About Rising Tide: Art and Environment in Oceania

Delve into the most important and pressing issue of our time, humanity’s damaging relationship with planet Earth.

Rising Tide considered our relationship to the natural environment through contemporary responses to climate change and plastic waste by Indigenous Australian and Pacific Islander artists. The vulnerabilities of Oceanic countries to climate change were highlighted, whilst showcasing the strength and resilience of their diverse communities.

This exhibition included master fisherman Anthony C Guerrero's contemporary woven baskets made from plastic construction strapping found on his local beach in Guam. Also on display was the latest version of artist George Nuku’s installation, Bottled Ocean 2123, which imagines the state of the oceans 100 years into the future in an immersive, undersea landscape crafted from single use plastic bottles.

Rising Tide also featured historical material from National Museums Scotland's collections, such as spear points from the Kimberley region of Western Australia made by Aboriginal men from discarded glass bottles.