What’s Next for Earth is a Community Art Project to reflect on the COVID19 period and re-invent the future: normal was the problem. What's Next For Earth’s first project is “Earth Circles”, a celebration of Earth Day’s 50th Anniversary in the time of a pandemic.
During the month of April 2020, people around the world were experiencing the confinement due to COVID19. Earth Day Celebrations were cancelled. It was a striking realization that, the exploitation of wild lands and its animal populations can spread deadly diseases that are potentially unstoppable. If nothing else COVID19 showed us how fragile our interconnected civilization is. What’s Next for Earth invited artists on Instagram to reflect on this special celebration that we could call a wake up call if we did not have many wake up calls before. Artists were invited to create an art piece and to post it on their Instagram page. A selection of the contributions was posted on What’s Next forEarth’s page. Here are some of the contributions.
Ivan Sigg (Paris, France)
Lightpainting for Earth Day. Thank you to Kriill band for your song “Brittany”.
Our lungs are burning, our house is burning, our planet is burning. My creativity is on fire, what about you?
The art I create during the lockdown: every evening I offer to my neighborhood and the caretakers of Bichât Hospital an animated digital painting on the facade of the neighboring building.
YouTube Channel.
Kriill (Paris, France)
Rape Me (Nirvana Cover)
Sailev (Hong-Kong)
Coronavirus
Oil on canvas
The pandemic is a human tragedy and a huge test for the medical world.
But it is also a watershed moment for curbing the global wildlife trade that is driving extinction and disease spread. Give a chance to a whole world of crawling and flying creatures.
‘Be the change you want to see in the world’ – Gandhi
Now #stayhome and chill
Eye of Kathi (California, US)
Earth on Earth hipstamatic (Sergio/Love81/Cherryshine)
Mission San Juan Bautista
Shannon Amidon (Oregon, US)
Tell it to the bees
6” encaustic
As an encaustic (beeswax & damar resin) artist, I am keenly attuned to the bond between art and nature; honeybees produce the wax I use for my encaustic paint. My artwork places a particular focus on the decline of pollinators and other insects due to the loss and destruction of their habitats. I think it is so important to bring attention to these devastating ecological challenges.
Leah Jay (California, US)
“Flourish”
Watercolor
If it only could happen, that during this pause,
we listen (when humanity withdraws)
to birdsong, quiet, the howl and the breeze,
and know Earth as priceless, and everyone sees
From moss, to fern, to loftiest pine
the sinuous dance of the clambering vine
the scaly, the shelled, the mushroom and mold,
the bee and the salamander, fragile and cold.
Could this be the day we find ourselves able
to set down our plates, step away from the table
The feasting is over, we’ve all had our fill
and Life’s story, unfinished, flourishes still.
GoldFish Creative (New Zealand)
Net Doughnut
Recycled materials & acrylic paint
Inspired by Kate Raworth’s doughnut economics, created at the @fishfactoryis in Stödvarfjördur, Iceland, 2018. The work echoes an open water fish farm, taking data points from Icelandic fisheries data out of context to render them incoherent.
What’s next for earth could be building an economy that respects planetary boundaries, with sustainable fisheries, a respect for science, and safety nets to protect the most vulnerable. So great to see Kate Raworth talking at the Aotearoa Town Hall this week… the doughnuts are coming!
Andrea Dawn
Earth Day 2020
I wish for humankind to live in harmony with nature.
I wish for all of us to learn about how each of our daily choices may affect the natural world.
I wish for everyone to grow more plants whether it’s inside their homes, outside in pots or in a community garden.
I wish for all children to hold onto the magic they find in nature as they grow older.
I wish for adults to remember the magic they used to see.
I wish for less destruction and more compassion.
I wish for more love.
Julie Meridian
An unexpected human pause for Earth Day’s 50th anniversary is giving us a view we don’t often see. I sketched tree rings here for @whatsnextforearth as a beautiful view that can only been seen from growth suddenly stopped. There’s always new growth trying from the same roots. And there’s a tiny heart at the center of it.
Evelyne Maubert (Toulouse, France)
Prendre en compte les limites de la planète.
Take into account the limits of the planet
Stacie B Greene (California, US)
This is my take on a Tree of Life. I’ve included species that are both on the endangered species list and ones that are not on it yet. The trajectory we are on now will certainly cause even plentiful species to become endangered or extinct. Whats Next for Earth is I hope Covid-19 is a wake up call, not only for our own health but the health of our planet as well.
Jeanne Corso (California)
Cycles of death and rebirth on the planet we call earth,
The rise and fall of the myriad of sentient beings,
Our breath gives us witness,
And in our death we return to the One.
Alise Sheehan (California, US)
The Alchemy Of Cures
April 2020
Day 13. Today is dedicated to our scientists, hard at work on a vaccine, looking everywhere for that powerful combination of elements. Let’s all pray and visualize that today is the day they strike gold and find the cure.
Marianne Bickett (California, US)
The Coronavirus has changed us, and gives us the chance to plant seeds of change. Maybe we could plant a tree for every person who has perished because of the pandemic. I chose a less used view of the earth (looking up towards Africa) because I thought it a nice change from the typical N America view and to emphasize the fact we are a planet comprised of mostly water. We need to address plastic pollution that is in our water and in our bodies. Maybe the Coronavirus can be the catalyst for us to find a new way, for us to bloom. Our earth is unique and our time here so limited. Why not seize the moment to rethink how we are living? The Coronavirus is a whole world problem, we are connected by our suffering and our ability to work together to remedy the catastrophe we have created. There is yet great Hope! Thank you!
Anna Stump (Twentynine Palms, California, US)
Painting on found object
Claude Benzrihem /cbdesign (Paris, France)
Bottom up for Earth
Photo @ikasamami /AFP design
Michele Guieu (Bay Area, California, US)
Shelter in Place Day 27.
This morning, listening to “Académie du Monde d’Apres” (Academy of the World After) “For the first time in my life, I am witnessing this reversal: the economy, the obsession with its growth, has jumped from its pedestal, it is no longer the measure of relationships nor the supreme authority. Suddenly, public health, the security of citizens, an equal right for all, is the only and imperative watchword.” Erri De Luca [Le Samedi de la Terre]
~Michele Guieu, Eco-Artist, MAHB Member and MAHB Arts Community coordinator~