Aestheticizing Catastrophes?

Abstract

Without doubt, anthropogenic climate change has increased the risk of ‘natural’ disasters—and the impact on society will only become more severe. Art history studies societal phenomena such as culture, politics and economics through the lens of artworks, and can thus also be applied to climate-related disasters. But is there a universal response in art creation to catastrophes—particularly in intercultural comparison? In order to answer this question, in this chapter we analyse selected Japanese and US artworks dealing with recent disasters and discuss how artists’ responses can help society to cope with such events. A special focus in this study lies in whether there are intercultural differences between artists’ approaches to aesthetics. The study follows an iconological approach: in addition to describing artistic representations, it takes a closer look at how artworks are deeply embedded in their respective cultures. I demonstrate that while, in the wake of destruction, there is a universal urgent need for (art) creation to address and cope with the consequences, and the aesthetics of this response depend on the artist’s cultural background. This has immediate implications for how art can support societal regeneration following climate-related disasters.