For my final project I will keep on exploring major events that have had serious consequences on the environment. I believe, we as humans, are near the tipping point for environmental destruction which will have no return. Looking back, on our analysis of the first Earth day in Seminar, I could tell that the urge to stop pollution was far greater than it is today. Considering that, the state of pollution has gotten worse since 1970 and the will to stop global warming has decreased, I ask myself “where did we go wrong?”. So for this project I would like keep exploring the area of events that have created massive environmental destruction to highlight what we have done to deserve this current state of global warming. It seems that over the years no matter how large the toll a certain event takes on the environment people tend to keep falling for the same mistakes. So I would rather highlight the mistakes rather than urging people to help save the environment like many organizations have been doing over the years. Obviously, something isn’t working in the race against ‘extinction’ . The materials I have been exploring in my diptychs are based on environmental factors. For my first diptych I used gold to criticize how products that seriously harm the environment are being glorified. For the second part of the project I started exploring into the topic of death and extinction along with being vocal about environmentally harmful events. I worked with skeletons made of ceramic to dive in to what I believe will be a nearing end scenario for humanity.
For my final project I want to explore into where humanity took a wrong turn in this battle against pollution and global warming. Specifically for the final, I will go back to my first assignment about products and consumerism. I would like to create a response piece that combines consumerism and environmental destruction to depict the correlation between the 2 topics. I would like to explore and use materials that are sustainable to create more emphasis on ‘sustainability’ as well. Artists that I have mainly been inspired by are: Andy Warhol, Ara Guler, and Vastergaard Frandsen.
Bryan and Eric meeting:
- I was asked to consumer products
- Finding something that interests myself
- Exploring clothing, electronics, and plastic
- The idea of making a personal consumption list
- Artist to be inspired by: El Anatsui and Nari Ward
I was mostly advised to focus in 0n a certain specific topic and to explore materials to work with. I have narrowed down my research to plastic pollution in water. Below, I have both of my prototypes, including the materials that I will be using for each one.
Reflection: What I need to do by our next class is to find resources that can supply the materials needed for my final project. I have already extracted colors from natural products but I will need to work on extracting ocean blue which is specifically difficult. Not only extracting but applying natural dye is also very difficult. I will also need to test the natural dye on certain sustainable materials like cardboard which will then be recycled. Along with exploring materials I will polish my primary and secondary sources for my work and research.
