This artist’s book was created with sheets of fused plastic made from food packaging which is usually discarded, ending up in landfills or worse: our waterways and the life within them on which our lives depend. When fully unfolded, the accordion flag structure measures about 36 inches long by 11 inches tall, based loosely on the size of a large bluefish, one of the many species in decline due to overfishing. The book was bound by hand with a needle and thread.
The concept of the school of fish in the shape of a fish honors the brilliant children’s book “Swimmy” by Leo Lionni and its powerful message about community resilience. My wavy line of rhythmic text further underlines how critical this is for humans to understand in the face of all of our interwoven eco-social crises. As stated in the Post Carbon Institute's Think Resilience course (lesson 14): "The resilience of any one system is influenced by the resilience of everything around it... [and] “building resilience starts with decisions about what we value about a system.” If people value their access to clean water and the ability to derive sustenance from it they would be wise to align with organizations that do the work that makes this possible. A shining example in my own Hudson Valley community would be @riverkeeper, and I encourage all who live nearby to check out their website (riverkeeper.org) and get schooled!
Thanks to Sarah Maker, @areyoubookenough and the #areyoubookenough community and to Michele Guieu for creating the What's Next for Earth? project. I express my gratitude to both groups in this one post as a nod to how different communities can nurture and strengthen each other.
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