Map of Habits

Bad Habits is a piece that revolves around my daily routine, and, as the title itself states, my habits. We think of habits as tendencies, traditions, and norms most often in a positive manner, and we generally forget that habits may also be seen as addictions, dependencies, and obsessions. I decided to portray one of my bad habits, which unfortunately I share with over one billion other people around the world: smoking. Walking around Paris has truly made me realize of the large amount of cigarettes that are ignited and consumed around the city everyday. As these were thrown on the ground, I came up with the idea of collecting and developing a project from them.
I drew the lungs with a permanent marker on a cardboard I found in my house’s garage, which I used because of its decayed and ruined aspect that I believe goes along with the subject of my piece of work. On the left I portrayed the outside of the lung, while on the right I depicted its inside. On the latter I glued cigarettes, collected around the city of Paris, in a disorganized manner, as if they had fallen within the lung and were slowly filling it up. The habit is shown through the derangement and disorder of the cigarettes, which are piled up in order to represent how time passes and smoking is invariably repeated.
The colors I used for the depiction of the lungs and their background are very cold, and these are highly contrasted to the warm, orange color of the cigarettes. I created this juxtaposition in order to highlight the intrusion of cigarettes in a world that does not belong to their own. Moreover, I gave my final piece a crooked, unfinished, grey border to separate the piece from its surroundings and to, therefore, attract attention.
I believe most of my works encompass graphic characteristics, as I believe this helps them interact and communicate with their observers more closely and profoundly.