CLIENT
B.F.A. Thesis Show 2007 | MIAD : : Milwaukee Institute of Art & Design



DESCRIPTION
Can you imagine our planet & our way of life in fifty of hundred years from now? Consider this. We live in a profit-driven economy. Great number of decisions are made with this question in mind: "What will bring us the most money?" Those decisions do not consider what is the best for the planet, but what is best for the economy financially. This series of work is to make you realize the quality of life we would create for our children & grandchildren if no action is taken. The problem seems too big to feel as though our efforts will make a difference, so most of us don't even try. However, as long as we put in any kind of effort with patience & persistence, we are doing exactly what we need to be doing to make a difference.



INSPIRATION
The main inspiration for these works was my rather interesting childhood experience as a war refugee from Bosnia & Herzegovina living in Peć, Kosovo | Serbia from 1992 to 1998. Peć was a place with the population of 10,000 residents at the time. On the edge of this town, along with many other structures there was one abandoned building in particular that became a shelter for all of the undesired Bosnian refugees coming to Peć. This was at some point a prison, & years later there was a failed attempt by the city to convert it into student dorms. I remember being 7 & standing in front of this building for the first time. I was so confused as to why this rat infested, garbage filled & abandoned building had to be our new home. All I knew is that this was the new home. The building had 2 main working communal bathrooms with squat toilets that were shared by about 20 families. Once in a while the toilets would overflow & the sewage water would reach all the way to our doors. It is not as bad as it sounds. All you had to do is walk thru couple inches of water on your tip toes while avoid stepping into anything undesired. During winter months there would be a period for a month or two when the whole building had no electricity. Luckily we would use a wood stove we had in our little room along with our hand made candles that combined water, oil, cork & rope. Each of the rooms in which a family lived was about 15 square feet. That is where everything was; beds, a table, a little fridge, a stove, & a little black and white TV. One strange characteristic of this building was that it still had the original prison cells in its basement. The thought that at some point there were prisoners living under the rooms we were in at the time was ever so slightly eery. The building was at the edge of the town so that meant that most of the city's garbage was dumped out right next to our beuilding. Fifty feet from the building was a huge garbage pile about 100 feet in diameter & about 20 to 30 feet high in the middle. We would see anything & everything in that pile, & once in a while our curiosity would get the best of us & we would go pocking around to see what is all in there. After a while we all got used to the smell of everything possible mixed & rotting. Stray dogs & cats were everywhere & once in while I got a chance to see one them dead, rotting with maggots coming out of them. On the other end of the town, right off of a river was a meat market. Since there weren't many regulations on much of anything, all of the cattle guts & parts that were not useful would be simply thrown into the river. I must admit it was strange walking by that part of the river & seeing all of the animal intestines bloated up & floating on the surface of the river. All of this might sound like a bad experience, but human mind has the ability to adopt to anything. I still feel very lucky because all of my family and friends are still alive, which was not that the case for everyone. My parents worked a lot to make money, so I spent a lot of time playing with other refugee kids. We would play soccer, make basketball hoops by nailing a bicycle tire rim to a board & use a soccer ball as a basketball. The design was horrible, & would break easily. However our persistence was stronger. We made slingshots, bows & arrows, & anything else we could think of to entertain ourselves with little that we had along with whatever we could find. The strangest paradox for all refugees living in that building was that right across the street 30 feet away, looking right back at us was a huge four story mansion. They had everything including an outside swimming pool, with nice cars & a huge wall to protect it all. I still remember as kids we would all be sitting on the front steps of our building telling jokes & goofing around until 2am, while the whole time we would look at this amazing place across the street with curiosity & envy that we might not ever have anything close to that. In 1998 conflicts broke out between Serbians & Albanians native to Kosovo. Innocent people were being shot on both ends, left & right, & it was time to refuge again. Somehow with sheer luck my family & I were given a chance to start a new life in a new country.

It was not easy for my parents & I to leave behind everyone we love, but we just had to do this. In 1998 with my parents I moved to United States. Just as every foreigner does, I too brought with me a set of life experiences from a place, culture & traditions quite different from that of United States. Honestly, it is not something that needs to be understood by others. After all there were things I did not & still don't understand about this culture & many others. It is better to understand little than to misunderstand a lot. The past life experience is simply part of me, & once in a while just as we all do, I felt the need to express it somehow. However, I needed to put it into a context that has a purpose that goes beyond my own experience & can be understood by everyone.

I used that strangeness of living a simpler life & connected it to what life might be like if economies developed without the consideration of environments that are so crucial to our existence. Hence, the idea of Environmental Awareness was formed.

It is important to understand that I prefer to create work that is vibrant, energetic & evokes progressive reactions from the viewers. However, once in a while I like to create work like this to bring you out of your comfort zone. There are so many wonderful aspects of life & living that focusing on negatives is useless, unless once in a while it is done to help you realize just how good you have it & that you should not take it for granted. With that said, if it does not help you gain a fresh & new perspective on your life, at least I hope these somewhat disturbing works will help you appreciate all the good things you have in your own life.

Air Pollution. | This piece was published in the 39th Edition of CMYK Magazine.









Deforestation.









Garbage control.









Overpopulation.









Dust bowls.









Toxic waters.