- Venue
- The Gallery Liverpool
- Starts
- Monday, September 28, 2015
- Ends
- Friday, October 9, 2015
- Address
- Stanhope Street Liverpool
- Location
- North West England
- Organiser
- The Gallery Liverpool
For ArtCOP21, a global festival of cultural activity on climate change (September – December 2015) and as part of group exhibition by Liverpool Artists, I have produced a series of work called, No Man is an Island.
“No man is an island entire of itself;
Every man is a piece of the continent,
A part of the main…
Any man’s death diminshes me
Because I am involved in Mankind.”
Excerpt from Meditation XVII
John Donne (1572 – 1631)
Artist Statement
Embarking upon this set of self-portraits took me on a journey into the notion of physical and psychological displacement.
In my twenties, I experienced first-hand, the movement of people via Lampedusa into Sicily. 15 years on and this phenomenon is only just breaking news headlines, reaching our own shores in the shape of a ‘Migrant Crisis’.
‘Today 60 million people have been displaced by war, but 187 million people between now and 2100 could be displaced by rising sea levels’ -The Cousteau Society.
The emaciated, almost brutal depiction of figures in my paintings points to an earth-human system in crisis. A system unable to satisfy the basic needs for human flourishing.
Each painting is in essence a time traveller, a lookout on the starboard of the Titanic calling out for prompt action on climate change. They are a call back to Liverpool’s Frederick Fleet, who with limited resources and time, did what he could to mitigate disaster and save lives. It is with a sad irony on our modern struggle, we recall his words:
‘Iceberg! Right Ahead!’
As a beacon of hope, Lady of the Sea, stateless and shipwrecked, shows how we can use the inherent qualities of nature and ancient technologies in tandem, to create art as beautiful, if not more beautiful than the sum of its parts. It is a poignant allegory for life, showing that when we work with the positive and enduring elements within every material and in every person, we create a sustainable path for change.
“We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.” ~ Dr Maya Angelou
ArtCOP21 – Cultural Programme for Paris Climate 2015
www.artcop21.com
#ARTCOP21
