Misty Bodies of Water and Artistic Relationality in the Hydrocene

Abstract

The Hydrocene is the watery, disruptive, conceptual epoch that I name for the tide of art going into the blue in response to the climate crisis. In this short watery provocation and essay, I share the potential significance of ‘misting’ as a hydro‐artistic method of reorientation from within fog, where fog becomes a portal towards embodied encounters in art practices. I look to the extensive fog‐based work of Japanese artist Fujiko Nakaya alongside Australian artists Emily Parsons‐Lord's misty installation Things fall apart (2017) and Janet Laurence's hazy site‐specific public work In the Shadow (2000) as examples of misting. I relate the artists' pieces to theorist Ifor Duncan's concept of ‘Occult Meteorology’ and Janine Randerson's notion of ‘Weather as Medium’, and further propose misting as a hydro‐artistic method in the Hydrocene. The potential of artistic relationality between misty bodies of water in contemporary eco‐critical art practices opens up possibilities of engaging indeterminate watery futures.