In 2020, the Point examines how our cultural and sociopolitical systems are implicated in climate change, and what actions the arts industry can take. In this excerpt of an essay published online by AAP, Sean Raspet discusses art-world greenwashing.

Not every artwork needs to be about the climate crisis. Nor should it be. That being said, with a recent, sharp increase in climate change as a topic for artworks and exhibitions, it is necessary to address a sizable gap in the typical perceptions of what a climate-crisis-themed project does and what it is physically, chemically, and functionally—and, as a result, its material effects on the atmosphere. Climate change is, after all, a large-scale physicochemical problem. It is an accumulating flow of gaseous carbon that is immune to our individually held thoughts, beliefs, hopes, and fears. It is responsive to (and constituted by) humankind’s material activities on a collective, planetary scale.