Emma Arnold is an interdisciplinary artist, scholar, and writer interested in how the creative actions of everyday citizens transform the city, from acts of civil disobedience to artful interventions of graffiti and street art. In early 2019, she started work on a research project on the arts of climate change. The beginning of the project coincided with an unprecedented wave of climate activism that she quickly became swept up in. She started taking photographs for Extinction Rebellion after documenting their first major action in Norway in April 2019. She folded her artistic practice into her academic research and in doing so also became an activist.
Artistic activist research can be challenging but also holds opportunities for amplifying voices, deepening knowledge, encouraging freedom of expression, and introducing hope into topics like climate change that can feel overwhelmingly bleak.
This exhibition showcases collected artefacts and photographs taken by Emma Arnold during a visual urban ethnography of climate activism. The images and objects presented highlight the artistic and hopeful qualities of climate activism and the place of art in climate and social change.
About
Emma Arnold has a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Oslo. She has published on zero tolerance against graffiti, outdoor advertising, urban climate activism, and the use of photography to study the aesthetic politics of cities.
Her research project was part of the ArtCONNECTS work package for the project AdaptationCONNECTS led by Professor Karen O’Brien at the Department of Sociology and Human Geography at the University of Oslo. The project strived to develop new understandings on how different types of transformation can contribute to successful adaptation to climate change. This research was funded by a FRIPRO Toppforsk grant awarded through the Norwegian Research Council.