Our Air

Our Air, 2013- work in progress
Interactive Media installation
video, ink on rice paper, plexiglass/ aluminum signs, video, web generated data

My first purchase in Beijing was 2 pairs of flip flops-one to wear around my studio and one to paint with. I decided to work with the lightest material aside from ephemeral live video-rice paper.

Artists are driven to the outskirts of the city where pollution regulations are relaxed. Here, as well as in all megacities one is confronted hourly, daily with the inability to breath fresh clean air. Hence this series of flip flop paintings in which I project video and eventually pull data from the Air Quality Index (AQI) website to change the video colors/cities/values.

There is no wrong/right, good/bad in Taoist philosophy. Only balance. In this light, this work views pollution as a question of balance between nature and humans. The emphasis is on refrain not sustain. The last scroll is at 71.1 亿 (7.11 billion) humans. Near full capacity.

 

workingworking2
print2print

AQI

There are 7 values in this work from green for clear healthy air to white =death) the latter I made up as the AQI has only 6, the most hazardous AQI being brown. The photo above only reflects 4 steps because of the angle/throw distance/studio size limitations. Last week Beijing hit 270. Its hovering around 10 in New York City to give you an idea of the difference in AQI.