Artist talk and opening reception for the exhibition Climate Arcana: Tarot for a Heating World

Tarot has historically been a guide in times of uncertainty, uncovering hidden truths and unarticulated fears. Within a climate discourse too often mired in either denial or blind optimism, tarot provides another possibility for a heating world: an engaged, multifaceted practice that holds room for multiple viewpoints, uncertainties, and pluralities.

It is in this spirit that Rajji Desai, urban researcher and artist, created the work included in Climate Arcana, reimagining the traditional tarot deck as a bridge for climate storytelling, translating scientific realities into archetypal imagery and emotionally resonant narratives. Each card holds a moment in the arc of a warming planet, serving as a portal into realities ranging from intensifying heatwaves to rising seas and shifting ecosystems. Through vivid images and pointed symbolism, the deck reorients global phenomena in more intimate ways, allowing each reader to imagine alternative climate futures.

This deck is not just for mystics. It speaks to anyone willing to sit with climate complexity. The cards ask us not what will happen, but what could happen. More crucially: what stories will we choose to tell? In that question lives a different kind of hope: the resilience to stay curious about a future we still have a hand in shaping. Hope, after all, is not something we wait for. It is something we practice, together, one story at a time.

Join us in Weinstein to hear from Rajji Desai and then enjoy the art at the opening reception that follows, in CEEDS, Wright Hall 005.