Metro Gallery will be back in action later this month with their first group exhibition for the year. With an all star cast of some of their artists presenting a wide range of art based on a topic that usually never fails to get everyone all riled up – climate change.

“A creative response to a social problem is something that’s always avoided or evaded or not trusted. But art has an impact in a way that figures and theories don’t. It can express the inexpressible and when you add emotion to thought, you bring resolution a step closer.” – Ann McCulloch, Deakin University Professor.

When words and science fail, could art hold the answer to tackling climate change?

In the first exhibition of its kind, nine of Australia’s leading artists will take on the role of problem solvers in the highly anticipated show, Climate Change, which will explore the power of art to cut through political dialogue and scientific debate.

The exhibition will feature large scale works by John Olsen, Daniel Smith, Deborah Walker, John Forrest, E.L.K., JKB Fletcher, Michael Peck, Stormie Mills, Ben Howe and Vincent Fantauzzo. Their creative process was filmed over several months as part of a long term documentary by award winning film maker Alan Woodruff and Deakin University Professor, Ann McCulloch. The documentary will be previewed at Metro Gallery before its international screening in New York and a tour of regional Australian in late 2012.”

Exhibitions like this are the kind that we end up sitting outside, smoking ciggies and having a deep-hearted debate against crazy bastards who either think the world is going to end, or that climate change is some kind of government conspiracy to change more carbon taxes, or who think it doesn’t exist. Either way, its always a talking point, and if anything can represent the many opinions of the masses, its the visual depictions of creativity.

I mean, check out the mad E.L.K. image below, titled “End Of The Line – you all know the image, its ingrained in your heathenistic evolutionist minds (or, for you religious types, its that image you burn outside of Sunday school) but by  leaving making the hugely subtle move of leaving a blank space on the end of the canvas, it makes one ponder the question of our continuing existence. The topic of climate change invokes those thoughts, fears and, yes, hopes. Hopes for a better future. Hopes for better treatment of the world and …

See what I mean? We haven’t even got started, and we’re already rambling, and that’s exactly why we’re looking forward to this show – if art doesn’t make you think, then, really, what’s the point?

Who: John Olsen, Daniel Smith, Deborah Walker, John Forrest, E.L.K., JKB Fletcher, Michael Peck, Stormie Mills, Ben Howe and Vincent Fantauzzo
What: Climate Change group show
Where: Metro Gallery, 1214 High St, Armadale, VIC
When: Show opens Wednesday 1st February from 6pm til 9pm, and the show runs from January 23rd til February 11th.

Check out the Metro Gallery website for more info on the show.