Hilary Wardhaugh’s new exhibition bears witness to the #EverydayClimateCrisis

Posted on 14 March, 2024

June 2016 stands as a watershed moment, quite literally, as Queanbeyan River in Oaks Estate flooded and it inundated the surrounding land with a torrent of plastic waste – a grim testament to our collective negligence.

Through my camera, I captured plastic entwined with nature, a sight that stirred within me a potent blend of horror and introspection. Something needs to be done, but how does one person change the world?

In 2019 I found a plastic bottle and a small kid’s toy adorned by tiny molluscs at Potato Point beach – a poignant reminder of nature’s indomitable spirit. Yet, it was on a beach in Indonesia in 2023 that the full extent of our global capitalist consumerism was laid bare.

Here, the beach was covered in plastic waste, almost as if it was suffocating under the weight of our indifference. The stench of oil and burning plastic waste hung heavy in the air.

Environmentalists and scientists echo a call for change. The scourge of plastic waste, a by-product of our insatiable consumption, threatens to unravel the delicate tapestry of life that sustains us, but especially upon or bird and sea life.

We now read that breastfeeding women have plastic in their breast milk. It casts a pall of uncertainty over the fate of our planet.

Photographer Hilary Wardhaugh.

Nature, however, has shown resilience in the face of adversity. So, amidst the gloom, a flicker of hope endures. In amongst the debris on the beach in Indonesia were molluscs clinging to life floating in the ocean on plastic bottles.

I am conflicted with what to do when I find them on the beach. Do I pick up the plastic and bin it killing the molluscs, or do I leave them so the molluscs survive but at the risk of a larger animal ingesting it and dying.

I have created a body of work documenting about this which opens today, Thursday 14 March at Canberra Contemporary Art Space in Manuka. The exhibition is called Monachopsis – a made-up word from John Koenig’s Dictionary Of Obscure Sorrows.

As I reflect on my encounters with plastic waste and my exhibition I am reminded of the imperative for collective action – a rallying cry for governments, industries, and individuals alike to join hands in a shared endeavour to safeguard our planet for generations to come.

Over a period of two years between 2020-2022 I created the #Everydayclimatecrisis Visual Petition. I put a call out to women and non-binary people around Australian to send me photos that responded to the climate emergency we are facing.

This arts activism project amassed over 1200 images and statements and was tabled in Parliament by Member for Canberra Alicia Payne MP. Our actions and photographic proof now on public record and even had global reach as it appeared on the BBC and was shown at COP 28, last year.

It is incumbent upon us to do something! Bold and decisive action is needed to stem the tide of environmental degradation, to forge a path towards a sustainable future built on the pillars of renewable resources and equitable stewardship and industry responsibility.

The fate of our world rests not in the hands of fate, but in the choices we make today.

Photography: Hilary Wardhaugh