‘Call to arms’ on

Canadian digital artist Kelly Richardson says her exhibition The Weather Makers, running at DCA until November 26, has been influenced by Trump, North Korea and the environmental crisis

It was the book that told the dramatic story of the Earth’s climate, of how it has changed, how we have come to understand it and what that means for the future.

But now Tim Flannery’s gripping 2005 narrative The Weather Makers has helped influence a new chapter of debate about the future of humanity by inspiring the name of the first solo exhibition in Scotland by Canadian artist Kelly Richardson.

She creates hyper-real digital films of rich and complex landscapes that have been manipulated using CGI, animation and sound.

Weaving together myth and metaphor with scientific research and new digital technologies, The Weather Makers, which has opened at DCA, and is programmed in partnership with Discovery Film Festival, presents three large-scale video works alongside a new print series.

The exhibition asks the viewer to consider what the future might look like if humans continue on our current trajectory of planetary pillaging and consumption, and why our species has allowed us to arrive at a global environmental crisis.

Kelly has “no idea” whether art can change the world. But she certainly believes her work can help us “feel” what those lives in future might be like.

“For me the exhibition is a bit of a call to arms,” she says.

“We need to act very, very quickly to avert catastrophic changes with regards to global warming. For some scientists the jury is still out as to whether we even have enough time.

“We are already beginning to see

quite a lot of changes – especially the last couple of weeks with the category five hurricanes.

“As things heat up we won’t necessarily get more hurricanes but the intensity of those hurricanes will be ramped up. This is what we are seeing now.

“There’s Trump, North Korea, the hurricanes and the oldest snow patch in Scotland which has existed for 300 years is melting,” she continues.

“Every time I have an exhibit there are real life storylines I can tie the work to. I actually feel quite cursed!” she laughs.

“Every time I launch an exhibition something horrible happens. What I realised is it’s all the time now and a backdrop to everything.”

Kelly, 45, now lives on Vancouver Island, where she is an Associate Professor in Visual Arts at the University of Victoria.

All of the work being exhibited in Dundee was inspired during her 14 years living in the UK – and she is delighted to be exhibiting in “fantastic” Dundee.

She adds: “I love Dundee. It’s a great little place. I’ve visited a lot of places in the UK and when I came here I thought ‘you know what? I could live here!’”

In Leviathan (2011), a 20-minute loop of footage shot on Caddo Lake in Texas displays the region’s unique bald cypress trees in their swamp environment – hinting at an undiscovered or mutated bioluminant life-form.

In Mariner 9 (2012), a 12-metre-long panoramic view of a Martian landscape set hundreds of years in the future, evokes the human search for life beyond our own planet.

In Orion Tide (2013-14), Kelly presents a desert punctuated by spurts of light and smoke repeatedly launching into the dark night sky. The viewer is left to question what these rocket-like movements are and why they have been launched.

The exhibition also includes Kelly’s latest series of chromogenic prints, Pillars of Dawn, which present images of an imaginary desert in which trees and terrain have been physically crystallised by changes in the environment.

Every time I have an exhibit there are real life storylines I can tie the work to...

Kelly Richardson has launched The Weather Makers at the DCA.