actions are yet to happen, partly because traditional scientific & political communication is not adequate alone for this unprecedented challenge. The arts can effectively raise awareness of the problems; stimulate solutions-based reflection, discussion & action at individual & community levels; & bring beauty & optimism to a disturbing issue. Featuring artworks created over 10 years, with multiple layers & possible interpretations, synthesising pictorially the artist's AGW research since 1984, it conveyed complex information in innovative & aesthetically-pleasing ways, covering interconnected themes such as individual responsibility for AGW; personal empowerment; the nature of social change; energy & food consumption; transport; colonialism, Aboriginal dispossession & their environmental impacts; emotional & psychological responses to AGW; intergenerational equity; steady state instead of growth-based economics; political choices; civil disobedience; & noncooperation, divestment & ethical investment. Significantly, the project overcame barriers to engagement with AGW mitigation planning, including inaccessibility of technical information, complexity, apathy, feelings of powerlessness, activist burnout, & 'issue fatigue'. It brought 130 people & a school art class to an eco-venue to reflect collectively on action options; generate new concepts & understandings with practical applications; & dramatise EcoArts Australis & Armidale Tree Group's role in combatting biodiversity loss (& raising $1155). It publicised the Paris climate summit, using traditional & social media. |
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