HOT AIR
Susan Hoffman Fishman is an artist who has addressed climate change for many years both in context of her own work as an artist and in her writing on other artists’ work in that arena. Hoffman was first interviewed with Burning Worlds about four years ago and has recently been interviewed there again on her latest series of paintings depicting coastline sink holes and other landscapes impacted by climate change,
Amy Brady: Your work has engaged with the subject of climate change for some time. What draws you to this subject?
Climate change is the existential crisis of our times. For decades scientists have known about the impact that it has had and will have on our long-term survival but their data and warnings have resulted in action that is too little and very late. As an activist at heart, I feel compelled to do my part in addressing climate change issues and especially those related to water. I think it is my responsibility as a global citizen to use whatever means I can to educate people about climate change and promote participation in solutions that can mitigate the damages it is causing to the environment.
Amy Brady: It’s been a few years since we last did an interview together. Have your thoughts on art’s role in shaping perspectives of the climate crisis changed? Why or why not?
If anything, my belief in the power of art to effect change is stronger than it was when we first talked. In 2017, I began writing a column for the international blog Artists and Climate Change called “Imagining Water.” The series consisted of articles about artists in all genres who were addressing water and climate change in their work. I thought I would only discover enough artists for a year’s worth of articles. Five years later, I was still writing. What I found was a virtual army of visual artists, poets, playwrights, dancers, installation artists, musicians, architects and other creatives all over the world who believe as I do that art has the power to engage the heart and mind in ways that data alone cannot. These artists are creating paintings, sculpture, installations, films, plays, operas, popular music, stories and public art that have engaged millions of people in museums, galleries and highly visible public venues of all kinds. According to research conducted by the Yale School of Climate Change Communication, belief among Americans that climate change is a personal threat to them has increased significantly over these past five years. Although I can’t correlate these changes in attitude with the efforts of artists alone, I can only believe that some of that new understanding can be attributed to them.
Amy Brady: What’s next for you? Anything you’d like my readers to watch for?
I’m working on three projects right now. The first is a continuation of my current series with the addition of other areas of the world where sinkholes are proliferating.
The second project is the creation of a multimedia installation called Flood 2.0, which connects the dire predictions of future apocalyptic floods to the ancient story of Noah and the first apocalyptic flood. Flood 2.0 is the effort of Water Women, a collective of three women artists, including myself, Maine-based painter Krisanne Baker, and Michigan-based multimedia artist Leslie Sobel. The installation consists of a Greek Chorus serving as a soundtrack that tells the story of the lone survivor of the next apocalyptic flood, three videos projected onto a make-shift boat and over 45 painted scrolls that are suspended from the ceiling so that visitors feel as if they are submerged in the ocean. Flood 2.0 will be on view from April 28 – May 26, 2023, at the Five Points Gallery in Torrington, Connecticut, a city that has experienced multiple catastrophic floods in its history.
I’m also working on a two-person exhibition that will be installed at Stand4 Gallery in Brooklyn, New York, from January 19 – February 19, 2024. Leslie Sobel and I will be showing work that we completed as part of our residency at Planet Labs. While my paintings and cyanotypes focus on sinkholes, her mixed media pieces highlight Lake Erie and other bodies of water where algae bloom from chemical run-off and from climate change is sickening human and non-human life alike. Since the gallery is small and most of my work is large, I’m adding smaller paintings and cyanotypes to my current series.
Susan Hoffman Fishman is a Connecticut-based painter, eco-artist and arts writer who has exhibited widely throughout the United States. Since 2011, her practice has focused on water in the context of climate change. Her recent work includes a series of mixed-media paintings and cyanotypes on the proliferation of sinkholes around the word and recasts ancient myths—in which water plays a pivotal role—into visual narratives that reflect upon contemporary society. For five years, Fishman has written a monthly column, called “Imagining Water” for the international blog Artists and Climate Change, which highlights artists of all disciplines around the world who are working on global water issues and climate change.
This interview with Susan Hoffman Fishman was conducted by Amy Brady and was originally published in the Burning Worlds Newsletter which focuses on climate change in art and literature.