Local artist joins global day of action against climate change.
Tired
of the inaction, global arts initiative Micro Galleries held their second
global day of creative action in response to one of the biggest threats of our
generation. Occurring on to coincide with the United Nations Climate
Change conference (COP26) in Glasgow this project will bring together artists from all over the world to
tackle climate inaction head on.
The
idea was born after Micro Galleries Artistic Director, Kat Roma Greer spent
time researching in The Arctic and at Al Gore’s Climate Reality Leadership
Corps in late 2018. Kat saw a need for more accessible information about how
climate disruption and inaction was impacting the world's most vulnerable people.
When Kat put the call out for artists to join her, Tara Chadwick answered the call.
This month and next, the effect of
seasonal "king tides" is creating a climate disaster in the form of
visible flooding and invisible salt water intrusion into our soil and water
table along the banks of this river which have been used for thousands of years
by humans seeking to live a good, healthy life. This river has been deemed
unusable for human contact several times over the past three to five years due
to chronic overdevelopment and problematic decision making on the part of those
responsible for ensuring safe and effective infrastructure. We must, as
citizens of Mother earth, intervene now to ensure that the trajectory of our
species is altered to realign with the geometry of nature. – Tara Chadwick.
Tara
Chadwick and Micro Galleries see the need for more accessible information about
how climate disruption and inaction is impacting all of us, and art is a great
way to do this. An opinion supported by Bill McKibben, best known as the
leading American environmentalist’s and ‘world’s best green journalist’. When
Bill heard about this global day of art action in 2019, he threw his support
behind it stating, ‘environmentalists are
good at bar graphs and statistical tables.. but that’s only half of the human
brain. We also need art and music to reach our more visceral core. That’s why
this initiative from Micro Galleries is so vital.’
Tara Chadwick’s works streamed live over 24
hours, and will be included in an online exhibition and catalogue at
www.microgalleries.org
To find out how you can support this day of
action and watch the art unfold, head to https://microgalleries.org/program
End
About
The Artist
Tara
is an Indigenous woman, a member of the African Diaspora, a grandchild of the
Maya and Mesoamerican People of Belize, Mexico and Central America and of the
original people of the land we now know as Western Europe. It is her vision
that we can all return to a life of harmony with the cycles of nature.
You can see Tara’s latest work at The
Missing Paart in Wynwood during Art Miami Week and in “Neo.Rev,” a city wide
public art exhibition by Save Art Space from Nov. 22 to Dec. 18. Later this
winter, Tara will be launching “Proyecto Papalotl,” engaging Golden Age Adults
in the art of Mesoamerican Danza, made possible with support from the Broward
County Cultural Division and sponsored in part by the State of Florida,
Department of State, Division of Arts and Culture and the Florida Council on
Arts and Culture.
Updates and details at taraalomachadwick.blogspot.com or www.instagram.com/wabigun.
About
Micro Galleries
Micro Galleries is a free, independent
global arts initiative that uses art as a vehicle to create positive change. We
do this through creative interventions in public spaces, workshops, art tours,
symposiums, think tanks, and residencies.
www.facebook.com/microgalleries
www.instagram.com/microgalleries
Media
contact details
Local: Tara
Chadwick wabigun@yahoo.com
Global: Claudia
Lee media@microgalleries.org
###
Golden hour
Tara Chadwick
New River, Fort Lauderdale, Florida
This month and next, the effect of seasonal "king
tides" is creating a climate disaster in the form of visible flooding and
invisible salt water intrusion into our soil and water table along the banks of
this river which have been used for thousands of years by humans seeking to
live a good, healthy life. And this river has been deemed unusable for human
contact several times over the past three to five years due to chronic
overdevelopment and problematic decision making on the part of those
responsible for ensuring safe and effective infrastructure. We must, as
citizens of Mother earth, intervene now to ensure that the trajectory of our
species is altered to realign with the geometry of nature.
“Golden Hour” seeks to support, stimulate and encourage
action oriented solutions to the current climactic conditions including public
awareness, personal responsibility and biological accountability. We put
ourselves in to this mess. By examining what we do, individually, collectively
and globally, we can get ourselves back on track with the original instructions
all human beings received at the beginning of their time on earth. This message
will be shared with the community on the historic banks of the New River in a
public participative, interactive installation incorporating the
interconnectedness of sound, movement, land, water, people and the concept of
the golden repair on a local and global climate scale.
Multiple forms of art including sound, movement and visuals
are used in collaboration with citizen science based sea level rise research,
action and solutions.
We have a vast capacity to effect change especially due to
our large proportion of global tourism. By creating this model of interactive
public art, visitors and residents will be inspired to engage in work that
questions the status quo and access new avenues of creative problems solving in
areas of climate resilience, climate policy and climate change mitigation.
As I reflect on the various actions taking place today, and
those we engaged in ourselves, it dawns on me that humans have a great capacity
to make giant leaps in conscience and practice. At one time in our history, we
learned how to harvest the power of the sun in an element we now call fire. At
another time in our history, we learned how to coax a grass into a seed that
now feeds the world! At this time, our challenge is much simpler and doable:
restore our technology and daily living to practices that do not harm the
earth.
November 6th, 2021
9:00 AM to 7:00 PM
The Beginning
FIU Sea Level Rise
Solutions Day – Engaged in Citizen Science with the Institute of Environment at
a location determined by the FIU research team to monitor urban flooding at
King Tides
Upon arrival at 9:30
am on Saturday, November 6, 2021
The level of street
flooding above storm drain at 10 am on Saturday, November 6, 2021
Refractometer reading indicates salinity is 10% in sample 1 from 10 am
Street flooding rose
¾ inch in 30 minutes.
One golden marine
life was observed struggling to survive but still alive sending ripples of
urgency
Salinity
of the standing water above the storm drain increased by 2% in 30 minutes.
The
photo on the right was taken by group member Ihiyo Chadwick (age 10).
By the time we left
at 11 am the street flooding was up to four inches and still rising with an
observed increase in oil mixed into the flood water.
The elevation of the
surface of the sea water is well above the level of the roadway.
A little after 11 am,
we packed up and drove the water samples to the FIU Campus at Oleta River and
Biscayne Bay where they were refrigerated to preserve the viability for testing
protocols. We are awaiting the lab results. On the way back, we stopped to
observe a few other local residents engaged in their own creative contributions
to the global day for climate repair
The Middle
The Bees’ tree with
Golden Skirt Bridge
Me and Tree
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWFZhVbFOrS/
Moss (video)
Golden Orb Weaver
https://www.instagram.com/p/CWFZeqjvEwi/
Butterfly (video)
Concha
Canoeing
Then we returned to
the New River to complete our documentation of the Golden Hour
https://www.instagram.com/p/CV_nZ5aJv7Q/
Water (video)
The End
Restoration is a
collaborative venture!
