CHRISTIAN AID NEWS

LIFE AT
THE TIPPING
POINT
A STREET VENDOR cooks on a
portable stove beneath a cat’s cradle
network of electrical cables that
carries power in old Delhi, India. This
compelling scene has helped to
inspire a new series of artwork for an
exhibition focusing on climate change.
Artist Gerry Judah was
commissioned by Christian Aid to
produce a series of works – entitled
Bengal – for Tipping Point, a new
exhibition in association with
Wolverhampton Art Gallery.
Opening on 11 May, the eve of
Christian Aid Week, Tipping Point
explores the unstable future of our
environments and economies. It
features work by a number of
acclaimed artists, including former
Turner Prize winner Simon Starling
and former Turner Prize nominees
Darren Almond and Anya Gallaccio.
Bengal’s five sculptures were
inspired by Gerry’s trip to West Bengal
and Jharkhand in India to see how
poor communities are being forced to
adapt to unpredictable weather
patterns and rising sea levels.
Gerry, who was born in Kolkata,
West Bengal, was struck by the
inequality that comes from dealing
with climate change in India. ‘It seems
that there are people in India getting
richer and richer and there are people
in India getting poorer and poorer,’ he
says. ‘And it’s the latter who are more
affected by climate change. It has such
an impact on people that they’re
trying to patch up whatever they can,
just to deal with it.’
• Tipping Point runs from 11 May to
6 July. See christianaid.org.uk/
tippingpoint or wolverhamptonart.
org.uk/events/tipping-point
Christian Aid/Elizabeth Dalziel
Christian Aid News 5