Eugenie (Yu Hsuan) Hsueh
Timea Tihanyi
Art 260 2016 Autumn
Extra Credit event: Pioneer Sqaure First Thursday Art Walk
First look at the Weather Station by Ashley Nason wouldn’t really ring a bell, in fact one would find it quite cute with the polar bear and the huskies seeming to be just hanging around, however, taking a closer look at the art work, one would find hints here and there that reminds us of the critical issues we are facing today. The polar bear lying on the remaining part of an iceberg, with the huskies holding the iceberg together or keeping it from floating away only with a sting of rope. Her painting points out the environmental issues and the changes in the existence of the natural world as pollution, overconsumption, and other misuse of resources effect the world we live in today.
On the planet Earth, the place we call home, we search to make it a better place, a more convenient place for humans, but we neglected in putting attention to the consequences. We develop new sites with the help of technology, but at the same time, mother nature fights back when limit is reached and that limit is something that we, as humans, keep breaking in order to make ourselves feel better or to achieve what we want. It is evident in her work how mother nature fights back with the car pollution and pollution from factories creates the black rain and that remaining iceberg.
With the animals, she indicates that it is not only the environment that we are hurting, we are also taking away the living space of animals, their rights to live on this planet, their home, just like us. When we look at the painting, we realize that we are taking away the house, the living space, and the right to live of animals and causing harm to nature, what we don’t realize is when we do what we do, we are also harming ourselves, our family, and those that are after us. Her work raises the awareness that what we do now will be affecting us later on, and it’s important to know that the damages that we’ve done cannot be undone.