Reflection

Every winter, I went skiing with my family, and my favorite part wasn’t the sport itself, but rather being surrounded by nature, where I felt the most comfort and relief, away from human and societal interference. I loved the tightly packed trees, the soft snow that I would slide on, and the fresh wind that refreshed my mind and froze all my worries. We would even travel to other parts of the world where the mountains seemed more “untouched,” “pure,” and “real.” However, I eventually began to see the troubling paradox: in our pursuit of a more beautiful “nature,” we were destroying its natural beauty and wilderness, completely paving it with disastrous human influence. The fact that we were destroying the landscape and original habitat of wildlife disturbed me, as this was not the form of "nature" that I truly felt connected to or envisioned being surrounded by when I was skiing freely. Through this artwork, I wanted to explore the uneasiness and irony of a man-made “nature” by displaying two hands shaping a ski mountain-like figure and scooping it out of a pile of snow, along with panicked wildlife urgently fleeing from danger, including one rabbit caught by the hands, unable to free itself. While viewed from the outside, ski resorts may seem like a harmless enhancement of the natural beauty of our environment, but looking inside, we can uncover the destruction and loss of the truly important essence of nature that we want to preserve and surround ourselves with. Nature is essential for human survival and well-being; therefore, we cannot remain indifferent to its deterioration. To make the most of our environment, we need to rethink and carefully consider our choices.