Artist Profile pvi collective

Artist Statement

The Social Licence Watchdogs [slw] are a fictional entity developed by pvi collective enabling us to create a series of satirical public interventions in Western Australia. The intervention consists of 5 x 8 ft tall invoices hand delivered to the top 5 carbon polluters in Western Australia, followed by 14 days to settle the debt or make a payment plan. Failure to comply resulted in the symbolic public shredding of their social licences.

The artwork is grounded in a recent landmark study by Resources for the Future into a mathematical equation for calculating the “social cost of carbon”, effectively putting climate change into economic terms. Cited as “the most important number we have never heard of”, we explore its potential impact as a means of financial reparation from some of Australia’s major carbon polluters. The future cost accounts for impact on agriculture [45%], energy [5%], mortality [49%] and coastal damage [1%]. The metric puts a price on each additional ton of carbon released into the atmosphere.

The Social License Watchdogs’ task is to charge the five major carbon polluters for the true cost of their emissions by generating an accurate invoice of their debt to society. The Watchdogs imagine an imminent future where real world “social cost of carbon” pricing tools are in full effect, fossil fuel polluters are invoiced accordingly and publicly held to account for their damage to the planet.

This is the critical decade of climate action. Political decisions that are made on clean energy transition between now and 2030 will shape the state of our future. We know the longer we delay, the more difficult and costly it will be. At the moment, just 1% of global investment in clean energy has come from oil and gas companies (International Energy Association report, Nov. 2023).

Following their attempted delivery, the invoices were exhibited at The Art Gallery of Western Australia.

Artist Biography

Formed in 1998, pvi collective are based in Perth, Western Australia. pvi are renowned for developing innovative, high calibre, socially engaged artworks that seek to empower audiences to step out of their comfort zones. We experiment with gameplay alongside disruptive technology and DIY tools to explore the latent potential of critical citizenry.

Over the past two decades, we have produced an eclectic body of work, grounded in critical rigour, informed by collaborative research, and always foregrounding the experience of the audience. Performances and public interventions have included: Bus tours, training videos, radio broadcasts, sticker campaigns, pub quizzes, think and do tanks, privacy services, tug-of-war contests, live action board games, mock awards, community policing initiatives, environmental watchdogs, and locative mobile media games.

pvi have played to over 250,000 people; devised and performed 38 major works; instigated over 100 tactical interventions; featured in 25 national and international exhibitions; have toured to over 75 renowned venues and festivals. Highlights have included: MCA Sydney, Perth Festival, Malmö festival, Sweden, the Biennale of Sydney, the Prague Quadrennial, the International Symposium of Electronic Art [ISEA] and the Singapore National Museum.