Dissipation Artist Statement

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.