Exhibition - On Fire: Energy, Climate, Infrastructure

About the Event

Curated by Ive Covaci, Anne Boberski, and the WestPAC Committee

Heat waves, wildfires, floods, increasingly powerful storms, natural and social disasters…. As we deal with the effects of climate change, globally and locally, we face the urgent question of balancing our needs for energy and infrastructure with sustainability and preservation.

ON FIRE, Westport Public Art Collections’ 2025 exhibition at MoCA CT, includes over 75 artworks in a variety of media, and asks how artists from the 1930s to today have envisioned and responded to the interrelationship of energy, infrastructure, and the environment. This fourth annual exhibition by the Westport Public Art Collections at MoCA allows the community to experience works of art, usually on display in school and municipal buildings, in a beautiful museum setting.

ON FIRE is inspired by a series of eight paintings, Evolution of Heat, created by Ralph L. Boyer in 1934 for the old Staples High School on Riverside as part of the Public Works of Art Project.

- What future did artists imagine when works like the Evolution of Heat were created at the forefront of the New Deal in the 1930s?
- How have our ideals, perspectives and practices changed since these works’ creation?
- How do contemporary artworks, created since the 1970s rise of modern environmentalism, engage with the natural and built environment?

As Westport and other seaside and riverfront towns in Connecticut plan for the future, issues of development, transportation, access, and ecology engender fiery debates. The exhibition is accompanied by programming that brings in local officials, community groups, and artists in dialogue about these contemporary issues. By including art depicting bridges, roads, waterways and sites in and around Westport, the exhibition asks viewers and residents to consider the past and envision the future of our community.

ON FIRE is accompanied by a Learning Gallery exhibition showcasing WestPAC’s Ford Times Collection of paintings, a remarkable gift received from the Ford Motor Company in 1966. These paintings, each published in reproduction in the pocket-sized consumer magazine, Ford Times, were created by American artists during the 1950s and early 1960s, a period known as the golden age of magazine illustration and American cars, coinciding with the development of the interstate highway system. The selections highlight themes of energy, transportation, and infrastructure, prompting reflection on how the motor industry has shaped our desires and habits, our economy and policies, and our environment.

Dates: January 9 – March 2, 2025

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