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John Akomfrah’s ‘Purple’ Is Climate Change Art That Asks Audiences to Feel
An hour-long multimedia exhibit about climate change, now at the Hirshhorn Museum in D.C., inundates viewers with sound, imagery and emotion.
By Kiley Bense
As visitors enter the gallery now housing the climate artwork “Purple” by John Akomfrah at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., they are greeted by a light sculpture made out of dirty plastic bottles suspended upside down from the ceiling. The bottles illuminate a hallway that is carpeted and lined in deep purple, the color of mourning in Ghana, where Akomfrah was born.