12 pieces of ecological art that will change your vision of climate change and other environmental problems

We know it: climate change is one of the most serious environmental problems that living beings face and one of the most difficult to combat. Faced with this, there are thousands of initiatives that have managed, initially, to raise awareness among the multitudes about the great possibilities that each individual has to contribute to mitigating it.

A precious example of this is ecological art, which today is reinvented with the help of brilliant technologies to share massive messages to the community. Like any other type of art, andhe ecological art it contains infinite possibilities to make us aware of problems that concern us all, in this case, the unfortunate future into which we are leading our planet. A Through resources such as irony, humor, caricaturization and the plastic manifestation of the imaginary, he invites us to get involved.

The ecological art can serve as a conscience detonator and—unlike information presented in reports and graphs—by translating data into creative, interactive formats, You can reach any kind of audience. In this way he speaks to us “in our language”, no matter what it is. Also, ecological art makes use of different techniques and means to create, mixing all kinds of disciplines and taking advantage of very varied discourses. And as a meeting point between formats, visions, stories and concepts, art generates community.

From cute papier-mache pandas traveling the world to elegant fashion designs made from trash, These are some ecological art proposals that will change your way of understanding climate change and other environmental problems.

Paulo Grangeon: Traveling Pandas

1,600 papier-mâché pandas seem like a lot, but knowing that we only have 1,600 pandas left in the world, they become few, so few that the artist has taken them to more than 20 countries, to visit iconic places. Thus, this sculptor invites us to become aware of endangered species.

Aida Sulova: Trash Cans

With this illustration, what the plastic artist wants to remind us is that the garbage we throw away eventually finds its way back to us. Plastic is such a common waste that its particles are everywhere, including in what we eat.

Superflex: McDonald’s flooded

In this strange film made by a group of artists, we are shown what a completely flooded McDonald’s would look like. To carry it out, a replica of this restaurant was built in a pool, with all the furniture, food and other paraphernalia. The narrative uses the paradox that it is businesses like this that are damaging the environment, but if we continue down the path, the environment will harm them.

Agnes Denes: Wheat Fields

This artist decided to plant a plot of wheat in front of Wall Street in 1982, to make a comparison between the traditional economic activities of the United States, close to nature, and the «artificiality» of the modern economic environment.

Naziha Mestaouis: One heartbeat, one tree

This spectacular idea makes use of new media for art. It is about projecting this virtual forest on buildings in different cities. The animation of the forest is interactive and the trees grow to the rite of the heartbeats of the spectators, who connect with the piece through a mobile application, conceptually erasing the distance between forests and cities and reconnecting human life with the environment. Also, for every virtual plant that grows, a real one is planted.

Maizz Visual: spirits of the trees

Blink Twice & trippy Trees, USA & Canada festivals 2014/2015 from Maizz Visual on Vimeo.

This Mexican collective projects onto the trees the faces of ancient gods and spirits who protest against deforestation and climate change. They have carried out similar projects against transgenic corn.

Olafur Eliasson: Your waste of time

The artist exhibited large pieces of fallen off the largest glacier in Iceland inside a special refrigerated room, which used solar energy. The title tells us about temporality, these pieces are 800 years old on Earth and each one of us is, in comparison, an eye blink. But in that blink we are ending everything. On the other hand, could it be that we cannot put a little of our time to avoid this environmental problem? The modern lifestyle is definitely fast paced and it is rapidly killing our environment of existence.

Tres Art Collective: Ubiquitous trash

Through extensive investigations, the Mexican collective TRES, is dedicated to finding out the origin of the strangest garbage and, incidentally, they are discovering fragments of the social history around these objects.

Luzinterruptus: Labyrinth of plastic waste

This collective designed a labyrinth made with plastic bottles and bags. While it can be recreational for visitors, it also reminds us that plastic is everywhere and we live in the maze of garbage that we are constantly building.

Chris Jordan: Intolerable beauty, portraits of mass consumption in America

Chris Jordan’s photographs remind us that even the most unusual of our objects, if discarded, will become part of the tons of useless matter that pollutes the environment, on many levels. Garbage does not stay in one place and it is not a single thing either, an object is made up of multiple polluting materials. Before throwing away or buying something, it is worth thinking twice.

Marina DeBris: Fashion with Trash

Marina de mar and Debris, means rest or waste in English. This artist works with the garbage that is found in the sea and that begins to deteriorate and fragment due to being exposed to that environment. Her costumes made with garbage tell us about a problem that she has to solve as soon as possible, but from a fun and very particular approach.

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