CA Ryan United Kingdom

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CA Ryan began their practice in 2020, a year marked at the outset by ferocious wildfires in Australia. The artistic identity of CA Ryan is intended to be a sacrificial one—the canary in the mine, registering the impending threat.

This is the vision of CA Ryan: The climate emergency is real, and it is happening now. Its outcomes are brutal and difficult to predict. It threatens all life, not only human life. The crisis manifests itself in various deadly forms: rising seas, floods, cyclones, droughts, and fires. Human-made structures look fragile in the face of such forces. Ryan's work includes a series of mixed-media drawings using second-hand materials, e.g. inherited watercolour paper and paints. The paper is a vulnerable surface that can be doused, burned, scratched, marked, cut, and then stitched back together. There are also small sculptural works: objects made out of trash found on the street and reclaimed into artworks; and the Erasables – small figures in a foetal position, crudely carved out of erasers.

CA Ryan's current project is about Drax power station in North Yorkshire. It is a key electricity generator for the UK but it is the country’s largest emitter of carbon as it burns wood to generate power. The wood pellets it uses are transported long distances from forests in Canada, the Southern states of the US and the Baltic states. Drax claims the wood it uses is waste wood, but local forest protection groups in these countries have researched the supply chain and shown that whole trees are being cut down in huge quantities. Thanks to some funding from East Street Arts, Ryan produced a miniature 3D printed model of Drax Power Station, which provides a focal point for ongoing studio experiments with video footage and other research material, including drone footage.