ASSESSMENT 2 - MAJOR PROJECT & CONCEPT STATEMENT
Art and design often explore relationships between humans and non-humans, the environment and ecology. How can contemporary art and design propose new possibilities for imagining the ‘human’ and the environment?
For assessment 2 I wanted to work on a project that expanded on the ideas from my poster design: portraying the damage done to the Great Barrier Reef - in fact, all reefs - through striking visual representation. I wanted to focus on perspective and how the human often perceives or rather doesn’t perceive the damage they cause.
Coral reefs are only ever observed when sought out. It is impossible for someone to comprehend the damage caused to entire ecosystems when they are submerged in the ocean, and aren’t visible to people who don’t work or live near those environments.
In my poster, I tried to convey this perspective through use of colour against white, with some commentary on the damage caused by tourism with a camera-style frame. However, this approach came off as more obtuse and vague, failing to capture the ideas I wanted to explore. So for this project I decided to create more depth by incorporating various elements that would all come together to create a more sophisticated product and convey a more compelling message.
This was inspired by my research into Ken Yonetani, who favoured having the material that is used in an artwork reflect the message being conveyed within it, as seen in his own Great Barrier Reef inspired work Sweet Barrier Reef.
My major project is a photo series book depicting the different ways in which coral reefs are damaged. In order to oppose the common misconceptions about the deterioration of coral reefs, I used fruits as the subject of my work.
Through substituting coral with organic objects that are far more common in everyday life, the audience is able to consider the harm inflicted upon the reefs. The comparison of each subject over time allows comparison of change - the pages in the book are even formatted so that the start and end of each cycle are visible at the same time.
This book is a compilation of different triggers of coral decay and death: changes in salinity, low tide/exposure, oxygen starvation, solar irradiance, increased water temperature and ocean acidification caused by increased CO2 levels.
I experimented with portraying these causes and more with different materials, some of the projects that did not succeed include the UV light, decreased temperature and dry ice experiments. I describe them as unsuccessful purely because they resulted in little to no visual change within the available timeframe given for each experiment. Given time and more resources however, I think this project could develop to include interesting visual displays of the triggers I was unable to show for this assessment.
My decision to include multiple different causes was in part inspired by Courtney Mattison, who described in response to her work how she wanted to inspire curiosity in her viewers. By displaying several different methods of destruction within the work, I hope to inform and interest the audience.
Mattison also described in relation to Our Changing Seas III, another coral reef inspired work, how the process of creating a work is also important for the final product. I took this in a different direction from her meticulous building process, instead embodying and embracing “process” by displaying the decay of a subject over time.
http://www.kenandjuliayonetani.com/sweet_barrier_reef.html
https://creators.vice.com/en_au/article/ez59ja/dying-coral-reef-installation-mimics-life
https://mission-blue.org/2014/05/art-brings-the-coral-reef-crisis-above-the-surface/
