Qian Wang

"How long since we saw the blue sky?"

Section MS6, Ifor Duncan

Keywords: mixed media installation, environment, atmosphere, memory

In the last few years, smog has become one of the biggest problems in China, and the harm that produced by smog is also well known. The word “Smog” first appeared in 2004 in China. People’s perception of smog is from ignorance to fear and then slowly getting used to it. In China, smog seems to have become a part of people's life, just like different seasons in a year. The haze is also a season, because we cannot change it, so people are slowly accepting it.

For the past several thousand years, people have feared the damage caused by a series of natural disasters such as fire and flood. The appearance of smog is also like fire and flood, but it is not well prevented. The smog is like an invisible killer, lurking beside us, making us hard to detect and making us ignore it, but it is gradually eroding people's health and living environment.

As a designer, we can't change the problem of smog, but we can enlarge this problem and arouse people's attention to smog. I want to let people know how long have we ignored the smog problem as well as how long since we saw the blue sky and the original colour of things.

I want to make an art installation or a kind of sculpture to reflect the potential threat when the smog problem is ignored. First of all, I want to pick some vital objects as the main part of this work, such as flowers and plants. The reason is that a living object symbolizes the human or people’ life, and it will also give people a deeper impression and visual impact on some subsequent processing of this object. In addition, according to the research, almost every family in China will have some green plants, and use it to fight smog. It is ironic that people place their fear of smog and expectations of good weather on plants, but they do nothing.

Second, the plant was planted in a transparent container. I decided to change its colour and create a smog feeling in the part of the container. The part inside the container contrasts with the part outside. The inside part may creates a feeling of no vitality, which represents the damage of smog to human health and the environment. The outer part of the container retains the original material and colour of the object. It seems that the inner part of the container has little effect on it. This part represents people's neglect of the smog problem.

Third, regarding the choice of materials and containers, the main purpose is to find a material that can simulate the smog. The purpose is to make the part of the plant in the container have a visual feeling of being gradually submerged by the smog, which represents the smog like flood and fire. In the same way, it will devour human beings and people's lives.