Author: cvandorff

Reflecting on Climate Change: Images of Josh Kline’s Artwork Added to RDC for Earth Day



In anticipation of Earth Day celebrations on campus, hear from Visual Resources Assistant Andee Gude ’26 about their President’s Summer Fellowship and the decision to add artist Josh Kline’s work to the Art & Architecture Collection in Reed Digital Collections (RDC). 

This blog post was written by Visual Resources Assistant and Art History major Andee Gude ’26, and edited by the Library’s Visual Resources Curator Chloe Van Stralendorff.

In the summer of 2023, I embarked on a journey to New York to dive into as many art spaces as possible over two weeks. The exhibition “Project for a New American Century” at the Whitney Museum of American Art had a lasting impression on me, more so than any other during my short visit. 

Kline’s work explores critical issues such as climate change, politics, AI, capitalism, disease, labor, and technology. Much of his work was originally created in the early 2010s but remains deeply relevant to the societal challenges we face today. I’ll highlight two installations that especially resonated with me, but for those interested in exploring more, the exhibition, which concluded this summer at the Whitney, can be fully appreciated on their website, along with additional works by Kline on his website.

One impactful project was “Climate Change is Personal Responsibility (2023-),” set in a future ravaged by climate disasters. The installation is set in the future, following climate disasters, and features materials “used by refugees and migrants in the United States and around the world” (Whitney Museum of American Art). These shelters Kline created represent homes and workplaces for those who remain “essential workers” forced to face the impacts of climate change in the pursuit of labor and financial stability. Within this installation are two sets of videos, one being titled “Capture and Sequestration (2023)” which address “the enslavement of Africans and the theft of Indigenous land” concerning the assumed downfall of the land in light of the dramatic climate change (Whitney Museum of American Art). The videos highlight commodities like sugar, tobacco, cotton, and oil, and how “human-made global warming and climate change back through America’s global empire and the industrial revolutions of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries” will ultimately contribute to Kline’s perception of the future (Whitney Museum of American Art). The other videos fictionally survey Americans facing the disaster, informed by “extensive research into the experiences of survivors of climate-related disasters such as Hurricanes Katrina, Sandy, and Harvey and the recent wildfires in California” (Whitney Museum of American Art). In this project, Kline prompts his audience to consider this future. 

Another project that captivated me was Blue Collars (2014–20), featuring sculptural portraits and video interviews with American workers from corporations like Walmart and Waffle House. Initiated in the wake of the 2008 Great Recession, the interviews include a diverse group of employees, from delivery personnel to hotel cleaners, represented through 3D printed sculptures and were interviewed about their “..their jobs, aspirations, political views, and feelings about the conditions of their lives in general” (Whitney Museum of American art). This project underscored Kline’s position that “work turns human bodies and human lives into products” (Whitney Museum of American Art).

One of our goals at the Visual Resources Center, is to add current exhibitions and artwork that resonates with student’s interests. Motivated by what I experienced at the Whitney, I initiated a collection development project for Reed’s Digital Collections (RDC) focused on Josh Kline’s work from the exhibition at the Whitney Museum of American Art. With the urgent conversations surrounding climate change, labor, AI, and capitalism, Kline’s work is a pertinent addition to Reed’s Digital Collections, especially as we approach Earth Day and reflect on our planet’s future.

Work Cited

  1. Josh Kline. Josh Kline | home. (n.d.). http://joshkline.info/ 
  2. Josh Kline: Project for a new american century. Whitney Museum of American Art. (n.d.-b). https://whitney.org/exhibitions/josh-kline#exhibition-feature 

Have you ever wondered how or where you could get help with images on campus?

Wonder not – just head to the Visual Resource Center (VRC). It’s located below the main floor of the Reed Library, in Room 42. Not the IMC or the Language Lab, but an inconspicuous door right next to the seminar room. There you’ll find our team working behind the scenes, scanning and scouring museum collections for the highest-quality images.

You’ve most likely seen these images projected in class or referenced as part of an assigned reading, and we’re the ones responsible for providing them to your professors! Images are regularly added to the Reed Digital Collection (RDC) to support instruction in the art department. And as a student, you can search the collection for images to use when completing your assignments. We can also help you find the best images for presentations, publications, and theses, along with navigating the difficult realm of image citations.

Aside from academic support, we have specialized equipment for assisting with image-based projects. We have the largest scanner on campus (18″ x 24″), a transparency scanner, a photography room for documenting large 2D works, and a computer workstation with the Adobe Creative Cloud applications.

If you’ve asked yourself any of the questions below, then email us today to book an appointment:

  • How can I scan and digitize my film or artwork into a high-resolution image?
  • As a ceramist, can I make high-quality images of my ceramic works for a portfolio?
  • As a film enthusiast, can I convert my beautiful photographs into digital facsimiles?
  • Can I use the large scanner and Photoshop to complete a mixed-media work?
  • Where can I get some free Cheez-Its? That’s right. You read that correctly.

And, if you’re still not sold on the utility of the VRC, you should remember that the VRC is located in Room 42, and, you should also remember that the number 42 is significant in Douglas Adams’ Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy. Now, we aren’t claiming that the VRC has the answer to “the ultimate question of life, the universe, and everything,” but we do have a fair number of useful resources that remain available to the Reed community when needing to answer a few, very specific questions that relate to life as a Reedie – the significance of that coincidence is left for you to decide.

Check out the VRC’s history and find a complete list of services and equipment at Reed.edu/VRC.

This blog post was co-written by Visual Resources Assistant and Art History major Andee Gude ’26.