Deforestation art: emphasising what is there, and what isn't.

The eleventh grade are preparing to do analysis on an unseen passage of literary or non-literary text. They are expected to consider the text's audience, it's purpose, the style in which it is written, and whether/how it's cultural context is relevant. Yesterday I spent a long time looking at articles about deforestation, and ended up choosing visual art for us to analyse today. We started class with this bland description of deforestation:

#5. Deforestation is speeding up global warming.

→ Global warming is fueled by greenhouse gasses, which are absorbed by trees. As such, our forests help to regulate our climate and stabilize it, despite the pollutants we spread through the air. The more forests we lose, the less of a buffer we have, and the greater the impact of those unabsorbed greenhouse gasses.

I asked them to analyse the tone of the writer, and they had good comments about the informational, unemotional nature of this text, particularly compared to the style of the opinion article we looked at last week. Then I asked them, in the magic groups of three, to analyse and create artist's statements" for artwork inspired by the deforestation reality described above. Here are the images they got, in sets of three:

The Blue Trees, by Konstantin Dimopoulos







The first class took the cake with analysis of these blue trees. Not only did the blue emphasize the leaves and their importance, but it also showed the manipulation of nature that men execute. Also, they noted, the blue and green colour combo evokes the image of the world from a distance encouraging viewers to consider the big picture about climate change. 

It might also convey how from a distance, the complex living organisms and challenges of life on earth are not visible, and the same is true with climate change - we need to look closely to see the detailed truth of how our behaviour affects the environment. 



Ghost Forest, by Angela Palmer

 






Raja asked me if he could say that this tree symbolised the way that human beings rape nature. He knew he was pushing the bounds of what's appropriate, and at first I said it was a fine interpretation but not to put it in his presentation. Then when he and his group members discussed more the violation of nature and disrespect inherent in destroying rain forests, and they compared the language of virgin women to virgin forests, I thought, this is actually a good point to raise.

So I encouraged him to bring it up in his presentation. There were some titters in the class, and he himself struggled to stay composed, but then Wafa, one of the most articulate girls in the class, concurred, and said "I agree with Raja. Even though he is making a raw and harsh comparison, it's accurate because both acts are so violent." It was a strong close to the discussion.

Dr. Lain Woodhouse's photoshop skills:

Van Gogh "Olive Trees with Yellow Sky and Sun"

Most students didn't recognise either of these pieces of artwork. I explained that they are famous paintings and that this artist may have been targeting a art-savvy audience. They said, maybe that more affluent, art-educated crowd would have both a larger carbon footprint and a larger ability to change policy about climate change. 

Basket of Doom triumph of the day by Raya:

certain, exaggerating and deferred.