Welcome to the World, is a book made for the purpose of documenting a baby’s growth and first experiences.
The book contains pictures of wildlife and natural wonders and is interspersed with sections for parents to fill in with anecdotes about their child. While this is happening, the piece is showing the external forces of how people treat the planet, conflicting with the visuals in the book.
The viewers can write in the book where parents would write for their children to enhance the experience of the work. While the viewer is looking at this book about new life, the book has trash and oil dumped overtop of it. The viewer will be able to interact with the piece by picking up the garbage or by closing the book to change the flow rate of the oil. These actions, however, are somewhat futile as the garbage tips over if it gets too full and the oil spill can never be stopped, only slowed. There is a sign on the stand that prompts the viewer to “Please pick up our trash”. This is reminiscent of how the onus of cleaning up pollution and preventing climate change is intentionally put on the individuals despite the fact most pollution is caused by negligent industries. While the individual’s actions may help to lessen the problem, there are many other systems that they are unable to affect which are causing a much larger problem.
This piece promotes a better way of conducting our daily lives by reusing materials while also showing the viewer how destructive we currently are. We cannot afford to ignore this topic; it feels almost impossible to solve on our own, but it is important to do what we can.