Preliminary Proposal

The members of our group are Christian Gonzalez, Dennis Merzlika, Jules Evangelista, Sean Vayser, and Sophia Kobzarenko. Our proposal is to hit on the overall issue of pollution in New York City and show various works of art which highlight this problem. We would like to show multiple subjects and topics that we discussed in class which all relate to the overall theme of pollution in New York City. The way we want to present our art is by creating a big cardboard cutout of the Empire State building and have a different work of art on each side of the skyscraper. We would like to include an erasure poem, photographs, a mimesis of an animal affected, and a Whitman poem on the four sides of the building. Through this work of art, we hope to highlight the issue of pollution and the overall effects it has on our city. Additionally, the project will show pollution’s impact on the overall cleanliness of the city, some of the native species in the city, and the people that live in the city. The Empire State Building hits on the subject of New York City and counts as Art in a place because it occupies a space and does not really have relations to the location it is in. The drawing of an animal that is affected by New York pollution is a mimesis of an animal and would represent the danger pollution can have on New York’s wildlife. The photographs of New York would relate to our photography unit and show the physical effect pollution can have on the city itself and the cleanliness of it. The erasure poem will hit on the erasure unit we had and depict the dangers of pollution on the city environment. Also, the Walt Whitman poem would show the effect pollution would have on the residents of New York City. The way we hope to display the project is by first putting the poems, mimesis, and photographs on the actual structure, then displaying the building on the table. Adding on, from time to time we would rotate the building to show each side. We would also take turns explaining the overall building, what it represents, and the various sides and works of arts on the structure itself. The roles and assignments we chose are that Sophia will work on building the cardboard cutout of the Empire State Building. Dennis will work on the mimesis of one of the animal species affected and how its numbers have decreased because of pollution. Sean will focus on the erasure poem and connect it to the negative change pollution had caused on the city environment. Christian will work on the Walt Whitman style poem, which would once again show how pollution had led to the declining health of many New Yorkers. Furthermore, Jules will work on the photography aspect showing the dirtiness of New York and the uncleanliness pollution leads to. Each of us will work on our own part separately, but will meet periodically to discuss how we are doing and meet up in the end to put all the works together. The supplies we will need are cardboard, scissors, glue, paint, markers, and colored pencils. Most of the supplies can be probably bought at Staples or an art store. The project is not very supply heavy, but we are still very excited to work with the resources we chose and are enthusiastic to start working on this project for the STEAM Festival.