Adam Gunn

Abery in the Ocean

2019

In his book Now or Never naturalist Tim Flannery describes a vision of a world with a dead purple ocean and a poisonous green sky. This is a world where warming has melted the ice ca...

In his book Now or Never naturalist Tim Flannery describes a vision of a world with a dead purple ocean and a poisonous green sky. This is a world where warming has melted the ice caps and slowed down the circulation of the oceans so that they have become like a gigantic stagnant pond. This still oxygen depleted water will allow the proliferation of anoxygenic bacteria that will change the chemistry of the ocean making it poisonous to oxygen dependant life. These bacteria will also release hydrogen sulfide into the atmosphere causing a mass extinction of animal and plant life on land. This stark yet colourful world will be sublimely beautiful, but there will be no one around to see it. This series of paintings depicts an imagining of our world after the catastrophic consequences of climate change through a reinterpretation of well-known images with a romantic sensibility towards nature. Romanticism was in part a reaction to the industrial revolution marked by a nostalgia for an untouched natural world and a reverence for its overwhelming power. Ironically the spread and continuation of that industrialism is predicted to set in motion a new version of nature that will completely overpower the human world as we know it. With these thoughts in mind, I’ve sourced some paintings associated with the romantic movement and removed the human figures from them – the only evidence of people are the decaying ruins left behind in this uncanny green and purple landscape. I’ve also referenced some photographs from the Apollo moon missions that are thought to have influenced the beginning of modern environmental awareness. The starting point for this series of paintings was Arnold Böcklin’s Isle of the Dead...

I made these paintings in response to a prediction for a change in the colour of the sky and oceans as a consequence of man-made climate change. This idea described by Peter Ward in his book Under a Pale Green Sky is based on his study of the great mass extinction events of the past. For many of these extinction events the earth’s chemistry changed the sky to green and the oceans purple. My personal memories are often tied to colour – my first recollection is of an orange cup being handed to me, and I can vividly remember the very first time I was able to wield colour with a red crayon. As a painter, I acutely feel the significance of this change in colour of the world’s landscapes...

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Jeremy Prim is a contemporary artist, based in Seattle, Washington. He is known for his evocative abstract seascapes, inspired by the beauty of the ocean and the emotion one feels in...

The paintings I create are referential. Through process and symbol, I use heavily affected information as context in which to introduce contemporary concept and question. The p...