Artwork by two Philadelphia artists, who traveled to Alaska to meet with scientists, examine the impacts of climate change, and paint and photograph what they saw, is featured in an Honoring the Future exhibition which opened March 7, 2016 at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s regional headquarters at 1650 Arch Street in downtown Philadelphia. The exhibition is installed in the huge 54-foot long set of windows facing out toward 17th Street so anyone walking by can see; there is no need to enter the building.
“Alaska is warming faster than any other state,” said Fran Dubrowski, Honoring the Future Director, “so the impacts of climate change are more readily seen there. These two artists are expert storytellers: they deliver a powerful visual image of what is at stake in a rapidly warming Alaska and the enormity of the challenges other states face as rising temperatures reshape our landscape too.”
The two artists, husband-wife team Peter Handler and Karen Singer, sought to capture Alaska’s breathtaking natural beauty – Handler through photography and Singer through watercolor painting. “To know what we want to save, we need to know what we savor,” observes Handler.
Karen Singer. Top: Detail from Stampede Road Mile 7.2 (2015). Middle: Baleine Road by Goldstream Creek (2015). Bottom: Detail from The View From Bonanza Creek (2015). Watercolor prints. © Karen Singer 2015.
Both artists also portray how climate change is remaking Alaska. Singer paints an aerial view of a raging wildfire, part of over 5,000,000 acres which burned in Alaska in summer 2015 after the hottest Alaskan spring in 91 years of record-keeping. Handler’s photograph takes us up close, at ground level with the firefighters standing in the smoldering ashes and thick smoke that caused outdoor activities in Fairbanks to be cancelled.
Peter Handler, Firefighters at Aggie Creek (2015). Photograph. © Handler Studio 2015.
Both artists also focus on how, as temperatures rise, thawing of the “permafrost” or frozen soil underlying most of the state destabilizes the ground. In paintings and a photograph of a “drunken forest,” thawing soil causes trees to tilt or fall.
The exhibition acknowledges ongoing research too. A Handler photograph shows a unique underground research facility operated by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers and normally open only to research scientists and engineers – the “permafrost tunnel.” Excavated in the 1960’s at an old gold mine near Fairbanks, Alaska to study mining techniques, the tunnel exposed undisturbed frozen soil, bedrock, plant and animal fossils and bacteria accumulated over 40,000 years. Scientists are using the site to study: how has climate changed here (evidenced by freezing and thawing) over 40,000 years? How long can permafrost remain frozen as temperatures rise? Can bacteria come back to life after years of being frozen – and can life exist, suspended in permafrost, on other planets?
“We wanted to bear witness to climate change,” says Singer, “and to bring the lessons from Alaska home to other States while there is still time to act.” The exhibition will be on display through Spring and will then travel to other communities around the United States.
