NEW LONDON, CONN.- Some say the world will end in fire,
Some say in ice. —Robert Frost

Robert Frost’s poem Fire and Ice aptly articulates the focus of the exhibition at Connecticut College: nature’s fragility in the face of untamed Capitalist growth and climate crisis. This venue is one of many across three continents to schedule events and exhibitions for 2021 under the aegis of the project: Extraction: Art on the Edge of the Abyss.

Given the magnitude of this global crisis, artists face a daunting dilemma: how to represent the damage unleashed by the extractive industries—oil spills, plastic pollution, global warming and rising seas, habitat loss and extinction, not to mention the unequal social impact of these disruptions. The surge of climate activism around the world has spurred visual artists to join the Ruckus.

The global reach of the artists in the show speaks to the scope of visual activism: two of the artists grapple with the devastation wrought by strip mining and the destruction of habitat and indigenous cultures in the Amazon River Basin; several other artists trek to the ends of the earth to gather visual material, to the Arctic, Antarctica, and other locations where the effects of global warming are most visible; still others model their art practice on a "Circular Economy," upcycling discarded plastics, which have made their way to every corner of the world’s oceans and shores. These artists interrogate the capitalist cycle of purchasing, consuming, and rapidly discarding material goods. Such interventions advocate a more responsible stewardship of natural resources.

While the artworks in Fire and Ice are by turns ravishingly beautiful, poignant, and tinged with irony and humor, the overriding emotion is anger; anger toward petro-capitalist influence, social and economic injustice, and human obtuseness. Like the nationwide Extraction Project, the synergistic energy of the Fire and Ice exhibition voices a resounding call to action to help catalyze social, political, and economic change. After all, there is no “Planet B”.

Featured artists: Rachel B. Abrams, Nadav Assor, Gregory Bailey, Chris Barnard, John Boone, David Dorfman, Zaria Forman, Michael Harvey, Wopo Holup, Shawn Hove, Nikki Lindt, Pamela Longobardi, Timothy McDowell, Pamela Marks, Bob Nugent, Lynda Nugent, Denise Pelletier, Lisa Race, Christopher Volpe, Amanda Russhell Wallace, and Andrea Wollensak.