Can We ENGINEER PROTEST LEGISLATE Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis, 2024
inkjet ink and gouache on paper, variable sizes

Issues such as climate change demand urgent attention and a re-evaluation of the stories we tell ourselves about progress, responsibility, and the future. Jenna Kowalke’s goal is to not only raise awareness but also to inspire action and encourage viewers to critically re-assess their own role in shaping our future. Her art installation includes rocks from the Isar River wrapped in paper to create forms that are gradually supersaturated and overwhelmed by text inspired by a headline from The New York Times: “Can We ENGINEER PROTEST LEGISLATE Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?”

*Gelles, D. (2024, March 31). Buying Time: Can We Engineer Our Way Out of the Climate Crisis?. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/2024/03/31/climate/climate-change-carbon-capture-ccs.html

Series:
Can we ENGINEER PROTEST LEGISLATE our way out, 2024
inkjet ink on glassine
29.7 x 42 cm   /  16.5 x 11.7 inches (each)

Can we PROTEST our way out of the climate crisis?
2024, inkjet ink on translucent paper
29.7 x 42 cm   /  16.5 x 11.7 inches
Erosion, 2023
digital collage and photographs, variable sizes

Can journalism be activism? This series features photographs of newspapers found on the street in Munich and represents the erosion of the role of traditional news media, the shift towards social media as news sources, and the effects of the resulting proliferation of mis- and disinformation. The background is a monoprint on newsprint scanned and overlayed with a digitally produced static, which represents the collision of separate ideologies.
Museum Discourse, 2023
matte medium, acrylic, gouache, and mixed media collage on paper
18 cm x 24 cm (each)

The series considers the idea of art institutions - represented by the vitrine shown in each work - as places for protest for issues such as climate change. This series was also created in response to an essay by art theorist Claire Bishop about the over-abundance of laborious readymade research-based art. Bishiop questioned our collective understanding of knowledge, and how information is gathered and displayed by artists throughout art history.
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