blue radius.
date. 3-28 September 2023
city. Depot Artspace, Devonport, Auckland
form. Co-curated, collaborative exhibition
Climate scientists predict that rising sea levels are expected to have a greater impact across the region’s coastlines than previously anticipated. This exhibition brought together art, science, and community-led activism to drive home the immediacy of sea level rise and other environmental challenges by looking to local manifestations of ecological collapse that we could be preventing. In a gallery-based encounter, Blue Radius sought to engage local communities with issues that are often too large, world-altering, and seemingly distant to fathom by presenting a photographic essay Coast Under Threat (Stephen Perry); a video about sea level rise Land Radius|2 (Laura Donkers); sculptural works by indigenous artists/activists presenting traditional and activist perspectives Tuakana Teina (Bianca Ranson and Te Aata Rangimarie), Ngā Aua Rere Kaharunga (Atareta Rerekohu Black), Not Quite a Church/Inciting Public Gathering (Nââwié Tutugoro); and by launching a new online game My Coastal Futures created especially for the exhibition by New Zealands' Institute for Water and Atmosphere (NIWA).
Blue Radius was a co-curated exploration of the ecological emergencies taking place along Tāmaki Makaurau (Auckland) coastlines and presented a range of ecological emergencies. It also included an off-site pop-up exhibition Tara Iti SOS about the impacts of sandmining on marine biodiverstiy. This exhibition was conceived and instigated by Limen Lab and made possible with the enthusiastic collaboration of artists, scientists, communities, and organisations. Visitors to the exhibition at Depot Artspace were encouraged to learn about, contemplate, and respond to the contributing factors and local realities of a range of coastal emergencies facing them as individuals, communities and a society. We are grateful for the award of generous funding from Foundation North enabling us to pay artist fees and exhibition costs, and run a free public engagement events programme. We also acknowledge the enthusiastic and generous support received from Depot Artspace, NIWA and ASGood.
