Colourful conversation starters
This knitted visualisation of the changing climate aims to prompt conversations, community understanding and action.
By Danielle Whelan
Brimbank Tempestry Project is part of a global project using fibre art to capture the changing climate over time. These ‘Tempestries’ or temperature tapestries are based on historical climate data from the weather station in Laverton. The colours in the knitted sequence indicate the maximum temperature of every day in a year. They are displayed with January at the top and December at the bottom.
Melbourne is famous for its variable weather. Our weather changes day to day and year to year. However it is apparent when viewing the years 1949 through to 2019 that the number of cooler ‘blue’ days have decreased and the number of hotter ‘red’ days have increased.
As well as the Tempestries based on the historical weather records, the project shows future projections of temperatures in 2050 and 2090 if we do not take action on climate change, and the yellows, oranges and reds increasingly dominate these and immediately help us to see the dramatic increase temperatures throughout the year.
The exhibition will be on display in Community Houses in Brimbank and text has been translated into community languages - Punjabi, Vietnamese, Simplified Chinese, Tamil and Bengali and we are in the process of getting translations in Arabic, Macedonian and Dinka. It aims to bring local community members into the discussion of the effects of climate change and the actions required to combat it.
The project displays knitted strips which are familiar and pleasing to look at. But the accompanying text concludes that we only have a narrow window of opportunity in which to act to avert catastrophic climate change. Using a soft medium to deliver this important message may be just what is needed to get people thinking, talking, and acting.
This exhibition aims to engage our community on the issue of climate change and show that climate change is not a distant threat, but something that is happening now. The scale of the problem and the action required is daunting. However, climate change also presents us with the opportunity to make our communities not only more sustainable, but also healthier, happier and more equitable. To do this we need as many people as possible engaged in the conversation.
For more information visit the Brimbank Tempestry Project website at: