Location:X88 Gallery
88 Abercrombie St
Chippendale NSW 2008
Australia
Hours:
Entry Fee:
Free
Exhibition Event:
Official Opening30/05/2014 6:00 pm
Artist Talk31/05/2014 4:00 am
The Central Pacific-Island Nation of Kiribati (pronounced Kirr-i-bas) consists of 32 coral atolls and one raised limestone island with an average height-above-sea-level of only two metres. The islands are stretched across two million square miles of ocean.
The main island of Tarawa has a population density of 5,200 people per square kilometre, similar to that of London. Every year more people move from the outer islands, further straining the infrastructure – Tarawa now has 51,000 people jammed onto a 35-kilometre-long sliver of coral.
Kiribati is on the front line of Climate Change; locals battle against the seas with storm surges and high tides eroding precious living space and contaminating the delicate fresh water lens that is beneath each atoll. Kiribati has the highest infant mortality rate in the region with 35 babies in every 1000 dying before their first year of life, more than five times that of Australia.
Many babies die of chronic diarrhoea — caused by water-borne and faeces-related illnesses. Kiribati’s President Anote Tong believes his country has between 30 to 60 years before it is uninhabitable because of inundation and contamination of its fresh-water supply. He has called on countries in the region to open their borders to his people.
Kiribati-A Line in the Sand is an exhibition about this physically beautiful and flawed paradise.
This event has concluded
Dates:
Location:X88 Gallery
88 Abercrombie St
Chippendale NSW 2008
Australia
