Leandra is a rising junior at Wesleyan University who has joined Asia Society as a digital communications intern for the summer. Over the next couple of weeks she will write a series of blogs showcasing the various aspects of Asia Society through her own eyes. What exactly does Asia Society do? What issues are our policy experts most concerned about? How can arts connect Asia and the West? What do our exhibitions aim to achieve? Follow her series to find out.

This month, I had the opportunity to visit COAL + ICE, Asia Society New York’s current exhibition. The exhibition features immersive photography and video installations from over 30 photographers and artists and urges action on the climate crisis. The causes and implications of climate change are showcased from a wide variety of perspectives across the globe.

At the bottom of the staircase leading to the exhibition's first floor, I was met with a stream of questions projected on the wall. Questions asking where we will live, what we will drink and eat, and what communities will be displaced in the climate crisis set the tone for the exhibition, emphasizing the urgency of the global issue and the uncertainty of our future. Due to the visual nature of the exhibition, this was one of the few instances where text was projected.

When speaking to Claudia Klinck, the Cultural Programming Director of COAL + ICE, she recommended that I start on the exhibition's first floor, where I can immerse myself in the consequences of coal mining and fossil fuels and the history of the coal mining industry in China. Then, she explained that I should move up to the second floor of COAL + ICE, where I can examine creative solutions for a more sustainable future. I followed her suggestion and did exactly that.

When I entered the exhibition, photographer Gideon Mendel’s “Submerged Portraits” series was the first thing to catch my eye. Mendel is a South African photographer who focuses on contemporary social issues. “Submerged Portraits” depicts subjects standing straight on and knee-deep in water, documenting the devastations of flooding worldwide. The poses that Mendel’s subjects adopt are simple, yet they hold a deep and unsettling gaze. “They show agency amidst the calamity that has befallen them,” says Mendel.

In the Ross Gallery, Mendel’s "Deluge" is a video installation that plays simultaneously over four walls. The video immediately in front of me displayed a man and woman hip-deep in water, pushing through a flooded town. As I turned to the wall next to me, a family was depicted steering a boat over what was once a neighborhood. On the other two sides of the room, a large crowd gathered on the only dry land left in the area, and a man searched for his belongings with a stick.

Matt Black is a documentary photographer from California, and his black-and-white photography series hangs in the middle of the first floor. Black photographs California’s Central Valley, capturing parched land and withered crops from decades of poor water management and excessive farming. He includes images of migrants working in the fields of California. Hung directly opposite Black’s images are those of a photographer from Kunming, Geng Yusheng, who captures the lives of migrant workers on the other side of the world in China’s coal mines. Despite the shocking conditions that these workers toil in, coal remains a major energy source, and the coal-mining industry simultaneously sustains and harms the workers and the local community. Implications from coal mines in China can be seen all the way in the fields of central California. As we continue to rely heavily on non-renewable energy sources, the need to change our ways of living becomes increasingly urgent.

The discussion of coal and our complex relationship with the mining industry culminates in the C.V. Starr Gallery. On the left side of the gallery are aerial images of coal mines from across the world and videos showing the harsh and dangerous working conditions. On the other half of the gallery are videos and photos of floodings, hurricanes, melting glaciers and ice caps, wildfires, and forced migration resulting from our reliance on fossil fuels.

With so many visuals and sounds surrounding you at once, the exhibition continues to invoke a strong sense of urgency. Instead of just reading about the coal industry’s impact, I could hear, feel, and see the consequences unfolding before me. At the center of all this is an animated map of global weather events, emphasizing the interconnectedness of our world where no action is separate from another.

The display continued outside the C.V. Starr Gallery, where I viewed Camile Seaman’s photographs of reduced Antarctica icebergs. Her stunning photography captures the harsh loss and destruction of global ice caused by climate change. The work description explains Seaman’s personal connection to nature. Growing up, her parents taught her that all living things are interconnected. “This was my planet I was walking on. It was so powerful to understand the harshness of that environment and yet the fragility of it,” she recalls.

As I moved up to the final floor of COAL + ICE, two photographs of miners by Song Chao, a former miner himself, were displayed by the stairs.. In contrast to the other depictions of miners in the exhibition, Song Chao’s portraits personalize these workers, emphasizing the impact of these industries on humans. By understanding the backstory of the work by Song Chao and Camile Seaman, one can see the personal connection that COAL + ICE photographers have to the subjects they portray, allowing us to understand why they chose to call attention to the climate crisis.

On the second floor of COAL + ICE, I entered The Aron Gallery, where a poem by Jane Hirshfield is presented alongside aerial imagery of renewable energy developments taken by Jamey Stillings. Hirschfield’s “Let Them Not Say” was written in 2014 but published three years later on the day that Donald Trump was formally inaugurated into office. The wall label quotes Hirschfield, explaining, “It seems a day worth remembering the fate of our shared planet and all its beings, human and beyond.” In “Let Them Not Say,” Hirschfield writes, “Let them not say: it was not spoken, not written. We spoke, we witnessed with voices and hands.” She highlights the importance of taking action, which accentuates Stillings’ display of renewable energy solutions for a better future. As I was now on the second floor, the exhibition had clearly shifted to focusing on the future and exploring creative solutions.

On an interactive screen on the other side of the room, Maya Lin’s interactive piece “The Map of Memory”, part of her larger "What Is Missing" installation, brings attention to species and places that have gone extinct or are in danger of going extinct within our lifetime. This project is the fifth and final piece of her Memorial series, and she presents a memorial for the earth in a unique, interactive, and virtual format. The "What Is Missing" website invites users to look at solutions and ask “What if?” questions. One of my favorite features of the project is a feature of the "Map of Memory", which allows anyone to add their own memory to the online memorial. To me, it introduces the idea of a collective memory and highlights the importance of collaboration in finding solutions for the climate crisis.

In the center of the second floor, Jake Barton’s interactive AI installation "The Accelerator 2050" is an innovative approach to promoting individual action. A QR code brought me to an AI chatbot on my phone that helped me determine an area of climate action where I could make the biggest impact. After immersive experiences of imagery, videos, and sounds, having an interactive piece of technology like "The Accelerator 2050" allowed me to think more about how my actions could contribute to a positive change.

I appreciate how Maya Lin and Jake Barton utilized technology and virtual spaces to inspire visitors to think about the impact of their own actions and the changes they can make. Both projects are widely accessible and can reach people whether they can physically visit COAL + ICE or not.

“I think Jake & Maya's work especially do a great job of showcasing how our actions as individuals can be compounded when we work in community with other people; when we all take small steps within the systems that we already operate in everyday, it makes much bigger waves than we might think, or than when we act in isolation!” says Claudia Klinck.

While the first floor of the exhibition showed simultaneously beautiful but harrowing work. After being immersed in the consequences of the coal industry and the use of fossil fuels, the final floor of COAL + ICE was essential in installing hope and pushing me to think about my role in all this.

My COAL + ICE visit concluded as I entered a simulation room imagining New York by 2050. I walked in and was met with two possible futures. In the outer room, I was surrounded by warm red lights and the noises of fire and heat. In the inner room was a more hopeful simulation of a future where New York City life exists in harmony with nature, and in the center of the room was a mirror where I imagined how my future self might fit into all of this.

COAL + ICE is an exhibition that is needed now more than ever, and it is an immersive experience that urges visitors to think not only about the effects of climate change but also about the potential for a better and more sustainable future. Due to the personalized nature of the exhibition everyone will walk away with something different. COAL + ICE presents critical pieces for our generation to witness. If you haven’t already, I strongly encourage you to visit COAL + ICE at the Asia Society Museum before it ends on August 11th - purchase tickets here.