Penny Siopis, 'Warm Waters' [8], 2018鈥�19 glue, ink, and oil on paper, 13.2 x 9.3 in. 漏 Penny Siopis, courtesy of the artist and Stevenson Cape Town
The complex and crucial issue of climate change is central to an exclusive exhibition at the McMullen Museum of Art that focuses on the Indian Ocean region, where temperature changes have led to extreme weather events. On view from January 27 through May 31 in the Daley Family and Monan Galleries, Indian Ocean Current: Six Artistic Narratives features leading contemporary artists whose works are defined by their deep ties to the lands surrounding the third-largest of the world鈥檚 five oceans.
Through videos, collages, paintings, sculptures, interactive installations, and photographs, the exhibition explores the contemporary legacy of the long movement of people, things, and ideas across the Indian Ocean. The open and plural societies of the Indian Ocean world came under threat from the mid-twentieth century when decolonization created new nation-states that were divided, at times, by hastily erected borders. Today, these borders are losing their meanings as the Indian Ocean鈥檚 waters rise; global warming does not respect human-made divisions.
Shiraz Bayjoo, 'Fig. 7' ('Ocean Miniatures' series), 2016 | acrylic, resin, wood, 6.7 x 4.7 x 1 in. 漏 Shiraz Bayjoo, courtesy of the artist and Ed Cross Fine Art, London
鈥淓ach artist probes different aspects of the ocean鈥檚 rising waters due to global warming and their resulting consequences for the migration of peoples inhabiting the region," said Nancy Netzer, the inaugural Robert L. and Judith T. Winston Director of the McMullen Museum and a Boston College professor of art history. "The Museum hopes that this exhibition will bring greater awareness to the complex problems facing the Indian Ocean world and, through accompanying programs with scientists, humanists, and social scientists, invites its audience to engage in dialogue about one of the most pressing issues of our contemporary moment.鈥�
Though the rich history of the Indian Ocean has been much explored, its present-day manifestations remain less studied. Indian Ocean Current probes complex and vexing questions such as: How do we make sense of the great mixing of peoples in the Indian Ocean world? How do we conceive of the water that links distant shores? How do we address the borders that now divide spaces that for so long were undivided? What do the rising waters resulting from global warming portend for the future of the Indian Ocean and the inhabitants of its bordering lands?
鈥淭he Indian Ocean is one of the world鈥檚 great waterways and humans have crossed it for thousands of years,鈥� said exhibition co-curator Prasannan Parthasarathi, a professor of South Asian history and award-winning researcher whose whose interests include environmental change, agriculture, and labor in South India. 鈥�Indian Ocean Current explores pressing issues such as the legacy of the long movement of peoples, the impact of nations and borders on this plural world, and the future of that world as the ocean鈥檚 waters rise with global warming.鈥�
In the exhibition, artistic narratives are in conversation with the findings of scientists as animations, maps, films, and interviews illuminate the unusual geology of the Indian Ocean and the myriad, catastrophic effects of climate change in that region and across the globe. Included are more than eighty works by by Shiraz Bayjoo, Shilpa Gupta, Nicholas Hlobo, Wangechi Mut