The people demanding change are the subject of Sophie Molins’ new exhibition at Great Western Studios. Today at the Great Western Studios.

 

Since 2009 Molins has worked with Artists Project Earth (APE) a charity which funds groups and projects, which raise awareness about and mitigate climate change.

 

APE has supported and documented: Its float at Notting Hill Carnival; a film at the infamous Burning Man festival in Utah’s Black rock desert; its participation at the United Nations conference on Climate Change in Copenhagen in 2009 and Durban 2011; activist groups such as Liberate Tate, which organized the Reverend Billy’s exorcism of BP at Tate modern: WE CAN at Climate Rush who also organized their children to dress up as endangered animals and visit their MP’s and a Suffragette Tea Party at Heathrow airport against the third runway; recording sessions in Mali for the new Rhythms del Mundo Africa album; and lastly the Occupy camp in London.

 

The images of these events are an intimate portrait of groups of people who want to change unsustainable systems and try out new ones. There are echoes of the 60’s counterculture revolution in images such as “Occupy The Sky”.  But this new generation of protesters is media savvy, witty, creative and fun. The work explores the slogans and banners with their ironic subversive sound bites that bear witness to deep dissatisfaction and an eagerness for a different model. Slogans

“Down with that sort of thing”

“the future is on sale”  

“the revolution will not be branded”

“time is art not money”

 

sit  alongside   poignant   portraits  of protestors from all walks of life; and burners at burning man and Dogon Dancers in Mali, who star in one of the new RDM videos.

 

The exhibition premiers a new film of the African Climate March in Durban where song and dance were used in Protest.

 

On 22nd March at 6.30 Kenny Young APE’s founder will be presenting a sneak preview of the new Rhythms del Mundo Africa Album which features Coldplay, Eminem, Beyonce, Red hot Chilli Peppers, Mumford and sons’  Plan B, Aloe Blacc,  REM, Ali Farka Toure Band, Fleet Foxes, Cee-lo Green and Rokia Traore'. There will be  a guest speaker and an African drumming session.

 

On Monday 26th March at 6.15pm there will  will be a screenings of The Crisis of Civilization www.crisisofcivilization.com  After which there will be a Q & A  with the film’s author Nafeez Ahmed,  the director - Dean Puckett and the animator - Lucca Benny.

 

Artists Project Earth  (APE) collaborates with international musicians to produce three fundraising albums to date: Rhythms Del Mundo: Cuba, RDM: Classics and most recently, RDM: Revival. This year APEs fourth album, Rhythms del Mundo: Africa will be released. Profits from sales of the albums have supported over 300 projects all around the world that are helping to mitigate, adapt to and raise awareness of, climate change.

 

Sophie Molins works in photography, found objects, drawing and web worlds. With an eye for the surreal and the ironic Molins’ work focuses on the physical minutiae of our culture: mundane items that exist in the background of our daily lives; text, fake animals and windows become metaphors for our ethical and emotional condition, poignantly highlighting our projections, our consumption and frailties as a species. She currently has a web commission for the National Trust on at Attingham Park, Shropshire and an exhibition at Riverside Studios has just finished. She has won awards form the New York Times, Westminster Arts, the Arts Council and exhibits frequently here and abroad.

"The Crisis of Civilization' is a remixed documentary feature film, exploring the interconnected nature of global crises. Documentary filmmaker Dean Puckett interrogates the writer and international security analyst Dr Nafeez Mosaddeq Ahmed, author of A User's Guide to the Crisis of Civilization: And How to Save It - a powerful critique of a failed global system and a manifesto for constructive social change. The film incorporates an imaginative montage of public domain archive footage, newsreel and stunning original animation to offer a powerful wake-up call, warning that the inability to recognise the interconnections between different crises is preventing us, as a civilisation, from saving ourselves.

 

Exhibition runs 20th - 26th March 2012

10 - 6 Monday - Friday

Private view 22nd March 6.30 - 8.30pm

Film screening 26th March 6.15pm 

Location: Gallery & Project Space

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