COAL + ICE Documents Our Relationship To Fossil Fuels Through Photographs
The Kennedy Center's COAL + ICE exhibit centers around climate change and the consequences of continued use of fossil fuels.
The Kennedy Center’s exhibit COAL + ICE is a documentary photography exhibition working to visualize the climate crisis, its causes, and consequences.
Over 50 photographers and video artists — Jimmy Chin, Gordon Parks, Barbara Koppel, Gideon Mendel, Noah Berger, and Robert Wallis among them — are participating in the exhibit, with 48 projectors illuminating an immersive 30,000-square-foot purpose-built exhibition space on the REACH Plaza.
COAL + ICE imagery drawn from over a century’s worth of diverse materials, from glass plate negatives to smartphone videos, documenting our relationship to fossil fuels and the consequences triggered by their continued use.
Stunning suspended photographs of the Himalayan mountains and glaciers are juxtaposed against portraits of coal miners, past and present.
The exhibit is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries.
Notable events or activations serving to amplify the exhibition — all taking place in the COAL + ICE tent on the REACH Plaza unless noted, and all offered for free with pre-registration required — include:
Danish artist Thomas Dambo’s Nordic Swan, a large sculpture constructed from more than 300 recycled plastic buckets, or typically discarded material that threatens the natural world, on display by the REACH reflecting pool (now through 4/18).
“Seeing Change: Climate Storytelling from the Arctic,” an exploration of storytelling on the frontline of climate change featuring photographs from Camille Seaman, reporting from Alice Qannik Glenn, and video footage from Louie Palu (3/30).
COAL + ICE is on display through Earth Day, April 22. Visit www.kennedy-center.org or www.coalandice.org.
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