Response Paper

Research Paper 3

Natacha Palay

Plastic Continents

            Landscapes aesthetics in practice

            The reasons for choosing Landscapes aesthetics in practice, as the main article to write a response paper to, seemed appropriate. The similarities between the projects they underwent and what I wish to set in motion with Plastic Continents, are striking . The artist creates a piece of art that is not only interactive, but create a momentum among its participants. The three landscape fieldwork projects have successfully engaged people with landscape change processes in varying degrees. These projects are not complete, and would be considered on-going pieces of art and research. I believe this article could be a primary reference for how I could develop and present my art project. 

            The idea that an artist could not create a piece of art as an art product, but a project that is interactive for its audience is a concept I find appealing. In the three landscape fieldwork projects, the research approach is participatory. The co-researchers are the artist and the people in the community. Whether the  participants were asked to draw, walk, or do both, the activities were seen as performative and catalytic. By creating a piece of art that isn't set on an exact theme the artist has worked solely, put things in motion, creating the a momentum for its viewers. Each participant becomes involved and attached to the work on a personal level, letting reactions and emotions to find their expression (formulate) through the artist acting as a catalyst, who allows the social and individual experiment to produce art.

Artists Christo and Jeanne-Claude underwent their projects with a specific motto: “l'on voit mieux les choses quand on les cache.” (We see things better once we have  hidden them).

A notion very close to what I envision(ed) Plastic Continents to portray. The ability to spread awareness and generate a constructive  response through  activist art, appealing to the hihest possible level of emotions and response, or what they call resilience of each audience member. By letting those engaged with the project on a personal level to come to the realization that change is needed and must begin.

            By having the viewers take part in the projects, the results obtained in the end are less prone to abide to political correctness, or basic pretense of good-doing, and will be authentic and sincere. When reflecting on ideas about how Plastic Continents should be presented, these two terms, authenticity and sincerity, play an important role.

In Felix Gonzalez-Torres piece “Untitled”(Portrait of Ross in L.A.) was an installation of 175 pounds of individually wrapped hard-candy. This was an allegorical representation of the artist's partner, Ross Laycock, who died of AIDS in 1991. The weight is significant, because it corresponded to Ross's ideal body weight. Audience members were encouraged to take a piece of candy from the pile. As the pile gradually decreased paralleled with Ross's weight loss and tribulation prior to his loss of life. When presenting Plastic Continents, the idea that the audience would be able to participate with the work of art and by doing so understand not only the problem at hand, but the big picture of this global ecological  catastrophe, is the result I would hope for. Individuals would then realize that a global problem can only begin to resolve to the individual and local level, by changing their habits first. The three landscape projects and Gonzalez-Torres's are simple, yet, to the point and evident. One, almost, doesn't need to read or know much about the subject to understand its significance, that's what makes them extraordinary.

            What is most appealing in the three landscape projects, is the open-ended aspect. It gives it a feel of a perpetual life and lets the artwork become memorable. Personally, the idea that viewers go to an exhibition, views the pieces of art, and then forget about it the next day is quite unnerving and discouraging, if the ultimate goal was not the self promotion of the artist, but her/his will to start a momentum of emotions, reactions, creations . A television commercial like the one expedited by Brita, to promote a tap water filtration system is an interesting example of creating a huge-positive changing impact. The ad showed a string of attached plastic water bottles extending to the horizon as a spectacular illustration of  the amount of plastic water bottles we consumed on a yearly basis can really add up, claiming that 300 hundred of those could be replaced by a single brita filter. This commercial created a huge sense of awareness amongst casual water drinkers, athletes, students, young or old, etc... It created a reaction and feelings in those who had seen the commercial. I have the conviction that the ones who have seen the ad, will durably associate a water bottle they might be on the verge of consuming, to that string of discarded plastic that could go three hundred times around the earth. And most likely debate on the necessity, or the legitimacy of their purchase. And just by enlightening one mind, can a momentum be started that will transform itself into a reaction and then into a change. It's a never-ending process in itself just like the three landscape fieldwork projects.

            Creating a piece of art that stands on a strictly activist stand point, might sound repetitive and purely rhetorical. Make it participative, interactive and open-ended, where the community and public guides its growth and intentions, and you've got yourself a “fun but deep way of learning and helping” art piece. Plastic Continents is exactly that. By creating an artwork made of situations, of collections of reactions and  that will let its viewers understand and acknowledge that they should not consider themselves as passively part of  an overwhelming global problem but that they can empower themselves to be part of its solution. Solving the plastic pollution that keeps bleeding into the our oceans and our deserts can only be through local and individual initiatives and plastic continent’s artistic activism could create such a catalytic reaction.