Reflection

Throughout the years, I have read many articles reporting on incidents of environmental disasters. Although these articles came from all across the world and reported on many different types of disasters, (oil spills, plastic pollution, overfishing, etc…) they all had one thing in common — other than the local wildlife, the most adversely affected group was almost always the poor, disadvantaged, or indigenous communities in the area. This struck me as extremely ironic: The ones polluting the Earth do not suffer the consequences, but the ones that do suffer are powerless to change the situation. Thus, the central message of this artwork materialised in my head: a portrayal of our world’s inequality using our effect on the oceans. Although the general mood of this artwork is dark, and perhaps a little hopeless, this is merely to emphasize the severity of our current situation. On paper, many people are aware of the pollution problem, but because we don’t feel the consequences of our actions just yet, not a lot of us are actually doing something about it. Moreover, among those that do want to take action, the scarcity and prohibitive price tags of eco-friendly alternatives often make it impossible for one to truly live green. Luckily though, our world can still be salvaged, and I want this artwork to serve as a wake-up call to all who view it, so that they may properly think about how they can change their daily routines to help save the oceans — and the world.