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Future Geographies: The Only Question that Matters

What does it feel like to stand at the edge of ecological collapse — and still choose to imagine something worth saving? That is the provocation at the heart of Future Geographies: Art in the Century of Climate Change, opening this month at the Vancouver Art Gallery. It is not a comfortable question. It is, however, the only one that matters right now.

nstallation view of John Akomfrah, Vertigo Sea, 2015 (still), 3 channel high-definition video, Collection of the National Gallery of Canada, Purchased 2016, 46951, © John Akomfrah, Photo: Courtesy of Smoking Dogs Films and Lisson Gallery

30 ARTISTS, ONE CONVERSATION

The first major exhibition in Canada to examine the intersection of contemporary art and future climates on a global scale, Future Geographies brings together more than 30 artists and over 35 works — monumental charcoal installations, living sculptures, immersive video, and assemblages built from the wreckage of consumption. Organized into four thematic chapters — Living Knowledge, Consumed Earth, Speculative Worlds, and Material Memory — the exhibition moves through grief, resistance, imagination, and repair.

Cannupa Hanska Luger, Midéegaadi: Fire Bison, 2022, repurposed materials, Gochman Family Collection, Photo: Brandon Soder, Courtesy of the Artist and Garth Greenan Gallery, New York

There is something that happens to the body inside a great gallery. The air changes — cool, controlled, hushed in a way that slows your pulse and sharpens your attention. The outside world falls away. You move from room to room as though through a series of carefully considered thoughts, each work demanding you pause, recalibrate, feel. Future Geographies understands this. It uses the silence of those spaces deliberately, placing you in direct confrontation with what you might otherwise scroll past.

Douglas Coupland, French’s Mustard with Strawberry Sauce, 2023, oil and enamel paint on canvas, Private Collection, Photo: LF Documentation, Courtesy of the Artist and Daniel Faria Gallery, Toronto

DESPAIR IS NOT AN OPTION

Brian Jungen, Cetology, 2002, plastic chairs, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Purchased with the Financial Program, the Vancouver Art Gallery Acquisition Fund and Support of the Canada Council for the Arts Acquisition Assistance, VAG 2003.8 a-z, Photo: Vancouver Art Gallery

Brian Jungen’s Cetology, an 8.5-metre whale skeleton constructed entirely from white plastic patio chairs, stops you cold. John Akomfrah’s Vertigo Sea — a three-channel meditation on humanity’s entanglement with the ocean — makes its Vancouver debut. Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun‘s vivid paintings of British Columbia wildfires read as history paintings for our exact moment, raw and unsparing. Curator Eva Respini frames it all with a challenge: “How do we face ecological change with anything other than despair?” Future Geographies answers by demonstrating art’s singular capacity to hold contradiction — to document catastrophe and conjure possibility within the same breath.

Jean Shin, Huddled Masses, 2020 (detail), cell phones and computer cables, Courtesy of the Artist and Praise Shadows Art Gallery, Photo: Kevin Candland

YOUR PRESENCE, YOUR RECKONING

Come while it is here, on these lands, shaped by artists who refuse to look away. Let the stillness of those rooms do what stillness does best — strip away distraction and leave you alone with what you actually think, what you actually feel, and what you are willing to imagine.

Huma Bhabha, Lifetime, 2013 (detail), cork, blue Styrofoam, acrylic, oil stick, and wood, Collection of Maurice Marciano/Maurice and Paul Marciano Art Foundation, © Huma Bhabha

asinnajaq, Rock Piece (Ahuriri Edition), 2018 (still), digital video, Collection of Hydro-Québec, Photo: Courtesy of the Artist

Lawrence Paul Yuxweluptun Lets’lo:tseltun, The Impending Fire Storms, 2024, acrylic on canvas, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Acquisition Fund, Photo: Byron Dauncey, Courtesy of Macaulay + Co.

Hero image: Installation view of Teresita Fernández, Island Universe 2, 2023, charcoal, Collection of the Vancouver Art Gallery, Acquisition Fund, VAG 2024.3.1 a-zz, Photo: Dan Bradica, Courtesy Lehmann Maupin, New York, Seoul and London

Author Profile

Helen Siwak, Luxury Lifestyle Observer: Helen Siwak is the founder of EcoLuxLuv Communications & Marketing Inc and publisher of Folio.YVR Luxury Lifestyle Magazine and PORTFOLIOY.YVR Business & Entrepreneurs Magazine. She is a prolific content creator, consultant, and marketing and media strategist within the ecoluxury and luxury lifestyle niches. Helen is the west coast correspondent to Canada’s top-read business magazine Retail-Insider, holds a vast freelance portfolio, and is an EIC for Hire. Connect with her here: [email protected].