Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bombs, ephemeral, monies, opinion, politics, public, walking
when the iraq war began in 2003, i was a sophmore in high school. it took me awhile to figure out where exactly i stood on the issue. my father supported the president while my mother didn’t take much of a stance either way. friends at school were mostly apathetic but a few took a firm stance against it. i decided to do my own research since i don’t believe it is acceptable to take a side without knowing as much of the facts as possible. after extensive research on a convincing reason(s) why we were entering this war that i found nothing. at least no solid answer that swayed me to take the supportive side. and that is when my political activism began, the spring semester of my junior year. i did everything i could to stay informed and attended anti-war and peace rallies whenever i could. this continued right up until my first year of college, when the news stopped becoming as important and making time to protest was becoming harder and harder. and then this assignment, as well all the readings provided, came along and served as the motivation to get going again.
i found this website: nationalpriorities.org which allows you to see how much money the country, your specific state and even town, has spent on the iraq war. the numbers are astounding and i felt like they needed to be shared. also, i drew inspiration from the ”eyes wide open” piece. i think that seeing a mass amount of anything makes people feel overwhelmed as well as forces them to deal with it. which is what i wanted to do, and hope it was accomplished.
for this piece, i took play money and wrote statistics i had found on the nationalpriorities website. i then placed them in high traffic areas that blocked the normal route someone would take. this was meant to force the person to interact with it, to decide wither to leave it or destroy it, to walk on it or over it. i did this all early in the morning as to avoid being seen, and used my lomo fish-eye camera since it is less conspicuous then an slr with a tripod. i went back later in the day to see what was left up and what was taken down and was pretty surprised with the outcomes. especially since i had no expectation of seeing anything when i returned.
though not as many people saw them as i would have liked, i’m happy to know that they were at least out in the world. that it was at least read by the person who had to pick them up and hopefully recycle them. that some sort of discussion can be had about this wasteful spending.
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: bombs, dirty, flowers, growth, lots, soil, walking
it took me a really long time to figure out what it was i wanted to do for this weeks project. i didn’t want to do something predictable, like actual graffiti. so i was just thinking and thinking and couldn’t come up with anything that i could have gotten done in time for friday. i know, i know, i should have met the deadline but i’d rather do a piece that i actually like a lot and turn it in a couple days late then one that means nothing to me on time.
what i ended up coming up with was this:
flower bombs. or at least that’s what i’m calling them. originally i wanted to plant flowers throughout my neighborhood in vacant lots, but my concern was their upkeep after being planted. but then, i found this group who was interested in the same thing i was. http://guerrillagardening.org/ i took a spin on their seed bombs and used earthworm castings and wildflower seeds meant to flourish in the southwest. as all cities, ours is growing at a very quick rate. i remember reading an article about a year ago saying that in 10 years [9 now, i guess] Tucson and Phoneix will meet. there will no longer be any desert seperating us. now, i’m not necessarily the biggest fan of the desert and don’t really find it that attractive but that doesn’t mean i want it to disappear. especially since what will replace it isn’t some greenery, instead its cookie cutter homes which i find to be an even bigger eyesore. so my plan for this project was to go throughout my neighborhoods vacant lots and plant some wildflowers. give the urbanization a litte spruse up, if you will.
i was only able to go a few places because of the size of my mixing bowl, but i have a HUGE bag of castings left so i plan on using them again soon. or if anyone is interested in some, i’d be happy to share. i tried to focus on vacant lots but found myself putting them in sentimental places as well. there is one in front of a house, i found that piece of paper next to it so i thought i should return the favor with some flowers. and the last one is next to my old high school, that i felt as though deserved my last bit of soil.
