Overfishing. Plastic pollution. Food waste, deforestation, and climate change. None are new issues, but thanks to a new multi-sensory exhibit in New York City called Arcadia Earth, they’re presented in ways that have never been seen before.
Designed by experiential artist Valentino Vettori, Arcadia Earth consists of 15 rooms featuring installations from 12 leading environmental artists, including Samuelle Green, Tamara Kotianovsky, and Etty Yaniv. In one room, there’s a life-sized fishing net to illustrate how seafood is on the verge of extinction; in another passageway, visitors walk through a simulated underwater ocean with shrinking coral beds and a ceiling covered with plastic jellyfish. Brooklyn-based artist Basia Goszczynska also worked with Vettori to design a “cave” of 44,000 plastic bags—the number used in New York State per minute.
Plastic jellyfish hang from the ceiling in an installation from Cindy Pease Roe.
Courtesy of Arcadia Earth
Twelve environmental artists contributed works to the exhibit, including Justin Bolognino of META, whose work appears here.
Courtesy of Arcadia Earth
Feel like you’re walking underwater? That’s kind of the point.
Courtesy of Arcadia Earth
Fishing nets by artist Jesse Harrod illustrate how overfishing is harming our oceans.
Courtesy of Arcadia Earth
The installations aren’t just good Instagram fodder—they’re helping the environment, too. At the end of the “experience” is a petition signing room, where visitors can pledge to help conserve the planet in their own way. For every ticket sold, a tree will be planted, and proceeds from ticket sales go to Oceanic Global, which is dedicated to raising awareness of how humans are harming aquatic ecosystems.
Arcadia Earth will be on view at 718 Broadway until January 2020. General admission tickets are $33, student tickets are $27, and tickets for children ages 6 to 14 are $12. They can be bought on arcadia.earth.
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