Gregg The Artivist: Climate Crisis, A Dream and My Tipping Point. Art for the Climate Crisis 2022

Climate Change

Artivism Response to The Climate Crisis for Climate Action Now!

6 April 2022

2,429 views

5 min read

Welcome to the first episode of Gregg the Artivist - Climate Crisis , A Dream and My Tipping Point. Climate Crisis 2022.

Hey I’m Gregg. Welcome and thank you so much for joining me for the very first episode of Gregg the Artivist.

After months in planning i’m excited to get the channel launched and my first big project underway a huge cardboard sculpture. But we’ll get back to the sculpture just a little bit later on. If you’ve been following me on my socials leading up to today’s launch then firstly a huge thank you to you, and to everyone else for your encouragement and support. It’s been greatly appreciated.

And the burning question of course from everyone is… what is this channel all about? Well simply put it’s me documenting my journey to having my voice heard about my concerns of the climate crisis through artivism. And along the way i’d like to build a community of like-minded people raising our voices together and taking action to add urgency to the climate crisis issue and of course having some fun while we do it!

But let’s get started at the beginning as i explained this and much more in this episode…

Our planet, the one thing that connects us all. As the climate crisis has society on the edge of extinction, no one can be blamed for feeling overwhelmed. At first I found it hard to comprehend that our modern existence is rapidly increasing global warming with such catastrophic consequences. But then I felt dismayed… How is it possible that we have left this for so many years to become a state of emergency? After all we were all warned about the impact of humanity on global warming back in 1973. That’s the year I was born, almost half a century ago! But mostly I was feeling useless. I was lost in the science, the misinformation, the denialists and the propaganda.

Although I stopped using plastic straws, I took public transport, I recycled my rubbish and I believed I was doing my part, like so many others I had comfortably fallen into becoming an inactivist. Unknowingly I was delaying in taking any real meaningful action until one day I had a conversation and it changed everything…

I was horrified to hear from one of my closest friends, one of the most caring people that I know, that they were not willing to make any change to their lifestyle for the climate crisis. They wanted to enjoy their life now, and their money without sacrifice. After all, they had worked for it. And they believed that the climate crisis wouldn’t have any impact on them in their lifetime. I can honestly say I was shocked… mostly sad… but more importantly, it hit me like a slap in the face. I realized (I was apart of) white western male privilege and this was the wake up call that I needed.

Now I believe we all have a skill, and we are all ultimately responsible for the planet. So i’ve decided to use my skill in art as my voice and my tool in the fight against the lack of commitment and urgency needed for climate action now. My question to you is… what tool can you use to take action?

For those of you that know me, building a cardboard sculpture is a departure from the art that i’ve normally been creating, particularly recently. But the one thing about this project that isn’t so different to my previous art is that it all started with a dream back in November 2021. Now i’m a prolific and vivid dreamer i love to take inspiration from them and i record them the following morning as part of my ideas diary…

It’s the 13th of November, i think. Just an art idea to add to the rest. A very strange dream last night very vivid as always i think it’d be great for the dream sequence of art that i’ve been doing although to be honest i’m not really quite sure how i’m going to realise it or bring it to life just yet. But essentially i wake up in a very deserted area and i there’s nothing in front of me at all until i turn around and i see this huge, massive even monument or sculpture behind me. And the first thing that i realised about this is that it’s a it’s a number of broken columns or pillars, very square in shape like something that you would see in front of a government building. On top of the platform of one of these pillars is a very geometrical designed human figure although it’s quite non-descriptive. It looks injured. Its kind of propping itself up with one arm and the other arm is reaching out with its hand out. And in its hand is this single plant growing that’s the only greenery to be seen anywhere in the area. I’m kind of looking at that i’m realising that this this figure is actually being pinned down to the column by a huge dagger. A beautifully geometrical detailed dagger, much more detailed than than the figure and the handle of this dagger is a very masculine, male body, huge chest, abs and it doesn’t have any arms on it but it has his head that has three faces with these very stern looks. Kind of looking at it three different directions.