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PrintPainting for the planet
Solomon Islands artist Chris Dala puts the finishing touches to his painting that will be exhibited at the United Nations climate change conference in December as part of Oxfam’s Canvas for Change project. Photo: Rex Tara/OxfamAUS.
Solomon Islands artist Chris Dala wanted world leaders to see the bigger picture on climate change &mdash so he painted it.
What does climate change look like? For Solomon Islands artist Chris Dala, it looks like home.
Painted in bright, bold colours, Chris’ large canvas depicts thatched huts on a golden beach framed by green palms and a cobalt blue sky. It is picture postcard pretty until Chris explains the significance of the wooden fence in the foreground which is the community’s attempt to tackle the effects of climate change.
“I have seen soil erosion over the years, especially along the sea coasts,” he says. “Even these days, the tide was different compared to 20 years ago. There were marks or areas which the sea did not reach, but today it goes beyond where it reached. I imagine if this continues in the coming years, there will be no islands.”
It’s hard to believe, but Chris is right. Within the Pacific region, people living in low-lying islands and river deltas are already experiencing the negative results of climate change, including rising seas and salt water inundation. The nation of Kiribati faces the prospect of disappearing completely, as do other low-lying islands in the Pacific, including those in Papua New Guinea, Tuvalu, and the Marshall Islands.
In the Solomon Islands, Chris says changing weather patterns have already affected his community where people rely on gardening and fishing for their livelihoods. Karina is a tiny coastal village in Malaita province, accessible only by bush track or dug-out canoe. Chris grew up here and says the daily pattern of life hasn’t changed since he was a boy. Villagers continue to plant their coconut crops and fish for their daily meals, sharing surplus food with relatives or taking it for barter at the local market. But with rising tides and crumbling coastlines, their way of life hangs in the balance. “I decided to do this painting to show what the local communities have done to help stop the soil erosion,” Chris says. “However, it won’t help with the rising sea tide…I continue to wonder what will happen to us.”
Chris’s painting is part of the Oxfam Canvas for Change project, which will feature artworks from all over the world that show the impact of climate change or people’s adaptation to it. Some of the works will form part of an online gallery. Others, including Chris’s work, will be exhibited at the United Nations meeting in Poznan, Poland, in December, as part of Oxfam’s global exhibition urging world leaders to take action when they meet to negotiate climate change solutions.
“I am proud to participate in Canvas for Change,” Chris says, “as my contribution as an artist will make a difference to the lives of our people and the rich nations can see how little we contribute to [carbon] emissions but we will bear the consequences of their development.”
A self-taught artist, Chris, aged 29, began painting when he was 12 years old, using small pieces of wood as canvases. He eventually carved out a career in the local printing industry before becoming a professional artist about six years ago — painting from the home he shares with his wife and five children. He has completed several public and private commissions in the Solomon Islands but Oxfam’s commission is his first international assignment.
He’s excited his work will be seen by world leaders as well as a wider audience — after Poland, the exhibition will tour Europe — because, as he says emphatically, “this issue of climate change should be everybody’s business”.