Trickle Down

Trickle Down speaks to the environmental hazards that disproportionately threaten Black and Brown communities in the U.S.. In April 2020, the predominantly Black community of St. John the Baptist Parish, Louisiana endured the highest Covid-19 death rate in the U.S.. Pollutive industrialization has left residents with staggering rates of severe illness including heart disease, respiratory illnesses and diabetes—all high-risk conditions for Covid-19.

Structural racism has focused the harmful impact of the climate crisis on people of color. To pursue climate justice, we must dismantle racist environmental policies and learn from the many Black voices informing our path forward. In the words of Mustafa Santiago Ali, V.P. of Environmental Justice at the National Wildlife Federation, “When we say, ‘I can’t breathe,’ we literally can’t breathe… At every turn the deck is stacked against us.” There can be no climate justice without racial justice, nor racial justice without climate justice.

Jenny Blazing

“My art is inspired by the multitude of social justice movements that recognize climate change as a major barrier to racial and economic equity in the U.S. and abroad.” Jenny Blazing

It is a testament to the severity of climate change that in recent years, the impacts of this crisis have shifted from looming hypothetical to stark reality. Blazing, a California native who moved to North Carolina in the 1990s, has watched with horror over the past decade as family and friends in her home state face the intensifying effects of climate change. Severe drought has fueled wildfires that claimed a family home and generated severe air pollution, exacerbating health issues. Her art is inspired by her family’s experiences, but even more so by those who are disproportionately impacted because they lack protections such as insurance, health care, or homes that help insulate them from toxic air.

Blazing’s AnthropoceneScape paintings fuse past, present, and future eras into imaginary worlds to emphasize our inevitable and potentially irreversible effect on the planet and its most vulnerable inhabitants. At first glance, these paintings resemble captivating cityscapes perhaps gone a bit awry. But these atypical vistas contain a message that begins to reveal itself upon closer examination. There is an aspect of urgency to these worlds. Debris and crumbling elements resembling ruins from antiquity are interspersed with gleaming, modern imagery all condensed into a single work as if they are “time-lapse paintings.” The skies are infused with dripping and texture that suggest that weather no longer exists in its predictable form. What does all of this mean? Who will be swept up in the storm? Can we continue to accelerate our consumption of our planet’s resources while ignoring the disproportionate costs?

Blazing’s story has been featured in Artists and Climate Change, an online platform and network amplifying the work of artists who engage with the climate crisis.

Based on our agreement with the artist, 15% of the pre-VAT price excluding frames will be donated to support the Earth Island Institute.