B HotF
Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting VIII: Margaritzen Resevoir, Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria, 2005. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting VIII: Margaritzen Resevoir, Hohe Tauern National Park, Austria, 2005. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Extreme Weather Events XXIV: Manhattan, NY, 2012 . Archival pigment print, 40” x 50” Blackout after Hurricane Sandy.

Extreme Weather Events XXIV: Manhattan, NY, 2012. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”
Blackout after Hurricane Sandy.

Rising Sea Level XVI: Zaltbommel, The Netherlands, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Rising Sea Level XVI: Zaltbommel, The Netherlands, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Rising Sea Level III: Venice, Italy, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Rising Sea Level III: Venice, Italy, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Rising Sea Level XV: San Michele Cemetery, Venice, Italy, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Rising Sea Level XV: San Michele Cemetery, Venice, Italy, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Disrupted Ecosystems XXI: Monte Verde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Disrupted Ecosystems XXI: Monte Verde Cloud Forest, Costa Rica, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIX: Lake Parón, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIX: Lake Parón, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Drought and Fires XIV: Umatilla National Forest, Washington State, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Drought and Fires XIV: Umatilla National Forest, Washington State, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting XXXVI: Bellingshause Base, King George Island, Antarctica, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting XXXVI: Bellingshause Base, King George Island, Antarctica, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIV: Carabayllo, Lima, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50” “Pueblo Joven”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIV: Carabayllo, Lima, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”
“Pueblo Joven”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LVI: Quebrada La Agonía, Peru, 2008.. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LVI: Quebrada La Agonía, Peru, 2008.. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIX: Lima, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Glacial, Icecap and Permafrost Melting LIX: Lima, Peru, 2008. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

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Disrupted Ecosystems VIII: Great Barrier Reef, Belize, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 56”

Disrupted Ecosystems VIII: Great Barrier Reef, Belize, 2006. Archival pigment print, 40” x 56”

Drought and Fires XIII: Gansu Province, China, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

Drought and Fires XIII: Gansu Province, China, 2007. Archival pigment print, 40” x 50”

HISTORY OF THE FUTURE

A History of the Future consists of a set of photographic images, all landscapes, showing places around the world where scientists are observing the impacts of climate change.

The project consists of images but is not the images themselves.  The project is the display and distribution of those images.  The images live many lives.  They have been art objects.  They have been pedagogical tools in science museums and classrooms.  They have been billboards and bus ads.  In each case, Sayler / Morris struck a different bargain between illustrating the facts of climate change (which is always contingent on captioning and context) and laying bare a state of disorientation and collapse of scale that seemed the only reliable opening into the trauma of climate change.

The artists’ sense of what the images can do (and what they can’t) changed substantially in the course of the project, which, in turn, produced a transformation in their understanding of what activist art or research-based art could be.

 

Installation views: