Mahima Vadlamani Art H 309
Final Project
December 11th, 2023
An Explanation
My group's project focused on the epidemic of capitalistic tendencies within individuals which we then compared to a zombie apocalypse in order to make a comparison that would be easily digestible to audiences while still driving home our
point. Originally, it was very much just about the virus, until we started truly analyzing the nature of our sources and realized that many Indigenous perspectives added in aspects of hope. Since much of our project was based off Indigenous values, we realized that we needed to add hope to our project. And so, the cure was added to our project, which is what I primarily focused on.
Thesis
Through analyzing artwork, Rifkin’s words, and Indigenous Perspectives from
Skawennati and Rose B. Simpson, I put together that their common factor of reversing climate change was the idea of personal responsibility which is ultimately the only way to enact change onto the climate change that we have caused.
The Inspiration
My first inspiration was “The Peacemaker Returns” by Skawennati. This artwork showcased an Indigenous story that was put into three different timelines. By showcasing the scariest and most disagreeable person as someone who is then able to change and work towards a common goal, Skawennati showcases a facet of hope, even when it seems hopeless, which was one of the first true reasons that I had for knowing that there needed to be a cure for the zombie virus, as it emphasized that even
while there is a disease, there needs to be hope for change since that aligns with Indigenous perspectives that we pulled from for the rest of our project. (Skawennati, The Peacemaker Returns, 2017. Film still.)
Other pieces that inspired me were from our course book.
Life of Objects was one that by showcasing the crumbling weight of materialistic goods on the person below, inspired me because it showed the ramifications on our
individual selves if a cure was not found- it was a need to have some sort of saving grace or else we would be crushed. (Mary Mattingly, Life of Objects, 2013. Archival pigment print, 30x30)
Nocturnal Gardening showcased the pioneering practices to reengage with nature and choose resistance over capitalism and all of them are choosing to uplift voices of minorities and reunite them with the Earth and with this it shows how communities can come together and fight the effects of capitalism. (Melanie Bonajo,
Night Soil - Nocturnal Gardening, 2016. Film still. Single-channel HD colour video with sound, 49:47 mins.) This piece focuses on how each of the different people are fighting colonialism in their own way either through starting a community organic garden for the black community or a Navajo woman who was striving to reunite people with Earth. (Fowkes, M., & Fowkes, R.) This artwork went into the lives of people in order to document their efforts and by doing that was a great example of how people are going outside of what is easy in order to strive to reconnect people with the earth in the fight against climate change.
The Inland Projects exist to showcase how people can live in relation to nature-in a similar way to the eco villages that we learned about from the Gaia foundation. This space operates for land based collaboration which solidifies the idea of coming together for a solution. (Fernando García Dory, Inland, Project. 2009-outgoing).
Lastly from the course book was a piece called Humo sobre los humedelas
which showcases a protest against Chile’s choice to cancel the UN Climate Conference. This shows an individual at the forefront which shows how the individual is fighting against the greater, more powerful presence. This piece by showing the individual in the
overall protest is a great example of the power of one person and how they are fighting to protect the environment. This showed up in my project by inspiring me to know that the person does not have to be powerful to inspire change and also that the person can fight against those more powerful entities when needed. (Barbara Marcel, Humo sobre los humedales (Smoke over the wetlands), 2019-2020. Full HD video, colour, sound, approx. 90 mins. Film still.)
In her interview, Rose B Simpson stated how she believed that the issues to do with people stemmed from their ability to sit in their climate grief and feel a lack of agency. These sentiments were those that really stuck with me, since as seen in the artwork, the agency was what made the differences. Her words inspired me to know that agency was so important in the sense of attempting to fix the issues created by climate change and to not be complacent. She mentions applied creativity in a sense of
trying to figure out how we can achieve our goals in a more creative way so as to not fall into easy capitalistic solutions. (With Applied Creativity we can heal, “Routledge companion”)
Indigenous Beliefs
In our project, we wanted to talk about the importance of Indiegenous
Perspectives when we talked about climate change as we all felt a strong influence by the readings that we did in class on the topic. From our reading, Nicholas Galanin mentioned how climate change is not some new phenomena for Indigenous people as they have been dealing with it since colonialism. (Indigenous Media: Dialogic
Resistance to Climate Disruption)
This is backed up by how pollution has been affecting Indigenous land along the Ohio River and how they appear to be sinks for pollution and how that has been a way of the United States emphasizing power as a form of colonialism. (Pollution is
Colonialism)
What do these both have in common? Colonialism is creating issues due to its inherent greed. This greed is clearly also an issue which needs to be addressed.
However, with this, Indigenous people already have many solutions as they have been fighting for a while.
The Sámi people are people that are Indigenous to the European subcontinent and have been forced to live under policies that harm their ability to fish in environmentally friendly ways and are fighting back to be able to use their knowledge to fish in better ways. Their resistance shows their solution but also their strength. (Gelderloos)
Rifkin
In our readings of Rifkin, I took away two major points. The first being his definitions of efficiency, which is made to cost higher ups less money in a capitalistic society, and resilience, which is made to strengthen the community against obstacles. (Rifkin) From his idea of efficiency, I took away how it doesn’t seem to protect the bottom line, and yet they are still willing participants.
This is something that seems to be very prevalent. Many rich and wealthy politicians deny climate change since accepting it would lead to having to change the way that businesses operate which could lead to less profits for them. In fact, they give
off subsidies (5 trillion dollars!) to the fossil fuel industries. (Climate Change a Very short Introduction)
So how do we cure it? That brings me to the second point that I took away. Rifkin shares how he believes that our ancestors were more in tune with the environment around them while we are more indoors and since we cannot directly see our impacts, we tend to absolve ourselves from feeling true responsibility (Rifkin). This responsibility was something that was also touched on by Rose B Simpson, someone who truly
inspired me for this cure and so I was able to see similarities in how they emphasized personal responsibility and not shying away from the realities. (With Applied Creativity we can heal, “Routledge companion”)
From Rifkin, what I realized is that he emphasizes how we are now comfortable in our society, in being cogs in a machine to help higher ups be more efficient. So from this, I realized that the first part of the cure is personal consciousness. We need to be
conscious that we are cogs in a machine in order to start to break apart from it. In terms of the zombie, the first step of the cure is realizing that you have transformed into a zombie in the first place.
What is “The Cure” and How do we Obtain it?
As emphasized earlier, the cure is NOT a physical object. The zombie is overrun by materialistic goods-they are relatively easy to obtain, they are convenient. The cure cannot be convenient because it requires looking inward and making true, uncomfortable change within oneself.
The cure involves taking action. It involves learning about Indigenous perspectives and all of their ideas that they already have regarding fighting against climate change as well as of subsistence and resilience in order to look inward and utilize those in our everyday lives. We also have to take back our agency. As shown in many of the artworks, change is started by a few people with ideas that they have generated and by showcasing their beliefs and thoughts. We cannot be complacent but rather take on the idea that while we are individuals, we have a lot of power in changing our actions and influencing the actions of others. By reconnecting with nature we can find our sense of responsibility in helping it thrive.
Through the artwork and the words and thoughts of Indigenous communities, what we’ve found through this project is that we need to fight against the capitalistic
ideas of continuing to consume when we can instead focus on how we can be better. For example, working to buy less useless commodities for the sake of looking flashy.
Buying less into trends. Holding companies accountable for their terrible actions (some of which are outlined in Sritha’s section). The cure involves looking inward but also extending the rafters to bring in others to fight against the virus.
My section of the project reflected hope-however it also reflects the need to make a true change and work on oneself in order to break out of the norm that we live in and figure out how we can make a greater impact in the fight against climate change.
Obviously, it has been done before as shown in the artwork that I chose as my inspiration. They have been working hard to fight back, and so can the general population.
The Artwork
Skawennati, The Peacemaker Returns, 2017. Film still.
Fernando García Dory, Inland, Project. 2009-outgoing
Barbara Marcel, Humo sobre los humedales (Smoke over the wetlands), 2019-2020.
Full HD video, colour, sound, approx. 90 mins. Film still.
Mary Mattingly, Life of Objects, 2013. Archival pigment print, 30x30
Melanie Bonajo, Night Soil - Nocturnal Gardening, 2016. Film still. Single-channel HD colour video with sound, 49:47 mins.
Works Cited
Barbara Marcel, Humo sobre los humedales (Smoke over the wetlands), 2019-2020.
Full HD video, colour, sound, approx. 90 mins. Film still.
Demos, T. J., et al. The Routledge Companion to Contemporary Art, Visual Culture, and Climate Change. Routledge, Taylor & Francis Group, 2021.
Fernando García Dory, Inland, Project. 2009-outgoing
Fowkes, M., & Fowkes, R. (2022). Art and climate change. Thames and Hudson. Gelderloos, Peter. “The Solutions Are Already Here.” The Solutions Are Already Here:
Strategies for Ecological Revolution from Below, Pluto Press, 2022, pp. 88–145.
JSTOR, https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctv28vb1wq.7. Accessed 11 Dec. 2023.
Liboiron, Max. Pollution Is Colonialism. Duke University Press, 2021.
Melanie Bonajo, Night Soil - Nocturnal Gardening, 2016. Film still. Single-channel HD colour video with sound, 49:47 mins.
Mary Mattingly, Life of Objects, 2013. Archival pigment print, 30x30
Maslin, Mark, and Mark Maslin. Climate Change: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford University Press, 2021.
Rifkin, Jeremy. The Age of Resilience: Reimagining Existence on a Rewilding Earth. St.
Martin’s Press, an Imprint of St. Martin’s Publishing Group, 2022.
Skawennati, The Peacemaker Returns, 2017. Film still.