Take Heart - Wellington Waterfront 2008
With this piece I aim to send a hard-hitting but hopeful message from the heart of the next generation.
I have drawn chalk outlines of my own children on the pavement. Their bodies are in the recovery position. Passersby are invited to do the same. The chalk outlines create an ambiguous look – is this a murder scene, or joyous dance gathering? The painted heart-shaped stones are frozen in ice and placed inside each body. I would like viewers to take the hearts with them as the piece melts back into the world around us.
The aesthetics of the piece are simple. Chalk, ice, stone. The larger art-making for me involves exploring the following questions: ‘How will climate change affect my own two children? How will it affect your children and their children? How is it affecting millions of children around the world today?’ Not so simple.
Children in Africa starving as crops fail due to increasing droughts…
Communities in Bangladesh homeless or worse due to increasing flooding…
Parents in Nepal wondering where drinking water will come from as the Himalayan glaciers melt…
Families in New Orleans traumatized by storm surge flooding…
A mother in New Zealand fearing her sons will become cannon fodder for resource wars…
Really – how can we stand by and let this happen? Please ask yourself this question. And then please listen to the quiet voice inside you – it responds from the heart of the matter. We are all that heart. So by taking one of these hearts you are connecting to my heart, my quiet voice. You are also connecting to the quiet voice of an African mother, a Bangladeshi father, an Inuit grandmother, and the heart of your own children and grandchildren.
When you connect to that place, when you dwell in the heart, you are already part of the climate change solution. Keep connecting, keep exploring, keep taking the next step.
See photos of installation Back to Artist Statements
I have drawn chalk outlines of my own children on the pavement. Their bodies are in the recovery position. Passersby are invited to do the same. The chalk outlines create an ambiguous look – is this a murder scene, or joyous dance gathering? The painted heart-shaped stones are frozen in ice and placed inside each body. I would like viewers to take the hearts with them as the piece melts back into the world around us.
The aesthetics of the piece are simple. Chalk, ice, stone. The larger art-making for me involves exploring the following questions: ‘How will climate change affect my own two children? How will it affect your children and their children? How is it affecting millions of children around the world today?’ Not so simple.
Children in Africa starving as crops fail due to increasing droughts…
Communities in Bangladesh homeless or worse due to increasing flooding…
Parents in Nepal wondering where drinking water will come from as the Himalayan glaciers melt…
Families in New Orleans traumatized by storm surge flooding…
A mother in New Zealand fearing her sons will become cannon fodder for resource wars…
Really – how can we stand by and let this happen? Please ask yourself this question. And then please listen to the quiet voice inside you – it responds from the heart of the matter. We are all that heart. So by taking one of these hearts you are connecting to my heart, my quiet voice. You are also connecting to the quiet voice of an African mother, a Bangladeshi father, an Inuit grandmother, and the heart of your own children and grandchildren.
When you connect to that place, when you dwell in the heart, you are already part of the climate change solution. Keep connecting, keep exploring, keep taking the next step.
See photos of installation Back to Artist Statements