Dear Earth at the Hayward review: Vital and impressive
Group exhibitions are a tricky thing to get right but the Hayward Gallery shows how it should be done with the excellent exhibition Dear Earth.
It brings together 15 artists, all working in different mediums, addressing the issue of climate change. As you walk in you’re greeted by Otobong Nkanga’s giant tree, its roots exposed, sloping at an impossible angle. At its base are tiny glass biospheres sustaining life, a neat metaphor for the need to salvage what we can from a warming planet.
Dear Earth’s theme of taking inspiration, rather than despairing, is repeated throughout. There are the beautiful, quasi-religious murals by the feminist-activist Andrea Bowers, which suggest a communion with nature is still within our reach, or the rewilding projects undertaken by Agnes Denes, which give a glimmer of hope in the face of adversity.
There are other works that are just incredibly cool, like a raised box you can walk onto and see running water spiralling below your feet, or the set of reptilian eyes that lurk upon the upstairs terrace. Perhaps the most affecting piece is a video installation by Himali Singh Soin, on which two films are projected back-to-back onto a screen that stands over a pool of water, reflecting the tale of ice loss in the poles. It’s a haunting story, told against an original string score with poetry by the artist.