Scorching Suns, Rising Seas

Overview

A public programme on environmental justice in the context of Sun & Sea at the Albany.

In conjunction with the presentation of Sun & Sea at the Albany, this series of screenings and public events explore questions around pollution, ecocide, migrant justice and climate finance within the context of the Borough of Lewisham. Scorching Suns, Rising Seas brings together a diverse cohort of environmental activists, artists and thinkers including air quality campaigner Rosamund Kissi-Debrah, sociologist Dr Lez Henry, performance artist SERAFINE1369, visual artist Kiluanji Kia Henda, novelist Ayanna Lloyd Banwo, climate negotiator Eva Peace Mukariyaranga, economist Avinash Persaud and jazz educators Tomorrow’s Warriors alongside Sun & Sea’s artists Rugile Barzdziukaite, Vaiva Grainyte and Lina Lapelyte to explore themes of environmental justice for the context of Lewisham and London in 2022. The programme includes film screenings taking place at the Albany, Lewisham, as well as a public gathering, Equilibrium, at the Serpentine Pavilion 2022 Black Chapel by Theaster Gates

Curated by Radical Ecology (Ashish Ghadiali and Lucia Pietroiusti) and produced by Holly Shuttleworth. Emilian Isibo: Assistant Curator. Curatorial and production advice from Amaya Jeyarajah Dent, Kris Nelson and Matthew Schmolle. In partnership with: LIFT 2022, Serpentine’s Back to Earth project, We Are Lewisham, The Ella Roberta Family Foundation, Lewisham Refugee and Migrant Network, University of Exeter’s Global Systems Institute, the International Centre for Climate Change and Development, University of Exeter Arts & Culture, University of Exeter Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, UCL’s Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism & Racialisation, UCL Anthropocene, L-Acoustics & Open Society Foundations. Radical Ecology is supported by the Nicoletta Fiorucci Foundation.

FILM PROGRAMME

Accompanying the symposium programme, a special screening series of artists’ films engages with questions around pollution, ecocide and climate breakdown.
Saturdays & Sundays, 25-26 June; 2-3 July; 9-10 July, 12-5:30pm, The Albany, Lewisham
FREE, no booking required

Programme:
Maria Thereza Alves, To See the Forest Standing, 2017 (excerpts)
Forensic Architecture, if toxic air is a monument to slavery, how do we take it down?, 2021
Carolina Caycedo and David de Rozas, The Teaching of the Hands, 2020
Manthia Diawara, An Opera of the World, 2017
Sky Hopinka, maɬni – Towards the Ocean, Towards the Shore, 2020
Karrabing Film Collective, Night Time Go, 2017
Tabita Rezaire, Sorry 4 Real, 2017
Sumayya Vally, Ingesting Architectures, 2020

DISPLAY

Sarah Stirk and Gina Allen in collaboration with the Ella Roberta Family Foundation
Curated by Radical Ecology (Ashish Ghadiali and Lucia Pietroiusti) and produced by Holly Shuttleworth. Emilian Isibo: Assistant Curator. Curatorial and production advice from Amaya Jeyarajah Dent, Kris Nelson and Matthew Schmolle. AIRBORNE & DRAWING AIR is curated by Sarah Stirk and produced by Matthew Schmolle.

AIRBORNE & DRAWING AIR
25th June – 10th July, The Albany, Lewisham
FREE

Working in collaboration with The Ella Roberta Foundation, Airborne is a visceral audio-visual art work that combines microscopic images of pollution in children’s spit, infrared photographs of children revealing veins, and data maps showing illegal levels of pollution in London. A soundscape, sculptures, and interviews with parents and children affected by asthma are on display to make the invisible threat of air pollution tangible. With thanks to Bertha Foundation and Arts Council England.

Drawing Air focuses on the life of Ella Roberta Adoo-Kissi-Debrah. Ella was a bright, sporty and musical child, living in South East London. She sadly developed life-threatening asthma at age six, and died at the age of nine. Following a landmark legal case, Ella has since become the first person in the world to have air pollution recognised as a cause of death. Artist Gina Allen worked with Ella’s family to produce a series of images of Ella, using dirt collected from the wheels and exhausts of cars.

Nearly 10,000 people in London (around 36,000 UK wide) die early every year from long-term exposure to air pollution. Two million Londoners, including more than 400,000 children, live in areas which exceed legal limits for air pollution. Children are the most vulnerable to this pollution as permanent, lifelong damage can be caused to their developing bodies.

While acknowledging the sources and types of air pollution are many and various, both urban and rural, the material used highlights road traffic as one source of air pollution, inviting us to consider the human behaviours that influence the quality of the air that we breathe.