A visual demonstration in the form of traditional painting on climate change and its impact on the environment is on a display at the Folk Heritage Museum in Thimphu. The art pieces on climate change are put together by a group of nine students from the National Institute for Zorig Chusum.
Through paintings, the students recreated how famous Bhutanese art pieces would look like in near future with environment accuracy. The paintings show scenarios like the colour of the sky, landscape changes, flooding, wildlife security among others resulting from climate change.
“Through my painting, I tried to convey the message that the smoke produced from the households and in the open air takes the shape of a dragon and covers the sun. So it raises concern about sunlight in future,” Jamphel Wangchuk, one of the artists, said.
“The hare is missing in this painting. It tells how global warming can drive the hare to extinction as it did to dinosaurs, “Sangay Khandu, another artist, said.
Ruchika Goel, an environmentalist conceptualized and directed the students in coming up with the art pieces. She says although Bhutan has a rich cultural heritage it rarely reflects the environmental impact.
“I thought the best way to communicate with the wide range of audience is to make environmental concern a part of the culture itself. Most of the time when we talk about the environment it is relegated as the responsibility of the government. So to push environmentalism to general consciousness we thought it will be best to represent it through arts and not through some reports which only a few people or academia would read.”
The six-day art exhibition will end on 8th of this month.
The paintings are available for sale and the proceeds will directly benefit the students who participated in the exhibition. The independent student exhibition is supported by Folk Heritage Museum and Tarayana Foundation.
