John Akomfrah’s ‘Purple’ Is Climate Change Art That Asks Audiences to Feel

By Kiley Bense

As visitors enter the gallery now housing the climate artwork “Purple” by John Akomfrah at the Hirshhorn Museum in Washington, D.C., they are greeted by a light sculpture made out of dirty plastic bottles suspended upside down from the ceiling. The bottles illuminate a hallway that is carpeted and lined in deep purple, the color of mourning in Ghana, where Akomfrah was born.