Protest Poster

Artist's Statement:

     When I listened to the video, as Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie talked about having “a single story”, of uninformed perceptions, or rather only having one incomplete idea that forms a whole perception, I immediately thought of Disney. I love Disney, and they are wonderful, wholesome family films, however as we’ve spoken of many times in multiple film classes and discussions, they are not accurate or conducive to realistic perceptions (if Disney films are all that are consumed by an individual). I decided to use a Disney reference for that very reason. Now I needed a medium, a style that was both effective and recognizable. It didn’t take me long to think of the Demotivational posters, the “You’re Doing It Wrong”, etc. They are short, but like Haiku poems, they say a lot with just a few words. I found a generator online that had the font and layout to make my own Demotivational poster, or in this case, Protest Poster.

     Now that I was armed with an idea for a Disney reference and a medium, all I needed was a subject matter. As I contemplated, looked for, and considered multiple topics, I remembered a Youtube video call “After Ever After” where a guy sings a few very clever renditions of Disney songs about the main characters ‘after’ their ‘happily ever after’. One was Ariel, and everything that would happen to her fish friends, especially oil spills. Perfect! Now, there are a lot of politics when it comes to oil spills, but regardless of your stance on any of them, one thing remains the same: we as a species need to be careful, mindful, and dutiful in our stewardship of this earth and the animals that inhabit it. Yes, there are those who take that to an extreme, but just because there are extremists does not make the ideology false. In this case, I wanted to simply show the horror and extremely sad effects of oil spills so that when anyone has a chance to make a difference, they will remember “Oil Spill” in big caps with the pitiful photo I found. Hopefully, it will inspire them to make a difference.