2017 CREATIVE CLIMATE AWARDS
The Creative Climate Awards are an annual series of events that showcase artists creating climate-inspired public works and actions. In an effort to inspire us to think more critically about our actions and their impacts, the Creative Climate Awards uses the arts and creativity to share knowledge, broaden the climate conversation, educate, and incite action.
This year's Creative Climate Awards Exhibit designed by XDEA Architects with artist Mark John Smith
Visit the exhibit:
October 16th - November 16th
Monday - Friday 9AM - 4:30PM
Taipei Economic and Cultural Office
1 E 42nd St, New York, NY
Opening Party
Creative Climate Awards Opening Party
When: Monday, October 16, 2017 from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Where: Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) - 1 East 42nd Street, New York, NY
Join us as we open this inspiring month-long exhibit. See the submissions for the first time, along with interactive and performance art works.
Artists
 Alexandre Dang'Dancing Solar Flowers' video installation The question of the environment is often approached from a catastrophic perspective with alarmist works. This work invites the public to question the beauty and hidden treasures of the elements that surround us. These flowers can be seen, on the one hand, as crazy realisations and, one the other hand they carry deep messages linked with the contemporary world. |  Aleksandar Popovic'Loss of Gravity' oil on linen 50" x 62" A glimpse into the future where land formations are being extracted or capped in protective bubbles. |  Allison Maria Rodriguez'Wish You Were Here: Greetings from the Galápagos' video installation A 3-channel immersive video installation created through a combination of video, photography, pencil drawings and digital animation. This work explores climate change, species extinction and political agency. |
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 Alyson Ogasian & Claudia O'Steen'The Physical Geography of the Sea' sculpture The Physical Geography of the Sea generates a series of data points that record not only our observations of the changing landscape but also reflect how the landscape has affected us psychically and physically. The project touches upon our profound connection to the natural systems around us, while also suggesting that we do not have control or even a complete understanding of their complexity. |  Andrew McWilliams'Emergency Room' media installation An immersive media installation comparing the way we respond to personal medical conditions with the way have responded to climate change. |  Danielle Baudrand'Empowerment' workshop The project’s goal is to raise awareness about the destructive imprint disposable goods not only leave on our planet but on our emotional being. The project strives to be zero waste with all materials required from this project from used materials donated at collection bins that have been set up at specific locations. This also shows participants that there is enough used or discarded materials on our planet to use. |
 Diogo Freire'Facing the Surge' documentary film Facing the Surge documents the tangible costs of sea level rise for the people of Norfolk, VA. Norfolk is home to the largest naval base in the country and to thousands of hard-working Americans struggling to adapt to the rising tides and an uncertain future. |  Dominique Paul'Air Pollution Dress' performance with interactive wearable, photography and video (click image to see video) An interactive dress which as a portable device measuring the amount of small particles in the air, while also displaying the EPA color code under the elevated Highway 87, which divides Mott Haven from Port Morris in South Bronx. |  Dominique Paul'The Air Quality Dress Under the Bruckner, South Bronx' performance with interactive wearable, photography and video (click image to see video) An interactive dress which as a portable device measuring the amount of small particles in the air, while also displaying the EPA color code under the elevated Highway 87, which divides Mott Haven from Port Morris in South Bronx. |
 Kenneth Burris'Fishing this again?' oil on canvas 30" x 36" Producing both commercial and fine art, Kenneth creates work with a unique perspective, seeing how our perceptions of reality have been challenged in the digital age. |  Lemon Guo'Not Fog' sculpture/performance "雾非雾 - Not Fog" is a multimedia performance installation about the smog pollution in China that juxtaposes this hazardous contemporary situation with traditional Chinese understanding of the nature. The piece incorporates movement and vocal ensemble, data sonification & visualization, painting-animation projection, costume, and fabric sculpture. Collaborators: Jing Li, Mengtai Zhang |  Evelyn Vas'Prthvi Akhyayika' performance A Bharatanatyam dance piece on the melting of ice sheets in Greenland and Antarctica. |
 Felicia Young'The Sustainable Future Procession' banner and procession The Sustainable Future Procession engages community participants in a creative public message linking the direct impact of water pollution as an issue of public health and safety with the larger challenges of climate change. Our clean water supplies are at risk of diminishing with increasing droughts caused by climate change and being contaminated by the polluting industries that are escalating the carbon in our atmosphere. |  Fernanda Uribe'In the Clouds' collage over cardboard 16" x 20" ArborVitae, a series of watercolors and collages, is a simple yet elegant work that brings the micro to the macro through a very romantic medium. Almost invisible and ghostly, it hints as an act of disappearing but nonetheless invites the viewer to analyse the relationship between life and death. Tree dissections that look like cells in formation or even a uterus describing the beauty and importance of life. |  Fernanda Uribe'Arbor' watercolor on cotton paper 9" x 6" |
 Fernanda Uribe'Pezon' watercolor on cotton paper 9" x 6" |  Hannah Rothstein'National Parks 2050: Everglades' giclée print 20" x 28" National Parks 2050 is a call to action. Drawing upon the classic National Parks posters, this series shows how climate change will affect seven of America’s most beloved landscapes by the year 2050. In doing so, it makes climate change feel close to home and hard to ignore. |  Hannah Rothstein'National Parks 2050: Great Smoky' giclée print 20" x 28" |
 Hetty Baiz'Water Conflict Wall' installation 10' x 7' As populations continue to grow, there will be increased competition for this scarce resource. Climate change, which brings flooding and drought, will further exacerbate this condition. What is hopefully conveyed to the public is that climate change is not just about changing weather and rising sea levels. It is intricately connected to human rights and global security. |  Jason Davislive musical performance Jason's musical pieces combine jazz and chamber music with field recordings and people's spoken observations and reflections of climate change. His hope is that audience members will "connect the dots" between their own lives, global climate change, and the personal experiences of people from around the world. Performance Samples: https://soundcloud.com/climate-stories-project/inuit-music-for-solo-double-bass https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6WD0e-wd3RI&t=2s |  Jessica Matier'Terminal 4' mixed media 33" x 21" The artwork explores the relationship between humans and nature within a moral scope. Pieces of forest are affected by the forces of nature and on the other hand, the forests are a reflection of human nature. |
 Julie Bahn'Netflixing' collage on board 18" x 24" My work focuses on elements that I feel conflicted about as I try to live a balanced life. This includes cultural and social issues, specifically the environment. The intent is to show the interaction that I see between nature and people. |  Julie Bahn'Green' collage on board 11" x 8.5" |  Laura Murray"1, 13, 17 Years" installation (dimensions vary) Magicicadas are one of the most fascinating and misunderstood insects on the planet. Often mistaken for locusts, cicadas are treated by the public as pests. In reality, cicadas are completely harmless. Fluctuating temperatures are throwing them off of their vital 17 year cycle, each generation of is smaller than the last. If human activity, pesticides, and climate change continue to go unchecked, there might not be any cicada songs to hear. |
 Linda Byrne'Skeleton Ships' armature wire, paper mache, spackle, wax sculptures 12″ x 40″ x 13″ This installation consists of 12 bone-like ship hull sculptures. Their rib shapes become stand-ins for the death and decay of the ocean’s creatures and the maritime industry. I want my work to express these complex issues, distilling them into visual shorthand, like a beautiful haiku poem. |  Linda Byrne'Grave Devastation' gouache on cut-paper 30" x 40" The most pressing environmental issue of our time is the protection of our water and oceans. Today our oceans carry more plastic than plankton. The disregard of this precious resource has resulted in overfishing, the dying of coral reefs, and the dumping of waste, chemicals, and radiation. Understanding such an entangled subject through art seems idealistic or even naïve, yet it is difficult to predict the impact it will have on its viewer. |  Marie-Juliette Bird'Black Crow' video & live performance Lyrically, I explore the mythology of the crow as harbinger of news. In this case, the crow has apocalyptic news for humanity. I use melody, lyrics, mythology and imagery to communicate the urgency of the situation. |
 Leslie Tucker'Predators' shop with greater diligence photo-composite printed on endura metallic chromogenic paper 24" x 20" In veiled and covert ways Tucker's photo art explores our buying habits and how we are led by a culture of artful sellers. Her stories are about our conflicts and dualities illuminated by the objects we nimbly consume. |  Leslie Tucker'Empire' will forever remain photo-composite printed on endura metallic chromogenic paper 24" x 36" We no longer live life, we consume it. Tucker invites her audience to meander through her decorative tableaus to rediscover the underbelly of our humanity--to better understand who we are, who we've been, and who we are becoming. |  Mirimari Vayrynen'THEORY NRO 6-9' multi-media installation 36" x 66" x 2" A landscape painting, consisting of an oil color painting made on plex glass with applied lacquer technique and an LED text screen traversing it. The text on the LED screen moves intermittently per seconds. It has been set to calculate the seconds from the beginning of the exhibition until the end as framing the exhausting time. |
 Niki Lederer'Flood Twist' installation/sculpture Niki makes sculptures from repurposed plastic that she harvests from curbside recycling in her Brooklyn neighborhood of Williamsburg. She reclaims these materials to create sculptures, specifically the brightly colored plastic bottles left in curbside recycling. The sheer volume of recyclables creates mountain range after mountain range of empty Tide, Heinz Ketchup, Draino, Mazola Corn Oil and Tropicana Orange Juice. |  Raymond Wang'La Mer 2.0' watercolor 24" x 19" Water is life. No matter which political party or whatever stands you take, we must accept that we are all stuck here on a single giant spaceship flying across dark space and there isn't a backup spaceship nearby. This is it, we need to take care of it or else. I intend to convey such urgency with my works. |  Martin Thomas Smyczek II'The Keys of Color' used bottle caps on used aluminium printing plates 60" x 25.5" A Reuse art piece, made from used, discarded, and unrecyclable items. |
 Robert Ladislas Derr'Oil City' video installation on cardboard 35" x 23" x 11.5" This video captures a vista perspective of Oil City through a curtain of oil |  Sarah Pezdek'Re-Birth' photography 40" x 30" The human form, turned away both in ignorance to the gravity of the effect of the barriers and vulnerability because of it’s connection to it’s surrounding environment, serves as an inspiration for change. |  So Young Shelly Yo'GONG-GI' film A short film about a dystopian world in which the air pollution has grown to such an extent that we are all trapped inside our houses. |
 Spencer Merolla'Coffee and Donuts (Coal Comforts)' photographic print on aluminum 12" x 9" Coal Comforts is concept bakery in which the “baked goods” are inedible sculptures made of coal ash. Cast from real cookies, cupcakes, and candies in remarkable detail, these sculptures surprise viewers by confounding their expectations. |  Spencer Merolla'Macaroons (Coal Comforts)' photographic print on aluminum 12" x 9" |  Spencer Merolla'Cupcake (Coal Comforts)' coal ash and resin 2" x 2" x 3" |
 Susan Fletcher'WEEP' metal chinois stitched with red thread hanging sculpture 12" x 73" x 12" In WEEP, each individual thread represents the importance of each one of us taking part in making positive, effective, and personal changes to reduce climate change. Singularly, each thread is weak, but together they become stronger, have a bigger impact and represent the growing tide of people wanting a safer future. |  Oluwatobi Adewumi'Dark Clouds' ink, acrylics, and smoke on paper 16" x 20" The cityscape illustration is about the pollution in our world today.The New York city recently estimated that up to 2,700 premature deaths a year could be attributed to fine particulate matter and ozone in the air. The medium is used is ink, acrylic paint on paper and smoke effect with a lighter. |  Tatiana Gulenkina'Six Hours' (Series) digital C print 20" x 30" Six Hours is a series of multiple- and long-exposure photographs of slowly melting bodies of ice that explore the intersection of political and poetic, collective and personal. |
 Tatiana Gulenkina'Six Hours' (Series) digital C print 20" x 30" |  Virginia Black & Casey Carter'Rights of Nature' film Ecuador’s indigenous communities unite, in the face of persecution, to defend the revolutionary Rights of Nature inscribed in the constitution they helped to create. |  Zibuokle Martinaityte/ True Rosaschi'Vanishing Lands (M-Islands)' installation An immersive audiovisual installation that explores the inevitability of the disappearance of the Marshall Islands in the North Pacific due to the global warming and rising sea levels. |
Live Events
Film, Performance & Workshops
The main exhibit will be accompanied by themed, interactive events throughout October.
Each Wednesday, Thursday and Friday showcases a different collection of submissions ranging
from film, live dance, music and workshops at the Taipei Economic and Cultural Office.
Wednesdays at 6 pm
Residency Solution Nights
Let's find solutions, together
Join us for nights curated by our artists-in-residence on these four themes:
rsvp and learn more below
 10/18 Artist Meet and GreetCome spend an evening with this year's CCA artists! Get to know their inspirations, impacts, and passions about climate change. Also enjoy a pop-up show celebrating local artists and a collaboration of creativity for the climate. | 10/25: BreatheJoin us for a FREE curated evening led by our artist residents around the theme of “breathe”, looking at creative solutions for air, health, and climate. Featured Creative Climate Awards artists include: "Gong Gi" short film by So Young Shelly Yo "Not Fog" live performance by Lemon Guo Live music performance by Jason Davis "Rights of Nature" film screening by Virginia Black and Casey Carter | 11/1 WastedA curated evening led by our artist residents around the theme of “wasted”, looking at creative solutions for air, health, and climate. Featured event: Climate Reality Project |
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 11/8 SubmergeA curated evening led by our artist residents around the theme of “submerge”, looking at creative solutions for air, health, and climate. Featured Creative Climate Awards artists include: "Prthvi Akhyayika" live performance by Evelyn Vas "Facing the Surge" documentary film screening by Diogo Freire |  11/15 SparkA curated evening led by our artist residents around the theme of “spark”, looking at creative solutions for air, health, and climate. |
Thursdays
Interactive Workshops
Make a change
Interactive workshops led by our artists-in-residence for our community
(Invitation Only)
Fridays at Noon
Lunch and Learn Impact Hours
Nourish your body and your mind
Join us for lunchtime conversation with
this year's CCA artists, artist-in-residents, and local experts
rsvp and learn more >>
Closing Party
Creative Climate Awards Closing Party
When: Thursday, November 16, 2017, from 6:00 PM to 8:30 PM
Where: Taipei Economic and Cultural Office (TECO) - 1 East 42nd Street, New York, NY
Join us as we close this inspiring month-long exhibit. See the submissions one last time, along with interactive and performance art works.
This is also your chance to be among the first to
witness the announcement of this year's Creative Climate Awards finalists -
and with the help of our judges, one lucky artist will go home with the $2,000 grand prize.
Our Judges
Dr. Wen-Pin Hope Lee
Dr. Lee is an award-winning Composer and Professor. In 2006, he won the 17th Golden Melody Award for “The Best
Composer for Traditional and Artistic Music.” Lee now teaches at his alma mater, National Taiwan Normal University, as a professor. He also teaches at Fu Jen Catholic University and at the Affiliated Senior High School of National Taiwan Normal University.
In 2013, Lee has founded the “The Center for the Research and the Business Development of Asia Popular Music for NTNU.
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Sean Rameswaram
Sean has made radio for the CBC, NPR, and WNYC, which he joined as a Studio 360 producer in 2012.
He created, produced, and hosted Studio 360's sideshow podcast, which was widely regarded as one of the most devastatingly charming popular culture programs in the history of audio.
Sean continues to cover culture at WNYC while also reporting for More Perfect, Radiolab's new podcast about the Supreme Court of the United States.
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N. Scott Johnson
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N. Scott Johnson is an architect and founding principal of XDEA, a design firm located in New York City focusing on public space, performance and architecture.
Current projects include a converting an historic carriage museum to a performance space for the Rockefeller Brother's Fund on their 265 estate in Tarrytown, NY and a designing a performance installation in collaboration with film maker Barbara Hammer for the Whitney Museum of American Art as part of their Dreamlands Immersive Cinema exhibit.
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Nina Edwards
Nina Edwards is an enthusiastic and creative NY-based illustrator, curator, artists' agent, surface pattern designer, stationery designer, and licensing consultant with 15 years of industry experience. She graduated from New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology with a BA in fashion illustration and later received her MFA in illustration from California State University, Fullerton.
She has worked on a wide variety of projects ranging from advertising and packaging, and fashion, lifestyle & young adult books and magazines, for Scholastic Publishing, Bridal magazine, Girl's Life, among others.
Nina is actively involved in education and teaches Graphic Design, Fashion Illustration, and Art Licensing classes and workshops at Pratt Institute, as well as led a number of illustration lessons, workshops, and career presentations at schools, universities, and professional organizations.
Nina has curated five illustration exhibitions and one runway fashion show in New York in 2015.
At the international level, she has developed and taught many art licensing, copyright, and greeting card design courses and workshops in Taiwan for nearly 8 years.
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Christine Arroyo
Christine grew up in San Diego, graduated with a B.A. and B.S. from U.C. Berkeley, has surfed all over the world, loves graffiti art, and getting lost in a museum. Christine’s environmental activism began during her childhood in California when she helmed community outreach projects for Surfrider and Heal the Bay. She started her career as a news writer for KTVU in San Francisco, eventually moving into advertising and event production for The Black Eyed Peas world tour, including event production for The Academy Awards, The Grammy’s, and American Music Awards.
Christine now works in the advertising/entertainment industries creating catchy phrases for brands like Beats by Dre headphones, Adidas and the NBA. Christine is currently creative directing a virtual reality segment for Oceanic Ibiza - a visual arts, music and virtual reality concert event slated for Summer of 2017. Christine also designs music videos for social impact, including for such artists as Katy Perry, Pink and Jay-Z. Christine’s concepts have been nominated for Cannes Lions awards, AICP awards and her concept for Katy Perry’s “Firework” music video was awarded MTV’s highest honor of ‘Best Music Video of the Year.’
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Sabine Marx
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Sabine Marx is the Director of Research at the National Center for Disaster Preparedness at the Earth Institute, Columbia University.
The current work of Sabine Marx falls within the area of environmental decision making, risk perceptions, and communication of scientific information – with a focus on public health and disaster preparedness.
She joined CRED in 2005 after two years of post-doctoral work at the International Research Institute for Climate and Society (IRI) at Columbia’s Earth Institute.
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Mechthild Schmidt
Mechthild is a Clinical Professor for Digital Communications and Media (NYU-SPS). She teaches courses in Motion Design, Engaged Media and Media history.
Building on fine arts and history studies in Berlin, Mechthild has worked in digital media since her DAAD graduate grant (MFA) and Whitney-ISP Fellowship brought her to New York.
She worked as an artist and award-winning designer for major studios (Editel, HBO, ARRI-Munich) and artists such as Alexander Kluge and Ornette Coleman.
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Emma Zinsmeister
Emma Zinsmeister is the Climate Change Program Specialist at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency and specializes in climate change mitigation and adaptation strategies for communities across the United States. Her work focuses on creating peer-exchange opportunities and technical guidance to help local governments reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, increase their resilience to extreme weather events, and advance their clean energy goals.
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