In the exhibition, WW11: Eye of the storm, nine artists collectively connected art and activism to create projects that addresses current environmental challenges, climate change policies and feminism.
“The contradictions that surround the question of what actually constitutes a work of art have persisted throughout the history of art. And a inherent lack of clarity – mixed with a community whose members feel that they understand the definition of art quite intuitively – continues to impede engaged artists who want to use the tools of art for social change.” (Nato Thompson, Seeing Power)
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| 1,000 Square Feet by. Amanda Thackray |
The name of this art piece is called “1.000 Square Feet (0.00701459%)”. Amanda Thackray used water from Dekorte Park to watercolor monoprint on abaca paper to create each square foot sheet and used suminagashi techniques to marble each sheet. She also collected plastic garbage from the shore to help create a unique monoprint for every sheet.
All 100 unique sheets tell the story of plastic and its journey to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. The sculpture is the various plastic items Thackray has collected in the shores of the Meadowlands.
The purpose of this art piece is to represent the relationship of Humans to the land and water. The main focus of this particular piece is how humans pollute the water with plastic. It takes about normal plastic items 1,000 years to biodegrade while plastic bags that we use in our everyday lives takes about 10- 10,000 to decompose. Plastic bottles can take 450 years or more. Plastic was created in 1907, which means that the plastic from then to now are still around polluting our lands and water. This is a serious environmental issue because eventually there wouldn’t be a place left to put these items. The average American throws away about 185 pounds of plastic per year. The issue of plastic pollution is only getting worst because in the last 10 years we produced more plastic than during the whole last century. The crazy part is that only 5% of the plastic produced is recovered; 95% of it is polluting nature. Amanda Thackray used the Great Pacific Garbage Patch as a focus point for her monoprints. The Great Pacific Garbage patch is located in the coast of California and is the largest ocean garbage site in the world. This site is twice the size of Texas with plastic pieces outnumbering sea life six to one.
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| The Great Pacific Garbage Patch |
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| 1,000 Square Feet by. Amanda Thackray |
As I observed, 1,000 Square feet (0.00701459%) I wasn’t quite sure what I was looking at until I read the description. This art piece really opened my eyes on the issues of plastic pollution and how much of an impact it may have in the future. In the display case I examined every piece of plastic that Amanda has collected and many of those items were items I use in my everyday life. A change that I am doing and hoping others would do as well is to use less plastic and recycle everything even if you are unsure if the item is recyclable. The places that recycles plastic, sorts through everything so you have nothing to worry about.
"Our ideas, thoughts, behaviors, and actions are produced through our relationships with the world and with each other." (Nato Thompson, Seeing Power)
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| Underground by. Linda Streicher |
The second piece that caught my eye was Linda Streicher’s, Underground. In this piece Linda use Acrylic on canvas to show the various layers of the ground that surrounds her water well system in her New Jersey Home. After Linda had her water tested, she discovered that her water has been tainted with lead and other toxins. This discovery inspired her project.
The point she is trying to come across in her art is how the users of the earth take the ground for granted. The ground is the foundation of everything we see above. As human, we usually focus on what we see and focus on the issues that are presented to us. The ground is something that we don’t usually think of or concern until it is presented to us, for example the flint water crisis. The water in Flint, Michigan has high levels of lead and other toxins that can a person’s heart, kidney and nerves. Old houses may also have water that is tainted by lead.
What we do above ground heavily affects the ground as well. Huge manufacturing companies with factories often dump waste into the soil which damages the natural water filtering system. The Earth is made up of 70% water and 2.5% of it is fresh. These fresh water sources are in the soil and in trapped glaciers. The major issue with this is that once we run out of drinkable water, what would we do? We really need to pay attention to what we put in the soil. Majority of the goods we have in today’s society is damaging our ground. Industrialization causes deforestation, eventually there wouldn’t be any soil left and the world would be covered in concrete. Just because it doesn’t affect us now and we don’t see it doesn’t mean it isn’t an issue. If we continue what we are doing it may be the end of the world as we know it.
“A fish sees water no better than we see the culture industry.” (Nato Thompson, Seeing Power)
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| The Ark Project by. Deborah Sperry |
The last piece that really caught my attention in the WW11: Eye of the storm exhibit is Deborah Sperry’s, The Ark Project. Sperry creates a sculpture using wood, paper, hardware and rope. This social project allows viewers to write something they value and what they would like to be saved in the ark. These notes will become an act of hope and activism and will be sent to the Environmental Protection Agency as a voice recording.
The socio-political issue Deborah is targeting is climate change caused by humans. Climate change is the main issue when it comes to environmental issues and is the most talked. The fact remains that nothing is being done to stop or even slow down global warming. The ice caps in Antarctica are melting. This not only effects the wild life in the bad way but also humans as well. Most of the fresh water are locked into those glaciers. Melting ice caps also rises sea levels. In the bible, Noah created an ark and to save his family and animals from a giant flood. The is what the project is based off of.
At first glance I thought the scultpture was a giant melting glacier. Turns out I was sort of right since the issue she was referencing was climate change. I loved how it was interactive. Deborah definitely focuses on a major issue and executed it. The detail that I found to be impressive is that the outer shell of the ark isn’t just random pieces of paper but is the pages from the Intergovermental Panel on Climate Change fifth assement.
“Over the last 100 years, the corrosive byproduct of the machines of cultural production has gathered like smog over all of us, radically obscuring our vision.” (Nato Thompson, Seeing Power)
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| State of Dysunion by. Joyce Yu-Jean Lee |
WW11: Eye of the storm and State of Dysunion are two exhibitions that uses art as a form of activism. Eye of the storm focuses on social issues involving the environment while the Stat of disunion focuses on media. Joyce Yu-Jean Lee was inspired during her trip in china and how their media is completely different from ours and her drive was during the presidential election when Donald Trump became the 45th president of the United States. Joyce’s main center piece of the 3 channel HD video projection onto a round screen is a collection of headliners she has collected during the election up until Trump became president. This entire piece looped for 8 and a half minutes. The message that both exhibitions are trying to get across is that we can’t be living the same way we are now. We as a society really needs to change. It is safe to say that capitalism is the foundation for the issues we are facing now both in media and in the environment. Our human responsibilities can be about money because money is the root to our end. If we want a better future, it starts with us.
“Even though we recognize that state of affairs is basically inevitable we’ve also become increasingly sophisticated at reading any piece of information for the power dynamics it might suggest.” (Nato Thompson, Seeing Power)
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