Extreme heat is a rapidly-growing threat to public health in urban areas around the world. In Baltimore, the summer of 2024 was the second-warmest in three decades. Two dozen people died of heat-related causes in Maryland last year, including sanitation worker Ronald Silver. Overall, researchers have found that after many years of decline, heat-related mortality in the United States increased 117% between 1999-2023, with the decline reversing sharply after 2016. Given the trends in climate change, the challenge of rising temperatures will only continue to grow.
This show features original art from our three Extreme Heat Fellowship winners, Kei Ito, Rowan Bathurst, and Rachel Stein. The artists interacted with academics from the Department of Earth and Planetary Sciences at Johns Hopkins University who are studying extreme heat and its impacts. These interactions informed the artists' work.
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image: ft "Shade Provider" by Rachel Stein, and "Ode to Disappearance by Kei Ito"
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Kei Ito employs innovative techniques, including using extreme heat itself as a creative tool, to invite us to reflect on what we are losing as climate change advances. Rowan Bathurst's people-centric works bring our attention to communities experiencing extreme heat and interrogate our relationship with something that brings both intense pleasure as well as peril. Rachel Stein challenges us to learn to live -- and perhaps even flourish -- on a warmer planet, including by repurposing waste as heat-defensive infrastructure and to think about water as a means to cool ourselves. ​​​
For this exhibit, each of the three artists created a free giveaway item for the public relating to their work! Please come take posters by Kei Ito and Rowan Bathurst, as well as zines created by Rachel Stein & the Crow's Nest Community! ​​​
Ode to Dissapearance (Poster Version) by Kei Ito (left)
Make Your Own Shade by Rachel Stein (right)
paintings by Rowan Bathurst
Programming:
-Aug 16: Rachel Stein Zine Workshop
-Sept 7: Opening Reception
-Sept 11: Bromo Art Walk
-October 20: Artist Talks Sponsored by CIRCA/UMBC
-October 26: Violence & Trees: Talk with Sociologist and Activist Nikita Mtulu
-November 8: Extreme Heat Public Servants Panel