I feel the climate changing (Ilmasto/tunne/ilmasto in Finnish) is a mixed-media installation artwork that invites visitors to experience, feel, and reflect on different emotions related to climate change.
The piece asks:
What do I feel today?
What do I cherish and revere?
What acts of hope do I witness and take?
Read more:
I feel the climate changing -book
Ilmasto/tunne/ilmasto-kirja (in Finnish)
Welcome to experience this in our group exhibition ”Ilmiöitä ja ihmeitä” at Kaapelitehdas Puristamo, Helsinki, 8th – 20th of April 2025!
Elements of the installation
The installation consists of several elements, for example:
- Climate/Emotion/Climate Quilt, 190 cm × 140 cm, oil paint, acrylic, and embroidery on recycled fabrics. Visitors are encouraged to touch the quilt and even crawl under it to explore their climate emotions and emotional climate. The quilt features depictions of 12 different emotions related to climate change.
- Madonna of Biodiversity, painting, 160 cm × 110 cm, oil paint and embroidery on old linen fabric. This piece plays with traditional church art and invites reflection on what we should truly worship. The symbolism of the Madonna of Biodiversity highlights the abundance of life, the value of biodiversity, and humanity’s role in it all.
- Mother Earth’s Rage & Pietà of Biodiversity, paintings, each 150 cm × 120 cm, oil paint and acrylic on thin linen curtains. These paintings are counterparts: the sorrow of the blue Madonna and the anger of the red Mother Earth both stem from the defense of life.
- Acts of Hope Curtain, 260 cm × 280 cm, oil paint, acrylic, pigment, and embroidery on a velvet curtain. Small acts of hope are embroidered onto the curtain like floating, fragile soap bubbles. The painting style of the bubbles references romantic 19th-century depictions of the industrial era. The bubbles illustrate actions taken in Finland to mitigate climate change and prevent biodiversity loss.
- Writing Corner, featuring a hand-painted chair, a small table, and a velvet pillow embroidered with the question, What do I feel today? — a soft object to hold while contemplating climate emotions. Visitors are encouraged to write down their thoughts and feelings about climate change in the artwork’s guestbook or draw hopeful soap bubbles on recycled fabrics.
All the fabrics, threads, and objects used in the artwork are repurposed materials.
Handling emotions through art
My dream is that the I Feel the Climate Changing -installation will encourage people to pause and reflect on their own emotions related to climate change and biodiversity loss. This can be done, for example, in the following ways:
Paint your own climate emotion quilt
A climate emotion quilt can be made together with friends or your school class. All you need are recycled fabrics, acrylic paints, and sewing supplies. What if everyone made their own patch for a shared climate emotion quilt?
Draw actions of hope
Pausing to reflect on acts of hope strengthens your own hope and the experience of the existence of good. Draw, write, make a mind map of acts of hope. This can also be done together with friends, colleagues, or your school class.
Invite the I feel the climate changing -artwork for a visit
The I Feel the Climate Changing (Climate/Emotion/Climate) installation and Liina will gladly come to visit, present, and discuss climate emotions. Lying under the climate emotion quilt can help you notice your own emotions and their diversity – which in turn can melt the lump of climate anxiety into something smaller and more manageable.
Contact
Liina Länsiluoto
liina.lansiluoto@gmail.com
Instagram @liinalansiluoto