ENVIRONMENTALITY PUBLIC ART STUDIO
This
year at the Eno was a little bit extra challenging for me, but by the same
token, in the end it was also a little bit extra rewarding!
Why
is that? Well, because this year, I decided to bring to the Festival For The
Eno a whole other operation in addition to my Reptire Hut, and that was the
EnvironMentality Public Art Studio!
What is the EnvironMentality Public Art Studio?
Well here is my vision, and how it came to be formed…
BACK GROUND
As
you probably are aware, our water supply in NC is gravely threatened at this
moment in time.
While
such disasters as the Duke Energy dumping of many tons of toxic coal ash (a
byproduct of burning coal) into the Dan River, in the Northern portion of the
State have appearently been going on for decades here in NC, our water, soil
and air quality/safety now faces a threat beyond our worst nightmares,
presented by the Hydraulic Fracturing Industry, and our colluding lawmakers.
This
process of extracting gasses from shale rock deposites had been proven fatally
flawed by its own inventor, Geologist Tony DeGraffi, who has publicly spoken
out against the industry’s rush ahead with the technology, with out solving its
crucial problems. The result in places like Pennsylvania and Wyoming: poisoned
wells, flammable tap water, radioactivity, poisoned wildlife, and people
imprisoned in homes which have become unliquidable industrial nightmares.
And
what is perhaps almost as disturbing, or maybe even more, is witnessing the
erosion of Democracy around this issue. A viewing of Josh Fox’s documentary
GASLAND 2 will leave you reeling with the (more or less startling) realization
that our supposed protectors in the US Government have been insipiently
corrupted by the powerful lobbyists of the Gas and Oil Industry.
Democracy
blitzing tactical maneuvers have become wholly characteristic of this
powerfully lobbied industry, it seems from day 1! For a great example, recall
Dick Cheyne, a Haliburton Gas and Oil Extecutive, rising to the second highest
office in the United States of America, to carve out the ‘Haliburton Loophole’
in the Clean Water Act, by which he and his billionaire cronies can rape our
country’s land without impunity, exempting themselves from the Clean Water Act,
and dozens of other hard won protections to our environment. (Never mind his
oil tycoon ‘boss’!...)
And
sadly, our state has followed this money trail, hook line and sinker. Passing
bill B____
The haste and stealth with which this was bypassed through our legistlation by powerful interests led
one writer, to ask poignantly: “So, in North Carolina, are we living in a
Democracy, or a Dictatorship?” (Charles Ritter, in letter to Chatham County
Line, Volume 12, Issue 6 July/August 2014).
It is unfortunately, a fair question at this juncture in our
states history, and our sad state of affairs, I am afraid, here in North
Carolina.
With
looming feelings of powerlessness in the face of disasters at work in the
highest reaches of office, I realized that, if nothing else, I wanted to engage
young people in a discussion of these issues. After all, it is they who are
going to be living their adult lives in the midst of this problem that we are
creating now. They will be left to raise their own children on tainted water
supplies.
So
that is when I started to wonder how I could engage young people in that
discussion.
I
thought of the young latino high school students, that I worked with on a
collage project with at El Vinculo Hispano in Siler City, about how they would
be effected by this too. We think we feel alienated from this process that we
will be mortally impacted by…I wonder how they feel!...
So
then I realized that maybe I had to do some art projects with young people.
But I didn’t know what or where, or when or how.
But
then, at an Earth Day festival in Durham, I ran into Reclaimed Materials Artist
Extraordinaire Bryant Holsenbeck. I floated the idea to her, and she loved it,
and encouraged me to do it. I also floated the idea to Ann Woodward, a long
time friend, and Director of The Scrap Exchange, who was very encouraging also.
And so I called the Festival For The Eno right then and
there, and made them my proposal.
Elaine Chioso, Nathalie Worthington.
Site question.
Carrie Fields (had worked collage with Youth Group)
Jessica Wilkins- worked with kids at CIS, studying art at UNC Greensboro
Elizabeth Cox- first met at Haw River Festival, Shakori Kids
Tent
Phil Cox- High School Science Teacher in Chatham County Public Schools
Rachel Cohn- great collage Artist.
Ruben Gonzales- good collage artist too.
