Smoke and Mirrors / Beatie Wolfe (GB)/Photo: tom mesic
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Smoke and Mirrors

Beatie Wolfe (GB)

A visualization of methane data alongside Big Oil advertisements from 1970 until the present day

Smoke and Mirrors uses art to communicate six decades of climate data, specifically rising methane levels, set alongside the verbatim advertising slogans deployed by the Big Oil industry to “Deny, Doubt and Delay” the climate data and awareness through the decades.

This evocative visualization, based on NASA’s Blue Marble image, is set to Oh My Heart, which was released as the world’s first bioplastic record by Beatie Wolfe, Michael Stipe and Brian Eno’s EarthPercent.

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Smoke and Mirrors follows Wolfe’s multi-award winning CO2 visualization, From Green to Red, which was unveiled at the Nobel Prize Summit and was the largest art piece at COP26. Smoke and Mirrors was influenced by the work of Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes and sources data from NOAA, NASA and EEA.

“I had the idea for Smoke and Mirrors in 2021 after my CO2 project From Green to Red came out and I saw how effectively it helped people to see the climate data differently and to absorb it via the power of art. Realizing that a crucial piece of the climate puzzle (how we got to this critical point) has been the fossil fuel industry’s response to the emerging environmental awareness of the 1970s, and that methane emissions (30 times more potent than carbon for trapping heat) are increasingly linked with that industry, I wanted to create a piece that visualizes and conceptualizes this key aspect of the climate emergency, one that is largely obscured from view.”

Bio

  • Photo: Mario de Lopez

    Beatie Wolfe

    GB/US

    Beatie Wolfe “musical weirdo and visionary” (Vice), has beamed her music into space, been appointed a UN role model for innovation and held a solo exhibition of her “world first” designs at the V&A Museum. Named by WIRED as one of “22 people changing the world,” Wolfe is at the forefront of pioneering new formats that bridge the physical and digital. Recent projects include two award-winning art pieces concerning climate data, a brain installation exhibited in Somerset House, and new work together with Brian Eno.

Credits

Visualization produced in collaboration with Parliament