"The Air of the Now and Gone" by Sarah E.K. Smith and Kirsty Robertson
 

FIMS Publications

Document Type

Article

Publication Date

2025

URL with Digital Object Identifier

https://doi.org/10.5206/QDXL8623

Abstract

This publication accompanies the 2025 exhibition The Air of the Now and Gone, curated by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E.K. Smith. They ask: in the face of the “wicked problem” of climate change, which precludes easy solutions, how can we move forward? How can we address a crisis that prompts apathy and disconnect? In their introductory essay, Robertson and Smith discuss the works of the artists, who refuse detachment and simultaneously complicate idealism. Like the artists, the curators seek to encourage diverse responses to the realities of climate change, moving beyond apathy and despair to engage empathy, wonder, joy, attentiveness and connection. In their text, Siobhan Angus and Elaina Foley offer a meditation on air and breathing amidst multiple connected climate crises. Kristi Leora Gansworth foregrounds Anishinaabe onáchigewin (prophetic teachings) and inákonigéwin (a concept that denotes action and consequence) in her essay. These she shares as strategies for developing worldviews in line with the Earth’s spark.

Editors and coordinators: Kirsty Robertson, Sarah E.K. Smith, Heather Anderson, Sandra Dyck

Notes

The Air of the Now and Gone, curated by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E.K. Smith, was presented at Carleton University Art Gallery from 26 January to 4 May 2025.

Creative Commons License

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 4.0 License

Citation of this paper:

Robertson, Kirsty, Sarah E.K. Smith, Heather Anderson, and Sandra Dyck, eds. The Air of the Now and Gone. Ottawa: Carleton University Art Gallery, 2025.

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