Worried Earth: Eco-Anxiety and Entangled Grief is an art exhibition exploring how worry about climate change and ecological collapse is seeping into our lives and dreams, mixing with other fears and anxieties, and entangling with personal experiences of loss. In this ecosystem of grief, art is a place for picturing and shaping bad feelings, including bad feelings about the very act of making art. Each gesture of making is weighed against the desire to do no harm—and the impossibility of a harmless human life within the context of our extractive capitalist system. We grieve our own existence, as well as our eventual demise.
The works in this exhibition sit with and in this grief. They also sing of the ways that grief can open us up. We become capacious, raw, and changeable. We can follow our grief towards wilder and deeper feelings, towards greater empathy for the other beings with whom we share the planet, and towards and into the rhythms of life and death.
Worried Earth features the work of artists Connie Chappel, Laura Findlay, Natalie Goulet, Maureen Gruben, Jenine Marsh, Kuh Del Rosario, and Xiaojing Yan.
Curator: Erica Mendritzki
Assistant Curator: Melanie Zurba
Worried Earth Panel Discussion-Halifax
Worried Earth Panel Discussion-Halifax
A panel discussion on the exhibit was held at the Halifax Central Library with panelists reflecting on and exploring the climate change entangled grief that can open us up to wilder and deeper feelings and towards empathy for other beings with whom we share this planet.
Worried Earth: Youth Climate Activists' Photos and Narratives Reflecting on Climate Change
Worried Earth: Youth Climate Activists' Photos and Narratives Reflecting on Climate Change
This public art exhibition features photographs and narratives by youth climate activists from across the lands that are currently politically known as Canada. Youth were invited to participate in research that invited them to take photos that were representative of the emotions they experienced through thinking about climate change and engaging in activism. Photographs then served as anchors for interviews exploring thoughts and feelings related to each image.
The exhibition was displayed at the Dalhousie University Campus. The curator of the exhibition Pamela Edmonds and assistant curator Melanie Zurba spoke at the launch and reflected on the importance of youth narratives and the power of youth activism for climate change.