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Marcos Kueh's colorful, fluorescent tapestries critically address the theme of exoticization and tourism, particularly on the island of Borneo, where Kueh was born and where identity and culture are commodified as touristic entertainment. Yoko Ono's ongoing interactive art installation, Wish Tree, begun in 1996, makes its way to Asia Society through June 1. Visitors are invited to write a wish on a paper tag and tie it to the tree. With Colored Vase, 2008, Ai Weiwei asks us to confront our values in relation to the past.
Asia Society is proud to present COAL + ICE, an immersive photography and video exhibition accompanied by a series of related programs. COAL + ICE visualizes the causes and consequences of the climate crisis and foregrounds creative solutions.
Throughout the run of the exhibition, climate change will take center stage at Asia Society, including speaker events, performances, films, and more. Asia Society has joined forces with a network of partner organizations across New York City’s five boroughs to concurrently present exhibitions and events, expanding the conversation to inspire deeper engagement on how the climate crisis affects our global and local communities.
COAL + ICE is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and international exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries, and led by Orville Schell, Asia Society Vice President and Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Above: COAL + ICE installation view of David Breashears's Mount Everest, Main Rongbuk Glacier, Tibet, China, 2007. Photograph by Leah Thompson
Starr Gallery with multiple video projections in COAL + ICE.
Asia Society present this immersive photography and video exhibition, which brings to life the environmental and human costs of climate change, while also highlighting the innovative solutions that provide hope for a more sustainable future. At once intimate and universal, the powerful images capture the human face of climate change across the globe.
Comprising the work of more than 30 photographers from China and around the world, the exhibition traces a photographic arc from deep within coal mines to the melting glaciers of the greater Himalaya and across the globe, where rising sea levels and extreme weather events are wreaking havoc. The imagery in COAL + ICE is drawn from diverse materials, from glass-plate negatives to smartphone videos, spanning more than a century. Through intimate portraits and vast altered landscapes, these photographs document the consequences triggered by our continued reliance on fossil fuels.
The third floor of the exhibition takes things a step further to reflect the innovative ideas for climate solutions that have germinated most recently, with Maya Lin, Jake Barton (of Local Projects), and Superflux contributing to the actions we can take collectively. Maya Lin’s project What Is Missing? comprises videos and a visually stunning and in-depth website, focusing attention on species and places that have gone extinct or will most likely disappear within our lifetime if we do not act to protect them. Jake Barton’s CarbonVision Cards provides visitors with take-home postcards. Organized by categories from fashion to finance to local government to K–12 schools, the postcards list fundamental changes that are needed.
Superflux, the London-based international award-winning design firm co-founded by Anab Jain and Jon Arden, has created New York, 2050: A Possible Future, a fully-immersive, multi-sensory, installation, in the final section of COAL + ICE. As visitors enter the space, experience what New York actually looked like in 2023, when Canadian fires coated its skies with a thick orange smog. The second space is a 360-degree, slow-moving, visual rendering of what the city could look like in 2050, with utopian views of self-sustaining rooftop, balcony, and indoor farms, pedestrian walkways and riverboats in place of cars, and wind and solar energy in place of coal and gas. New York 2050 invites viewers to take a step into New York in 2050 and beyond to experience what a hopeful future can look and feel like.
COAL + ICE is co-curated by Magnum photographer Susan Meiselas and international exhibition designer Jeroen de Vries, and led by Orville Schell, Asia Society Vice President and Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations.
Orville Schell, Arthur Ross Director of the Center on U.S.-China Relations, at the opening of COAL + ICE.
History
COAL + ICE was first developed by Asia Society’s Center on U.S.-China Relations for exhibition at Three Shadows Photography Art Center in Beijing in 2011. After publishing numerous policy reports on the urgent need for the U.S. and China to collaborate on climate issues, Orville Schell, the Center’s director, began looking for other methods of change: “In recognizing that policy alone could not solve this crisis, we began asking, how else can we go at this problem? One way was visually. If we could present something that was telling at the same time that it was beautiful, then maybe we could get people to look.” The exhibition traveled across China, and was on display at the U.S. Ambassador’s Residence in Paris during COP 21 before finally coming to the U.S., to Fort Mason in San Francisco and the Kennedy Center in Washington, D.C.
Through the curatorial vision of Susan Meiselas and Jeroen de Vries, the imagery in the exhibition has continued to evolve along with the climate crisis, most significantly with the addition of a growing set of works that visualize the human consequences of climate change, including droughts, floods, fires, and migration. That said, COAL + ICE is not a comprehensive photographic overview of the climate crisis, but rather a presentation of imagery curated from long-term, authored bodies of work, which demonstrate each photographer's commitment to capturing our changing environment and its human toll. Ultimately, COAL + ICE is about humanity, the resilience of the coal miners and their families, and also of those already dealing with the consequences of climate change.
The first presentation of COAL + ICE in Beijing was now over a decade ago, and yet the urgency to combat the climate crisis is more pressing than ever. What will ultimately move the needle? This exhibition, and our related programming series during its six month run, are an ongoing creative experiment to help catalyze more effective action
Visit coalandice.org for more information about the project and its history.
Selected Works
Song Chao Miners - No. 7, Shandong Province, China, 2002 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Geng Yunsheng Zhenxiong, Yunnan Province, China, 2002 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Noah Berger California, USA, 2020-2021 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Darcy Padilla California, USA, 2017 from the After the Wildfires series Photograph Courtesy of Agence VU’
Camille Seaman Iceberg in Blood Red Sea, Lemaire Channel, Antarctica, 2016 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
David Breashears Mount Everest, Main Rongbuk Glacier, Tibet, China, 2007 Photograph Courtesy of GlacierWorks
Clifford Ross Nazaré Wave IX, Portugal 2022 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Gideon Mendel João Pereira de Araújo, Taquari District, Rio Branco, Brazil, 2015 from the Submerged Portraits series Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Meridith Kohut Mexico, 2019 Photograph Courtesy of the artist
Ingka Group (IKEA) with Superflux (est. 2009, London, UK) Detail from New York, 2050: A Possible Future, 2023 Video, sound, and scent installation with four-channel video Duration: 3 minutes, 30 seconds Courtesy of Ingka Group (IKEA)
Artists, Photographers, and Contributors
L to R: Clifford Ross; Susan Meiselas with Song Chao; Jake Barton (left); Susan Meiselas with Gideon Mendel; and Jamey Stillings.
Jake Barton Bernd and Hilla Becher Daniel Beltrá Noah Berger Matt Black David Breashears Jimmy Chin Bruce Davidson Cameron Davidson John Davies Willem Diepraam Anna Filipova Geng Yunsheng Lewis Hine Jane Hirshfield Joris Ivens Dolf Kruger Meridith Kohut Maya Lin Dana Lixenberg George Mallory Gideon Mendel Niu Guozheng Darcy Padilla Gordon Parks Clifford Ross Camille Seaman Vittorio Sella Nichole Sobecki Song Chao Jamey Stillings Henri Storck Superflux Peter van Agtmael Major E. O. Wheeler Witho Worms Yu Haibo
Additional Contributors, Galleries, and Archives
Agence VU' Louis Andriessen British Antarctic Survey China Features / China Photo Archive Decaneas Archive EUMETSAT Fondazione Sella Fonds Henri Storck GlacierWorks GRIMM Ingka Group (IKEA) L. Parker Stephenson Photographs, New York Library of Congress Magnum Photos Royal Geographical Society SK Stiftung Kultur Tamasa Distribution The Gordon Parks Foundation The National Archives University of Louisville Digital Collections VII
New York Climate Action Partners
COAL + ICE has joined forces with a wide range of artistic, environmental, and service organizations. While COAL + ICE is on view at Asia Society, these organizations will concurrently present climate-related programs to diverse audiences across the five boroughs and beyond. These collaborations aim to inspire deeper engagement and meaningful dialogue on how the climate crisis affects our global and local communities.
American Museum of Natural History Billion Oyster Project Bronx River Alliance Brooklyn Academy of Music (BAM) Brooklyn Grange Children’s Environmental Literacy Foundation City of Water Day Climate Fresk Climate Film Festival New York The Climate Museum Dysturb Fotografiska New York French Institute Alliance Française Hudson River Foundation/NY NJ Harbor & Estuary Program Hunter College NYC Food Policy Center International Center of Photography (ICP) LA MAMA Lincoln Center Magnum Foundation Melting Metropolis National Sawdust New York Botanical Garden The New York Public Library New York WILD Film Festival NYU Gallatin WetLab Park Avenue Armory THE POINT Community Development Corporation Queens Public Library Staten Island Museum The Trust for Governors Island Waterfront Alliance Working & Learning Together Electronics (WALTER)
Make a Poster
Visualize and share your thoughts and ideas about the climate crisis with the COAL + ICE Climate Posterator.
The “Map of Memory” section of Maya Lin's What Is Missing? highlights ecological histories of habitats, species, waterways, and cities—with timelines, videos, historic accounts, conservation success and disaster stories, and user-submitted personal memories.
Please share your own memory of the natural world, helping to make a global memorial something personal and close to home
By texting the phrase Future Me to 1 (877) 763-1612, you can talk with your “future self,” and hear about the impact of the climate actions you are going to take.
The chatbot is part of The Accelerator 2050, a time machine inviting visitors to see, talk, and inhabit a conditional future, one that is still in flux and undecided, from artist Jake Barton.
Supporters
COAL + ICE is funded by the generous contributions of The Schmidt Family Foundation, Janet Ross, Rockefeller Brothers Fund, Bloomberg Philanthropies, Frank and Susan Brown, Adobe, Jerome Dodson, Stephanie Hui, Denise and Andrew Saul, Carlo Mormorunni and Magdalena Gross, and Anonymous Donors. Additional support is provided by Nancy Stephens and Rick Rosenthal, Laumont Editions, and Jane Shaw.
Support for Asia Society Museum is provided by Asia Society Council on Asian Arts and Culture; Asia Society Friends of Asian Arts; Arthur Ross Foundation; Sheryl and Charles R. Kaye Endowment for Contemporary Art Exhibitions; The Hazen Polsky Foundation; The Mary Griggs Burke Fund, and Mary Livingston Griggs and Mary Griggs Burke Foundation; the New York State Council on the Arts with the support of the Office of the Governor and the New York State Legislature; and the New York City Department of Cultural Affairs in partnership with the City Council.
