In the spirit of Earth Day, today’s show features an artistic wake-up call about the climate emergency. Host Douglas Haynes is joined by Madison artist, TetraPAKMAN, to talk about his role as artist in residence at the Madison Public Library. His current installation “Wake Up!” and exhibit “Doing Something” are on display at the Central Library through this week. 

They talk about the meaning of “hacking,” the role of humor in communicating difficult subject matter, the recyclability of tetra pak material, and how people are manipulated by corporations and the media about what’s actually happening to our planet. For instance, consumers are sold the lie that natural gas is “clean energy.”

For TetraPAKMAN, art can inspire the viewer’s curiosity and it can also be confrontational and make people uncomfortable. He says that “art is bigger than anything because it’s something we’re making.” In his current exhibit, TetraPAKMAN’s takes bed sheets and paints numbers and dates on them corresponding to the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. 

TetraPAKMAN was one of the Madison Public Library’s firsts artists in residence in 2013. His practice is focused on community-generated social sculpture projects. His work is about the future, and the challenges we face today as a community. He explores the role of art as a mechanism to generate awareness about the climate crisis.

Featured image: remix of a photo of Douglas Haynes and TetraPAKMAN outside the WORT studio by Sara Gabler/WORT. Photo by Chali Pittman/WORT.

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