Forecasting the touch of change II
Forecasting the touch of change makes imperceptible forces felt, heard, and seen. It produces a spectral encounter with climate change – a phenomenon that typically eludes our senses. From global weather systems to chemical disruptions invisible to the human eye, the exhibition responds to the many processes of climate change that act upon temporal and geographic scales beyond human visual perception.
The sculptures that inhabit Forecasting the touch of change are sensory in their nature, porously registering and responding to the world. Blown glass and copper ‘instruments’ sealed with the 19th-century chemical composition of a Storm Glass forecasts future weather. Like an oracle, their internal crystal structures evolve with atmospheric changes, predicting what lies ahead. In the air of the gallery, the scent of ozone from the upper atmosphere hybridises with petrichor from bacteria deep in the soil and the cracking sound of a distant storm reverberates through the space. Here, the ungraspable forces of macro- and micro-scales of change are made sensible within the body—they are breathed in, listened to, and felt.
Forecasting the Touch of Change proposes methodologies of attuning oneself to the immaterial nature of environmental change through the senses: breathing, listening, looking, and feeling. Through these experiences the body is embraced as a sensitive instrument for intimately encountering a transforming world, ultimately producing new manifestations of our molten planetary condition.
December 2022
