CLIMATE CHANGE // NATURE
(2025)
Mixed media collage
Paper, photography, glue, acrylic paint, marker, pen, colored pencil
180 x 150 cm
This piece is a mix of documentary and personal artistic response to the devastating floods that took place in Brazil in May 2024 as a result of intense rainfall, structural neglect, and environmental exploitation. A mixed-media collage layering imagery, news article excerpts, handwritten thoughts and material exploration. The combination of materials reflects how we formulate our understanding of these events: we're fed information via news outlets, social media, and our own personal experiences.
Photographs that went viral (such as the airplane stranded on the flooded airport runway) and my own photographs from my family's hometown of Porto Alegre years before the flood link my personal connection to the physical spaces that became submerged. Through this work, I invite viewers to question our relationship with the natural world and the motives behind much of its destruction.
In my research, one of the strongest statements that stood out to me inspired the title of this piece: "The river is not just a watercourse - it's a body that lives in dialogue with the Earth." The river is not simply a static container that holds water; the earth and water are affected by what we put into them, by how we treat the environment around it, by how we interact with it. And if we mistreat it, the river is a living body that will react, that will have limits.
The soil of the river Guaíba was overworked after years of excessive agricultural production, exported and sold internationally to "improve" the Brazilian economy. But when the local population suffers from famine and the land of the river cannot absorb the rain, is this really what's best for the land? For its people? Who is really benefitting from the "economic development"?
So often we treat nature as if we are the dominant beings on this planet. But organic matter is affected by our impact, and once we abuse our resources we will be the ones facing the consequences. We are not greater than nature if nature can destroy us.
Photographs that went viral (such as the airplane stranded on the flooded airport runway) and my own photographs from my family's hometown of Porto Alegre years before the flood link my personal connection to the physical spaces that became submerged. Through this work, I invite viewers to question our relationship with the natural world and the motives behind much of its destruction.
In my research, one of the strongest statements that stood out to me inspired the title of this piece: "The river is not just a watercourse - it's a body that lives in dialogue with the Earth." The river is not simply a static container that holds water; the earth and water are affected by what we put into them, by how we treat the environment around it, by how we interact with it. And if we mistreat it, the river is a living body that will react, that will have limits.
The soil of the river Guaíba was overworked after years of excessive agricultural production, exported and sold internationally to "improve" the Brazilian economy. But when the local population suffers from famine and the land of the river cannot absorb the rain, is this really what's best for the land? For its people? Who is really benefitting from the "economic development"?
So often we treat nature as if we are the dominant beings on this planet. But organic matter is affected by our impact, and once we abuse our resources we will be the ones facing the consequences. We are not greater than nature if nature can destroy us.
