Reflection

This artwork portrays Ludovico Einaudi, an acclaimed Italian pianist and composer. In 2016, he partnered with Greenpeace, an international organization that works to help the Earth, and he traveled to the Arctic to perform his composition, ‘Elegy for the Arctic’, surrounded by melting glaciers and chunks of ice in the ocean. In music, an elegy generally refers to a sad song, in this case, a song mourning for the climate crisis our world is facing. Einaudi’s performance and piece helped raise awareness for melting glaciers and rising sea levels. In this artwork, Einaudi is playing his music on a massive chunk of ice that is floating in the ocean, surrounded by even more. The polar bears, a species that is greatly negatively affected by climate change, watch his performance and are overjoyed to hear his beautiful music and see someone who cares and performs for their problems. In the background, there are glaciers that melt and dissolve into the waters. However, in this artwork, we can see how Einaudi’s music portrays the once beautiful glaciers that once existed. It shows how the world has changed and reflects on the sad condition of the melting glaciers by contrasting these two glaciers at different times, one magnificent and one disappearing. It’s my hope that Earth can return to its original state where there was no climate change and there were full and beautiful glaciers, like the one in the piano.