The project, which Buckland inaugurated after realizing there was “no imagery for climate change,” aims to give audiences as well as artists new ways of grasping environmental issues. After joining a trip in 2005, Booker Prize-winning novelist Ian McEwan published reflective essays one of which notes that out in the frozen fjords, with the “pure air and sunlit beauty, we find ourselves in a state of near constant euphoria.” Another alumnus, contemporary-dance choreographer Siobhan Davis, created “Endangered Species,” an energetic 2006 performance-art piece that ends with the character’s extinction. Buckland’s own works include projections of words like “Sadness Melts” on walls of sea ice. Cape Farewell art has been made into a book and a documentary, and has been shown in exhibits around the world. This year’s journey will include a TV crew and writer Vikram Seth, who is expected to blog on the trip.
At other forums, artists work even more closely with climate researchers. Oxford University’s Environmental Change Institute hosts an annual conference to bring together top scientists and artists; after the 2005 meeting, British architect Peter Clegg built dramatic silos of ice blocks based on computations of each person’s carbon emissions. The Sharjah art biennale, scheduled from April to June in the United Arab Emirates, chose the environment as its motif this year. Among the most striking works: “Cloud,” a 27-by-42-meter canopy made up of more than 16,000 sheets of recycled paper. Finnish artist Tea Makipaa, who works in Germany, is actually attempting to live by the rules outlined in her Sharjah piece “10 Commandments for the 21st Century.” Part performance art and part concept art, her manifesto (recycle, do not fly, etc.) is depicted through postcards, posters and a public diary of her efforts to keep the commandments. She has already adapted her lifestyle in accordance with the work: she plans to reach Sharjah without taking a single plane.
