A Fire Story, page 10

Brian Fies, American, born 1960

A Fire Story, page 10, 2019

A page from graphic artist Brian Fies’s graphic novel, A Fire Story, that provides insight on his personal journey as an artist and displaced person after his home burnt down in 2017. Before becoming a book in 2019, Fies published A Fire Story online, generating massive support for his work and for the aid in rebuilding his community affected by the fires. Fies chooses not to color any of the debris and wreckage that his small figure walks through, depicting Hell here as a place with much to avoid. The figure is not heading to a place of refuge either, but rather seems to be preserving the life inside himself by finding a path away from things that were. Despite the bleak text and imagery, the figure moves forward, observing and seeking a way out of Hell. Fies’s work reminds us that the implications of wildfire often prompt personal trauma and that ways we internalize loss are difficult to conceptualize even with photographic evidence. Label by Kristin Rheins

Flint Water Crisis

Justin Oltesvig, American

Flint Water Crisis, 2016

Oltesvig has been displeased with how the Michigan government has handled the Flint water crisis. He illustrated an upper-class man (Michigan Governor Rick Snyder) using Flint’s water plant tower as a toilet to highlight the repulsive water that these people have been forced to live with. The plane flying a banner in the sky reads “Drink Coke it’s safer than water” to bring up the fact that soda is for once healthier than Flint water. This piece highlights the topics of deindustrialization and environmental racism from this week by mirroring the shift in water with a shift in wealth. Oltesvig has illustrated a shift from a poor community to a richer community, which is symbolizing the shift of clean drinking water away from Flint. A Flint Vehicle sign can be seen behind a building highlighting the deindustrialization of the area because of the water system. Flint water was causing factory parts to corrode so the city diverted clean water only to the factory, not to the surrounding community. Label by Olivia Falb

Survival of the Richest

Matt Huynh, US-based Vietnamese-Australian

Survival of the Richest

This is an illustration by multi-award-winning artist and storyteller Matt Huynh, for a podcast “Survival of the Richest” by Douglas Rushkoff (Future Human, July 5, 2018). The podcast told a real story and analyzed how the elite who have the power and financial resources to combat the disastrous impact of climate change would leave the poor behind. The current environment of the venture capital world has shaped the elite’s passive belief in a way that the future is no longer a result of our present-day decision but rather a predestined scenario. Both the podcast and this art piece point out the mindset of individual survival of the elite class, and their ignorance of the issues faced by the poor. Label by Yifei He

Corona Rises

Tomas Serrano

Corona Rises, 2020

This piece was created by Spanish artist Tomas Serrano in response to the news of rising Coronavirus cases in New York City. The rising sun, which has been drawn as to look like the Coronavirus itself, rises over New York City, casting a red hue across the buildings. The use of sunlight to depict the virus emphasizes the pervasive, unstoppable spread of the virus, as it affects everything it touches. The closely aligned buildings emphasize the compressed nature of living in NYC and the rising “sun” emphasizes the rising concern and impact of Coronavirus. The virus, in this case, is being depicted as an inescapable part of the lived environment. As many residents of NYC with access to safer housing flee the city, seeking safety in the countryside, this piece stands to highlight the increasing threat of the pandemic, as well as lead the viewer to consider the implications for lower-income residents who cannot escape the compressed environment of the city. Label by Gwyneth McCrae