Collaborative Palmerston North project addresses climate change

I'd Like to Invite You to Take Part in the Weather organiser Kirsty Porter is the first to admit she doesn't have all the answers to improve our planet. Photo / Judith Lacy

The latest global summit on how to tackle climate change is about to start on the other side of the world.

But the climate has no borders and Manawatū residents are invited to take part in a creative collaborative project that puts the weather at the centre.

I'd Like to Invite You to Take Part in the Weather is seeking to address issues of climate crisis and ecological crisis (decline of biodiversity) and is organised by Palmerston North artist and musician Kirsty Porter. The project is happening at the same time as the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow.

COP stands for Conference of the Parties, the parties being countries that signed the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The 2021 meeting will be the 26th.

Porter wants Manawatū residents to focus on what we can do here and now in our community.

She is interested in collaborative processes that can be taken to the streets and used as a form of action.

For the first two weeks of November, she wants to have the time and space to find collaborative practice around the climate and ecological crises. She has taken two weeks off her educator job at Te Manawa and will be based at Snails in central Palmerston North, where she has a studio.

The community is invited to participate in a way that puts weather and climate action at the centre. Participants will make work at Snails and go out into the streets. Ideas floated include making kites, writing in chalk that the rain will eventually wash away, and crafting wind chimes - all activities in which the weather is a collaborator.

Dorian David Leigh is writing poetry especially for the project, while Carly Thomas will do a word play activity and there'll be short plays based around the climate. Yarn bombers have some surprises behind their knitting needles.

Porter will continue to progress her body of work It's Getting Hot in Here, a series of portraits of people who are hot and bothered.

Another idea is making clay people then putting them outside where they will eventually erode in the weather.

Porter describes Weather as a gentle project people can dip their toes in as far as they want.

What's happening at COP26 will still be on collaborators' minds as they can watch cop26.tv, albeit in the middle of the night. English writer and The Guardian columnist George Monbiot will host a daily show on the channel.

Porter says humanity needs to find a way of living that is more gentle, collaborative and creative. The focus needs to be on community rather than individual sustainability.

Climate change is an incredibly hard and complex issue and while people are concerned they are mostly crippled by the fact they don't know what to do about it.

We need to move the gaze away from individual action and start looking at systematic action, she says.

We know what causes climate change but the release of greenhouse gases into our atmosphere is entrenched in every part of our society and everybody's expectations of their lifestyle.

As well as raising awareness of COP26, Porter hopes the project will illustrate the ongoing mahi needed to transform society into one that is fair, just and puts nature at its heart.

Porter will be at the upstairs gallery at Snails from November 3-6 and 10-13 from 10am-3pm.

Watch the Snails Facebook page for details of events such as live-streamed performances.

The Details
What: I'd Like to Invite You to Take Part in the Weather
When: November 1-14
Where: Snails: Artist run spaces, 103 Taonui St
Entry: Free