Promoting action on climate change, the streets of Melbourne are now plastered with 500 new posters as part of the 2016 CLIMARTE Poster Project.
The posters can be found at many locations including near the Melbourne Town Hall and the Forum in the CBD, on the corner of Lygon and Elgin Streets in Carlton, on Queens Parade in Clifton Hill, and more. All ten posters are displayed side-by-side at Flinders Street Station and on the corner of Lygon Street and Brunswick Road.
CLIMARTE commissioned eleven artists to design posters that engage the community on the crucial issue of climate change action. The commissioned artists include Angela Brennan, Chris Bond, Jon Campbell, Kate Daw, Katherine Hattam, Siri Hayes, Martin King, Gabrielle de Vietri and Will Foster, Thornton Walker, and Miles Howard-Wilks.
Jon Campbell’s and Miles Howard-Wilks’ posters encourage people to think about the damage we are doing to the reef’s fragile ecosystems. “The Great Barrier Reef holds a particular place in the psyche of this country,” said Campbell.
Thornton Walker’s Seed Flower poster is motivated by concern for future generations. The poster depicts Walker’s daughter Polly, who is aged 4. “She is happily absorbed by her balloon and not noticing the bleak landscape she walks through, towards an indefinite future,” said Walker. “This is why action on climate change is so important to me.”
In addition to the hundreds of posters now plastered around Melbourne by street poster company Plakkit, an exhibition of the posters will be held at LAB-14 Gallery, Carlton Connect Initiative (CCI) from 5 – 28 May 2016.
On Tuesday 17 May, CLIMARTE and CCI will host a forum on the role and effectiveness of visual media in communicating matters of environmental and social importance. Speakers include Poster Project artists and Dr Peter Christoff, a lecturer and researcher in climate policy at the University of Melbourne.
The public is encouraged to spot the posters at sites around town, and to share the message by capturing in-situ photographs of the posters and posting to social media channels using the hashtag #climarteposter.
Image: Seed Flower – Thornton Walker; The Good & Bad of the Reef – Miles Howard-Wilks; and Great Barrier Reef – Jon Campbell (supplied)