Cape Farewell - Art & Climate Change

London, Liverpool, Hamburg, Madrid, Tokyo 

2006 / 2007 / 2008 and continuing

Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey, Kathy Barber, David Buckland, Peter Clegg, Siobhan Davies, Gautier Deblonde, Max Eastley, Nick Edwards, Antony Gormley, Alex Hartley, David Hinton, Gary Hume, Ian McEwan, Michèle Noach, Rachel Whiteread

Cape Farewell's Art & Climate Change, created in partnership with the Natural History Museum in 2006, is a free exhibition of contemporary art, designed to deepen our understanding of climate change. Originally shown in the Natural History Museum's Jerwood Gallery, the exhibition offers a unique insight into the experiences of artists and writers who, over the last five years have traveled to the High Arctic with Cape Farewell. The exhibition has since been shown as part of the Liverpool Biennial 2006 and in Hamburg 2007.

The Barbican Art Gallery International Programme now manages the exhibition’s international tour, bringing Art & Climate Change to a worldwide audience. The tour launched in February 2008 at the Fundacion Canal in Madrid, and with interest from a whole host of international venues, is expected to tour for 5 years.

The creation of Art & Climate Change was made possible with support from Arts Council England, Cape Farewell's major arts funder, the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, The Bromley Trust, Toshiba, IXOS and plusequals. 

Current International Tour

In July 2008 the exhibition opened to Tokyo's National Museum of Emerging Science and Innovation; the Mirakain.  The opening on 5 July coincided with the G8 conference in Hokkaido and was attended by Sarah Brown.  With an immense response in the national media and over 1400 visitors during its opening day we hope the exhibition will be a huge success in Japan.  The exhibition closes on 17 August.
See more on the Miraikan's website ›

Check back soon for further details of Art & Climate Change’s continued tour or join the mailing list and we'll keep you informed about the latest exhibitions and events.

The Exhibition

Through photography, film and video, sound and painting each artwork is a personal response to the effects of changing weather patterns, disappearing ice, rising sea levels, alterations in biodiversity and the build-up of toxic chemicals in the seemingly pristine landscape of the Arctic.

For Stranded, Heather Ackroyd & Dan Harvey retrieved the bones from a carcass of a minke whale beached near Skegness. Creating a 6 metre long sculpture using the entire whale skeleton they applied a special crystallisation process encrusting the bones with alum crystals. In the gallery the sculpture is displayed on a low illuminated plinth. The precious fragility of the sculpture enhances the importance of the whale and how it acts as a barometer in a complex marine environment.

Working with fashion designer Jonathan Saunders, Siobhan Davies has created a projection, Endangered Species. A tiny woman dances gracefully inside a museum display case, her movements exaggerated by a costume of long bending rods that increase in number as her dance progresses. Whilst at first they liberate by extending the boundaries of her body, the many rods eventually restrict and finally extinguish her small life form.

David Buckland exhibits his glacial Ice Texts alongside The End of Ice - a large-scale video projection of the 42-minute demise of an iceberg.

Nymark (Undiscovered Island), Alex Hartley's photographic piece echoes the journeys of the early Arctic explorers in describing the process of finding and naming a 'new' island; one only uncovered in the last five years by a retreating glacier. The Svalbard Series, Gautier Deblonde's photo-essay documents the stark vagaries of human existence in the High Arctic.

Other works include photographic representation of Antony Gormley and Peter Clegg's Three Made Places, an ice work created in the High Arctic, and Gary Hume's Hermaphrodite Polar Bear. Resonating eerily through the gallery is Ice Field, Max Eastley's soundwork of cracking, melting ice.

Previous Venues

Following its opening at the Natural History Museum, the exhibition was shown at multiple venues during the Liverpool Biennial 2006. In 2007 Cape Farewell traveled to the vast industrial space of Kampnagel Cultural Centre, Hamburg. Here, a series of artists' talks and events took place alongside the exhibition, including a discussion at the Bucerius Law School between novelist Ian McEwan, Professor John Schnellnhuber and David Buckland. Use the links below to find out more about previous venues and the upcoming tour, including details of related events that take place alongside each exhibition.