The Hydrocene

This book challenges conventional notions of the Anthropocene and champions the Hydrocene: the Age of Water. It presents the Hydrocene as a disruptive, conceptual epoch and curatorial theory, emphasising water's pivotal role in the climate crisis and contemporary art.

The Hydrocene is a wet ontological shift in eco-aesthetics which redefines our approach to water, transcending anthropocentric, neo-colonial and environmentally destructive ways of relating to water. As the most fundamental of elements, water has become increasingly politicised, threatened and challenged by the climate crisis. In response, The Hydrocene articulates and embodies the distinctive ways contemporary artists relate and engage with water, offering valuable lessons towards climate action. Through five compelling case studies across swamp, river, ocean, fog and ice, this book binds feminist environmental humanities theories with the practices of eco-visionary artists. Focusing on Nordic and Oceanic water-based artworks, it demonstrates how art can disrupt established human–water dynamics. By engaging hydrofeminist, care-based and planetary thinking, The Hydrocene learns from the knowledge and agency of water itself within the tide of art going into the blue.

The Hydrocene urgently highlights the transformative power of eco-visionary artists in reshaping human–water relations. At the confluence of contemporary art, curatorial theory, climate concerns and environmental humanities, this book is essential reading for researchers, curators, artists, students and those seeking to reconsider their connection with water and advocate for climate justice amid the ongoing natural-cultural water crisis.

Dr Bronwyn Bailey-Charteris thinks with water. She is an Australian and Swedish curator, writer and lecturer based on Darug and Gundungurra Country, Blue Mountains. Her expertise is on the poetics and politics of eco-aesthetics and curatorial theory with a focus on water, environmental art and hydrofeminism. Her work navigates fluid territories through her academic work, curatorial theory and independent curatorial practice, which spans the Nordic and Oceanic contexts. Her work seeks to address the climate crisis through creative practice, theory making and pedagogy. Her work charts new ways of seeing water's currents across aesthetic, cultural, and computational landscapes. Based in the Blue Mountains on Dharug and Gundungurra Ngurra (Country), she is Senior Research Associate at UNSW as part of the ARC Centre of Excellence for Automated Decision-Making and Society (ADM+S). Her research proposing the Hydrocene as a disruptive epoch and curatorial theory is internationally recognised and is the focus of her monograph on art, climate and eco-aesthetics, titled The Hydrocene: Eco-Aesthetics in the Age of Water (Routledge, Environmental Humanities Series 2024).

Gargi Binju is a PhD scholar at the University of Tuebingen.