“We have to recognize the folks who are coming here are people who are making the same decisions that we would make for ourselves and our families if we were in their position” — D.C. Council member Robert C. White Jr., The Washington Post , May 11, 2023

The Human Flood
American University Museum
February 7 - August 11, 2024

Dwell in Possibility, the Climate Diaspora

Why would anyone flee their home, community, culture, land, everything they know and all the people they love? Simply put: because they must. In a word: desperation. Estimates vary on the numbers, but we know tens of millions of people, domestically and globally, have already been displaced by the effects of climate change and that will only increase as more land is made uninhabitable by flooding, fire, excessive heat, or drought. The Human Flood focuses on the human consequences of climate change. Artists Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin have created an immersive, multi-media installation that puts a human face on the climate crisis. They don't distinguish between the domestic and foreign diaspora. The displaced figures depicted could be from New Orleans or San Juan or Darfur. We're all living on the same planet. This could happen to you.

—Laura Roulet, Curator (excerpt from the catalog essay)

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Into the cities. Are we ready to house all the people on the move? — The Human Flood, Ellyn Weiss & Sondra N. Arkin, monoprint scroll (detail), 2023. From the exhibition “The Human Flood,” Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin at th
IN SEARCH OF REFUGE, 2023, Ellyn Weiss, mixed media drawings on paper, 5 @ 84”H x 48”W These layered ghost images were created while making the scrims in We All Had a Home Once. Ghosts are a fitting metaphor for the status we accord to m
The Human Flood, Ellyn Weiss & Sondra N. Arkin, monoprint scroll (detail), 2023. — From the exhibition “The Human Flood,” Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Feb 7-Aug 11
CAN YOU SEE US?, 2024, Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin, clear vinyl digital reproduction 8 @ 90”H x45”W Between the museum interior and the sculpture garden, life-sized transparencies of climate migrants reflect the physical and human p
The things left behind. —- The Human Flood, Ellyn Weiss & Sondra N. Arkin, monoprint scroll (detail), 2023. From the exhibition “The Human Flood,” Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin at the American University Museum at the Katze
Friends who get it. Ask important questions. Stick with you through the journey. Visiting the exhibition “The Human Flood,” Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin at the American University Museum at the Katzen Arts Center. Feb 7-Aug 11, 2024.
CAN YOU SEE US?, 2024, Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin, clear vinyl digital reproduction. —- Between the museum interior and the sculpture garden, life-sized transparencies of climate migrants reflect the physical and human proximity between th
“Deluge/Sions,” 2024, Ellyn Weiss and Sondra N. Arkin, t-shirts & pillows, size variable Disembodied torsos represent the rising tide of those uprooted by environmental disasters and forced to seek precarious refuge in unfamiliar la
Next up on the reading list: Dana R. Fisher argues that there is a realistic path forward for climate action—but only through mass mobilization that responds to the growing severity and frequency of disastrous events. • • • Perfe