Installation
With my previous work surrounding the issue of oil pollution and its environmental effects, I wanted to continue with this topic when working towards a final outcome. I have admired Obama for his environmental work, he is a key player in working towards a cleaner planet and this was shown in his time of presidency. Under Obama the U.S government persuaded top emitter of greenhouse gasses China to announce an important fight against climate change. “Tackling climate change is a shared mission for man kind. Let us join hands and contribute to the establishment of an equalblie and effective global mechanism on climate change.” -Xi Jinping With Obama’s influence, China pledged to harvest 20 percent of their energy from non fossil fueled sources and signed onto the Paris agreement alongside the U.S. The Paris agreement aims are: (a) Holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2 °C above pre-industrial levels and to pursue efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 °C above pre-industrial levels, recognizing that this would significantly reduce the risks and impacts of climate change; (b) Increasing the ability to adapt to the adverse impacts of climate change and foster climate resilience and low greenhouse gas emissions development, in a manner that does not threaten food production; (c) Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development.” The Paris agreement currently has 143 parties signed on but this is now under threat. |
“Where there is a vision and where countries like China and US are prepared to show leadership and led by example, it is possible for us to create a world that is more prosperous and more free than the one left for us.” - Obama.
Another decision by Obama was to reject the plans for the Keystone XL Pipeline.
The pipeline was set to carry crude oil from Canada, through America and to the gulf of Mexico.
This would however cause detrimental effects due to the land that would be disrupted and built on.
Due to the high chances of leaks and explosions the pipeline would have, it would be an unreliable investment with damaging environmental impacts.
There were many people protesting, pledging for Obama to stop the pipeline plans, he listened and abolished the plans. He said it would neither be a long term benefit for the economy or the environment.
The pipeline was set to carry crude oil from Canada, through America and to the gulf of Mexico.
This would however cause detrimental effects due to the land that would be disrupted and built on.
Due to the high chances of leaks and explosions the pipeline would have, it would be an unreliable investment with damaging environmental impacts.
There were many people protesting, pledging for Obama to stop the pipeline plans, he listened and abolished the plans. He said it would neither be a long term benefit for the economy or the environment.
These plans are just two examples of the Obama's environmental work.
However since Donald Trump has come into presidency, his years of environmental developments have began to unravel. Since his presidency Trump has withdrawn America’s position in the Paris agreement and singed a deal to start the constructions of the keystone pipeline. The climate change page on the White House has been removed and now outlines Trump’s “America First Energy Plan,” which promises to roll back clean water rules and efforts to fight climate change.
These decisions have already caused a backlash amongst many environmentalists. Trump has even admitted he does not believe in global warming, posting many tweets expressing this:
With further research it has become apparent of the frictions between Trump and the Chinese government and the tensions that now lay between the two countries. Trump is now a major setback in encouraging the two largest emmiters of fossil fuels to join hands and fight climate change.
In my project I therefore wanted to focus my study to show the conflicts between China and America and the environmental issues both these countries have, looking at the pollution in both the U.S and China and their renewable energy alternatives.
In my project I therefore wanted to focus my study to show the conflicts between China and America and the environmental issues both these countries have, looking at the pollution in both the U.S and China and their renewable energy alternatives.
Construction
I wanted to use a space in which people could walk into; to create an experience and atmosphere for those inside. The choice of a narrow space was to make the space feel confined when inside and overpopulated; an issue China currently faces. I had technical assistance whilst constructing the shell of the exhibition which I directed throughout. This corridor like space was constructed from 8ft x 4ft length exhibition boards. Furthermore the shape and size of the space is similar to that of a shipping container, suggestive of importing and exporting. I began by painting the insides black to co-ordinate with the black and red colour scheme I want to use inside. This decision was due to red and black being typical oreintal colours showing the Chinese influence on my piece. |
My decision to use a red and black colour scheme reminded me of some the work by American conceptual artist Babra Kruger. Her work consists of black, white and red collages overlaid with declarative captions, addressing cultural constructions of power, identity, and sexuality. The colour and text of her collages are reminiscent of propaganda posters and with some of her work being on a larger scale the words and colours are stretched across spaces for people to walk in amongst. |
Chinese Translation
With many strong Christians believing God is in control of the world. I found it interesting to look into their views on climate change. Many believe global warming is part of God’s plan and is happening for a divine reason. I do however find myself challenging this view. With the idea of God being omnipotent, a recurring statement found in my research was this: ‘God controls the weather’.
I wanted to somehow include this statement and felt a translation of this into Simplified Chinese would show the Chinese relations to my projects.
I wanted to somehow include this statement and felt a translation of this into Simplified Chinese would show the Chinese relations to my projects.
上帝控制天气
(Shàngdì kòngzhì tiānqì)
(God controls the weather)
The original idea was to simply paint this translated sentence on a wall of the installation. However, once seeing inside of the space I thought it would be too flat. With Chinese characters being visually striking due to the varying shapes, I thought I could create something quite sculptural out of them instead. I created the letters out of sticks, burning and charring the wood to show the impact of fossil fuels and deforestation.
I streaked red gloss paint across a grey exhibition board as a base to put the sticks on top of, with the wood now being black from where it had been charred, it would maintain the oriental black and red colour scheme in my piece. To make sure the sculptures were illuminated enough, with technical assistance, holes were drilled into the board. These were filled with dowel, leaving enough dowel petruding out of the board to stick the sculptures on top of.
Once the exhibition boards were up in the space, I used black gloss paint to drip on top of the wooden structures giving an oil-like sheen to the Chinese characters as a symbol of oil pollution.
Koi Fish
Oil is formed from the sea creatures (such as fish) which feed on the ocean plants that trap sunlight. As these creatures die and become buried under sediment, slowly, over millions of years their soft parts turn to oil. The energy that was stored in their soft parts is now stored in the oil. I wanted to include a marine animal in my exhibition to show this cycle. Due to a koi fish being a traditional Chinese symbol and commonly having red scales I felt it would be ideal to feature in the installation.
The idea with the collage was to use multiple images and textures to create one large image. A key example of this is seen in artist David Hockeny's photo montages. He called these sort of collages 'joiners' with some of them exploring the movement and angles of the subject, especially with his portraiture work, similar to that of Picasso's cubist experiments . On the far left is one of Hockney's most famous joiners of an american highway. This is constructed from thousands of smaller pictures from the rubbish on the ground to the horizon backdrop.
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As mentioned in my introduction I take an interest in collage pieces created in the Dada era. This is the work of German artist Hannah Hoch. I love her decision making in piecing together these obscure images. Her work is political and punchy with particular focus on women in modern society. In my collage I included images of Donald Trump and oil company logos, representing the politics involved with trade in the oil industry. |
Afterwards I added a few more layers to give the fish more texture and varying shapes. I used some different plastics, pictures and, quite randomly, the top of a large dried mushroom.
The choice to drip red and black gloss on the fish was to match the black gloss falling from the Chinese letters. Reinforcing the idea of oil spilling and dripping downwards. This downward drip motion also represents the oil moving underground, being pulled below surface level.
Drip/Tree
With drips being used in hospitals to replace vital fluids, I wanted to consider oils vitality and how its supply is running short. Through filling up a drip with oil and attaching it to the collage koi fish I could show, even though it's formed from fish, it now poisons them and their oceans. Furthermore, with the purpose of an intravenous drip being to help a person's health and life, I could show in the context of oil pollution, it had the opposite of harming and killing the koi fish. These are some initial experiments working out the technicalities of how to hang and fill up a drip.
I used red and black food colouring with water as liquid to put in the drip. I found it interesting to put the drip in an unexpected space and out of the context of hospital, something I would also attempt in my installation.
I was inspired by Giuesspe Penone's work to include a tree in my piece. His work explores the contact between man and nature and the human imprint on the planet. I wanted to show this in my piece also. Through hanging a oil drip from the tree, it shows the fuel industries reliance on nature to hold and keep it going. |
These are some images of the drip fixed to the tree and connected to the koi fish.
Music
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With music being such an important partner to film, I editied a piece of music for the final video. I knew I wanted to use a Bjork song entitled ‘Black Lake’ as a the main theme for the video. I’m always amazed by her dynamic melodies and dark themes and ideas. A few lyrics in the song that I feel are relevant to the environment and was particularly drawn to are: ‘ Black with poison, drowning in this ocean’ ‘ I am bored of your apocalyptic obsessions’ ‘ As I enter the atmosphere I burn off layer by layer’ |
With this being a 10 minute piece of music, I wanted to shorten it and experiment with remixing in another song: Teardrop by Massive Attack. The drums on this track were easily looped and inergrated into the Bjork song meaning I could make a smoother transition in-between tracks. |
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On top of this I added in some of my own vocals. An immediately apparent lyric that came to mind was ‘I see a red door and I want to paint it black’ from the Rolling Stones song ‘Paint it Black’. With it being such a well know rock song, I felt I could take the lyrics and put them in a new context; in my installation I have literally painted black over the red colours of the koi fish and Chinese lettering. |
Finally, using a MIDI keyboard, I created some melodies using the 'Chinese Guzheng Zither' and 'Chinese Dizi Flute' plug-ins. I felt these instruments would again reinforce the Chinese influences of my piece so that even the sounds of the instillation had a hint of the oriental in.
Film
The choice to include film was something I had always wanted to incorporate in my final piece. I feel film can be used effectively to revisit moments: warping our sense of time.
Linking back to Obama’s passion for the environment, I could use film as a reminder of his involvement in working towards a greener future. I wanted to contrast this with the views of Donald Trump and the evidence of his disbelief of global warming. I wanted my film to show the cutting differences between Trump and Obama’s environmental stance. To show the impacts of Chinese and U.S. industrialisation and the weakened relationship these countries now have due to Trump coming into power.
As mentioned at the start I am focusing on two particular decisions Trump has already made that have vast negative environmental impacts; pulling out of the Paris Climate agreement and allowing the Keystone XL pipeline to be built.
I found this short video really helpful in giving an overview of Trump's environmental views. In my video I combined some audio from this with clips of pollution in China for I felt real life footage was more effective when paired with this narration. |
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The pace of the video was the most important thing I had to consider. I find the marriage of music and film a very important one so getting footage to match and stay in time with the music was a challenge. As explained above, the music was edited to suit the purpose of the film meaning I was super concise with my edits to fit certain beats or changes in tempo.
In previous film projects I have included more complex editing techniques, however I wanted to focus this video on the content and narrative, free from the distractions of elaborate transitions and overlaying of clips.
In previous film projects I have included more complex editing techniques, however I wanted to focus this video on the content and narrative, free from the distractions of elaborate transitions and overlaying of clips.
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Here is a starting experiment linking to my work under Oil Experiments, playing around with the pace of clips in order to successfully build tension. I did however feel the recurrence of the rose felt too repetitive and therefore less successful in building towards a climax. In the next stages of editing I used a variety of clips instead, taking queues from the music to make the transitions more smooth and subtle. |
Initally my video was focused around Obama, Trump, and Xi Jinping, but the editing process and footage selection made me aware of United States senator Bernie Sanders. Being a strong environmentalist I found his views on Trump great to include, speaking on behalf on all those who care about the environment and climate change. ''If the environment were a bank, it would have been saved by now'' - Bernie Sanders |
This is the final video. It combines a wide variety of footage that I have carefully pieced together to construct a narrative. I am happy with the turn out and feel I have been able to apply many of my previously learnt skills to create a informative and engaging piece.
Vimeo Link: https://vimeo.com/214912675
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