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Omnia sunt communia! Support Minor Compositions / Purchasing Books The PDF you are reading is an electronic version of a physical book that can be purchased through booksellers (including online stores), through the normal book supply channels, or Minor Compositions directly. Please support this open access publication by requesting that your university or local library purchase a physical printed copy of this book, or by purchasing a copy yourself. If you have any questions please contact the publisher: [email protected]. Climate Chaos Making Art and Politics on a Dying Planet Neala Schleuning Minor Compositions 2021 Climate Chaos. Making Art and Politics on a Dying Planet Neala Schleuning ISBN 978-1-57027-381-0 Cover image by Alan Montgomery, “Poiesis Disc with Strands” Cover design by Haduhi Szukis Interior design by Margaret Killjoy Released by Minor Compositions 2021 Colchester / New York / Port Watson Minor Compositions is a series of interventions & provocations drawing from autonomous politics, avant-garde aesthetics, and the revolutions of everyday life. Minor Compositions is an imprint of Autonomedia www.minorcompositions.info | [email protected] Distributed by Autonomedia PO Box 568 Williamsburgh Station Brooklyn, NY 11211 www.autonomedia.org [email protected] “In harsh-edged echo, Titans stir far below. Tey are all the presences we are not supposed to be seeing – wind gods, hilltop gods, sunset gods – that we train ourselves away from to keep from looking further even though enough of us do.” – Tomas Pynchon, Gravity’s Rainbow “Tis is precisely the time when artists go to work. Tere is no time for despair, no place for self-pity, no need for silence, no room for fear. We speak, we write, we do language. Tat is how civilizations heal.” – Toni Morrison Who the f**k do you think you are? You blame China. You blame India. You blame America. You blame the CEOS, the oil companies, the vague and incoherent “system,” the international regulatory regimes, the hypocrisy of the left, the righteousness of the right, the educators, the economy, your parents, your childhood, your job, your bank account, your mental health, your government, everyone and everything but yourself. Wake up! Tis is no joke. Tis is absolutely happening and your fve planet-lifestyle is the primary cause of it. – Adbusters, Issue 19 CONTENTS Acknowledgements......................vii List of Figures........................... ix Introduction ............................. 1 The Changing Sublime ...................19 Making Art on a Dying Planet .............39 Do You See What I Sea?..................73 Nothing Will Ever Be The Same Again . .97 Nothing Will Ever Be the Same Again......121 Reworlding .............................151 Bibliography ........................... 161 Endnotes ..............................183 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I am indebted to many people who have sustained me with inspiration and with support when I was doubting my abilities. I am especially grateful way into a future of loving collaboration with the planet. Special thanks to: Alan Montgomery for the use of his painting “Poiesis Disc with Strands” on the book’s cover. William Li Campanello for his gift of the book’s title; Art Historian, Dr. Sugata Ray, for opening my heart to the being of water; Te artists who generously granted approval for the use of their images; Stevphen Shukaitis and publisher Autonomedia for supporting this work and making it accessible worldwide; Members of a 5 X 5 Research Group on the Anthropocene, sponsored by the Institute for Advanced Study, University of Minnesota; and Casie Yount for her work on cover design; For up-close editing and in-depth criticism: I am indebted to many friends. Tey challenged and corrected me, suggest- ed new insights, clarifed the passages explaining the science of global warm- ing, and some fnally just said, “No, no, and no!” when necessary, and found my grammatical errors (well, most of them I hope). Tey took on this task because they, too, care for the earth, and I am deeply grateful. • vii • viii • Climate Chaos Eric Steinmetz, Devorah Molitor, Daniel Edelstyn, Allen Branum, James Koehnline, Hannah Sheridan, Robert I. Yount, Celie Richardson, Fred Whitehead, Kim Blue, Judy LaBrosse, Paul Capel, Matthew Berens, Wayne Nealis. Individual artists who generously granted permissions Riber Hansson, Leo Lin, Bill Roberts, Kiakili, Sebastien Tibault, Andrei Popov, James Koehnline, Scott Laserow, Cliford Harper, NomadicAlternatives, Ricardo Levins Morales, Sam Kerson and Katah, Angel Boligán, Asaf Hanuka Artists in the Public Domain Leonardo da Vinci, Katsushika Hokusai, Medieval Map Details, Ivan Bilibin, J.M.W. Turner, Olaf Magnus, Hans Egede, Ivan Aivazovsky, Pierre Denys de Montfort, Utagawa Kuniyoshi Print Permissions Timothy Morton, Hyperobjects: Philosophy and Ecology after the End of the World. University of Minnesota Press, 2013. Excerpt from Walt Whitman, “Song of Myself,” from Leaves of Grass. (Public Domain) Excerpt from David Wagoner’s poem, “Lost.” In Traveling Light: Collected and New Poems, University of Illinois Press, 1999. Finally, my deepest thanks to the earth. I listened over a lifetime to the voices of the world around me – the plants and animals, the bees and insects, and the beings inhabiting the deepest oceans. My heart shares in their pain, their losses, and their untimely deaths at our hands. My soul was inspired by their resilience in the face of human destruction and their passion to live and be. I bow in reverence to the gift they give us every day of their presence and their examples of persistence as they move through the seasons of their lives and mine, moving all around me and through me. Maybe this book has made a diference. I hope so. Every efort has been made to identify copyright holders of visual materials. Errors or omissions have been unavoidable or unintentional. In some cases, I could identify the artist, but was unable to fnd a contact for him/her after repeated attempts. Images circulating on the internets have been especially difcult to trace and assign appropriate credit, and I apologize for any failures to seek approval. LIST OF FIGURES Fig. 1 – Ricardo Levins Morales (United States) – Te Planet You’re Warming Is Not Yours to Warm Fig. 2 – James Koehnline (United States) – Burning Midnight Oil Again Fig. 3 – Asaf Hanuka (Israel) Untitled – Uncle Oil Fig. 4 – Angel Boligán (Cuba) – Our Flora and Fauna Fig. 5 – Leonardo da Vinci (Italy) – Te Deluge 1517-1518 (Wikimedia commons) Fig. 6 – J.M.W. Turner (United Kingdom) – Shipwreck of the Minotaur (Public Domain) Fig. 7 – Ivan Aivazovsky (Russia) – Te Ninth Wave (Google Art Project) Figs. 8 and 9 – Medieval Maps, Detail (2) (Public Domain) Fig. 10 – Olaf Magnus, 1555 – Sea Serpent (Public Domain) Fig 11 – Hans Egede, 1734 – Sea Serpent (Public Domain) Fig. 12 – Katsushika Hokusai (Japan) – Under the Wave of Kanagawa (Kanagawa oki nami ura), also known as Te Great Wave, from the series Tirty-six Views of Mount Fuji (Fugaku sanjūrokkei) ca. 1830–32 (Te British Museum, Creative Commons Fig. 13 – Ivan Bilibin (Russia) – Te Wave Illustration for Pushkin’s Tsar, 1905 (Public Domain) Fig. 14 – Ricardo Levins Morales (United States) San Ciriaco 1899 Fig. 15 – Pierre Denys de Montfort 1801 – Octopus (Public Domain) Fig. 16 – Utagawa Kuniyoshi, Te umibōzu from the Fifty-Tree Parallels for the Tōkaidō, Kuwana Station and the sailor Tokuso, 1843-1845. • ix • x • Climate Chaos Fig. 17 – Andrei Popov (Russia) – Climate Change Fig. 18 – Riber Hansson (Sweden) – Te Ship Earth Fig. 19 – Leo Lin (Taiwan) – Global Warming Fig. 20 – Scott Laserow (United States) – Hurricane Katrina 2005 Fig. 21 – Kiakili (United States) – African American Deaths Fig. 22 – Sam Kerson and Katah (Canada) – Drowning, 2016 Fig. 23 – Bill Roberts Editorial Cartoon Collection, Cleveland State University (United States) Untitled – Tsunami of industrial pollution Fig. 24 – Sébastien Tibault (United States) –Untitled – Industrial air pollution Fig. 25 – Cliford Harper (United Kingdom) Te Flood Fig. 26 – Nomadic Alternatives (Canada) Forgotten Tongue INTRODUCTION It may never have occurred to them that so much magic, So much life, might be an indicator of … awareness.