Nina
One of the strong inspirations I had for this was Haraway’s Camille Stories, (2017) and the theme of symbiosis. In this art piece, I aimed to display a connection and relationship between the bottle, plant sculptures and the butterfly on the top of the bottled. The sculpture displays the small ecosystem literally supporting the other pieces and giving each other not just an ecosystem but also a purpose. This art piece is supposed to represent symbiosis, ecosystems, reclamation by nature and recycling of materials. The three class formulated questions addressed in this essay can be found in the appendix of the paper.
Another piece of inspiration I had due to the availability of glass in my house was the use of glass as a recyclable art material. I thought of this due to the fact that my recyclable glass hasn’t been picked up for a long time and I enjoy the visual aspects of glass art. I also saw the idea of ‘bottle trees’ which are a southern tradition of putting blue glass bottles on the trees to ward off unwanted spirits (Skaggs, 2019). This gave me more inspiration for using plants and glass together as a medium, ultimately inspiring me to combine a bottle with plant sculptures. Originally I wanted to do a broken glass sculpture, however, I realized I didn’t have the tools to do that safely so I decided on making a sculpture piece on the bottle itself. Then I found some playdough that I had and became inspired art that I had seen of “alien gardens” by Sherstin Schwartz (Schwartz, 2020). She sculpts “alien gardens” which are various plant-like sculptures put together into a garden scene (Schwartz, 2020). I decided to make my own ecosystem by sculpting plants around this bottle, going to the top of the bottle. Then at the top of the bottle to put a butterfly, to relate to the symbiosis of Camille and her animal partner in the Camille Stories (Haraway, 2017).
In order to address the art question, I do not generally create art, although this quarantine has allowed me to do so more. In this case, this art was given substance by my definition and meaning assigned to it. This was a very individual piece and I felt very internally reflective while creating and so I was able to claim this artwork. Since it is a small piece with a low amount of viewers that I am interacting with I believe that I will determine it impacts. The ethical considerations of the art’s creation seems to bring into question what responsibility does an artist have when creating something that has the possibility to reach large audiences who can then determine the impact? Do they have any responsibility?
Question 2 is about landscape and representation. The landscape that I tried to represent was a sculptural ecosystem and I wanted it to reflect values of symbiosis and land reclamation through nature. These values of connection and reclamation were represented by the climbing of the plants around the bottle, the bottle and plants supporting each other and the butterfly at the top of the bottle. The plants are reclaiming the bottle back into nature.
Question 3 is addressing art on a global scale. Another aspect of the environment that I wished to express in this art piece was the recycling systems. The reason I wanted to use a glass bottle for this was because our glass recycling hasn’t been picked up for a long time and now we as individuals need to find a way and place to take our glass to recycle it. It is important to push past small inconveniences as an individual to help with environmental impacts, which brings up the ethical considerations of this art piece.
In conclusion my art piece for the final is about the symbiosis between creatures then reclamation of nature and man made things. This art piece allowed me to claim my own art and to be more aware of and in control of the message of my art. I created a sculptural ecosystem and tried to create a connection and relationship between the bottle and different sculptural elements. Then the idea of recycling and returning materials to the earth was related to the mediums that I chose. Overall this piece has meaning to me and relates to many different aspects of the class questions and environmental art that we have studied.
Appendix
The questions addressed in this essay are “Question 1: What gives art substance and who gets to define what art is, who gets to create it, claim it, determine its impact?, Question 2: What meanings and values are produced by or reflected in landscapes, and their constructions and representations, and how? And Question 3: How can we make decisions on a global scale about the environment through art, while considering power dynamics and diverse environments on a local level?”.
References
Skaggs, H. (2019). Build Your Own Bottle Tree Like Southerners Do and Make Recycled Yard Décor. https://www.wideopencountry.com/bottle-trees-uniquely-southern-tradition/
Schwartz, S. (2020). LifeofAPaintBrush. https://www.instagram.com/lifeofapaintbrush/?hl=en
Haraway, D. (2017). The Camille Stories: Children of the Compost.
