M - Antennae The Journal of Nature in Visual Culture

A
senior lecturer in art history and critical theory,
Linda Williams also heads RMIT’s art and
environmental sustainability "cluster" of artists
and researchers, which focuses on cultural interpretations
of the non-human world and how they contribute to
knowledge of the environment and the crisis in ecological
sustainability. In September 2008, she curated Heat, a
major art exhibition gathering the work of Australian and
international artists working in a diverse range of media
to demonstrate how contemporary international art
practice is responding to the impacts of climate change.
Dr Williams said “We are used to scientists providing the
information we receive on climate change. This
exhibition is unique because it starts to picture what
these changes might look like.” We discussed the
exhibition and the role played by the arts in challenging
climate change with the academic/curator.
Can you describe the genesis of the show? When
was it conceived, and how long did it take you to
plan?
In 2006 I co-curated a show called The Idea of the animal
at the RMIT gallery in Melbourne, which came out of my
research into the history and theory of human-animal
relations. Initially, at least, the idea for HEAT was an
extension of that research insofar as mass extinction is an
unavoidable aspect of contemporary human-animal
relations. However, research for the exhibition soon
pivoted around more general questions about how
contemporary culture is adapting to climate change, and
how artists interpret the rapid changes occurring in the
non-human world. The show which was team curated
72
took about a year to plan.
HEAT
Heat - Art and climate change brought together the work of twenty-two Australian and international artists, and
collaborators, for a sensory experience of climate change through paintings, photography, soundscapes, installations and
interactive media. It is the first international exhibition on this subject in Australia and will explore issues of degradation,
global warming, over consumption, extinction and man’s impact on nature.
Questions by Paula Lee
How does this exhibition fit inside the larger
goals and programming of the RMIT Gallery and
the Arts and Environmental Research Cluster?
It seems to me that the RMIT gallery is quite distinctive in
the diversity of its programme and does not necessarily
conform to fashionable directions in critique, or in the art
market, as is the case with some other galleries. As a
university gallery it has a brief to maintain an evenhanded
engagement with all aspects of the university,
and responds to research that presents new approaches
to art, as was the case with work coming from the Arts
and Environmental Research Cluster, which is located in
the School of Art. There are artists in this research
cluster such as Simon Perry and Philip Samartzis, and
others closely affiliated with it such as Cameron Robbins,
whose work is focused on the relations between human
and non-human environments. The gallery team and I
invited them into the show, and then others were
selected from Australia, New Zealand, England and
Germany. We also saw a fair bit of work that we
rejected - either because it wouldn’t fit in with the works
already selected, or was otherwise unsuitable.
Given the fragility of many of the works, such as
the sugar sculptures by Ken Yonetani, were there
any special considerations that had to be taken
into account regarding the installation? Were
there other artists you might have liked to
include, but whose work could not be
be installation? Were there other artists you