Art, Ecology, and Climate: The Anthropocene

One of several e-museums devoted to ecological and climatological topics, these artworks register humanity’s irreversible impact on the planet and its ecosystems. Some of the artworks depict industrial, developmental, military, and consumer activity that have driven global climate change, water scarcity, and resource contamination. Others register climatological, ecological, and geological events – common and uncommon – that have intensified over time due to human activity. Still others offer historical windows onto things like sea levels, glacial expanses, and pandemics. Many of the artworks in this gallery were created before “The Anthropocene” was formally proposed within the scientific community as a term to capture the extent to which human activity on the planet has inaugurated a new geological epoch. Nevertheless, we invite viewers to think critically about how these artworks comment on and bear witness to what we can now recognize as the causes, effects, and experiences of the Anthropocene.

Many more artworks relevant to thinking about the Anthropocene can be found in other Ecology and Climate e-Museums, including “Extraction,” “Pollution and Contamination,” and “Power and Energy.”