How Can an Artist Impact Climate Change?

• Ava Vitabile, Fine Arts, University of Delaware

• Cynthia Ott, History Department and Museum Studies Program, University of Delaware

Can an artist make an impact on climate change? What even is climate change? The average citizen tends to understand that it is bad, but doesn’t have the resources to know what that means exactly. As it is relevant here, the term refers to the shifting global environment induced by human impact. Therefore, this research aims to highlight how human interference with the natural world, such as herbicide use, pollution, overfishing, and urbanization, endangers non-human species. 

It questions which visual tactics (choice of medium, historical context of medium, tension, portrayal of beauty, and the human form) will be the most successful in answering the initial inquiry. Furthermore, the works of art created under this project stand together as an aesthetic series. 

One answer is using a popular idea of beauty, i.e. color and pleasing, flowering shapes, to get people to care about climate change. Another, more figurative answer, is using symbols of human wealth and expansion to display humanity’s power over nature. A third solution is a nuanced representation of human power over nature. This time, showing the callous disregard of non-human species for human enjoyment.

A last answer departs from a one-to-one depiction of a specific species. Rather, it is a message that the individual still has power over the climate crisis. This research proclaims that human interference with nature is cruel, however it concludes that big corporations are actually the problem. The cultural narrative dictates that recycling and paper straws, for instance, will save the planet, when the reality is that big corporations cause pollution, they overfish, they market herbicides, and they continue to urbanize. Therefore, this research has identified that hope is a key factor in answering the initial question, and personal responsibility lies in informing oneself, not in reversing climate change all by ourselves.