PCM presents exhibits on climate change
Showing at the Putnam County Museum from Oct. 1-31, “Bearing Witness: 88 Cores” and “Paradise and Its Dark Side” is a visual art exhibition of place and time in which the global and the local connect.
Ice cores drilled out of the Greenland ice sheet reveal previously inaccessible, scientifically reliable data. Ancient winds, infused with pollen, pollutants, ash, organic and inorganic particulates, carried debris from flowers and fires, foundries and volcanic eruptions, mixing with seasonal snowfall which compressed into banded layers of ice. These bands can be counted and dated like tree rings.
Ice cores are known as paleothermometers. Air bubbles trapped within the ice hold ancient air including CO2 and methane, providing an accounting of ancient atmosphere. They can indicate climate change for what they say about ancient atmospheric conditions going back hundreds to tens of thousands of years.
L.A. artist Peggy Weil’s video installation “88 Cores” documents 110,000 years of climate history as it descends slowly through the Greenland ice sheet. It is part of a series of Weil’s “Underscapes” and extended landscape portraiture to confront the deep time and deep space of climate change.
“Paradise and Its Dark Side” is artwork by contemporary area artists who reveal the local, glacier-carved landscape as we know it and live it here in Putnam County. Participating area artists are Clare Backer, Jerry Bates, John Berry, Garret L. Boone, David Herrold, Robert Kingsley, William Meehan, George Jo Mess, Lori Miles, Martha Donovan Opdahl, Barbara Timm and Reid Winsey.
“Bearing Witness: 88 Cores” was curated by Martha Donovan Opdahl, and is presented by the Putnam County Museum in partnership with the Richard E. Peeler Art Center at DePauw University.
A reception commemorating the exhibition will be held at the museum on Sunday, Oct. 6 from 3-5 p.m., with a gallery talk at 3:30 p.m.
The Putnam County Museum is open Tuesday through Friday from 1-4 p.m., and from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. on Saturdays.
The museum may be reached at 653-8419, or visit its website at www.putnamcountymuseum.org for more information.