The World Reimagined
The World in a Water Lily, Amazonica
Nicola Green was delighted to participate in the The World Reimagined a ground-breaking, national art education project designed to transform how we understand the Transatlantic Trade in Enslaved Africans and its impact on all of us. Artists were commissioned to create artworks using a globe as their canvas, which were installed as sculpture trails across the country. The World in a Water Lily, Amazonica was part of the Camden and Westminster Trail, and was exhibited in the magnificent grounds of Westminster Abbey and later in the Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park and in Trafalgar Square.
Nicola Green’s globe represents the deep-rooted connection between racial justice and climate justice - two of the most urgent and important issues of the twenty-first century. It is widely accepted that the Anthropocene epoch is inextricable from colonial expansion and slavery, that there is an intrinsic connection between the oppression of people and the exploitation and plunder of the world’s natural resources. Historically, colonialism exacerbated climate change, and enduring forms of imperialism mean that environmental racism remains pervasive today. Whilst climate change affects everyone all over the world, racially marginalised groups disproportionately bear the brunt of environmental degradation. It is projected that the Global South will incur 75-80% of the cost of climate change despite contributing the least carbon emissions. In many ways, the climate emergency is colonialism’s natural conclusion.
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