An exhibition being hosted by the VISUAL art space in Carlow, in conjunction with an internationally-acclaimed environmental research team, is open to the public until next Sunday, 6 February.
Cloud Studies includes findings from an investigation by the London-based Forensic Architecture group about how the air we breathe can be weaponised and the effects this can have on communities.
This includes an examination of herbicidal warfare, tear gas, forest fires, oil and gas pollution and bomb attacks.
Cloud Studies is based on the results of years of research, scientific findings, architectural mapping and reportage and part of an ongoing global research project.
"Working with Forensic Architecture on this exhibition has been an eye-opening and compelling experience," VISUAL Carlow's CEO and artistic director Emma Lucy O'Brien said, "highlighting the extent to which our air is being weaponised and the impacts that this is having on communities around the world from London to Lebanon and everywhere in between.
"We are extremely proud to offer visitors to VISUAL the opportunity to witness how Forensic Architecture explores and exposes how power reshapes the very air we breathe."
This exhibition also includes "Environmental racism in Death Alley, Louisiana," the first phase of a major new Forensic Architecture investigation on how racism and pollution intersect along the banks of the Mississippi.
Along an 85-mile stretch of the river, between New Orleans and Baton Rouge, lies a region once called "Plantation Country" and now known as the "Petrochemical Corridor," where over 200 industrial plants occupy the footprints of formerly slave-powered sugarcane plantations.
Cloud Studies is curated and co-produced by the Whitworth, The University of Manchester, and Manchester International Festival, and Cloud Studies at VISUAL has been programmed by Emma Lucy O' Brien.
An extensive public engagement programme is being delivered by VISUAL’s Learning Curator Clare Breen while Assistant Curator Rosa Abbott is working with artistic communities in Louisiana on a series of new writing commissions and artistic responses relating to the issues taking place in Death Alley, Louisiana.
Running until 6 February, the exhibition is free and opening hours are from Tuesday to Saturday 11am to 5.30pm and Sunday 2pm to 5pm.
