Journalist Jeff Goodell curates the Blanton’s call to action on climate change
The title of the Blanton Museum of Art's ongoing exhibition,"If the Sky Were Orange: Art in the Time of Climate Change," comes from an experience Jeff Goodell had 15 years ago. An award-winning climate journalist and author, Goodell was sailing the North Atlantic on a reporting trip and asked a scientist with Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute what it would take to convince people to pay attention to the risks of climate change.
The exhibit was curated collaboratively by Goodell, Blanton Deputy Director for Curatorial Affairs Carter Foster, and museum Director Simone Wicha. It's the museum's first exhibition to explore one topic across several gallery spaces, and it's a topic that truly requires that space."Climate change is about many other things besides getting hotter," writes Foster."It's about migration. It's about greed. It's about corporate power.
With all that in mind, the trio went through 120 works in the museum's permanent collection, some dating back to the 1600s, and paired contemporary pieces with written responses by prominent climate writers."I really relish the opportunity to think about this in different ways," Goodell writes, noting that visual media"reveals nuances about this story that I know so well.
Goodell's sensibility shines through in the curation. The exhibit is organized almost in chapters, from"the romance of energy" to"the age of abundance" to"consequences" and finally to"the bounty of nature." The accompanying texts in turn contextualize the works within history, politics, and science.
Goodell often recounts a story in which Al Gore told him that everyone has an"oh, shit" moment about climate change – they suddenly realize it's a bigger problem than they thought. After this record-shattering summer, Austinites might just have that moment walking through this exhibit. But the show is not meant to be simply a wake-up call; it's also a call to action and projects a lot of hope.
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