Eco-Anxiety – Holding a Deep Breath

Overview

Taking place as part of The Big Anxiety festival, Eco- Anxiety at The Japan Foundation gallery explores the ideas of ecological empathy and the growing tide of shared human anxiety in the face of a changing environment.

Showcasing five Japanese and Australian designers and artists, the show uses the Australian landscape as an inspirational jumping-off point. Hiromi Tango and Ken and Julia Yonetani's works explore the "an empathetic dialogue of breath" between landscape, plants and humans – and if you caught Tango's Healing Chromosomes earlier this year at Sullivan + Strumpf, you'll no doubt be keen as mustard to see her latest work.

Performance artist Yumi Umiumare draws on butoh references in AnxieaTEA Pop Up Tearoom, inviting audiences to engage with existential contemplations over a calming cup of tea. Kosuke Tsumura's FINAL HOME, meanwhile, takes a design response to environmental emergency, creating personal survival garments designed to work in tandem with an evacuee's essential "kit" of food, ID documents and personal mementos.

Image: Hiromi Tango, Insanity Magnet #4, 2009