Elliot Koeppel
Every action a person takes is connected to a part of the Earth. By using scratchboard, I demonstrate that all of our actions require taking from something else, just as the needle tool takes the surface of the board in order to form the piece. No matter the size or intention of our actions, they impact a part of our world and our world impacts us simultaneously. Ambiguity of the subjects allows the meaning within each piece to be a projection of the ideology of the viewer.
Throughout the creation of the pieces in my concentration, I developed methods to demonstrate my intended concept.
By creating each piece without a representational background, the centers of each piece can be seen differently by each viewer. Since the viewer can place it somewhere within their own interactions with the world, they are able to relate to each piece more readily. The concept of each piece is to allow the viewer to reflect on the impacts of their actions on the beings in the pictures, whether constructive or destructive. Not showing what the impact is forces a viewer to think of what their individual impact could be, and how far their actions reach in nature. Though we individually are not responsible for the actions of humanity as a whole, we as a society use animals for personal gain, not thinking of the impact on their lives. We rarely stop to consider the intricate workings of the world that allow us to exist in the way that we do. We have a mutually constructive and destructive relationship with Earth that we could not survive without.