ARTIST Simon McGrath of Loftus uses conceptual art to share ideas about the environment, politics, religion and art.
His latest contribution to the art world — a globe — is a revision of the globe with continents as we know it to depict the Earth after catastrophic climate change and rising sea levels.
In the artwork called the The Flood, continents and islands on the globe have been flooded by rising seas, so everything is coloured in blue.
It continues the water theme of his work in Sculpture By The Sea at Bondi last year; Iceberg.
The Flood has been accepted as a finalist in the St George 3D Art Prize and Woollahra Small Sculpture Prize. Both exhibitions are open to the public from this Saturday (October 18).
The St George 3D Art Prize will be on show at Hurstville City Museum and Gallery with $3000 prizemoney on offer with a theme of transformation.
McGrath believes that art should engage more with the public.
"I think [climate change] is a contemporary debate and I think art can be part of it," he said.
"The scientists are not very good at engaging people and that's where art can come in."
McGrath said The Flood was an exaggeration and a funny take on the science.
He said the work deliberately married current scientific prophecy with the biblical account of the the great flood, hence the name — The Flood.
"I think it is a good idea to be better stewards of the planet," he said.
Do you think art can engage the public where scientists cannot?
