Climate Renaissance

This work is from an ongoing series inspired by paintings from the Dutch Masters and Caravaggio is a commentary on environmental racism and explores issues of waste and pollution. It highlights the over-consumption of the Global North and the excessive burdens it places on the Global South by exporting vast amounts of waste to landfills. As such each portrait is centred around a different item of environmental waste. The series highlights how people of colour, especially in the Global South are disproportionately affected by climate change with devastating consequences despite only being responsible for only 8% of all excess global emissions, in contrast to the Global North which is responsible for 92%. Each of these portraits are centred around the largest contributors towards these carbon emissions, including the gas and oil industry who are responsible for more than 42% of global emissions, whilst the meat and dairy industry account for 14.5%, more than the travel industry. It brings forth the questions of how the future might look if we don’t start to make significant changes in the areas of climate change and racial injustice. It is a complex and forthright question intended to make the audience feel uncomfortable.