Don't fuck with the planet, it's where I keep all my stuff...

"Scientists have confirmed that there are millions of tonnes of plastic floating in an area of ocean known as the North Pacific Gyre....currents have carried millions of tonnes of rubbish into the centre of the gyre, which now covers an area estimated to be larger than the US state of Texas."
This upsets me! no end. Seriously, we're f**king the planet! Ah well, I have heaps of plastic baby bottles, so maybe I can make something with them which represents my disgust more eloquently than words...


this is an installation which I made last year: 'Don't fuck with the planet, it's where I keep all my stuff!' (below) which was about air quality pollution... and our temporary cover measures... and that was pretty well a turning point for my work, which has been on an environmental bent ever since...

I'm having a frustrating day, where it feels like there is little I can do. I know, changing myself and my immediate circle is the best I can do...
but some days even that seems too hard, and like all humans, I get wrapped up in my own little world; having a cry about my fucked up hair cut (I got 'jackassed'... a large strip of no hair, so I'm now down to a grade one all over again...) seemed more immediate yesterday than the effect my existance has on the natural environment. I feel guilty about it, but that's the way life is sometimes. I have to continually remind myself that if I'm doing my best, I can't ask anymore of myself.

In other news...
Green Peace is using ice sculptures too... must be something in that eh? I have something somewhat like this planned for Wanganui, although, not on such a massive scale, and also to do with the RIVER as much as the global warming.. interesting.

One hundred days before governments meet in Copenhagen to decide what they will do to stop climate change.
One billion men, women and children in Asia facing drought from climate change.
Time is running out.
We need that climate summit to take fair and effective action to stop climate change, or like these ice children, our futures will melt away. These melting statues represent the melting glaciers in the Greater Himalayan region which are melting faster than ever before because of climate change.And without these glaciers more than one billion people will go thirsty.Western scientists and Chinese scientists agree on the accelerated melting.

Always.....

Fiona Hall | Australia b.1953 | Medicine bundle for the non-born child (detail) 1993–94 | Aluminium, rubber, plastic Layette comprising matinee jacket: 27.5 x 47.5 x 10cm, bootees: 7 x 5 x 8.5cm and bonnet: 13 x 13 x 6cm; rattle: 32 x 8.5 x 6cm; six-pack of baby bottles: 17 x 20 x 13cm | Purchased 2000. Queensland Art Gallery Foundation Grant | Collection: Queensland Art Gallery

Ai Weiwei: Han Dynasty Urn with Coca-Cola Logo, 1995; clay and paint; 12 x 12 x 12 in.; Sigg Collection.

Robert Rauschenberg (American, 1925-2008). Coca Cola Plan, 1958. Combine painting. 68 x 64 x 14 cm. (26 3/4 x 25 1/4 x 5 1/2 in.). The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, The Panza Collection.
Welcome to the World Famous Brand, the Luo Brothers, 2007

Also see Sharmila Shamant's work here.

So the coca-cola icon is by no means a stranger to contemporary art.
And it's not always being satirised, sometimes it's about recycling.
Although, that particular piece and the four related landmark sculptures, which, even I have to admit are pretty cool, were commissioned by coca-cola.. *twitch*
Coca-cola is a pet hate for me at the moment, though it is fairly hypocritical, because occasionally I still drink the stuff. What irrates me about it, however, is that it is cheaper than milk and bottled water! (not that we should be selling bottled water, but that's another issue/blog entirely...**) And with the developed world getting increasingly fatter... well.. you can see where I'm going with this.
It's not just the product, it's the way the corporation works, and its lack of ethics, particularly in developing countries. But it is also, in a sad way, symbolic of our times...


**Water is something we have a fundamental right to, and we shouldnt be charged almost 1000 times more for a bottle of the stuff than for tap water, but we shouldnt be exporting it at all. Production of the bottles costs more water than they hold, about 4 litres, and fucks the planet.