Artist's Profile: Zaria Forman
James introduces the fantastic Zaria Forman and her unique art form to communicate climate change and the changing landscapes of the Antarctic.
Illustration by Lucy de Lusignan.
Climate change and environmental protection has more recently found wider representation and discussion across platforms and disciplines, ranging from the sciences to the creative world, giving a voice to endangered environments and quickly disappearing landscapes and ecosystems. As an artist, I’d like to offer up the question:
How can artists both raise awareness and influence efforts in conservation and environmental change through their work?
In this article I will be looking at one artist in particular, who has dedicated her entire career to this question and cause.
Zaria Forman, is a contemporary pastel artist at the forefront of presenting artwork to prompt conversations about the conservation and protection of the environment, and raise awareness of the global climate crisis. Through TED talks, various interviews and exhibitions, Forman uses her practice as a catalyst for promoting environmental research and changing attitudes towards remote places around the world that sit dangerously on the front lines of global changes, such as the Antarctic and Greenland.
Her career works to record the changing and disappearing landscapes of the world that are considered very difficult to get to outside of scientific and research-led expedition.Like an explorer Forman records her journeys to such places by recreating enormous pastel drawings from her experiences. One series of drawings exploring the Antarctic landscape, demonstrates both the enormity and purpose behind her work. The drawings which emerged from a residency with National Geographic in the polar region, depict enormous shifting icebergs, beautiful and otherworldly sculptures of time and change, as well as the now watery landscapes which encompass them. These drawings of frozen and distant worlds are intimate, embodying her memories, experiences and observations and create a calming effect on the viewer. They are immersive and beckon you in to awe and admire over the subtle details which combine to form photorealistic scenes in their entirety.
‘Many of us are intellectually aware that climate change is our greatest global challenge, and yet the problem may feel abstract, the imperilled landscapes remote. I hope my drawings make Antarctica’s fragility visceral to the viewer, emulating the overpowering experience of being beside a glacier.’ – Forman
I believe that due to the sheer scale of these pieces, we ourselves are offered an opportunity to momentarily inhabit a space which we would not otherwise be able to visit in person. We find ourselves transported – held within her smooth and luminous pastel blues, flowing in motion and drawing us over the surfaces of the icy forms and waters – arresting our minds and connecting us to something so ancient.
Forman suggests that art has the ability to engage with the viewer on an emotional level and it is this emotional response which fosters change. By feeling connected to these places of such sublimity that the artist represents, we are inspired to act, whether that be through efforts such as donating to environmental causes, physically getting involved or just adjusting to a more considered and aware lifestyle.
From a young age, Forman has had the fortune of visiting remote locations such as the glacial regions of Greenland, which in turn has instilled in her, and throughout her practice, a deep-rooted connection and love for these vanishing worlds. It has given urgency to help protect them from climate change and brought her attention to the effects of rising global sea-levels. In a 2016 TED talk, the artist described her work as ‘Records of sublime landscapes in flux’, as ‘landscapes in transition’, she presents natural forms which are intrinsically beautiful but also harbour such power and fragility. She goes on to say that instead of raising awareness through images of destruction, she has focused on using beauty as a vehicle.
As an artist, Forman has also used her artwork to aid in scientific research, environmental studies and conservation efforts. In 2012, Forman helped run an expedition with NASA over the glacial fields of Greenland, in an ongoing study collecting data on the receding and melting ice planes. Using satellite imagery taken as a means of mapping and documenting the landscape, Forman translated the pictures into drawings – large scale pastel works portraying intensely detailed and abstract patterns which seemingly fracture down the composition. Again, offering us an alternative perspective of a place from which we would seldom be able to experience in person.
Whilst these images depict a flat plane, they capture and illuminate to the rest of the world, the impact that climate change has already had on these landscapes, as well as puts into perspective the vastness and entirety of the landscape falling victim. What were once single sheets of miles and miles of ice, are now fragmented fields retreating from the warming and encroaching waters surrounding them. Given that these drawings document a moment in time in 2012, it is daunting to assume that with the ever more rapid rate at which the arctic is warming – almost three times as fast as other areas around the world – these ice fields will have already become unrecognisable or been taken completely.
Amongst several of her previous expeditions, Forman has travelled to the Antarctic, The Maldives and to the Perito Moreno Glacier in Argentina on the research vessel Endurance as an artist residence in both 2015 and 2018. . From these trips, the artist has been able to expand her knowledge and awareness of localised conservation projects and help influence others. In a collaborative project whilst in The Maldives, Forman and two other artists used their research to open up a conversation with the local children, concerning the effects of climate change on the island. Regarded as the ‘lowest and flattest country in the world’, it has been predicted that due to rising sea-levels, ‘the nation could be entirely underwater within this century.’
Describing her stay whilst documenting the island for a body of work, Forman said, ‘We shared the concept of our project with children on the islands, inviting them to document their homeland as it transforms throughout their lives. The children can use their creativity to continue spreading awareness while inwardly processing the ecological transformations surrounding them.’
This year, in collaboration with National Geographic, she has set up an exhibition on board the Endurance which will be travelling back to the frozen region. The exhibition aptly named ‘Change’, is focused on creating change and continuing the mission to raise awareness. In collaboration with a voyage to the depicted polar landscape and the research being conducted on board, ‘change brings together a diverse group of 40 multimedia artists’ and will ‘offer guests a perspective they won’t see out the window of Endurance’. Forman’s hope is that the experience will create a ‘profound connection to places at the forefront of climate change.’
This remarkable artist highlights to us the importance of the role of artists and creatives in influencing positive change – their practices a tool for documenting and communicating the global crisis we all face.
You can follow the artist’s journey and view her work via her website: https://www.zariaforman.com/
James Osborne
James Osborne is an artist and writer who graduated from Falmouth University in 2019. He has since found recognition and representation through a variety of galleries and institutes, with his work exhibited across the South West. Through his painting, drawing and writing, James explores ideas of presence, depicting landscapes through a quiet and spectatorial lens. His practice is very much in response to a love of the environment and entwined with the act of walking - finding a reconnection.
You can find more of James’ work at www.jamesosborne.uk and on Instagram @jimosborne_studio.