A friend of mine started working in the environmental sector, collecting and sharing data recording the effects of climate change. A few months ago I asked him how it was going. ‘Not great,’ he said. ‘Really it’s just palliative care for the world now. ‘
Stark isn’t it? This comment stayed with me. The sadness of it. But also the feeling that there must be some light or hope, surely? Then last week I was asked to cover an exhibition for the wonderful Paradise Works, an artist led studio and gallery space in Salford. I love these people. They get up to all sorts of very interesting stuff (if you don’t know them, check them out).
Paradise Works are currently hosting an exhibition by Amber Cronin, an Australia based artist whose practice ‘gathers people, objects and matter in combinations that facilitate meditations on connection and discovery.’
Writer, editor and former journalist Andew Purvis has provided the text to describe this latest work. The project has been five years in the making and has involved Amber immersing herself in the world of ecological research. ‘…through her work Amber is keenly attuned to the sense of loss and fatigue that environmental researchers feel when confronted with their own findings. She is also aware that grief is a compass; the title of her new work, A Weight to Entice Buoyancy, alludes to the ballast which provides stability to ocean going vessels. The title, she says, acknowledges “the need to be with the heaviness and complexities of the current moment… in order to move forward into uncertain futures.“‘
The exhibition itself consists of carefully and beautifully made pieces centred around themes of ceremony, ritual and time, methods to process feelings of loss, items and prayers to articulate hope, connection and repair.
At its centre a choral piece resonates, composed by the artist in collaboration with Kaurna Cronin and Emma Borgas. This piece is moving and haunting in equal measure, and has been performed expertly by the Manchester based Kantos Choir in Festival Square and in the tunnels of Salford as part of Manchester International Festival (MIF).
Amber describes part of her motivation for the work as trying to address the dissonance she sees between the upset and hurt many people feel about climate distress, and the feeling that we are forced to carry on as usual. During a Q&A with studio Director Jessica Bennett, she mentions a critical moment when she was travelling to a yoga class while all around her wildfires raged.
‘Music is physiological‘, she says. ‘We can’t help but have a reaction to it‘. Can it heal, and can it drive change? If you’re a Joyzine reader then I suspect you know the answer to this.
Purvis finishes his text saying: ‘By singing together, harmonising, we find connection, through a joined exhalation, it is hoped that we might find respite from feelings of vulnerability and isolation. So as you observe the movement of air into and out of your body, think on the fragility of all things, experience a sense of passing, and take comfort in knowing that you do not breathe alone.‘
As for my friend, I hope the weight carried helps to buoy and provide direction; that as time passes the burden is shared.
A Weight to Entice Buoyancy is showing at Paradise Works, East Philip Street, Salford, Manchester, M3 7LE until 3rd August 2025.
Amber Cronin: Website | Instagram
Photography and review by Breige Cobane
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