Inspiration

New Lorenzo Quinn Sculpture in Venice Highlights the Threat of Climate Change

The artwork looks at the threat faced by cities like Venice as ocean levels rise—and calls on people to act.
'Support' in Venice
Courtesy Halcyon Gallery

Venice is known for its gondolas, canals, and historic bridges—but visitors will now also be greeted by another, albeit temporary, reminder of the city's intimate relationship with water: a giant pair of hands reaching out of the Grand Canal and appearing to support the walls of the historic Ca' Sagredo Hotel. The installation, by Italian sculptor Lorenzo Quinn, was unveiled on May 13, just in time for the 57th International Art Exhibition of the Venice Biennale.

Aptly titled Support, the piece was created in conjunction with London's Halcyon Gallery and the city of Venice and can be seen reaching up at the Ca' Sagredo, until November 26. It is meant to be at once a warning of the existential threat faced by cities like Venice due to rising sea levels as well as a call to action—a reminder that we, like the pair of giant white hands, can play a role in slowing global warming. Support reflects "on the two sides of human nature, the creative and the destructive, as well as the capacity for humans to act and make an impact on history and the environment," says a release from the Halcyon Gallery.

Quinn made the sculpture in his Barcelona studio using an ancient method known as "lost-wax casting," a millennia-old process that involves casting a mold created with a wax model of the sculpture— a nod, the release says, to "the Masters of the past." While the installation is meant to elicit both desperation and hope, Quinn also revealed it carries a more personal meaning to him. In an interview with Mashable, he says, "I have three children, and I'm thinking about their generation and what world we're going to pass on to them. I'm worried, I'm very worried." In fact, the hands are modeled after one of his children's and in an Instagram post, Quinn said that Support "wants to speak to the people in a clear, simple and direct way through the innocent hands of a child and it evokes a powerful message, which is that united we can make a stand to curb the climate change that affects us all."

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Much of Quinn's previous work also features hands—a notoriously difficult part of the body to draw or sculpt—including The Tree of Life, a bronze sculpture commissioned by the United Nations that now sits outside a church in Birmingham, England as a tribute to victims of World War II, and Love, a pair of clasped hands set in a ring that can be seen in Millbank, London.

A March study, published in Quaternary International and reported in The Independent, predicted that if global warming isn't curbed in the coming decades, all of Venice will be completely underwater by 2100, as the Mediterranean Sea is expected to rise by up to 55 inches in that time.

Of course, Venice isn't the only iconic destination under grave threat from a warming planet. In fact, there's a long—and, depressingly, growing—list of places that are quickly disappearing.