In an effort to mitigate the adverse effects of the global overproduction and overconsumption of manufactured products, more and more local initiatives of sustainability and circular economy are emerging. Such endeavors are also meant to foster a better social inclusion of individuals engaging in these enterprises.
In the broad context of the present-day environmental crisis, art can be used as a means to draw attention towards the risks of depleting our resources of raw materials in an unsustainable way. Additionally, it is important to point that not only do we overexploit our resources, but we also fail to keep under control the Life Cycle Assessment of manufactured products, which is why a lot of these man-made products, on their end-of-life phase end up discarded in the nature, and never go through recycling or waste-to-energy conversion.
Some artists, as a form of activism, collect rubbish in nature and turn it into artwork, in order to raise awareness on that issue. Art is a great communication means for conveying messages and for giving more visibility to overlooked issues. Overall, art can contribute to sparking people’s interest in the topic, leading some to initiate concrete and practical-oriented actions.
In recognition of their valuable work, let us introduce two prolific artists who excelled in creating distinctive pieces of art, aesthetically displaying their concerns about pollution :
John Dahlsen is an Australian artist who collects marine litter on the beaches to transform it into abstract non-figurative assemblages and sculptures that tell the story of a sad reality : the worldwide phenomenon of marine pollution.
John Dahlsen – Blue Rope, 165 x 44 cm
Alejandro Durán is another talented artist who started in 2010 to collect colorful plastic washed ashore Mexico’s beaches to transform it into aesthetic installations. Over the course of his work, Alejandro Durán has identified plastic waste from 58 countries, showing that this is a global problem that spares no country.
By catching the eye of the audience, artists play a crucial role in awakening our consciousness and enhancing the general public’s knowledge about an issue that constitutes one the main challenges of our century. These kinds of artistic projects are well-worth gaining a better visibility platform in Bosnia and Herzegovina, where the ecological awareness and policies are still in their infancy.