John Gerrard | NGV Triennial, Melbourne - When John Gerrard was a child, he noticed earthworms floating in puddles of water across a field, near his home, in the idyllic countryside of County Tipperary, Ireland. "I remember being  saddened by it." Gerrard, who is now 49 years old, says. "It was obviously strange that these worms were all dead." They had died because of excessive pesticide and toxic farming practices, which posed a threat to the insects, animals, flowers and plants in the  ecosystem, a place Gerrard and his family called home. “There’d been an over-usage of toxins within the landscape,” Gerrard recalls. Today, he works as an artist building highly-aesthetic, simulations, which mesmerise viewers. They offer virtual, yet hauntingly realistic, worlds that remind us of the of climate change, and how emissions pose damage to the future viability of habitats on planet Earth, and the numerous species who live upon it. The result is Gerrard’s iconic triptych of emissions-based flags, which function as an alarm for global warming. Now, one of them, Flare, is on display at the National Gallery of Victoria Triennial in Melbourne, Australia.  ngv.vic.gov.au Image credits: 1. John Gerrard, Western Flag (Spindletop,Texas) (2017-2019). Desert X / Coachella Valley, CA, USA. © Lance Gerber 2. John Gerrard, Flare at Galway International Arts Festival (2022). Photographer: Ros Kavanagh. 3. John Gerrard, Western Flag (Spindletop, Texas) (2017-2019). © Lance Gerber 4. John Gerrard, Flare at Galway International Arts Festival (2022). Photographer: Emilija Jefremova. - Change email address / Leave mailing list