'Signs' Collage
Signs collage created by artist / PCF co-founder Kai Reimer-Watts, 2022-2023
(Click the collage image above to see a larger image that you can zoom in on)
(Click the collage image above to see a larger image that you can zoom in on)
The Signs collage seen above was originally started by Kai as part of the outcome of a directed study course he took in Winter 2022, PS890: Visual Sustainability Communication for Systems Change at Wilfrid Laurier University, Waterloo, Canada. The collage was later finished in Winter 2023 near the end of Kai’s time in the Community Psychology PhD program at the university, which he graduated from in 2024.
Kai has since dedicated the finished collage to the Community Psychology (CP) program at Laurier, as well as to the Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS), of which he was a contributing researcher for many years and continues to be involved as a board member.
Materials used: Collage made from cut news and magazine clippings, photos and ephemera, with overlaid drawings and writing from the artist.
Dimensions: 30.5 inches wide by 20 inches high (30.5” x 20”).
Kai has since dedicated the finished collage to the Community Psychology (CP) program at Laurier, as well as to the Viessmann Centre for Engagement and Research in Sustainability (VERiS), of which he was a contributing researcher for many years and continues to be involved as a board member.
Materials used: Collage made from cut news and magazine clippings, photos and ephemera, with overlaid drawings and writing from the artist.
Dimensions: 30.5 inches wide by 20 inches high (30.5” x 20”).
Dedication
I would like to dedicate this collage to one of my mentors who has inspired and helped to guide my own journey through the CP program and beyond, Dr. Manuel Riemer (Director at VERiS). I would also like to dedicate this to all activists and changemakers who continue to advocate for much-needed changes for a just and sustainable future, whoever you are, whatever contexts you work in, wherever you may be – you are valued. As a key learning from CP, alongside many others, I believe it is only together that we can achieve the truly great, transformative changes needed for forging far more just, sustainable futures. And it is also by being together that we can learn to find our best joy, our best courage, our deepest care, love and wisdom to bring to this fight, to better share the load, share the joy and bear the burdens that come with co-leading much-needed changes.
No doubt, reality is messy and the future ahead will be also - even as we try to build stronger foundations, and seek clarity of purpose in forging more sustainable realities. Together, we can find the deeper clarity needed to bring to this work, for far brighter futures.
No doubt, reality is messy and the future ahead will be also - even as we try to build stronger foundations, and seek clarity of purpose in forging more sustainable realities. Together, we can find the deeper clarity needed to bring to this work, for far brighter futures.
Artist Statement
Kai Reimer-Watts, Fall 2024
We are in the midst of an accelerating global climate emergency, threatening all our shared futures. In the face of such an immense crisis, how do we maintain the faith that a better, more sustainable and just future is possible, when there are so many discouraging signs all around us?
Chaos and disaster may be possible – even likely – in our shared futures, but so is a wise, just and compassionate response. To achieve something far better than falling ever-deeper into despairing dystopias will take believing in something much better to strive towards, and stepping into our own powers to help to champion these new realities.
It will take lifting up and locking arms with many neighbours in this vast community of life, human and non-human alike, to co-lead intelligent, caring, life-affirming changes together. It will take listening to the wisdom of so many, who know we are in multiple crises now of massive proportions, and yet who maintain realistic hope, refusing to accept a dire future, while offering their talents and tools needed to lead us out of crisis and to forge far brighter, more sustainable realities. It will take caring for others – not just ourselves – to craft shared policies and values that prioritize care for all who share this one precious planet, listening to what climate science, earth science, sustainability science, Indigenous teachings, climate and social justice movements and others have been telling us for so long about the need to mend our society’s broken relationship with nature and with each other, to then change our collective path forward.
It will take accountability of those powerful few who would cruelly block progress to a more just and sustainable future, cynically allowing the planet and our futures to simply overheat and be destroyed for their own excess profits today, rather than playing a much-needed role in turning their efforts to championing shared solutions for all life and humanity. How can any good society allow this behaviour, which is so clearly against the whole of life and all humanity?
It will take new visions for new pathways forward that we can all help make real, grounded in a deep commitment to build societies that promote shared responsibility and solutions needed to be more sustainable – and that strive to acknowledge and respond to the real challenges we’re faced with, not to avoid or deny them. Societies that recognize the crucial need to respect human and natural limits, and to build economies that do not strive to dominate people and nature, but instead work as partners with mutual care and respect, giving back to the whole living Earth that also sustains us. It means moving away from the “grab-what-you-can” “boom-and-bust” economics of the neoliberal era that so wrongfully promotes greed, domination and lack of caring as cynical “virtues”, instead forging far better values and logics to organize our lives and societies around – logics that can sustain us, build resilience, and dare-we-say even build love, community, and peace; and that strive to solve our shared challenges rather than worsen them.
Yes, there are many dark clouds on the horizon – and signs that the future could be far worse than even the present today. Yet there are also signs that the future could be far better, with so many people working together to champion far more caring, just, and sustainable pathways forward. Let’s all look for those signs – those opportunities – of where we can each make the best difference, acting in a good way with others. Let’s all remind ourselves, daily, to not be on the sidelines during this crucial moment of transformative change, but to instead find our best places to act in the grand symphony of life, in solidarity for better futures. Let’s all insist, calmly but firmly, in a better future for all, where all life has dignity, is respected, and where society is finally designed with justice, care and sustainability at its heart – to last for our children, for all life, and for all generations.
Surely, we owe our children and all life this much, to say with the sincerity of not only words, but also through actions: We are part of the Great Turning of our times towards better futures; and yes, each day, we are finding the courage to join the great symphony of life, to celebrate and protect life, and to do our shared part for a truly peaceful, just, sustainable tomorrow.
We are in the midst of an accelerating global climate emergency, threatening all our shared futures. In the face of such an immense crisis, how do we maintain the faith that a better, more sustainable and just future is possible, when there are so many discouraging signs all around us?
Chaos and disaster may be possible – even likely – in our shared futures, but so is a wise, just and compassionate response. To achieve something far better than falling ever-deeper into despairing dystopias will take believing in something much better to strive towards, and stepping into our own powers to help to champion these new realities.
It will take lifting up and locking arms with many neighbours in this vast community of life, human and non-human alike, to co-lead intelligent, caring, life-affirming changes together. It will take listening to the wisdom of so many, who know we are in multiple crises now of massive proportions, and yet who maintain realistic hope, refusing to accept a dire future, while offering their talents and tools needed to lead us out of crisis and to forge far brighter, more sustainable realities. It will take caring for others – not just ourselves – to craft shared policies and values that prioritize care for all who share this one precious planet, listening to what climate science, earth science, sustainability science, Indigenous teachings, climate and social justice movements and others have been telling us for so long about the need to mend our society’s broken relationship with nature and with each other, to then change our collective path forward.
It will take accountability of those powerful few who would cruelly block progress to a more just and sustainable future, cynically allowing the planet and our futures to simply overheat and be destroyed for their own excess profits today, rather than playing a much-needed role in turning their efforts to championing shared solutions for all life and humanity. How can any good society allow this behaviour, which is so clearly against the whole of life and all humanity?
It will take new visions for new pathways forward that we can all help make real, grounded in a deep commitment to build societies that promote shared responsibility and solutions needed to be more sustainable – and that strive to acknowledge and respond to the real challenges we’re faced with, not to avoid or deny them. Societies that recognize the crucial need to respect human and natural limits, and to build economies that do not strive to dominate people and nature, but instead work as partners with mutual care and respect, giving back to the whole living Earth that also sustains us. It means moving away from the “grab-what-you-can” “boom-and-bust” economics of the neoliberal era that so wrongfully promotes greed, domination and lack of caring as cynical “virtues”, instead forging far better values and logics to organize our lives and societies around – logics that can sustain us, build resilience, and dare-we-say even build love, community, and peace; and that strive to solve our shared challenges rather than worsen them.
Yes, there are many dark clouds on the horizon – and signs that the future could be far worse than even the present today. Yet there are also signs that the future could be far better, with so many people working together to champion far more caring, just, and sustainable pathways forward. Let’s all look for those signs – those opportunities – of where we can each make the best difference, acting in a good way with others. Let’s all remind ourselves, daily, to not be on the sidelines during this crucial moment of transformative change, but to instead find our best places to act in the grand symphony of life, in solidarity for better futures. Let’s all insist, calmly but firmly, in a better future for all, where all life has dignity, is respected, and where society is finally designed with justice, care and sustainability at its heart – to last for our children, for all life, and for all generations.
Surely, we owe our children and all life this much, to say with the sincerity of not only words, but also through actions: We are part of the Great Turning of our times towards better futures; and yes, each day, we are finding the courage to join the great symphony of life, to celebrate and protect life, and to do our shared part for a truly peaceful, just, sustainable tomorrow.