SALEM — In an attempt to respond to the climate-change planetary crisis, the Peabody Essex Museum (PEM) will present an exhibition on the matter from March 12, 2022 to Feb. 26, 2023.
The exhibition, “Down to the Bone: Edward Koren and Stephen Gorman,” is a part of PEM’s Climate + Environment Initiative.
“Working independently but with uncanny synergy, Gorman and Koren raise the alarm about our advancing climate crisis,” said exhibition co-curator Sarah Fraser Robbins and Jane Winchell, director of the Art & Nature Center and curator of natural history.
The museum hopes that the artists’ mutually-reinforcing visions will produce new ways of responding to the biggest environmental challenges of our time, the two added.
“Both artists are intensely interested in how the gaze of their subject suggests their awareness of the viewer,” Trevor Smith, PEM’s associate director and exhibition co-curator said. “By exhibiting them together, a surprising and dynamic juxtaposition emerges between the works, and a provocative tension shines through.”
The first of the artists in this tandem, Koren, is one of The New Yorker’s most published cartoonists. He has been described as a dramatist of the Anthropocene, the current geological age, which is viewed as the period when human activity has been the dominant influence on the environment. He is known for his depictions of the gloomy landscapes littered with the fragments of civilization, the museum said.
Gorman is known for his photographs in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. His images of the polar bears facing extinction due to the arctic sea ice retreats invite the viewers to look at the world through the eyes of the animals that become the victims of the culture of conquest and exploitation, the museum said.
“These images need to be seen, and widely,” environmentalist, journalist and author Bill McKibben said about experiencing Koren and Gorman’s works together.”
These images make it clear that “we risk trading the splendor of our world for bones and ash,” he explained.
The opening-day event, “Down to the Bone: Conversation with the Artists,” is planned for March 12, and it will be followed by a virtual art class with Koren on March 17. Advance registration for the event is required, and the space is limited due to safety considerations. For more information, visit the museum’s website.
PEM’s Climate + Environment Initiative is a series of special events and exhibitions designed to encourage reflection and spark action regarding climate change.
