POPOP Gallery: Haku Pora

[Fig 1] The wooden cows representing mass farming.

At POPOP, a gallery space within the Belgo Building, artist RIESBRI created an environment where the audience is forced to contend with one of the realities of the ongoing climate crisis: rising temperatures. The title of the exhibition,  Haku Porã, translates to ‘it’s pretty hot,’ proved literal as I entered the gallery space wearing my winter coat. I was immediately taken aback by the heat of the rather small room. It was significantly different from the rest of the building. The 35 degree heat was caused by repurposed radiators painted in orange, placed in the back of the room. During a conversation with the artist, they revealed that for safety reasons, the building’s security only allowed them to set the room's temperature in the 30s. This is about 10 degrees lower than the common temperature in her native country, Paraguay. 

[Fig 2] The wooden cows representing mass farming.

The discomfort caused by this heat is a metaphor for what the people in Paraguay are experiencing; the daily struggle of living in a place that is too hot and will only continue to get hotter. RIESBRI argues that this problem is caused by human intervention, which manifests itself as mechanization and mass production. These activities are meant to sustain the abundant consumerist and over-exuberant lifestyles in so-called first-world countries. On the right wall, the artist represented one of the main contributors to this rise in temperature: air conditioners. While these make the interior colder, they contribute to raising external temperatures. On the left wall, RIESBRI included sculptures of wooden cows, drawing attention to the mass production of beef, which ultimately contributes to the increase of greenhouse gases emitted by the passing of their gas. Through these sculptures, the artist makes us aware of how our food consumption in the West causes mass pastoral farming. She criticizes how the systemic wish for controlling and mechanizing nature contributes to the detriment of both the planet and the people. Moreover, the artist also wishes to make us reconsider our relationship to heat. As said in the curatorial statement, we often romanticize the state of being hot, associating it with vacation, summer, and the pleasant sun. With this exhibit, we become aware of the harsh realities of being hot. 

[Fig 3] The artist RIESBRI and the curator India-Lynn Upshaw-Ruffner.

This exhibition concept was very interesting to me. Even though I was hot, I had a lovely time speaking with the artist and India-Lynn, the curator!