Dissipation
“The past always looks better through the lens of nostalgia.
But somewhere along the line, the dream soured.” Our lifestyle has backfired. Taken
a turn for the worse. But what is the source of this problem? –Kalle Lasn
I make work about choices in American culture. My images
portray the collective and psychological consequences that our choices have on
the environment. Psychologically, I explore our unconscious behaviors. Unconscious
behaviors like throwing away plastic bottles instead of recycling them or our
excessive demands for electronics that each day fuels more violence in the
Congo. Unconscious behaviors, when everyone contributes, can have catastrophic
consequences that no one intended. These behaviors have all been carefully
concealed by a reputation of freedom and the pursuit of happiness or the
so-called “American Dream.” Could the land of the free and the home of the
brave be better described as the land of the greedy and morbidly decayed? The
way of life we know now is not everlasting. My senior thesis sets out to
visually portray these ideas.
