Marina Velez
There is no Wealth but Life
As an artist and creator it is necessary to
embrace trouble, uncertainty and risk to
engage with the wider conversation about
sustainability, to confront the challenges,
to question injustices and to explore
difficult solutions to difficult problems.
With climate change and the sixth
mass extinction accelerating, we cannot
look away, we have no option but, as Donna
Haraway says, to stay with the trouble.
This year I have invited two outside projects to participate in his exhibition alongside the students' works. Artist duo Ackroyd and Harvey, who have contributed to this conversation with their fantastic grass coat, which they presented recently at the London Fashion week in protest against the polluting and ethically questionable accreditations of the fast fashion industry. With this work they want to call attention to the environmental movement called Extinction Rebellion, which has recently staged protests across the country to demand real actions to combat climate change.
I believe it is important that the academic research about sustainability remain porous so as to connect to the community and to engage in a wider conversation about sustainability beyond the university walls.
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