Officially launched in Norway in 2018, Future of Fjords is an electric catamaran constructed from carbon fibre composite able to welcome 400 passengers. It’s been a year now that the electric ferry has been sailing between the spectacular Norway’s UNESCO heritage sites setting new standards for environmentally responsible passenger transport.

Described as the first vessel of its kind to offer completely emission free transport, the vessel sails along the World Heritage listed fjord on the 90-minute trip from Flåm to Gudvangen, through Western Norwegian landscape. »Future of The Fjords does just that, minimising its impact on the environment while maximising the experience of passengers who can now glide silently over the water and come closer to nature than ever before,« says Rolf A. Sandvik, CEO of shipowner The Fjords. »We’re entering into a zero-emission future.«

Born two hours from the fjords, the cruise ship captain of the newly launched ferry Future of the Fjords had completely changed life working here. »I used to work on a chemical tanker,a 200-meter long and 35-meters wide vessel. Not very environmental friendly! (laughs) Deep see trade, all over the world. We used 45 metric tons fuel a day. So that represents a big difference in my life today,« he says. »I remember a lot of guys told the company when they started that the Future of Fjords won’t work out. But it worked from day 1. Technically, we have almost no problem with this vessel. It’s not so complicated because we use electrical engines. They have built electrical engines for hundreds of years. The new thing here is to have a battery as the power source. The boat receives power from a battery pack of 1800 kWh, representing about 40 times the capacity of a typical electric car. I’ve been on this vessel for a few months and am surprised how well it works,«  he says. »The manufacture will take care of the change of battery and will recycle the battery, in 9 years from now. I suppose when we are going to change our battery, they’ll be half the size and twice the battery of today’s. You can compare it to mobile phone development. 15 years ago, we had this huge battery, now you cannot even see the mobile phone battery.«

Powered by two electric engines of 585 horsepower each. The installation makes it possible for the vessel to reach 16 knots (almost 30 kph) during operation for a range of 55 km, before the boat must be recharged. Thanks to a unique floating charging solution called the PowerDock, the environmentally responsible vessel ushers in a new breed of clean, green and spectacular passenger transport. »Here we have a solution that any form of electric transport can simply plug into without exerting strain on the grid. The dock also stores consumables, fuel for sister vessels, and allows black water to be offloaded for treatment on land. This makes Future of The Fjords the only passenger vessel not to discharge sewage directly into the fjords.«

As the world’s first all-electric carbon fiber vessel, Future of Fjords make waves right across the globe since the all-electric passenger vessel Future of The Fjords has won the Ship of the Year 2018 award at SMM. Rolf A. Sandvik, CEO of shipowner The Fjords defines the vessel as »the greenest passenger vessel in Norway [and] helping us preserve the integrity of our beautiful fjords«. 

The innovative 42-meters long vessel is part of Norway’s program to create the first zero-emissions zone on water. The parliament has accepted a resolution which would see emissions banned in the world heritage fjords “as soon as technically possible and no later than 2026”. 

Photos Inside boat: Elisa Routa (35mm)

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« Art has always been a testbed for a notion of the real » says the first line of the Chronus Art Center’s website introduction (CAC).

Signals by Biarritz-based visual artist Nicolas Sassoon (lives and works in Biarritz, France, and Vancouver) & Brazil-born artist Rick Silva (lives and works in Eugene, Oregon) belonged to the twenty-three works exhibited during the unReal. the Algorithmic Present, « an exhibition that attempts to confront the digital present through the very means of technological intervention both as critical examination as well as alternative prospects. »

Recently exhibited in Anglet at the Georges Pompidou center (France), Silva and Sassoon’s 3 web-based works presented there as large video installations have been conceived as an immersive environment inviting the viewer to question the human footprint on the planet. 

Indeed, through digital processes, the two artists created a series of video works that reflects upon their relationship to their natural surrounding. Through immersive projections, they examine the resulting human alteration on our oceans. Each computer generated video work contrast an ocean view infused with digital effects – digital carpets lying on the ocean floor as well as digital cylinders looking like drilling machines – that simulate a seemingly oily substance reflected on the surface of the water, thus replicating the impending visions of an oil spill in open waters.

The natural liquid environment and computer-generated landscapes are combined to a humming soundtrack suggesting technological presence, creating a contrast between technology and a natural setting.

« My name is Nicolas Sassoon, I’m a visual artist based in Vancouver. My practice revolves mainly around animation and video projection. I’ve always been drawn to a type of imagery, images or artworks that really create that magical moments when you look at them and you are transported somewhere else but you also baffled by how it was possibly made, » explains french-american artist Nicolas Sassoon. « I work with this very simple overlapping of two images. It’s something that’s really close to analog animation in a way. I don’t use coding, I don’t use programming, I do everything by hand. I stretch things, I change the speed, motion, and through these experimentations, I reach a result that I find to be a good result. »

Produced by pairing complementary fields of research in computer imaging, each video work « bring to life a simulated ecological ruin as a gesture of contemplation towards an environment subject to perpetual human alteration. » About nature, Nicolas Sassoon says: « Nurturing hobbies is really key to me to keep a curious mind. Working on the garden, weeding, planning stuff, doing anything that involves taking care of the garden, is super grounding. It’s a nice complement to being in front of a laptop ten hours a day. »

Silva and Sassoon’s mutual contemporary project entitled Signals have been exhibited across the world, from Dublin (Ireland), Toronto & Vancouver (Canada), Berkeley (USA), Biarritz (France), Shangai (China), Belgrade (Serbia), Basel (Switzerland), among other places.

Discover Nicolas Sassoon and Rick Silva‘s works.

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The Plastic Family left their coastal landscape for a while and made the trip to the European Parliament in Brussels, Belgium. Initiated by Surfrider Foundation Europe, the action day was meant to draw attention on the global crisis of plastic pollution. »The Plastic Family has been much appreciated by our volunteers and gave us a real visibility among passers by,« says Charléric Bailly, SFE event manager. »A real success for this event!«

The estimated 19 billion pounds of plastic that end up in the ocean every year are expected to double by 2025. »The clock is ticking and we call on the European Parliament to take action now!⁣« says the foundation. 

For the occasion, 80 Surfrider Foundation Europe volunteers present that day collected more than 7000 cigarette butts in Place Lux, Brussels, outside the European Parliament. They also created a giant bottle made out of plastic bottles to emphasize on the amount of plastic trash dumped into the sea everyday. »Every year, we organize an official gathering with our European volunteers during a weekend of exchanges and discussions. They’re what we wall the Chapters Days,« says Charléric. »This year, we were approximately 80 including volunteers and SFE staff members. In view of the next european elections scheduled to occur in 2019, we chose to meet in Brussels in order to question the european deputies.«

Today, more than 8 million tons of plastic are found in our oceans every year. Whether it has deliberately been dumped or lost by accident, human-created waste represents the majority of the marine pollution, also called marine debris or marine trash, affecting the health of wildlife and humans themselves. »That’s why te event consisted in meeting up on Luxembourg Square in front of the European Parliament, while exhibiting art installations made out of plastic trash. We are convinced that art is a powerful tool to seduce people toward an environmental cause,« explains Charléric. »We organized a cleanup of the square and collected more than 7,600 butts of cigarettes in just an hour.« 

According to the Container Recycling Institute, 100.7 billion plastic beverage bottles were sold in the U.S. in 2014, compared to 3.8 billion plastic water bottles sold in 1996. It means 315 bottles per person, 57% of those units were plastic water bottles. A threatening and terrible fact that we could avoid by slowing down our disposable lifestyle, refusing single-use plastics (plastic straws, plastic bag, plastic bottles, …) and using more sustainable containers.  

Today, we need to make global efforts to end plastic pollution. As mentioned by the Plastic Family, »we are the source but you can be part of the ocean.«  Follow their journey on Surfrider Foundation Europe.

Photos: Lucie Lucie Francini / Surfrider Foundation Europe

The Plastic Family has been made out of plastic trash found on the beaches of the Basque Country (Spain & France) by Panthalassa Society members Rebecca Kudela (Sea and Gather), Daniela Garreton and Panthalassa founder Sergio Penzo

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Zaria Forman is one of the most inspiring artists we’ve had the opportunity to meet. Two years ago, we exhibited one of her large piece of art in Guéthary, France, in presence of the artist. Throughout a collective exhibition, we had the chance to celebrate the official inauguration of Panthalassa and introduce the Panthalassa Society, our global network of contributors. Since that day, Panthalassa is deeply attached to the evolution of Zaria’s work, always using creativity as a tool for climate action. Her work keeps on revealing untold stories and embody the power of art. Last year, in another attempt to create awareness around climate change, Zaria Forman accepted NASA’s invitation to take part to their IceBridge operation, which for the last decade has been mapping the geometry of the ice at both Poles. »I travel to the Polar regions to capture the unfolding story of ice melt. My images overflow with details to draw the viewer in, and transport them. These landscapes are fairly inaccessible, so their environmental issues may seem remote or abstract. I work on a large scale to recreate the wonder of witnessing an iceberg up close.«

In 2016, Zaria Forman spent a total of 70 hours in the air, over 26,000 miles flying over Patagonia from Santiago to Punta Arenas, Chile. She witnessed Antarctica’s vastness and reached some of the most difficult places to get to on earth, like Hull Glacier on the Ruppert Coast. She came back with thousand of pictures where cracks and giant crevices are visible, symbol of complex and rapid change occurring just beneath the surface, like fast moving ice. Once again, Zaria used her large scale drawings as records of landscapes in motion in order to bring awareness to ice melting. We called the artist to know more about her latest body of work and her new adventure around the globe. Here’s the story.

»I fell in love with remote landscapes at an early age. My mother, a fine art landscape photographer, led the family on expeditions to the most far flung places she could find. I developed an appreciation for the beauty and vastness of the ever-changing sky and sea. I loved watching a far-off storm on the western desert plains, the monsoon rains of southern India, and the cold arctic light illuminating Greenland’s waters. These travels cemented my fascination with water in all its forms. My first trip to the Arctic in 2007 opened my eyes to the severity of the climate crisis, which has been the focus of my work ever since.  

I flew on several 12 hour flights, soaring just 1,500 feet above glaciers, sea ice, and mountaintops in Antarctica and the Arctic. While the science team operated a complex suite of instruments, I observed an entirely new perspective of ice, which has been the focus of my work for six years.

The data collected on IceBridge missions provides crucial information about how ice loss is occurring, and what these changes mean for sea level rise. Findings from the project are alarming, and yet our global community is not responding with appropriate urgency.

Behavioral psychology tells us that we take action and make decisions based on our emotions. Art has a special ability to tap into emotions. My latest body of work, »Aerial Ice,« will be a series of large scale drawings inspired by my flights with NASA, offering viewers a perspective of polar ice that few people have witnessed. The drawings will help communicate IceBridge’s findings, translating scientific data into an accessible medium that resonates emotionally.

Ice as a subject matter continues to excite me. An entirely new visual vocabulary of ice was revealed to me from the air; surfaces, fissures, and crevasses I had never seen before. I am eager to discover how to render these new shapes and textures in soft pastel. A plethora of geometric patterns take shape in the ice when seen from above, encouraging me to explore compositions unlike anything I’ve ever before considered.«

Zaria Forman will exhibit at Pulse Art Fair in Miami this December 7-10, 2017.

Follow her work on her website.

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8 million tons of plastic garbage end up in the oceans each year, killing 1 million sea birds. That’s a reality. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch”, also known as the Pacific Trash Vortex is a gyre of marine debris in the central North Pacific Ocean. Discovered in 1997 by Captain Charles Moore, the massive dump of floating garbage is hard to accurately measure but is said to be twice the size of France. Two advertising creatives came up with the idea of imagining the « Trash Isles » as an official country recognised by the United Nations.

Thought up by ad creatives Michael Hughes and Dalatando Almeida, the campaign has been designed to raise awareness of climate change and pollution. Today, the campaign even has its own flag, passports, official stamps and a currency, “Debris,” designed by Mario Kerkstra and made of 20, 50 and 100-banknotes featuring whales, turtles and seals brutalized by floating trash. « We wanted to come up with a way to ensure world leaders can’t ignore it anymore, a way to stick it under their noses, literally, » say Hughes and Almeida to Creative Review.

Titled « Trash Isles », the campaign got the support of big names like Judi Dench, Mo Farah, The Plastic Oceans Foundation and publisher LADBible. The two partner organizations recently co-signed a letter sent to the United Nations requesting the recognition of the trash island as nation state in order to oblige other countries to clean it up under the UN’s Environmental Charter. 

As the country’s first citizen, former U.S vice president and environmental activist Al Gore made his first declaration : « We don’t want anymore plastic added so let’s come up with biodegradable materials instead of this junk. We’ll also have a price on carbon which will also affect the economic attractiveness of plastic, » he said. « 50 billion tons over the last 60 years, it’s completely aberrant. Plastic adds to the climate process, and, of course, it’s absolutely harming the oceans and some of them shows up in the fish that people eat now. It’s disgusting. The oceans are crucial to our survival and we need to protect them. »

As another trash island bigger than Mexico has been found in Pacific in July of this year, with microscopic plastic, resembling confetti floating off the coast of Chile and Peru, it’s more than ever important to get people to pay more attention to this rapidly growing issue. 

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Quiet. « Qui-et ». Say it slowly in a low voice and you’ll get the general feeling of what it’s like to enter the fjords of Western Norway. During Oceana’s first North Sea expedition, the Panthalassa Society took a couple of days to discover one of Unesco fjord’s heritage and treasures of nature. French photographer Sarah Arnould was part of the crew and came back with stunning shots of this unique journey and frozen retreat out north.

Divers, scientists, boat crew, oceanographers, ambassadors, and engineers keep busy aboard Neptune, the icelandic vessel sailing the dark waters of the North Sea. Despite the cold and tumultuous sea, they’re here for one same goal: Collect precious data on species and habitats and make a positive change during this unprecedented at-sea study. « Leaving to Norway, and being able to capture passionate and committed scientists sailing the seas and oceans to fight against overfishing, has been a very enriching experience » says photographer Arnould. « I’d never been in the open sea before. For days, we had to withstand heavy rains and tumultuous currents. Working in these conditions was not an easy task but the beauty of the landscape, and the environment all around, helped us forget those small details. To witness the greatness of such a magnificent sea, makes you feel small and spiritually impressed.»

On their way to the region of the fjords, the crew stopped by a small village stuck between giants of land. Waterfalls cascading down mountainsides, spectacular glaciers and breath-taking viewpoints. Western Norway is home of « Jostedal Glacier », the largest glacier on mainland Europe, covering an area of 487 square kilometers. In that region, the red barns run alongside the peaceful river, boats are parked like cars in a garage, and green is in vogue. « We met a fisherman in the freshness of a Norwegian fjord. He carried us aboard his boat to make us discover the fjord that shelters the village where he lives. Far from big fishing boats sailing the North Sea, this fjord was of a spectacular beauty and teemed with life. I felt that was a place that allowed humans and animals to live in total harmony. » The crew ended up fishing herrings, sharing some blinis and a good coffee in the cabin of his wooden boat. « Under the rain showers of the Norwegian summer, we had that feeling that time stopped, » explains the French photographer. « This experience taught me a lot on my photography skills and concerning my personal commitment as well. This is the kind of adventure that helps us realize the seriousness of the situation. Being able to see these people’s commitment towards the environment gave me new hope, but it doesn’t depend only on them. »

Discover more of Sarah Arnould’s work on her website.

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In recent years, Antarctica has shown signs of rapid atmospheric and ocean warming.

Scientists have discovered that thousands of blue lakes of melt water have formed on the surface of Antarctica’s glaciers. 

Scientists from the British Antarctic Survey predict that a massive chunk of glacier ice belonging to the Larsen barrier, situated on the West coast of the Antarctic Peninsula, the northernmost part of the mainland of Antarctica, could collapse. In recent years, it has shown signs of rapid atmospheric and ocean warming. This large piece of ice measures around 50,000 km² (20,000 square miles), and is about to fall down. 

On the ice sheets of East Antarctica, thousands of strange blue lakes are appearing, a phenomenon that scares scientists specialized in climate change. »[East Antarctic is] the part of the continent where people have for quite a long time assumed that it’s relatively stable,« said glaciologist Stewart Jamieson from Durham University to The Washington Post. These large portions of melted ice show that the places said to be « safe » are not sheltered from danger anymore. If the ice sheets keep on melting, we could witness rising sea levels, causing the sinking of islands in the Pacific ocean. Kiribati and Palaos are directly threatened and could be swallowed by rising sea levels.

Between 2000 and 2013, nearly 8,000 of these supraglacial lakes have formed on the surface of the ice sheets in East Antarctica, and on the slender glaciers that stretch out into the ocean. Although these lakes disappear through refreezing, rain vertically through the floating ice, or overflow into rivers on the surface that drain into the ice below, they could have serious consequences for the stability of the entire ice shelf. They could weaken the structure of the ice sheets and ice shelves, making it more likely to fracture and break apart. « That injection of cold fresh water into salty water can then create tornado-like underwater flow patterns at the submerged glacier front that cause further ice loss.« 

Such lakes has led to melting of glaciers in Greenland between 2011 and 2014, where 1 trillion metric tons of ice have melted. East Antarctica’s ice had not been affected by global warning so far, scientists thought. The appearance of such lakes thus threatens the stability of the largest ice mass on Earth and is directly linked to the historic levels of rising temperatures. With July 2016 being confirmed as the world’s hottest month, and if global climate warning continues in the future, we can expect the size and number of these supraglacial lakes to increase. 

Svalbard #33, 60” x 90”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2014
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman

Over the years, many artists have been spreading messages and trying to bring awareness about environmentalism and climate change to a wider audience. NYC-based artist and TED speaker Zaria Forman has been putting this issue on the spotlight through her art. In 2012, she led an Arctic expedition up the northwest coast of Greenland, documenting the spectacular views, and using her pastel drawings as a tool for climate change activism. She’s recently been part of our Panthalassa official launch and exhibition in Guéthary (France) to discuss the urgency of climate change in a hopeful and significant way. Through her large scale pastel drawings, Zaria documents Earth’s shifting landscape and the effects of progressive climate change.

Read our interview with Zaria Forman 

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​Greenland #71, 50” x 60”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2014
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman / ©Dustin Cohen

On the occasion of the 21st United Nations Climate Change Conference (COP21), we are launching the »Artists United for the Ocean« initiative. We couldn’t think of a better way of starting our campaign, than showing the work from one of the most inspiring artists we’ve had the opportunity to interview. American artist Zaria Forman has been choosing to convey the beauty in nature, as opposed to the devastation. Traveling to remote places like Antarctica, Greenland, Maldives, Hawaii or Israel, she has brought awareness to polar ice melt, rising sea levels and the cultural and socio-political implications of these phenomena through art and creativity. 

Lemarie Channel, Antarctica,​ 44” x 60”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2015
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman

Zaria grew up in Piermont, NY, about 30 minutes north of NYC. She went to Green Meadow Waldorf School, a small school with an alternative approach to education in which art is greatly infused. »I’ve been drawing ever since I could hold a crayon. But there was actually never a moment when I decided to make art a career.« However, Zaria became an exceptional artist creating breathtaking soft pastel finger paintings. Thanks to a very meticulous process, Zaria produces large pieces of art with mainly blue and white soft pastels. Inspired by the immenseness of the sky and sea, her work highlights the dichotomy between the beauty of natural elements and the effects of climate change on Earth. As a tribute to her mother, the american artist recreates frozen landscapes often more authentic than the original. She dedicated her career and artistic approach to the protection of the environment and plays a part in saving our planet. »I hope my drawings can serve as records of landscapes in flux, honoring the transition, and inspiring our global community to take action for the future.« During the time of an interview, Zaria brings us to the Arctic, Greenland, the Maldives and around the Globe wherever there is water. She explains: »I consider my life’s mission is to to convey the urgency of climate change through art«. 

​Svalbard #33,​ 60” x 90”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2014
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman

What are your main inspirations as an artist today?

The inspiration for my drawings began in my early childhood when I traveled with my family throughout several of the world’s most remote landscapes, which became the subject of my mother’s fine art photography. I developed an appreciation for the beauty and vastness of the ever-changing sky and sea. I loved watching a far-off storm on the western desert plains; the monsoon rains of southern India; and the cold arctic light illuminating Greenland’s waters.

Could you tell us more about the meticulous process of creation?

When I travel, I take thousands of photographs. I often make a few small sketches on-site to get a feel for the landscape. Once I return to the studio, I draw from my memory of the experience, as well as my photographs, to create large-scale compositions. Occasionally I will re-invent the water or sky, alter the shape of the ice, or mix and match a few different images to create the composition I envision. I begin with a very simple pencil sketch so I have a few major lines to follow, and then I add layers of pigment onto the paper, smudging everything with my palms and fingers and breaking the pastel into sharp shards to render finer details. I spray a light, non-toxic fixative between layers, to help fix the pigment onto the paper, it only takes a moment to dry and I usually work on another area while I wait, or spray just before I take a break. That being said, the drawings do take several hundred hours to create, simply because they are very detailed and very large. The process of drawing with pastels is simple and straightforward: cut the paper, make the marks. The material demands a minimalistic approach, as there isn’t much room for error or re-working since the paper’s tooth can hold only a few thin layers of pigment. I rarely use an eraser. I prefer to work with my “mistakes,” enjoying the challenge of resolving them with limited marks. I love the simplicity of the process, and it has taught me a great deal about letting go. Drawing is a kind of meditation for me. It’s as if nothing else in the world exists when I am close up and intensely focused. I don’t see what I am drawing as water, or ice, rather the elements are stripped down to their most basic form of color and shape. 

Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman / ©Brian Maranan Pineda 

What message do you want to send to the viewer?

Artists play a critical role in communicating climate change, which is arguably the most important challenge we face as a global community. Studies have shown that art can impact viewers’ emotions more effectively than an essay or a doom and gloom newspaper article. Neuroscience tells us that humans take action and make decisions based on emotion above all else. My career is dedicated to translating and illuminating scientists’ warnings and statistics into an accessible medium that people can connect with, on a level that might be deeper than scientific facts can penetrate. My drawings explore moments of transition, turbulence, and tranquility in the landscape, allowing viewers to emotionally connect with a place they may never have the chance to visit. I choose to convey the beauty, as opposed to the devastation. If people can experience the sublimity of these landscapes, perhaps they will be inspired to protect and preserve them.

In 2012, you undertook an unique journey up the North Coast of Greenland. Can you tell us more about this Arctic expedition?

In August 2012, I led an Arctic expedition up the North West coast of Greenland. Called »Chasing the Light«, it was the second expedition the mission of which was to create art inspired by this dramatic geography. The first, in 1869, was led by the American painter William Bradford. My mother, Rena Bass Forman, had conceived the idea for the voyage, but did not live to see it through. During the months of her illness, her dedication to the expedition never wavered and I promised to carry out her final journey.

Greenland #72, 60” x 60”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2014
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman

In September 2013, you left to the Maldives, the lowest-lying country in the world slowly being swallowed by the sea. It must have been a very powerful experience.

Exploring the flat islands of the Maldives, I felt a dueling sense of power and fragility.  The looming, vast ocean demanded my attention, as it closed in on each tiny island. The color, clarity, and warmth of the water invited me while ominous waves crashed along the encroaching coastline. Traveling with me on these adventures were two artists, painter Lisa Lebofsky and filmmaker Drew Denny. From our shared experiences together, the three of us developed Ice to Islands, a project documenting disappearing landscapes and sharing the stories of people most affected by climate change. Ice to Islands invites viewers to share the urgency of the Greenlandic and Maldivian predicaments in a productive and hopeful way. Our goal is to facilitate a deeper understanding of these crises, helping to find meaning and optimism amidst the chaos of melting, sinking ground. The project continues to evolve and take shape through drawings, paintings, film, exhibitions, performance, and education. 

During our month in the Maldives, the changes due to rising seas were evident. We visited the Maldivian Department of Meteorology to discuss this with meteorologists and climatologists. The head of the department explained, chillingly, that if sea levels rise 88 centimeters, 80 percent of the Maldives will be gone. According to current scientific predictions, this could happen by the year 2100. 

M​aldives #14,​ 60” x 90”, Soft Pastel on Paper, 2015
Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman

We encountered a range of responses to climate change among the people we met on the islands. Almost everyone is well aware of the situation, yet they seem unconcerned about the future of their homes. I wonder now if they are in denial. Acknowledging the imminent disappearance of one’s entire homeland must be devastating. The Maldives are situated atop a submarine ridge of natural coral, which many locals believe will grow faster than the seas can rise, lifting their islands to safety. But this is not possible: ocean warming and acidification are destroying the delicate coral ecosystems. Others are well aware of the current scientific predictions and are purchasing land in Sri Lanka and other locations for their families, when the time comes to relocate.

In collaboration with an environmental organization in the Maldives called Ecocare, Drew, Lisa and I offered a workshop and presentation at the Iskandar School in Male, the nation’s capitol. We met with middle-school students to share the concept of our project and what we had learned from speaking with scientists. Providing art materials, we invited them to document their homeland as it transforms throughout their lives. Our hope is that the children, through their creativity, can both spread awareness of the urgency of climate change and inwardly process the ecological transformations surrounding them.

Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman / ©Brian Maranan Pineda 

With 70 exhibitions under your belt, you seem to be a very busy artist. Looking to the future, what can we look forward to coming up with you?  

I have been very busy indeed! Just to name a few things: Banksy contacted me a couple months ago to invite me to participate in his exhibit Dismaland, which just ran for 5 weeks in the UK and came down on Sunday. The show has been written up world wide and I was quoted in the NYTimes’ article. I also had a solo show at Winston Wächter Fine Art in New York until Oct 17th, 2015. All the work in the show sold out a couple weeks before it even opened- a very rare occurrence in the art world these days! My drawing is on the cover of the current issue of American Art Collector Magazine, and my current exhibit is featured inside. On November 5th and 6th I’ll be speaking at a live TED event in NYC. November 7th I leave for a 5 week art residency in Antarctica, aboard the National Geographic Explorer with Lindblad Expeditions. 

 Courtesy of the artist Zaria Forman / ©Trevor Traynor

More of Zaria Forman’s work on her website

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