Clouds were obviously very much John Ruskin’s thing. The Victorian polymath observed and painted them for many years and in 1884 delivered his lecture in London titled ‘The Storm-Cloud of the Nineteenth Century’, which is recognised as one of the first public statements connecting industrial pollution to changes in the weather.
Fast forward a century and a half, and a dusty little book containing this prophetic speech falls into the hands of Dr Tom Payne, ‘performance-maker’ and senior lecturer at Sheffield Hallam University.
to Payne’s eternal credit, this evening has brought together Ruskin aficionados, environmentalists and the simply curious
In conjunction with IF Oxford, the city’s science and ideas festival, he restaged this lecture at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, as an immersive experience combining his recital of Ruskin’s original lecture with screened text and images (by motion artist Jake Goodall) against an atmospheric soundscape (by composer John Brady).
Standing at apparently the very same lectern that Ruskin used, and wearing a paint-daubed suit, Payne proves to be an engaging orator as he narrates Ruskin’s words. The fact that he can remember 75 minutes’ worth of them in one seamless speech is an astonishing feat in itself, but the presentation would have fallen very flat if he’d merely read from a script.
Payne is not so much interested in understanding Ruskin, as in presenting his words for a 21st century audience to interpret, evaluate and appreciate
In eloquently spoken, sometimes flowery Victorian prose, we learn how Ruskin has noticed changes in the weather: appearances of a ‘plague cloud’ which ‘bleaches’ the sun and a ‘plague wind’ that felt unwholesome. Everything looks and feels wrong; not how it used to be when the weather created atmospheres of vivid colour and purity.
The reason for this change, Ruskin believes, is twofold: not only the smoke, soot and chemicals being pumped into the atmosphere, but also due to a moral decay and general societal malaise.
In an interview to support this performance, Payne states that he is not so much interested in understanding Ruskin as in presenting his words for a 21st century audience to interpret, evaluate and appreciate.
And to Payne’s eternal credit, this evening he has brought together Ruskin aficionados, environmentalists and the simply curious. If Ruskin were alive today, he would undoubtedly despair at the current environmental situation but I’m sure he would whole-heartedly approve of Payne’s and IF Oxford’s endeavours.
Edward Bliss
