The Air of the Now and Gone

Abstract

This publication accompanies the 2025 exhibition The Air of the Now and Gone, curated by Kirsty Robertson and Sarah E.K. Smith. They ask: in the face of the “wicked problem” of climate change, which precludes easy solutions, how can we move forward? How can we address a crisis that prompts apathy and disconnect? In their introductory essay, Robertson and Smith discuss the works of the artists, who refuse detachment and simultaneously complicate idealism. Like the artists, the curators seek to encourage diverse responses to the realities of climate change, moving beyond apathy and despair to engage empathy, wonder, joy, attentiveness and connection. In their text, Siobhan Angus and Elaina Foley offer a meditation on air and breathing amidst multiple connected climate crises. Kristi Leora Gansworth foregrounds Anishinaabe onáchigewin (prophetic teachings) and inákonigéwin (a concept that denotes action and consequence) in her essay. These she shares as strategies for developing worldviews in line with the Earth’s spark. Editors and coordinators: Kirsty Robertson, Sarah E.K. Smith, Heather Anderson, Sandra Dyck