This piece is called Plastic Ocean, and it was created by Tan Zi Xi. Its nickname among fans is the “laureate of waste”. It is a reimagination of the waste produced by humans, as well as a visual of how parts of the ocean look. There is a very strong pro-recycling message delivered here with the artist’s creation along with a taste of creativity in their repurposing of the waste of humans. The artwork is suspended over the viewer, giving the impression of impending doom. Once you are in, you are enveloped, and no escape from the pollution seems possible. It completely swallows the viewer, rendering calm unreachable. It is a commentary on the major pollution in our waters and shows the diversity and mass of the litter being thrown into the ocean. At the same time this work of art is in fact saving all of the litter involved in the project from being projected into the ocean, so I think that that is a good thing. This work ties in pretty obviously with a lot of the themes that we have been discussing in class, most notably with those of climate change and nature. The destruction of nature is catastrophic and must be stopped. The pollution in the ocean is one of the front men in the attack against nature. I’m sure we all remember the VSCO girls of 2019 trying to save the turtles. Well, we made fun of them too much and now they’re gone. Littering is talked about a lot in Flight Behavior as well as the overall subject of climate change, but the “text” this piece reminded me of most was definitely Anthropocene. The visual is very indicative of the piles and piles of waste that were depicted in the movie along with extremely chilling facts, as well as the parts about the ocean that was equally disturbing. The ocean makes up the majority of our planet, as it is being treated like it makes up 1%. It’s simply unacceptable, especially given how little we actually understand and know about it and thus about the possible consequences. This piece relates to the other works shown here in relation to extinction and the victimization and trivializing of nature and its inhabitants. The extinction tree shown below could easily be full of marine life, and the boat shown below that shows the separation of humanity from nature, specifically the endangered parts of nature.

This piece is called Tree of Extinction, and it was created by Alexis Rockman. It was created in 2018 and includes the Dimetrodon, which has been extinct for 242 million years, the Elkhorn coral, which is critically endangered, the Dodo bird, which finally met its end in 1681, the Thylacine, which is extinct, and the Bornean Orangutan, which is critically endangered. It is a truly beautiful piece with a chilling message. These animals climb this tree, or rather this tree blossoms them, and they travel the path from endangerment to extinction. Rockman explains that he was inspired to make this piece after first hearing about climate change from a friend in 1994. Back then he had hoped that humanity would pull it together but alas, he was wrong. He says that, “The idea of sacrificing for the future seems ridiculous to most people when they are entrenched in a daily struggle for survival” (Rockman). This of course is extremely indicative of something that Dellarobia experienced in Flight Behavior. She basically says something exactly like this to the pamphlet guy. I think the background colors of this piece are interesting as well. Blue and red. I feel like the red could definitely represent fire, but I’m not sure what the blue would be, symbolically. This piece relates to the themes discussed in Anthropocene, as there is literally a section in the movie that just lists endangered and basically extinct animals. The artwork underneath this one features foliage that will soon face danger, the same way that the organisms pictured here are facing or have already faced extinction. The orangutan seems to be fading into the background, already being swallowed up by the gullet of extinction. The perspective of the tree seems to have placed it above us, like it is looming and leering over us, similar to how the plastic construction by Tan Zi Xi looms and leers over its audience. It implicates the audience. it causes fear and unease. The destruction of animals is something that might be lessened were we to take Kimmerer’s approach and begin viewing them as equals. Then again, the genocide of people groups, religious groups, and race groups among humans is still all too common. Perhaps instead of learning about respecting other groups in this world, we should learn not to wipe out entire populations just because we feel like it on Wednesday morning and we have the guns to go about it.

This piece is called Swale, and it was created by Mary Mattingly. It was launched in 2016 and is a biodegradable ship holding a community garden. People were invited to board and eat of the plants that were growing there. On the one hand, it’s a bringing together of people and nature. By giving a space where people can come specifically to commune with other nature enthusiasts and plants, it is indeed a very positive thing. And it is biodegradable to boot. On the other hand, I think it shows and is indicative of the ever lengthening distance between humans and nature. People literally have to go to a boat, far away from their homes and what they know, to do this. And it’s shown in such a dystopian way too. One slice of green sailing around a city full of skyscrapers and metal. Even most of the sky looks grey in this photo, the buildings dully colored against the green and white of the boat. The word “swale” means a shady spot, a resting place. That is indeed what this is meant to be in the face of chronic, unstoppable civilization. In our course texts, we see themes of humans being separated from nature in Braiding Sweetgrass, where Kimmerer is trying to bring the two back together, in Flight Behavior, where Dellarobia attempts to get her community to realize the value of the Monarchs and not logging the forest and climate change, in Six Impossible Things Before Breakfast, where the importance of gardening and cooking directly from the Earth are stressed and the processization of American dining is criticized, and in The Seed Keeper, where the main character is told by her case person that she was “unlucky” to have grown up the way that she did, though she was surrounded by nature, and later where the main character weeps for the fallen trees in her old forest. These themes pop up everywhere, as they are directly related to the content of the course books that we have been studying centered around caring for nature and animals and being wary about and taking action to fight climate change. Although at the beginning of term we talked about how literature and art surrounding this topic are rare given their tendency to make people feel implicated and uncomfortable and given the tendency of people to hate feeling implicated and uncomfortable, it is clear that it is out there if you only look for it.