Every year the Met Office compiles a list of names for future storms from submissions by the public, selecting those which reflect the nation’s culture and diversity of the UK and Ireland. An alternating pattern of female and male names is arranged ahead of time as established by the US National Hurricane Centre from the 1970s. This yearly ritual is a performance of anthropocene geopolitics.

‘Storms to Come’ embodies elements of folklore, ancient ritual, and witchcraft to interrogate the gendered personification, prediction, summoning, and management of storms across disciplines, time, and cultures. With the impending doom and creeping slow violence caused by climate change and other environmental impacts; the project rather nihilistically asks us to collectively relinquish our power over nature.

Is it time we call upon natural destruction as a cathartic radical choice?

Creative Technologist: Laurence Cliffe

Videographer: Richard Ramchun

Fabricator: Jack Narewski

Costume: SHEWASNAMEDSHADIA

Make Up: Vounitah Bhurtun

Studio Assistants: Constanza Bergo and Alexander Huntley

Special thanks to Backlit Gallery, Near Now and LEAD:NG for their generous support to make this project a reality.