The 2021 United Nations Climate Change Conference, also known as COP26, is the 26th United Nations Climate Change conference. This year it is scheduled to be held in the city of Glasgow, Scotland, between 31 October and 12 November 2021.
Q What is your professional background in the arts?
I’m an award winning freelance graphic artist and designer with an MA in Visual Communication from the Royal College of Art. My practice is very much values-led so all of my work is focused around engaging my creative skills to make the world a better place. I am passionate about social and inclusive design and exploring complex issues around sustainability, wellbeing and ecology.
I have worked and currently work with clients such as: The World Fair Trade Organisation, The International Futures Forum, DESIS (Design for Social Innovation Towards Sustainability), EcoLabs, green investment firm Abundance Finance and many more.
Q What inspired you to pursue a career as artist?
I’ve always been interested in visual communication. This started as a love of comics and visual storytelling as a child (comics where a gateway to literacy for me, as someone who struggled with dyslexia at the time) and that love of communication and visual storytelling never left me, along with the recognition of it’s importance in the world.
Q When did you first become aware of the climate change crisis? Was there a specific event or person who highlighted this?
I was fortunate enough to attend a small but very forward thinking school as a child that was very
focused on global issues and so I suppose my passion started there. My career in this area however
started as I finished my final year at the Royal College of Art in London.
My work there was very much focused on developing communication strategies for dealing with
complex social and environmental issues (such as climate change) and I developed a community
board game for helping explore issues around peak oil and carbon emissions. The project was
fortunate enough to win a major prize awarded by the Helen Hamlyn Research Centre and Big Idea
and that began my professional journey engaging with issues around climate change.
Q Tell us what the relationship between art and environmentalism means to you?
Art is such a powerful way to engage with any topic, and particularly something as complex and important as environmentalism. There is such a long history of art and environmentalism being intertwined - and so it should be. For me, engaging in topics that are important to me through my work gives my life even more purpose and meaning than it would otherwise. Personally, art has always been a powerful mode of self expression and a way of dealing with challenging issues that may not be black or white, bring up emotion or are simply unclear. But mostly, it’s been a way of giving a voice to issues that matter and deserve our awareness and attention.
Q What is the role of art in climate change mitigation?
If more artists engaged with topics around climate change it would help shift the culture and public perceptions on it. I think sometimes we don’t realise how much power we have to influence culture and therefor people’s decision making and values. I constantly get told by other creatives that they wish they could work with the kinds of topics that I
do - so why don’t they? I make a living doing it! It just takes passion, commitment and determination and as a result it’s become a USP for me: I get clients seeking me out specifically because I have an interest and expertise in the area.
Q What is the greatest challenge facing the planet right now in your opinion?
We are faced with so many pressing global issues and looking for the root of the problem, as opposed to reducing the symptoms, is often overlooked. To quote Albert Einstein: “No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.”
Q What progress have you seen – share a positive news story in regards to climate change action.
I am so fortunate to run the social media and communications for Shakti Man on the island, who specialise in all things sustainable and Fair Trade. My role involves as much storytelling and illustration as I can squeeze in and this means I am constantly surrounded by positive stories of amazing innovations, organisations, brands and people who are making a really difference in the world and tackling climate change head on.
I truly believe that more people than ever are waking up to these issues and rewriting the way we do things (including business) to take into account not just our people but our planet. If you need some hope and inspiration then I recommend visiting Shakti Man in Ramsey or their social media for just the tip of the iceberg, and learn how you might make some changes in your own life that could have a big impact on the world.
Q Who are your favourite Artist(s) who tackle themes of Climate Change?
To me, Jadav Payeng is an artist.
Q What message would you like to leave readers with in the wake of COP26?
I’m currently avidly following the work of artist / activist Darren Cullen of Spelling Mistakes Cost Lives and his ambitious ‘Hell Bus’ project: a mobile exhibition highlighting Shell Oil’s greenwashing propaganda (did you know that Shell invests more per year on greenwash marketing then it does on actually investing in clean energy?) And as part of his tour the Hell Bus will be in Glasgow through COP26. Closer to home, I’m very inspired by the work of Janet Lees and I have her to thank for introducing me to the Deep Adaption movement - another potent take on the what’s to come with Climate Change.
Q What message would you like to leave readers with in the wake of COP26?
You have more power than you know. As a creative, a consumer, a human being on this planet. Your choices and your actions make a difference in the world. To quote the Native American saying: “We do not inherit the Earth from our ancestors, we borrow it from our children.” This flips the paradigm on its head: never mind what our parents or parent’s parents did - what kind of world do we want to give our children and how can we start giving to our world more than we take?
Q What is next for you?
I recently finished a diploma course in visual thinking with the renowned Scriberia Academy. The course has perfectly built on my existing skills and interests in visually communicating complex information through drawing, scribing, mapping and visual storytelling. I’m really looking forwards to putting what I’ve learned into practice professionally and I’m on the lookout for collaborations with organisations, charities and NGO’s that are focusing on issues around climate change and sustainability and who feel that they may have complex info or an important message they would like to better share with the world.
www.alihodgson.co.uk
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Twitter: @CartooningMonk
