“Man’s attitude toward nature is today critically important simply because we have now acquired a fateful power to alter and destroy nature. But a man is a part of nature, and his war against nature is inevitably a war against himself.”
– Rachel Carson, Silent Spring 1962
Despite being an untitled artwork, Audrey Chen’s vibrantly expressive piece certainly speaks volumes about how humanity is intertwined with nature.
Her inspiration for this piece sparked in sophomore year, lighting a creative flame for the creation of the piece after reading the book “Fahrenheit 451” which underlined the harsh relationship between humanity, technology, and nature. While Audrey was a sophomore, one of the major themes highlighted in her English class was how “modern society fights with nature,” leading the class through many discussions about environmental awareness and the harmful aspects of technology on both humans and nature alike.
Presently, Audrey Chen is a very cheerful senior with great energy. She is involved in school organizations and the environmental action club at The Wheatley School. Interviewing her was a wonderful experience; her bright smile and sharp answers only enhanced my positive opinions on her piece!
The work of art comprises many thick sheets of colored paper, using a sharp-edged tool to carve life into the pages. A month’s worth of class time went into this assignment.
“Paper and glue,” she says, “that’s pretty much all we used.”
A very humble answer because put paper and glue in my hands, and you’ve got a human pinata. She has masterfully placed each element with paper and glue on the paper, carving them perfectly, rounding out the staggering sizes, and crafting two opposite yet beautiful faces. Even with that, I think it is beautiful how simple and “youthful” this piece is, using materials that we would often safely entrust to children for them to go wild with their ideas. The youthful nature represented in the materials in this painting speaks to the inner child that exists in all of us, way back before life became a fast track to everything all at once. This piece of the painting also links to ideas of “humanity’s innocence” before the development of harmful pesticides, pollution, and deforestation in humanity’s pursuit to manufacture and consume.
Onto discussing the nuanced elements in the painting, Audrey describes it as “gears turning into butterflies” and “flowers with buildings on them,” which elaborates that the physical juxtaposition of these elements describes “how interconnected humanity and nature are, even if there is so much divide and separation.” We do see what she means as steel buildings and blossoming colors do not have much in common on the surface; however, a deeper analysis reveals that both cities and flowers grow with time and play vital roles in life with ‘movement’ whether it be the soft discussion of pollen or the loud echoes of human roads. Their proximity on the page displays an ideal that nature and humanity can coexist peacefully, making space for one another like making space for new friends on a bench in the park. Now, as for the gears and butterflies mannequin, they are my personal favorite. The gears represent humanity’s ingenuity in society, adorning the head in the same pattern as the flowers as if speaking to the blooming of new ideas. The gears turning into butterflies represent a youthful, healthy state of mind that gives life to beauty and peace because butterflies often represent freedom. This mannequin speaks about the ideals of balancing ingenuity in society and making environmentally conscious decisions. We see the damaging effects of pesticides that poison our people and our environment, pollution that depletes our available drinking water and cities, and the vanishing of many of the world’s most spectacular rainforests in the coming years. I don’t know about you, but I grew up watching National Geographic. Losing such a beautiful landscape filled with amazing animals because of human greed and harmful ideas fills me with deep sadness.
The decisions for the colors used in this artwork were not without merit, either. Where one might see a simple sunset, Audrey devised the foreground consisting of the humans with cool-toned colors and the background consisting of “nature” to sport opposing warm tones. Audrey remarks that she chose cool tones for the humans because “when [she] thinks of humanity, [she] thinks of cold tones due to how detached we are from nature in general.” This depressing truth highlights the divide between our modern society’s bland, metallic electronics and the vibrant, warm shades naturally growing in nature.
I asked Audrey why she chose two people to represent her piece instead of one. Audrey says, “I could have done it with one person, but I feel like with two people, I can represent how society has so many different people.” She comments that using two people can speak to the fact that there are multiple ways to express yourself and your ideals. She relates the two people to a high school example, showing the difference between “STEM students” and “Humanities students,” respectively represented by the logical gear-thinker and the creative city-bloomer. There are many different ways to think and approach a problem, so two people are the perfect number for this work. Just like there are multiple ways to express yourself, there are multiple ways to help your local environment. As a weathered senior, she elaborates on this student example through her high school experiences: “There’s such a focus on college as the academic environment here is very challenging and competitive. I want everyone to take a moment because there are more things to being a human than getting into a good school, getting into a good college, and your major.”
She calls on students to enjoy life to the fullest, reconnecting with themselves and nature to truly slow down and smell the roses, just like when we were kids. Preserving the environment is important, especially in our turbulent, loud society. Getting involved in environmentally positive activities truly improves your mind’s health, produces feelings of joy, and allows you to bond with other people. If we do not nurture our environment, we are ultimately harming ourselves. Audrey’s painting describes a need for balance in our society, working with humanity’s genius scholars and environmental activists to produce the most environmentally safe products, leading to a healthier earth and society.
“I want people to connect with nature because that’s a big part of living on Earth,” Audrey says as she concludes the interview with her final thoughts. I suspect that nurturing nature does nurture humanity in turn. Reconnect with yourself, support our natural world, and be the change you want to see as you move forward in your education.