Angela YT Chan 
As part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences, I spoke about my arts practice and research on resource scarcity, conflict and colonial histories of climate change for the Lau China Institute at King’s College London. I also joined a panel with the other guest speakers, artist Dr Lola Frost: Visiting Fellow in War Studies at KCL and Prof. Astrid Nordin of the KCL Lau Institute, who also described their creative outlooks on a changing environment and global relations. Here I point to artwashing in funding, art-activism, importance of arts education and barriers to accessing both arts and climate change.
“In the context of COP26 where global actors have collectively considered how to address the effects of climate change, this collaborative forum explores the complementary lessons in art, diplomacy and international relations.
Given the challenges posed by climate change, Dr Lola Frost: Visiting Fellow in War Studies at KCL, explores how the life-force ethics of contemporary art practices, including her own, mediate repressive cultural norms, bridge cultural divides between the west and China and engage with the life-force of the material world.
Prof. Astrid Nordin of the KCL Lau Institute will consider the value of traditional Chinese yin-yang relationality and its diplomatic potential for fostering international cooperation on climate change.
Angela YT Chan’s research-based art raises questions on the inequities exacerbated by climate change. By critiquing public framings to archiving communal conversations, Angela works on resource scarcity, conflict and colonial histories of climate change. The diplomatic dynamics of mutual recognition under consideration here might help us to think differently about the environment in an ever more politically and culturally interconnected world.
This event is being held by the Lau China Institute at King’s College London as part of the ESRC Festival of Social Sciences.”
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