No Planet B

It has been a year since COVID prematurely shut down the 2020 Melbourne Art Book Fair at the National Gallery of Victoria. But the Book Fair is back – although not at the NGV – and  24 venues across Melbourne, regional Victoria and even interstate, will host events over the next three days. And, as we are now used to, there is also a virtual program. Details of all the events can be found at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/programs-events/art-book-fair/

The Book Fair is part of Melbourne Design Week and appropriately the theme for this year is ‘Design the World You Want’. Unsurprisingly, one component of this is around climate change and the acceptance of how human activity has shaped, and can reshape, the environment.

Before the 2020 Fair, an early fire season had ravaged the east coast of Australia. Locally and internationally, we watched in horror as millions of hectares of land was ablaze, houses were destroyed, 34 people lost their lives, and more than a billion animals died. Youngsters were despairing and outraged, and many took to the streets to rally the community to demand a safe climate for themselves and for all life on Earth.

Bronwyn Johnson, who has been a vital, energetic and creative force in so many aspects of Melbourne’s art life, started to keep a list of the climate-related expressions that she heard or saw on placards at protests. In January 2020, she approached Melbourne artist, Jon Campbell, to look at the list with a view to creating a book of prints. Readers who are familiar with Jon’s art (or who want to refresh their acquaintance by reading the post ‘Betweenity’) will know that Jon has an extraordinary and incisive ability to visually represent the Australian vernacular in his text-based works.

Using Bronwyn’s expressions, Jon re-worked them into fifteen artworks and, in collaboration with book designer and risograph master printmaker, Aaron Beehre from Ilam Press in Christchurch, has produced an incredible series of A3 sized prints that capture the tone, wit and exhaustion we feel as we watch local and global climate disasters continue to impact our lives.

Since the original idea for the book, the world has been brought to a standstill by the coronavirus pandemic (with many commentators linking climate induced habitat loss as a significant contributing factor), and in Australia we are currently watching once in a century flooding slowly subsiding. ‘A Breathing Space Between Disasters Would Be Good’.

In Jon, Bronwyn and Aaron’s art book – ‘No Planet B’ – there are visual references to the many areas that need to be addressed. From ‘Fossil Fool’, ‘Frack Off’ and ‘Fuck Normal’ to our concern for ‘Koalas’ and the endangered bee population ‘Bee Loved’ – there is much to reflect on.

There is ‘No Planet B” and ‘It’s too late to leave, Fuuuck’. These issues are urgent and need addressing repeatedly until action occurs. As one protestor succinctly put it: ‘I’ll be less activist if you’ll be less shit’.

‘No Planet B’ is being launched by the Mayor of the City of Yarra, Gabrielle de Vietri, at 2pm on Saturday 27 March, upstairs at Gertrude Glasshouse (44 Glasshouse Road, Collingwood). The exhibition is open from 12pm to 5pm from Friday 26 March to Sunday 28 March. I look forward to seeing my readers there. More information can be found at: https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/whats-on/programs-events/art-book-fair/gertrude-glasshouse/

Postscript: All images are courtesy of Jon Campbell and are in ‘No Planet B’. iPhone photography does not do justice to the vibrancy of the works.