Moving Towards a Balanced Earth: Kick the Carbon Habit
FEATURES WORLD RENOWNED ARTISTS INCLUDING ANTONIO BRICENO, SUSAN NORRIE,
KEN RINALDO AND AMY YOUNGS
SAN FRANCISCO and WELLINGTON, New Zealand, May 15 /PRNewswire/ -- The
Natural World Museum (NWM), in partnership with the United Nations
Environment Programme (UNEP), revealed today plans for a 2008-2009
traveling exhibit entitled Moving Towards a Balanced Earth: Kick the Carbon
Habit. The exhibit will debut at the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum in Wellington
to commemorate the celebration of UN World Environment Day (WED) on 5 June
2008. For the past 30 years a different country has hosted the WED
celebration; this is the first year Wellington, New Zealand has been the
official host city. As the host of WED 2008, on the theme of "Kick the
Carbon Habit," New Zealand is one of the first countries to pledge a
carbon-neutral future.
Moving Towards a Balanced Earth: Kick the Carbon Habit features the
works of 27 artists representing 20 countries. The contemporary art pieces
all focus on climate change, with an emphasis on lowering carbon emissions.
The thought-provoking exhibition includes photographs, paintings,
sculpture, video, multimedia and conceptual installations.
Each year, NWM and UNEP launch their annual flagship exhibit in honor
of WED -- a principal vehicle through which the United Nations stimulates
awareness of the environment and enhances political action. Each exhibit
focuses on a different environmental issue and utilizes the universal
language of art as a catalyst to raise global awareness as it tours the
world. After New Zealand, the exhibit is scheduled to tour through Latin
America, North America, Asia, and Europe.
Exhibition Curator Randy Jayne Rosenberg states, "Artists are often
described as prophetic, visionaries, and poetic shapers of the world -- one
step ahead of the rest of humanity." In this exhibition, we ask the
participating artists to find new ways to articulate this balance; to help
us find a new vocabulary and through their artworks help us find new
visions and new choices. The show visualizes answers to questions such as:
How do we get the Earth in balance? What does balance look like? What does
it feel like? How will we know when we're there?
Pieces in the exhibition include: Notes from Havoc, an installation
from Australian video installation artist Susan Norrie, exploring one of
the worst environmental disasters in Java when an earthquake ruptured an
oil and gas well; Farm Fountain, from collaborators Ken Rinaldo and Amy
Youngs, (both Professors of Art at Ohio State University) whose
installations encourage active, self-determined relationships with a work
of art and the coupling between human, machine, nature and culture;
Venezuelan photographer, Antonio Briceno, who brings to Wellington his Gods
of America series, a long-term project that documents gods and shamans from
South America and North America.
Participating artists include: AES & F Group, Ken Aptekar, Lise Bjorne,
Lien Botha, Antonio Briceno, Enrique Martinez Celaya, Alison Clouston, Bill
Culbert and Ralph Hotere, Geoff Dixon, Chris Drury, Mounir Fatmi, Peter
Fend, Isa Genzken, Ilya and Emilia Kabakov, Walangari Karntawarra, Ik-Joong
Kang, Gabriela Morawetz, Susan Norrie, Jun Nguyen-Hatsushiba, Susan Plum,
Ken Rinaldo and Amy Youngs, Alexis Rockman, Harriet Russell, Soledad
Salame, Lars Siltberg, Cyprien Tokoudagba, and Bill Viola.
"With a focus on lowering carbon emissions, we hope this exhibit will
contribute to a shift in visitors' attitudes toward the environment, and in
the consumer choices they make," said Mia Hanak, the Founding Executive
Director of the Natural World Museum. "Let us use this time around UN World
Environment Day to each do our part in helping turn the tide of public
awareness and promote positive action around climate change."
The 2007-2008 international exhibition, Melting Ice / A Hot Topic:
Envisioning Change, focused on climate change, specifically melting ice
caps, to coincide with last year's WED theme. The exhibit will directly
reach a projected one million viewers upon completion of the tour. It
kicked off its tour in Oslo at the Nobel Peace Center during UN WED in June
2007, and then traveled to the BOZAR Centre for Fine Arts in Brussels, then
moved to Monaco, and is now housed in the Field Museum in Chicago, USA,
where it will remain through September 1, 2008.
NWM has partnered with UNEP since 2005 through the global "Art for the
Environment" initiative, a curatorial program that utilizes the universal
language of art to unite people in action and thought on a broad spectrum
of environmental topics. NWM has produced the traveling exhibit Moving
Towards a Balanced Earth: Kick the Carbon Habit as part of the "Art For the
Environment" program.
Achim Steiner, UN Under Secretary General and Executive Director, UN
Environment Programme (UNEP), said: "If, as they say, a picture is worth a
thousand words the Kick the Carbon Habit exhibition will surely be worth
thousands of tonnes in avoided greenhouse gas emissions as a result of
visitors inspired to personal action by the powerful art works in the
Natural World Museum's exhibit hosted at the Te Papa Museum and eventually
at galleries across the world."
Te Papa is pleased to unveil this year's new traveling exhibition in
New Zealand, marking its involvement in the joint efforts focused on the
role of art in changing behavior in order to help safeguard the
environment.
"There is no issue more topical than the concern about the well-being
of this planet and the responsibility we have collectively to ensure its
future for our children. Te Papa is very pleased to host this coming
together of art and environmental issues, in an exhibition that explores
our relationship with the Earth," said Dr Seddon Bennington, Te Papa's
Chief Executive.
There will be a media preview for the exhibition on 4 June between 11am
and 1pm. Media can contact the Te Papa public relations office at 0064 4
381 7083 for more information and to RSVP.
DOWNLOAD IMAGES AND MORE INFO AT:
http://www.naturalworldmuseum.org/press/co2
SOURCE The Natural World Museum
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Related links:
http://www.naturalworldmuseum.org/press/co2
CONTACT:
Natural World Museum Media Contacts: Kristen
Foster, or Erica Gerard, Erica.Gerard@pmkhbh.com, of PMK-HBH,
+1-212-373-6108; or Yvonne Schellerup, NWM, +1-415-420-1642,
yvonne@naturalworldmuseum.org; or Te Papa Contacts: Paul Brewer,
+0064-4-381-7023, paulb@tepapa.govt.nz, or Jane Keig,
+0064-4-381-7083, janek@tepapa.govt.nz
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