Isabella Romagnoli
Climate change, perhaps the scariest term that we will try to ignore. We comfort ourselves when what we have come to know ceases to exist. We celebrate these occasions as if they are triumphs, when in fact they are not. This geological epoch that we are living in, appropriately named the Anthropocene, has put a timer on humans’ recognition of the problem and solutions to climate change. While the impact of a solution falls on all humans, certain older generations will not deal with the long term impact of our ever changing world.
When I first encountered the term Anthropocene, I was a freshman in high school deciding on my next English class with barely any idea of what the term meant. Now, the topic of the Anthropocene has become a fascination of mine. In this project, I explore the idea of the Anthropocene through my own eyes as a member of Gen Z, as parts of my world start to crumble and fade due to the effects of climate change. Titled Combustion, my project traverses landscapes with and without humans. Throughout all of the landscapes, there is one constant, the color red which represents humans’ bloody hands on Earth. From Freshkills Park in Staten Island to a graveyard near my home, Combustion explores the Earth’s life and death in terms of human invasion. In the end, similar to how Earth’s path will be irreversible by 2030, the project ends up in flames and ashes at the end.