THIS month-long art exhibition on the theme of climate change and migration spread across five venues in Durham City, had its preview on Thursday night (June 4). The evening was not what you might typically expect, starting with the relaxed and accessible manner of Kooj Chuhan, the artistic-director and one of the artists exhibiting, explaining the journey behind the exhibition and his artwork at the DLI.

Kooj Chuhan’s work, titled Chamada From Chico Chowdhury, is an interactive piece in which visitors can play different resources like a musical instrument, ranging from bottled water to a mobile phone, to create different effects on the collage of documentary footage displayed in a mask image. There were striking similarities between Chuhan’s work and a piece of graffiti art which appeared next to Durham University’s Students’ Union on Tuesday morning. The graffiti art, by a local artist under the pseudonym Mole, shows a pacman with various resources lined up for him to consume, including bottled water and a smart phone, ending with the world itself.

Other speakers at the preview showed the range of partners involved in the event, from grassroots climate change organisation Transition Durham to climate change researcher Dr Andrew Baldwin. The evening finished with moving poetry from Platform’s Sai Murray, and a beautiful impromptu song from Tracey Zengeni, whose artwork will be on display at the Durham Miners’ Hall, rounding off a unique and affecting evening.

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