CHENNAI: Every day is SOME day. World Health Day, World Introvert Day, World Milk Day — take your pick. The universe abounds with choices to mark your calendar. This month too, had its fair share of days — World Bicycle Day on June 3 saw many riders post photographs of their permanently stationary bicycles, fathers who on normal days often find themselves at the receiving end of squabbles were suddenly inundated with outpourings of love on Father’s Day on June 19 and of course, International Yoga Day on 21st June, resulted in a record sale of ointments to ease many a sprained body. World Environment Day (just saying it makes one feel like an eco warrior!) also grabbed a day of this month — June 5 to be precise.
Besides the mandatory planting-of-saplings drive, specifically invented to provide perfect photo ops, there are several events that are customarily planned to observe the day. Art contests on the theme happen to be one such. With the passing of time, as the saplings wither along with the enthusiasm, the participation certificates from these contests are all that remains, tucked away in some obscure shelf.
Once upon a time, artists from another era, set off into the meadows and the valleys, armed with their brushes and paints, to capture the beauty of it all on canvas. Today, equipped with the knowledge that those open fields have all metamorphosed into concrete structures and an outdoor painting experiment would be at the risk of getting knocked off by a speeding truck, artists have primarily confined themselves to their studios, sketching imagined landscapes that perhaps stems from memories of what once was.
Art has nevertheless, relentlessly addressed the environmental crisis looming ahead, though many sunrises away. Powerful artworks have tried to wake up society to this danger. Olafur Eliasson, an Icelandic-Danish artist, did just that in his installation called Ice Watch. Using blocks of glacial ice from Greenland, which were placed on the streets of London, he invited people to watch the reality of melting glaciers, thus turning something that we read about unfeelingly and happening far away, disconnected with our existence, into an emotional, tangible experience. A visual encounter like that drove home the fragility of the planet we have inherited and served to remind us all of the impact of climate change.
Over the years, several artists have tried to call attention to Mother Earth’s silent cries for help and been part of a movement for change in their own unique ways. Art and culture have always had a strong relationship with society and can certainly influence individuals to push for action, when the powers that rule the world fail to do so.
Let us not be content with every day being just some day with a name. Celebrate it in its truest sense — in body and spirit. May canvases come alive again with the lush landscapes of yore and the vanished forests of a hundred years!