This body of work is a celebration of defiance, and in particular the actions of protestors campaigning against climate change. Our governments and corporations have a huge responsibility to invest in renewable and sustainable technology, pressure from individuals is vital in making this happen. Investigation into activism, both in the gallery and through collaboration with the direct-action group Climate Rush, has led to a practice that fuses performance and activism with more formal printmaking methodologies.
Joining the tradition of political posters, these prints aim to re-contextualise contemporary protestors within the wider history of social movements. Looking specifically at the lithographs of Alphonse Mucha I have used an Art Nouveau aesthetic to expand on the era of the suffragettes, echoing the model established by Climate Rush. Yet my subjects are active, embodying activism in sharp contrast to the submissive stances of Mucha’s characters. I hope that dedication to sustainability will become an intrinsic part of our politics. Sustainability today seems as radical as the notion of women voting would have seemed one hundred years ago, but this societal transformation is just as possible.
Contact: cordelia.cembrowicz@network.rca.ac.uk