Jasmine Pradissitto: artist, physicist, environmentalist
“I truly believe it is not just the ‘product’ of art which can address the sdg’s [Sustainable Development Goals] and the environment: it is the way artists think. To shift the paradigm we will need to shift in order to reverse some of the damage climate change has created, particularly for those who suffer the most but have benefited the least, we need a whole systems thinking approach. A large-scale shift in perspective. This is what artists can excel at”, Jasmine Pradissitto
Jasmine Pradissitto is an artist, physicist and environmentalist whose works focus on themes of sustainability and environment. She has created public art sculptures using Noxtex, a geopolymer that absorbs nitrogen dioxide: Flower Girl at the Horniman Museum and Breathe in Camden, London. She is represented by Gillian Jason Gallery.
Photo: Jeff Moore. Breathe by Jasmine Pradissitto. Commissioned in 2019 and devised in partnership with MTArt Agency. Supported by Camden Council’s Art Development team. Jasmine Pradissitto is represented by the Gillian Jason Gallery.
Tell us about you and how you got to where you are today
As an only child with a family that spent long hours at work, it was inevitable I would create a rich imaginary, world of creativity around books and drawing. An eternally curious mind led me into the sciences, culminating with a Ph.D. at UCL in physics, but prior to this, I remember quite clearly writing an essay on the ‘greenhouse gases’ over 25 years ago when the concept of climate change was still on the periphery of our awareness . Originally self-taught in life drawing/painting, in a parallel to my research I then studied fine art at a time in which science and art were very much siloed. Although science is limited by the natural world and art transcends these, the threads I found common were experimentation and materiality which led to my first ‘quantum’ sculptures in disused plastics and light for Hove Museum, prior to an awareness of the enormity of plastics pollution. In much the same way, my awareness of air and the things we need most to sustain us has subtly crept up on me: now I feel compelled to create work and narratives that address the Anthropocene and how it will shape our evolution as a species.
You clearly draw huge inspiration from nature. How do you see art and nature blending together in the future?
Before we had language, we used images to document our stories on cave walls much like we sculpted the tools we needed to drive a societal progression based on a symbiotic relationship with our natural world. Understanding our place in a circular time frame based on the seasons, allowed us to propagate in numbers which led to three revolutions. But over the course of the last millennium, we started to imagine that we could ‘control’ nature with no consequences. This is of course proving to be unsustainable, evident in everything for the pandemic to more extreme weather. But these narratives are often lost in data and words; art can bypass this. Artists are the original systems thinkers being able to draw disparate themes together. And so I see Artists as both the communicators as well as the drivers of more sustainable practices from Culture Declares and Emergency to 3D printing with biodegradable hemp to the pollution absorbing ceramics I have been pioneering the use of. A 3kg sculpture in this geo-polymer can clean a room for approx. 60 years.
Your wonderful sculpture ‘Breathe’ was recently installed on a busy central London road and uses a material that absorbs nox pollution. Can you tell us more about this artwork and what you hope it achieves?
It is very often only when things become truly personal that we feel compelled to transform no matter how uncomfortable the change might be. Both ‘Breathe’ in Euston which is off the second most polluted road in the UK and ‘Flower Girl who will awakens upon the buzzing of the bees’ off an equally busy road near the Horniman Museum are placed where they are driving awareness to the effects of the by-products of combustion which include nox. NOx or nitrogen dioxide not only inflames the lungs of humans exacerbating any breathing difficulties they may have, but is now suspected to have an effect on brain cognition, stop pollinating creatures finding their flowers and influences the type of flora that can grow by altering the nitrogen balance of the soil. As once we celebrated our brilliance by creating temples and perfectly formed icons in stone that looked up to the heavens; so is ‘Breathe’ as she lifts her head and struggles to take a breath.
What you are currently working on?
Currently I am working on a series of smaller scale pieces for upcoming exhibitions and collectors, based on a story of ‘the bird who lost its song’ which I find analogous to our mythopoeic stories of the past. Still working in NOXTEK, my close relationship with the natural world has grown and become more enlightened because of my work with Wesley Shaw who is the horticulturist who created the bee garden for The Horniman. This has led to the use of found natural objects effected by pollution, biodiversity extinction and top soil erosion to create assemblage sculptures around the living death masks in NOXTEK. I am also exploring more new materials as well as light mapping with Public Art UK for everything from a COP26 Fringe event to international shows next year.
What can artists and the art world do to be sustainable in their work?
In terms of more sustainable practice institutionally, apart from ‘Culture Declares an Emergency’ which many museums are joining up to, the enforced isolation of the pandemic, and the speed with which virtual exhibitions have been adopted, has forced many galleries and fairs to question the cost and viability of travelling vast distances and this by extrapolation has a direct effect on the carbon footprints of such shows. In terms of materials we see the growth of more naturally sourced materials such as hemp for 3D Printing or paints and materials that do other things like my ceramic which absorbs pollution.
But I truly believe it is not just the ‘product’ of art which can address the sdg’s [Sustainable Development Goals] and the environment: it is the way artists think. To shift the paradigm we will need to shift in order to reverse some of the damage climate change has created, particularly for those who suffer the most but have benefited the least, we need a whole systems thinking approach. A large-scale shift in perspective.
This is what artists can excel at.
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