TO THE FOREFRONT:
An ongoing exploration of sparking engagement with climate change

Anything mentionable is manageable, Tom Hanks says in the 2019 film, 'A Beautiful Day in the Neighbourhood'.
But in order to mention something, it has to have a name, we need to name it.
And what happens if what has been named, is absorbed into a 'new normal' and thus loses its urgency?
We rename it. Climate change became climate disaster became climate catastrophe became climate breakdown. Global warming became global heating became hothouse Earth. And still, we don't know for sure if climate disaster and global heating are the issues that are at the forefront of our world leader's minds.
What can we do to ensure that these issues do not lose their urgency and are top priority for our governments? The ongoing exploration of sparking engagement with climate change is an ongoing exploration of renaming, reframing, constantly re-presenting - a constant bringing to the forefront, especially in the face of narrowing protest laws and ever-increasing social media baiting for our attention causing us to be desensitised and overwhelmed; diminishing our capacity to really care. The 'how' in 'how do we bring the issues that matter now to the forefront?', needs to be explored on an ongoing basis through different media and outputs - using aesthetics not as a question of beautification, but of the sensible.

By blending a well known image from the Western art canon with a fairly recent image of heavy flooding in Germany (Ahrweiler), I aim to penetrate the visual collective memory and shake up the viewer's passive acceptance of the role of non-thinking spectator: Your disk is full? Well, this will burn itself into your memory space. In fact, it is made to squat there rent free. Try looking away when it's part of your memory.
The image is made to be widely distributed and publicly displayed to create urgency around the matter with world leaders.

The work was recently on display at Deptford X Fringe 2022.