As much as we’d like to forget all about the pressing and suddenly very real effects of climate change, installation artist Olafur Eliasson is making us confront our worst fears head-on. In response to the October 2018 report that warned us that we only have 12 years to really turn things around for our planet, Eliasson is launching an installation on December 11 2018. The date coincides with the meeting of world leaders at the COP24 climate change conference in Katowice, Poland and hopes to educate people on the pressing and extreme effects of climate change.
Outside the Tate Modern in London where an exhibition of Eliasson’s work will open in July 2019, 24 blocks of ice will be arranged on the bankside. Another six blocks will be placed in the centre of the city, outside Bloomberg’s European headquarters. These very blocks of ice were taken from the waters of the Nuup Kangerlua fjord in Greenland where they were melting into the ocean.
In this powerful, very real installation, the general public will see the ice gradually melt, visually witnessing the disastrous effects of climate change. Eliasson explain on his website “by enabling people to experience and actually touch the blocks of ice in this project, I hope we will connect people to their surroundings in a deeper way and inspire radical change. We must recognise that together we have the power to take individual actions to push for systemic change. Let’s transform climate knowledge into climate action”.
Ice Watch London is the third part of the Ice Watch artwork series. Each piece has been timed exactly to coincide with a global climate change event. This will be Eliasson’s first temporary sculpture in London and is a continuation of the recurring themes in his work of promoting awareness of climate change and sustainable energy.
Depending on upcoming weather conditions, Ice Watch is predicated to be on show until Friday December 21 2018. What's left of the melting ice, will be transported to local community and cultural instititions in an extended educational programme to further widen knowledge of climate change.
You can read more about the Ice Watch London project here