The power of pencils, paintbrushes and performance art
By Kate Monson
 
Caused by us all and affecting us all, climate change is an ever-present, brooding figure that no one can ignore. In reaction to this the last decade has seen a growing movement of arts-centred bodies involving themselves in the climate change debate, pressing for a visceral, societal response as opposed to a solely abstract and academic one.

Good Energy partner Cape Farewell, set up in 2001, was one of the pioneers of this cultural response. "Climate change is a reality,” says David Buckland, its creator. “Cape Farewell is committed to the notion that artists can engage the public in this issue, through creative insight and vision.”

Since 2003, Cape Farewell has led nine expeditions, including two youth ones, to the High Arctic – the frontline of climate change – taking artists, scientists, educators and communicators to experience the effects of climate change firsthand. By physically sailing to the heart of the debate, Cape Farewell aims to draw people’s attention to the effects of ocean currents on us and our climate. From these expeditions have sprung an extraordinary body of artwork including: an exhibition at the Royal Academy, Earth: Art of a Changing World; a film, Burning Ice; music by Max Eastley, and Ian McEwan’s latest novel Solar, which was inspired by the expedition he took part in during 2005. “The Arctic is an extraordinary place to visit,” says David Buckland. “It is a place in which to be inspired, a place which urges us to face up to what it is we stand to lose."

The driving concept behind this cultural movement is to promote an aesthetic response to the issue of climate change; something that Tipping Point is attempting to capture in its series of commissions. Now in its second year, TippingPoint Commissions is a pioneering project to develop a critical mass of performance-based work conceived in the context of climate change.

Invitations for the second annual TippingPoint Commissions are now open and the deadline for this year’s proposals is Monday December 5th. For more information and how to apply, click here.

Rather than a moralising and educational exposition of the subject, Tipping Point wants to encourage work which stimulates audiences towards the radical and imaginative thinking they believe is necessary to comprehend and successfully navigate a world shaped by climate change. Says Philip Pullman, Patron of the TippingPoint Commissions: “Artists of every kind have an overriding moral duty, which is to do their work as well as possible. But since that work partly consists of responding to what the world itself is up to, it would be strange if the best work being produced didn’t take some account, in some way, of what’s happening to our climate. Art is not only about beauty: sometimes it has to warn.”

Last year’s Commissions were awarded to three projects: performing arts company/network Metis Arts for 3rd Ring Out; Project Phakama UK for its Tooting Trashcatcher’s Carnival, and the LightSwitch Project, which seized upon the moment of switching on a light and created a performance connecting the individual to the implications of their actions and their place in the world.

Using art to communicate a powerful message is nothing new. And as climate change continues its indiscriminate march across the planet, rousing the masses to action through beautiful, shocking, innovative and immersive installations, poems, performances and paintings is an undeniably positive and constructive way to tackle this pressing issue.