Greg Shirah: The Verge

 
  • ©,

Artist(s):


Title:


    The Verge

Exhibition:


Creation Year:


    2008

Category:



Artist Statement:


    We are facing a global climate crisis. This piece symbolizes our environmental underpinnings that could collapse in the near future unless we accept global responsibility and act. In the past, global climate change was thought of as a slow process. However, in recent years this slowness has been hotly debated.

    A contrast is drawn between the complex balance of global climate change issues using an accessible, familiar approach: a house of cards. Satellite images of the Earth are used with accessible themes such as sea ice and cloud patterns. The implication is that complexity realized in this piece was very slow in developing and that the construction was a very slow, tedious process. A future history is represented where many of the environmental underpinnings have already given way, allowing the observer to experience the null space where components have disappeared. How close is this future history to our present?

    Satellite images courtesy of the MODIS Rapid Response Project at NASA/GSFC.