Naomi Klein’s call to arms

Cornelia Parker, 59, is a British sculptor and installation artist whose work has included putting Tilda Swinton in a glass box and filming the philosopher Noam Chomsky. Naomi Klein, 45, is a Canadian social activist and the author of “This Changes Everything: Capitalism vs. the Climate”

About ten years ago, I was invited to a two-day seminar at Oxford University organised by climate scientists for other scientists, but also for all kinds of people from the arts – writers such as Ian McEwan and Philip Pullman, the choreographer Siobhan Davies, the playwright Caryl Churchill. The basic message was: “We climate scientists have been talking to politicians, we’ve been talking to the media, but nobody seems to be interested. We’re all fearful for the future, and nobody is listening to us, and we’re racking our brains about how to get the message out – because nobody would get in an aircraft that has a 50/50 chance of crashing.” I became very politicised by that. I didn’t know how to deal with it in my work, in my art, but I thought perhaps I just ought to be vocal, be a concerned citizen and speak up, which I’ve been trying to do. I made an open-access video piece called “Chomskian Abstract” in 2007, where I interview Noam Chomsky about the end of the world and climate change. Back then it seemed that it wasn’t particularly his area of interest, but he is now, I think, much more vocal. He is a good friend of Naomi Klein.