Art in Times of Climate Change

Art in Times of Climate Change highlights artworks in EVA’s history that have explored themes of climate change.

It is now common knowledge that the climate and biodiversity crises have become emergencies. Since EVA began in 1977, the average global temperature has increased significantly, threatening the extinction of a million plant and animal species. Natural disasters are common and weather anomalies don’t seem as strange anymore. Those in developing countries are most likely to suffer from the effects of climate change, and some populations of the world are expected to migrate significantly as entire regions become uninhabitable.

This is hard to imagine, and scary. So, how can art help us? In 2021, the UN Climate Change Conference, COP26, was held in Glasgow. The College of Arts at the University of Glasgow created a Sustainability Working Group that commissioned a number of artists to make work in response to the climate emergency, to be presented alongside the conference. Dr Minty Donald, Professor of Contemporary Performance Practice at the University of Glasgow, commented that the arts ‘play an important role in helping us imagine alternative ways of being, and what could be possible in a better, healthier and more sustainable world’.

Over the years, many artists participating in EVA have taken up this baton. The works presented in various editions of EVA have addressed a number of ecologically sensitive themes, including threatened biodiversity, pollution and toxicity, our dependency on water and the need to respect oceans and rivers, food availability and scarcity, genetic modification of crops, rubbish accumulation and disposal, material circularity, urban nature, ecological decline, environmental and social injustice relating to climate change, climate imbalance and climate activism.

While all of these works were only temporary presentations and are no longer viewable at these venues, they represent a historical roadmap of ideas and efforts by contemporary artists to give visibility to climate change.

– Caelan Bristow (2022)

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Caelan Bristow is a registered architect and member of the RIAI. Her work specialises in ecological and sustainable approaches to building design. She is a graduate of Bath University’s M.Sc. in Architectural Engineering & Environmental Design, has studied in Sci. Arc. California and the AA in London, and has a B.A. from the American University in Paris. Recently completed work includes the energy upgrade of Dance Limerick’s  performance space located in the 18th-century St John’s Church and the design of the Cloughjordan Amphitheatre roof canopy and entrance complex.

Prior to establishing her practice, Bristow’s experience includes working with Regeneration Partnership in UK; as a freelance designer; with Mackel & Doherty Architects, Belfast and with Solearth Ecological Architects, where she acted as project architect on the Cloughjordan Eco Village master plan. She also has extensive artwork commissions including curating and running of exhibitions and workshops. In 2009 she was project manager and lead designer for the Student Art & Design show at Ulster University Belfast. In 2015, she managed the Irish Showcase at Dutch Design Week 2015.