Eco Art and Sustainability
Thistle Sign
When visiting a dear friend, I have always wondered about a sign that hangs at the foot of the driveway. The sign has always been empty to my knowledge, just a rusty iron empty frame. To passersby, I'm sure they hardly notice, but to me it was a source of inspiration. Filling the sign using only nature, a thistle flower. A thistle flower symbolizes power, pain and protection.
The sign symbolizes a bittersweet journey of my life, showing that although at times people and situations are beautiful, pain can come from experiences too. With this pain from the experience, the power to overcome and protect yourself and the one's you love.
I had never thought I could gain so much meaning using only a simple natural living item, but now understand that nature has power to inspire and make deep connections within ourselves if we only give it a chance to do so.
Sustainability can be seen, demonstrated, and practiced in almost all areas of life, but more specifically in social, political, and environmental capacities. Sustainability has been defined differently and in its various contexts. Blandy (2011) defines the practice of sustainability as, “the ‘ability of a place or a community to meet the needs of its current citizens without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their full range of human needs” (p. 245). Sustainability can be broken down into three different areas within art education. First, the ability to maintain or avoid the depletion of natural resources and decrease the individual’s and/or classroom environments carbon footprint within the art studio and its practices. Second, understanding the needs of the community and environment and providing gifts to assist in its sustainability. Finally, researching and modeling contemporary artists and their practices, creating works to show the impact of depleting natural resources and show cause as to why sustainability is vital in our 21st century environment.
Sustainability with the classroom first starts with the educator. The educator must understand and model sustainability and ecological restoration practices in the classroom, embrace participatory culture, and focus on preparing students to perform a level of democracy within their works, aesthetic experiences, and critical discussions (Blandy, 2011). Hasio and Crane (2014) advocate in teaching students the seven Rs of sustainability: rethink, redesign, reduce, reuse, renew, refurbish and recycle. These list of seven can help provide a framework for art educators to investigate within their own practices as well as a students use of materials, media and subject matter. Considering the amount of waste produced form creating and making, should always be in consideration. “Unabashed advocacy of arts education practices without attention to art production involving consumption and waste-as-squandering has overlooked inherent problematics tied to sustainable practices” (Slivka, 2012, p. 313). Having informed educators in the classroom, discussing these new practices in art production will in turn provide a brighter future for other generations.
For students to understand the needs of their community is vital to sustainability practices. Not only is the community defined as a geographical location of a city, town, but also the community within the school itself. Educators must create an environment for students to appreciate the natural world around them (Inwood & Sharpe, 2018), and possibly have students help in creating beneficial works to help their natural environments in the school and where they live. As educators, we need to have an understanding of our local community and its needs to properly influence student learning to be a productive application to promote change. For example, Stephen Carpenter, an art educator and potter dedicated to having everyone have access to clean water, has been creating portable ceramic water filters and distributing them to under-developed communities for over ten years (Slivka, 2012). Making sure students are aware of the community and its needs is imperative to this endeavor of practicing sustainability within the classroom and ensuring its impact into the everyday lives of students.
Understanding that students realize the pressing issues within society and how this is shaping our world, should be at the forefront in art education. Art can promote social change because it is created and seen. Not only can art be created and seen, it is also an experience within the realms of creating and viewing works. Sustainability and ecological art has been in existence since the late 1960s and early 1970s by scientists, environmentalists, and artists (Fleming, 2014; Blandy, Congdon, & Krug, 1998).
Examining contemporary artists and their practice through different avenues of how each addresses climate change will allow for students to connect to the artwork on a deeper, more meaningful level (Inwood, 2010). Exploring the artists’ work through various themes such as: placed-based work, natural and/or reusable media and materials, and subject matter. Contemporary artists and their practices involve diverse ways to utilize the natural world within their works: conducting place-based learning, utilizing natural and/or reusable materials and media, and emphasizing the subject matter of sustainability within works (Inwood, 2010; Kothe, Maute, & Brewer, 2015; Inwood & Sharpe, 2014; Art21, 2011). Contemporary artists, Jean Shin and Mark Dion, repurpose materials and give them new life and meaning by constructing a point of view focused on the compulsive consumption of the material world and how to combat it (Art 21, 2011; Jean Shin). Facing the problem head on, creating works that focus on the subject matter of sustainability and its impact is of utmost importance. Photographer Rober Adams reveals the devastation from deforestation within his photographs, breaking through to the heart of the viewer, revealing a sorrowful mourning of the land that was once vibrant and alive (Art 21, 2011). “Situations and solutions need to appear concrete - only then can we act” (Berling, 2013, p.39). Students can act once they have seen the contrasting and comparable compositions depicting sustainability, composing a voice and call to action within their own work.
Change through educating students in sustainability practices, including understanding the needs of the local community and what contemporary artists have done on the subject is important, but most of all modeling sustainability is vital. As a student, I have changed behaviors for the better in that I no longer print out articles but utilize my iPad’s Adobe Acrobat app to highlight and mark any important information. As an educator, I will continue to use upcycled materials and with the start of next year challenge students to use what tools and media they have at their disposal at home. Within my home life, I am instilling the seven Rs of sustainability within my children. As an artist, lately I have been utilizing items I have placed in memory boxes of the years, old artwork, as well as worn out clothes all having sentimental value. After reading Thorpe’s (2010) concepts on consumption and the materialism in the world today, I often find myself asking, “is this needed?” With everything that has gone on in the past three months, we as humans have shown that we can live with less and do less, keep it simple.
For a graphic version of this research brief please go to: https://issuu.com/mewzarts/docs/sustainability_-_globalization_and_me