BENGALURU: Bengaluru-based artist and activist Namita Kulkarni’s acclaimed painting series ‘Colonialism and the Climate Crisis’ is being exhibited at the United Nations in New York as part of the Canvas of Change exhibition from June 5 to July 10.
The series explores the links between historical and continuing colonial systems, environmental destruction and climate injustice. Kulkarni developed the works after studying how colonial-era extractive practices contributed to ecological damage and how their impacts continue to affect vulnerable communities.
Kulkarni’s project was supported by the International Centre for Advocates Against Discrimination (ICAAD), a New York-based human rights organisation, through its Artivism initiative. She had applied for an ICAAD grant in December 2021 after seeing an open call for artists and was selected for the programme, which provided creative support and freedom to develop the series.
The artist said the climate crisis is often discussed only in terms of carbon emissions and solutions such as offsets, while its deeper historical roots are overlooked. Her work highlights climate change as a human rights issue and brings attention to indigenous perspectives and environmental inequalities.
The series gained further relevance after the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted colonialism as one of the historical and ongoing factors influencing the climate crisis in its Sixth Assessment Report released in 2022.