DEMOCRACY OF THE LAND: VIRAL WARMING 2020
JAY CRITCHLEY – Provincetown, MA USA
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In the midst of human-caused environmental carnage, Covid-19 continues its deadly resurgence around the globe. As an artist, the isolation of the pandemic presented the opportunity to immerse myself in developing an ongoing series of mixed media paintings on recycled vinyl street banners, originally strung up across Commercial Street to promote and advertise concerts, theater and cultural causes. This series consists of ten banners, 3’ h x 8’ w and one 10’h x 8’ w, that broadcast the major historical viral pandemics, and their relation to the other pandemics of cultural, economic and systemic injustice. Each one is inscribed with singular creative lettering: Malaria, ZIKA, Cholera, HIV, Ebola, TB, Small Pox, COVID and SARS. Beginning in the early 1980s, my work highlighted the pending climate crisis with humor and surprise, from the dominance of the automobile and fossil fuels to plastics, marine debris, nuclear weapons and energy, gender, economic inequality and HIV. The personal is planetary. Our global health is dependent upon the dominant cultural, economic and political foundations that engage in ruthless extractive strategies that degrade the land and the livability of individuals, communities and the global ecosystem. Democracy of the Land: Viral Warming is a multimedia project with expansive possibilities for performance, video and installation. The project illuminates the impact of unbridled climate change on race, gender and class. Building on my other recent projects, Mobil Warming (corporate responsibility for climate change and misinformation) and Global Yawning (worldwide yawning will cool the planet!), Viral Warming will examine how the exploitive global economy intensifies the conflict between human equality and injustice, and past and future promise. This project will continue to explore the prospect of carbon-free climate security based on the ideals of equity and justice. As an international series, it begins at the catastrophic pandemics unleashed by Europeans on the Americas, specifically with Christopher Columbus in 1492, through to today’s present and impending global pandemics. Recent media Sculpture Magazine, March/April 2021: http://www.jaycritchley.com/sculpture-magazine-ndash-a-conversation-with-jay-critchley.html Dublin, Ireland proposal: http://www.jaycritchley.com/the-great-wonder---inside-ireland.html |
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