Climate and Culture Beyond Borders for British Art Studies Journal

With this British Art Studies Cover Collaboration feature, which responded to the theme of ‘British Art and Natural Forces’ proposed by the journal’s editors, I brought together four artistic practices of Sonia E. Barrett, The Bonita Chola, Michael Leung and INTERPRT, alongside my own. They highlight diverse activities among international, socially engaged, creative practices that relate to the core conversations on justice in environmental and climate issues. My curatorial statement here critiqued the meaning of ‘British’ arts, especially in the context of climate themes, as I reflected on the arts sector in 2020. I outlined art worker struggles in light of years of government defunding, the pandemic, Brexit and the exceptionalism on the empire trained the state to hold in face of crises.

The Climate and Culture Beyond Borders curation includes:

— Climate and Culture Beyond Borders curatorial statement by Worm: art + ecology / Angela YT Chan

— Beyond Interspecies Objectification by Sonia E. Barrett

— DIÁSPORAS QUE LUCHAN (Diasporas that Fight) by The Bonita Chola (aka Angela Camacho)

— The Ecological Imperative: Stopping Ecocide by INTERPRT

— Wang Chau Village: (Non-)Indigenous Wisdom, Amidst Eviction by Michael Leung

— Moss Rain Paradox: Refocusing Climate Framings by Angela YT Chan

Through these meaningful, informative, and reflective projects, we explore climate and social issues in the homes and communities we inhabit around the world, referring to Britain to contend with its colonial ties to our subjects, places, communities, and selves.

We offer insights into various long-term projects and commitments to everyday climate and social justice around the world. We destabilise the singular narrative of “the future of” or “the solution to” the climate crisis, as determined by the violent hegemonies that have caused and sustain it.

All the while, we carve out our own self-organised archives by overwriting some histories with truth, creating vocabularies to strengthen international solidarity, and narrating our own timelines of place beyond borders.

I situate Climate and Culture Beyond Borders in this current moment of the ongoing, unjust climate of ‘British arts’, and refer to the necessary work of Migrants in Culture and UK Artists 4 BLM in my curatorial statement.

Find out more here