Reflection

My family roots in a rural low-income town in China, and I distinctly remember asking my mom why our sky was grey or why our water was dull yellow. The whole conservation movement is about “protecting” nature from people or “preserving” this wilderness that is separate from us. We like to think of ourselves as ordained to dominate this planet and deem nature less, but we are part of nature. This superiority allows the bourgeoisie to colonize nature in the name of modernization or industrialization all while turning back on people in the disadvantaged community. This environmental racism is manifesting in Flint today, where its water crisis has been going on since 2014, as the pollution of Cancer Alley in Louisiana, and the dumping of electronic waste in Ghana. But as the sea rises higher, the temperature burns warmer, the air grows thicker, and industrialization is weaponized through petro-capitalist extraction. I painted on raw wood to capture the pristine state of nature, which contrasts with streaks of crimson bloodshed on the wood. Infrastructures represented by the highway tearing their flesh open while the white smoke coming in the background accelerates global warming. The monochrome spiral portrays all the organisms we have forgotten in the 6th mass extinction. As an endangered animal, Ursus maritimus should not be the next in the spiral. They are hurting, and painting can inspire a movement to transform the Anthropocene into a sanctuary.