SPONTANEOUS GENERATION

Agents For Change/Facing the Anthropocene curated by Nina Czegledy and Jane Tingley at THEMUSEUM, Kitchener, Ontario

This exhibit presented artworks by women media artists working at the intersection of science, technology and art, with a focus on ecological change - the greatest danger of our time.

The notion of spontaneous generation — that vermin spring fully formed from rubbish and decay — seems ludicrous today. Climate change feeds another kind of alarm. Two centuries of pollution in the form of carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide and other gases contribute to the melting of glaciers and polar ice sheets. A warmer planet is leading to a profound increase in hosts and vectors of pathogenic microbes. There is still a reluctance to fully take account of these changes, as though they are simply part of an inevitable cycle and not human-induced. Spontaneous Generation underscores the disastrous consequences of not acting on the climate emergency. The installation depicts a world where Malaria, Dengue Fever and West Nile Fever reign, and remnants of melting polar caps are now sealed in jars and only viewed in a gallery. Are we ready for a post-glacial planet where heat rises, mosquitoes reign, and microbes fester?

 January 2020 to January 2021