#Earth Day
2022.04.21
Art That Imagines the Future, Envisions the Future of Sustainable Development
About Ki-chang Kim
The author of novels Monaco, Bangkok, and a collection of short stories, Love in the Time of Climate Change. Ki-chang Kim participated in the Seoul International Writer’s Festival 2021 hosted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea under the theme, Awakening.
The author of novels Monaco, Bangkok, and a collection of short stories, Love in the Time of Climate Change. Ki-chang Kim participated in the Seoul International Writer’s Festival 2021 hosted by the Literature Translation Institute of Korea under the theme, Awakening.
Breath, East Haddam, Connecticut, USA 2009
Exhibition: Bonggi Park: Once More at Gyeongnam Art Museum
April 22 is Earth Day. Earth Day has its roots in a massive oil spill that happened in California in 1969. One year later, on July 22, Senator Gaylord Nelson and a Harvard University student Denis Hayes together proclaimed the day as Earth Day in a rally. The Korean Government designated Climate Change Week starting in 2009 and has held an official event every year ever since.
Living things cannot exist without the natural environment like mountains, ocean, water, and air. The Earth has always been the origin of all living things and will continue to be so in the future. In that regard, we can reflect on past mistakes of forgetting the value of the Earth by celebrating it on a day specially designated for just that purpose. Earth Day also highlights the fact that the Earth’s natural environment is being destroyed at an alarming rate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes headlines every time it is published because it describes the fate of the Earth. According to the 6th IPCC report published last year, we need to slash the net greenhouse gas emissions by up to 43% by 2030 and by up to 84% by 2050 to limit the rise of the average temperature on Earth to below 1.5˚C. This means that 1.5˚C and the year 2050 are the temperature and time that mark the point of no return if humanity fails to adjust the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. April 21, 1.5˚C and the year 2050 are the numbers that we must never forget if we long for a sustainable future.
Living things cannot exist without the natural environment like mountains, ocean, water, and air. The Earth has always been the origin of all living things and will continue to be so in the future. In that regard, we can reflect on past mistakes of forgetting the value of the Earth by celebrating it on a day specially designated for just that purpose. Earth Day also highlights the fact that the Earth’s natural environment is being destroyed at an alarming rate.
The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes headlines every time it is published because it describes the fate of the Earth. According to the 6th IPCC report published last year, we need to slash the net greenhouse gas emissions by up to 43% by 2030 and by up to 84% by 2050 to limit the rise of the average temperature on Earth to below 1.5˚C. This means that 1.5˚C and the year 2050 are the temperature and time that mark the point of no return if humanity fails to adjust the amount of greenhouse gas emissions. April 21, 1.5˚C and the year 2050 are the numbers that we must never forget if we long for a sustainable future.
Blurring of the Seasons
The Cover Image of Love in the Time of Climate Change
I went to a classical music performance titled 2050: Blurring of the Seasons. The piece performed was an arrangement of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, and to my surprise, it was done by AI with the concerto being based on the data forecasting the climate conditions on Earth in 2050. What differences and similarities would there be between the landscape Vivaldi saw at the time he wrote Four Seasons and the landscape we’d encounter in 2050?
The planet’s four seasons will not disappear as long as the Earth continues to revolve on a tilted axis. Nevertheless, the spring of 2050 might be bleak like a freezing and soggy winter. Likewise, the summer that comes way earlier than before might be a continuous series of tropical nights and heat waves. Autumn might last just a week, and winter might become an endless downpour of snow and rain spells.
Here, I described what the seasons “might become,” but the AI said what it believed the four seasons “will be” in the arrangement of the music. The harmony that revealed the radiance of spring and exuberance of autumn was substantially reduced, while the ominous sound of percussion was added in the summer and winter section to produce a sense of discord that was not found in the original music, thus amplifying the fierceness and coarseness in each season. Even so, the version played in Korea was not the worst. This classical music performance was given in multiple parts of the world, and they used different climate data for the arrangement in each region. As a result, the autumn part disappeared altogether in one area, while only stony silence was heard in another area throughout the running time because it completely disappeared from the world due to the rise in sea level. In fact, you don’t even need to imagine the year 2050. The weather conditions during the past several years were strikingly different from the previous years. The average global temperature that is breaking records every year clearly demonstrates this.
What would a blurring of the seasons mean to us? In the collection of short stories on climate crisis, Love in the Time of Climate Change, I incorporated an excerpt from Goethe’s autobiography in the introduction:
“All comfort in life is based upon a regular recurrence of external things. The change of day and night, of the seasons, of flowers and fruits.”
A world with less spring and autumn, being dominated by summer and winter, means that only the half of our joy exists. But then, would we be able to take full pleasure in that one half of the joy? The storms and floods that have grown, wildfires sweeping the world, heavy snow that paralyzes various communication facilities, and road traffic. They will not end just by making some people go through ordeals. Without a dramatic turnaround in modern human practices, we will be met by dystopian seasons in the future that you don’t even want to imagine. This explains why there are now many artworks that disapprove of modern civilizations and imagine a sustainable future. This shows that humanity must learn to feel, think, and act differently to avoid catastrophe.
The planet’s four seasons will not disappear as long as the Earth continues to revolve on a tilted axis. Nevertheless, the spring of 2050 might be bleak like a freezing and soggy winter. Likewise, the summer that comes way earlier than before might be a continuous series of tropical nights and heat waves. Autumn might last just a week, and winter might become an endless downpour of snow and rain spells.
Here, I described what the seasons “might become,” but the AI said what it believed the four seasons “will be” in the arrangement of the music. The harmony that revealed the radiance of spring and exuberance of autumn was substantially reduced, while the ominous sound of percussion was added in the summer and winter section to produce a sense of discord that was not found in the original music, thus amplifying the fierceness and coarseness in each season. Even so, the version played in Korea was not the worst. This classical music performance was given in multiple parts of the world, and they used different climate data for the arrangement in each region. As a result, the autumn part disappeared altogether in one area, while only stony silence was heard in another area throughout the running time because it completely disappeared from the world due to the rise in sea level. In fact, you don’t even need to imagine the year 2050. The weather conditions during the past several years were strikingly different from the previous years. The average global temperature that is breaking records every year clearly demonstrates this.
What would a blurring of the seasons mean to us? In the collection of short stories on climate crisis, Love in the Time of Climate Change, I incorporated an excerpt from Goethe’s autobiography in the introduction:
“All comfort in life is based upon a regular recurrence of external things. The change of day and night, of the seasons, of flowers and fruits.”
A world with less spring and autumn, being dominated by summer and winter, means that only the half of our joy exists. But then, would we be able to take full pleasure in that one half of the joy? The storms and floods that have grown, wildfires sweeping the world, heavy snow that paralyzes various communication facilities, and road traffic. They will not end just by making some people go through ordeals. Without a dramatic turnaround in modern human practices, we will be met by dystopian seasons in the future that you don’t even want to imagine. This explains why there are now many artworks that disapprove of modern civilizations and imagine a sustainable future. This shows that humanity must learn to feel, think, and act differently to avoid catastrophe.
Attempts Made for a Coexistence of Humans and Nature
Breath, Noosa Heads, Queensland, Australia, 2005
Exhibition: Bonggi Park: Once More at Gyeongnam Art Museum
At a time when people believed that art was an imitation of nature, artists admired nature’s beauty, while at the same time fearing its cruelty. Dream Journey to the Peach Blossom Land by An Gyeon illustrates the Taoist utopia with a spellbinding landscape, while Snow Storm by William Turner depicts the overwhelming grandeur of the waves in a snowstorm faced by a steamboat in the sea. Art was an excellent means of expressing how small we are or how humble we are before nature and how it causes us to watch in awe.
As the modern world matured, such humility was lost. When the thought that nature could be conquered became prevalent, artists began to follow suit and began making artworks that cut out, tear off, and erase nature as they would with colored papers. Just look at the buildings that crush down on nature and sculptures made from all kinds of synthetic materials and plastic, and dazzling decoration lights that blind us hiding the stars in the night sky. The piles of trash that remain after exhibitions are also serious problems. The modern era was the time when art itself was the major culprit of environmental issues.
As the modern world matured, such humility was lost. When the thought that nature could be conquered became prevalent, artists began to follow suit and began making artworks that cut out, tear off, and erase nature as they would with colored papers. Just look at the buildings that crush down on nature and sculptures made from all kinds of synthetic materials and plastic, and dazzling decoration lights that blind us hiding the stars in the night sky. The piles of trash that remain after exhibitions are also serious problems. The modern era was the time when art itself was the major culprit of environmental issues.
Bonggi Park, the artist, 2009
Then the present day came when we began to question the sustainability of living things on Earth due to the climate crisis. What can artists do about this? Looking at the current situation, artists seem to have reached a conclusion that humankind’s way of life is actually the problem that must be reexamined.
A group of artists, led by Robert Rauschenberg, who actively used old scraps of materials in his painting, paid attention to industrial waste like crushed car parts and torn tires to introduce junk art, an art trend that became popular after the 1950s. In addition, about 600 artists around the world have joined the EcoArt Project, which began in 2009 in Italy, and have created works that use plastic bottles, coastal waste, and vinyl bags to shine a spotlight on climate change, environment pollution, forests, clean energy, recycling, and sustainable development. In 2014, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson made an installation, Ice Watch, using large blocks of melting ice cast off from the Greenland ice sheet, in Copenhagen, at City Hall Square, to warn the world about global warming. Companies have also joined the global movement. They are not only taking part in RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative, but also actively supporting and collaborating with environmental artists. These activities are all sending a clear message: we cannot talk about sustainability of life on Earth without recognizing the problems of modern human practices, as symbolized by things like past lifestyles and non-degradable plastic.
A group of artists, led by Robert Rauschenberg, who actively used old scraps of materials in his painting, paid attention to industrial waste like crushed car parts and torn tires to introduce junk art, an art trend that became popular after the 1950s. In addition, about 600 artists around the world have joined the EcoArt Project, which began in 2009 in Italy, and have created works that use plastic bottles, coastal waste, and vinyl bags to shine a spotlight on climate change, environment pollution, forests, clean energy, recycling, and sustainable development. In 2014, Danish artist Olafur Eliasson made an installation, Ice Watch, using large blocks of melting ice cast off from the Greenland ice sheet, in Copenhagen, at City Hall Square, to warn the world about global warming. Companies have also joined the global movement. They are not only taking part in RE100, the global corporate renewable energy initiative, but also actively supporting and collaborating with environmental artists. These activities are all sending a clear message: we cannot talk about sustainability of life on Earth without recognizing the problems of modern human practices, as symbolized by things like past lifestyles and non-degradable plastic.
Today’s Art Imagining the Future
Olivia Laing, a British cultural critic and an essayist, wrote her book Funny Weather to question “how art forms a relationship with resistance and recovery” in these times of climate crisis. Regarding a pessimistic view that art cannot change reality, she says, “Art is a training ground for possibilities.” She thinks that art holds the power for people to imagine a potential future that is on the right track. As if responding to Laing’s manifesto, numerous artists and museums are now recognizing the imminent crisis looming on the horizon and are thus producing artworks and exhibitions that portray a better future. The shows scheduled for this spring and summer will be great opportunities to check the direction humankind should take.
The Seoul Museum of Art Namseoul (SeMA) is holding a solo exhibition of Chankyung Sung, a poet, sculptor, and a performance artist, titled Chankyung Sung in Cheonggeumru. Sung Chankyung is an artist who has criticized development-oriented civilizations since 1960s and 70s. The exhibition consists of many parts, including Cheonggeumru, named after the handwriting of a civil official from the late Chosun dynasty, Ikhwe Lee, which was handed down in his family from his ancestors, and Pleasantly Prayed, which was created by transforming his own home where he displayed discarded objects intended to make the viewers think back on the downside of material civilization. The show is being held from March 24 through May 29, 2022.
The Seoul Museum of Art Namseoul (SeMA) is holding a solo exhibition of Chankyung Sung, a poet, sculptor, and a performance artist, titled Chankyung Sung in Cheonggeumru. Sung Chankyung is an artist who has criticized development-oriented civilizations since 1960s and 70s. The exhibition consists of many parts, including Cheonggeumru, named after the handwriting of a civil official from the late Chosun dynasty, Ikhwe Lee, which was handed down in his family from his ancestors, and Pleasantly Prayed, which was created by transforming his own home where he displayed discarded objects intended to make the viewers think back on the downside of material civilization. The show is being held from March 24 through May 29, 2022.
Exhibition: Chankyung Sung in Cheonggeumru at the Seoul Museum of Art Namseoul (photo by Kiyong Nam)
Untitled, parts from discarded bike and fan, 48.8 x 16.5 x 16.9 inch, the 2000s
The National Museum of Modern and Contemporary Art, Korea will hold the MMCA Multidisciplinary Art 2022: Carbon Project between June and October this year to examine how the modern art museum should behave and act in the age of Anthropocene and carbon neutrality. In the era where sustainability has emerged as a hot topic, questioning the purpose of achieving sustainability and checking the processes needed to bring about sustainability are as important as overcoming the current crisis itself. MMCA will reportedly measure the amount of carbon emitted during the show and analyze its environmental impact to look back on the present state of the museum based on the values of environmental, social and governance.
Bonggi Park, the artist, 2022
Gyeongnam Art Museum is holding Bonggi Park: Once More, a show by Bonggi Park between April 8 and June 26, 2022, an artist who has been active for 35 years in Korea and abroad. He creates sculptures that are primarily made from natural objects like bamboo trees and rice straws. As if raising the alarm about waste from exhibitions by many artists and museums, his sculptures faithfully fulfill the intention of the show, which is “to examine the challenges of the era (of ecological crisis) presented to us,” by being disassembled and going back to nature once the exhibition ends.
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