Video Installation, Projection Mapping, Cut Acrylic
Party Bus: Climate Crisis is a performative apparatus that responds sarcastically towards Climate Change. Installed in the gallery space is a hanging sculpture of a bus with windows showing video loops of partygoers. Behind this is a fiery background of composited dash-cam footage from wildfire evacuations in Alberta. Viewers of the installation would be presented with contrasting images of party bus revelers and “natural disaster” evacuees.
Climate Change, which the IPCC describes as human-induced exacerbates changing regional weather patterns in direct relation to global warming. Solving this crisis is a collective issue that requires sacrifice, such as reducing carbon footprint and lifestyle shifting.
But how can we achieve this when many of us still face racial injustices and human rights abuses. Historical and ongoing patterns of inequity such as colonialism still echo within our communities. Pushing for progressive policies that may help tackle this situation becomes difficult when members of society are still trying to heal from intergenerational trauma.
This installation visualizes the overworked and exhausted individuals faced by systems of inequality. Revelers, the majority of which are people of colour who are venting their frustrations at a social gathering. Attempting to relieve themselves of the traumas placed upon them in from a crisis started by oppression. For far too long we have been exploited and powerless, in defiance we party at the end of the world that has been taken from us. The party bus seeks to remind viewers of the exploitive systems that intertwine with our lifestyles, and to push forward we must first find ways in which we can all collectively heal.
Implementing progressive social reform and Indigenous reparation is paramount to helping address the climate crisis. Because our people are disproportionately affected by climate change, regeneration cannot happen if it only benefits those in power.
The Party Bus was briefly exhibited for the Nvrlnd. Arts Foundation Boutique on November 25th 2022 during the #KeepOnSledding fundraiser for Sled Island music and arts festival.