A Bridge to Change
James Reinl, United Nations Correspondent
Last Updated: May 15. 2008 6:20PM UAE / May 15. 2008 2:20PM GMT
UNITED NATIONS // Global temperatures are rising at an alarming rate, the polar ice caps are melting, and the UN Environment Programme has “extremely limited” funding. In these cash-strapped times, eco-officials have turned to Noor al Bastaki, a 22-year-old Bahraini, and five other artists to deliver the green message.
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| Paths and Steps, a photo series by Noor al Bastaki, shows students walking along an oil pipe. Courtesy Noor al Bastaki |
Ms Bastaki’s photo and video series “Paths and Steps” offers a critique of Gulf states’ overdependence on fossil fuels and is being showcased alongside works from other environmentally themed artists at the UN headquarters in New York.
With a budget of US$125 million (Dh459m) – small by UN standards – programme organisers have turned to Ms Bastaki and her creative colleagues from around the world in the hope that audiences will be inspired and cut consumption.
“This is a new initiative for us,” said Elisabeth Guilbaud-Cox, the UNEP’s deputy director for North America. “Our role is to address environmental issues in concrete ways – but our resources are extremely limited.”
While most of the budget is spent on policy and scientific research, organisers have “tacked on attempts to raise awareness because change is people-driven”, Ms Guilbaud-Cox said. “We have to explore all possibilities and, in the artistic community, we have found an incredible partner.”
The United Nations opened its doors to Ms Bastaki and scores of other conscientious creators this week for the launch of the exhibition “Art, Attitudes and Environment” and a seminar series designed to encourage artistic manipulation of public attitudes towards the planet.
Ms Bastaki introduced a decidedly Arabian theme to last week’s debate, presenting her photo essay of fellow Khaleeji students walking atop a rusty oil pipeline in the Bahraini desert near Sakhir – home of the Bahrain Formula One Grand Prix racetrack.
Explaining that crude production dominates economies in the Gulf, the Bahrain University undergraduate said: “Oil spills and other discharges from large tankers, oil refineries and distribution stations have damaged coastlines, coral reefs and sea vegetation.”
Gulf leaders “of the previous generation” made “many mistakes” through overdependence on crude revenues and “the future of youth in the Arabian Gulf is at risk due to the status quo of economic development based on oil production”, she said.
Ms Bastaki, whose work has appeared at Manama’s Al Riwaq gallery and last year’s Sharjah Biennial 8, said her contribution allegorically illustrated how Arabian youth are “forced to walk the line” of previous generations when they really “want to free themselves from dependency on oil and gas”.
The exhibition, which runs until the end of the month, also showcases the talents of India’s Subhankar Banerjee, who has spent the past eight years photographing Arctic communities in a bid to challenge assumptions that the region is “nothing but a hostile wasteland”.
Cecilia Paredes, a Peruvian artist, is exhibiting photographs of organically decorated models, while Catherine Chalmers, who is based in Manhattan, presents a series of images offering the viewpoint of insects.
Mia Hanak, executive director of San Francisco’s Natural World Museum partnering with the United Nations, said she hoped the “natural language of art” would act as a “catalyst to unite people in action and thought”.
“Our collective goal is to ignite people’s passion for being a part of the global solution and together inspire people to take bold actions in finding new ways to embrace sustainable lifestyles,” Ms Hanak said.
If eco-themed exhibitions inspired every American household to replace one light bulb with an energy-saving alternative, then artists would help slash national energy bills by US$600 million each year and reduce greenhouse gas emissions equivalent to the fumes of 800,000 cars, Ms Guilbaud-Cox said.
Although unable to predict exactly how much impact the exhibition – together with other Natural World Museum events taking place from Algiers to Wellington – would have, Ms Guilbaud-Cox cited Kioko Mwitiki, a Kenyan artist, as a powerful example of art making a difference.
After being expelled from university during the 1980s, Mr Mwitiki, the son of a Maasai tribesman, started using waste metal left around Nairobi to produce sculptures that “fetched a good price”.
He was soon employing assistants to collect scrap for new pieces while developing a name for himself – eventually producing the life-size elephant statues that decorate the entrance to the capital’s Jomo Kenyatta International Airport.
“This story confirms that there is nothing more powerful than the human imagination, and the artist has the ability to ignite that imagination,” Ms Guilbaud-Cox said. “Art not only educates and empowers. It can inspire enterprise, and more importantly, provide vision.”
Ms Bastaki, the Bahraini artist, said her contributions can also make a difference. But unlike the other artists and organisers, it is the attitudes of Gulf leaders she wishes to change – rather than those of society.
“The government has so much power to change things, so we are here just to express our views and say whatever we want to say,” she said. “The people who are in control, they might listen. And once they listen, they might take action.”
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