At the Reading International Symposium last month, speakers addressed a familiar question: What can we learn from artists? The conference aimed to explore the contribution artists and art institutions make to reimagining public life through the lens of ‘ecological thinking’ - or to put it simply, “how we work together, learn from each other, and imagine more sustainable and inclusive futures.” [1] But the most striking moment came from an audience member, asking simply “When we refer to...

Dumped almost ten metres high in an Oxfordshire field nearby River Cherwell, fly-tipped waste has recently caused an outcry in the media. [1] Understandably so, however, as we’ve crept into December I hesitate to be the bearer of bad news: Christmas, in the UK alone, generates nearly 700,000  tonnes of ‘waste’ a year… and it’s got to go somewhere. Consumerism operates in cycles of extraction, production, circulation and finally ‘disposal’, but the reality, as we know, is more complex....

Part one of this series explored the role of art in encouraging an active  awareness of the ecological crisis, but surmised rather pessimistically that environmental art often falls short. Whilst encouraging an underlying ethic of eco-art can help prevent mindless institutional greenwashing, placing undue pressure on any particular piece for not doing will not exactly lead anywhere. During a time of global ecological, political, and social turmoil, it can feel futile to dedicate time and...