Photography Exhibition Captures Effects of Climate Change
“The Canary Project: Landscape of Change” photography exhibition at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History features images by New York-based artist Susannah Sayler. The images capture places in the world that portray a warming global climate. The exhibition will be on display now through Aug. 10.
The 22 images in the exhibition drive home the reality of changes around the globe in a way that reams of data and chart-filled reports cannot. Sayler’s color landscapes showcase the evidence of rising sea levels in Venice that threaten to submerge portions of the city, drought and desertification in China’s Gansu Province, dying underwater coral reefs in Belize and glacial melting in the Austrian Alps. As a counterpoint, Sayler also sought out and photographed places where conservation projects to reverse or mitigate climate change’s effects are under way. These include a wind farm in California, floating fields in Bangladesh and a complex waterworks system to hold back rising seawater in The Netherlands.
The project derives its name from a practice that was common well into the 20th century when miners carried caged canaries deep into their underground shafts as they worked. The miners kept a watchful eye and when the birds ceased singing and moving about as they grew ill and died, the miners knew deadly gas was present. The birds’ sensitive systems succumbed to the gas’s effects before the miners’ did. Sayler and her husband, former private investigator Edward Morris who is co-founder and Canary Project executive director, selected the name “The Canary Project” for her photographic work with the coal-mine canaries in mind.
For more information, call (216) 231-4600, 800-317-9155 or visit www.cmnh.org. CMNH is located at 1 Wade Oval Drive in University Circle.