Participants

Louise Hardiman⁴; Ludmila Piters-Hofmann²; Molly Brunson³; Maria Taroutina¹; Ekaterina Sharova⁵;  ¹ Brown University, United States;  ² Independent Scholar, Germany;  ³ Yale University, United States;  ⁴ Kingston University, UK;  ⁵ Arctic Art Institute, Norway

Discussion

This roundtable responds to concerns and challenges for art history and visual culture studies in the face of twenty-first-century climate breakdown. How might fresh analyses of artistic practice in past centuries contribute to the understanding of events such as flood, ice loss, and destructive temperature shifts? And how might eco-critical art histories galvanise audiences as to the urgency of individual and collective action, for instance on reducing CO2 emissions and calling out damaging environmental practices? Speakers will present case studies of landscape painting in the Russian Empire with subjects such as mining, forestry, and geology, our aim being to rethink how eco-critical approaches might provoke new readings. Bringing the discussion forward to contemporary Russia, our final panellist will discuss a recent project for eco-activist art in Euro-Arctic Russia.