Cindy Vo

Professor T. Cruz
VIS111: Structure of Art B07
January 19, 2011
World: Abstract

For my work, Beware of Self-Destruction, I propose to show how the

world has progressed and will continue to progress if our obsession with oil
and disregard for pollution persists. Our earth was once composed of shades
blues and greens but is slowly transforming into a murky cloud of gray and
black. I decided to put emphasis on these issues because I was inspired by an
article published in National Geographic entitled The Curse of Black Gold. The
article centers around oil refinery in Nigeria, the resulting pollution, and
international struggle over the production of petroleum. These issues have
encompassed every nation, whether they are fighting for the oil, producing it
or using it; my work will be a forewarning of what is to come in the future. In
doing so, I plan on altering the traditional cartography of the world; once
portrayed as a blue and green paradise will now be a daunting grey and black
vision. An image of the world map will be reproduced nine times on a large
canvas in a narrative, grid pattern. As the viewer’s eyes move from one
reproduction to another, the blue waters and green terrain will turn into black
waters and gray terrain, representing the enveloping oil and pollution. Fair
Warning serves as a visual timeline marking periods of great migrations, large
urbanization, vast deforestation, ecologically impacted oil spills, and recession
of land due to rising water levels.
Cindy Vo
Professor T. Cruz
VIS111: Structure of Art
February 5, 2011

World: Abstract Revision

My work, Beware of Self-Destruction, proposes to show how the world

has progressed and will continue to progress if our obsession with oil and
disregard for pollution persists. Our earth was once composed of shades blues
and greens but is slowly transforming into a murky cloud of gray and black.
These afflictions on nature are the byproducts of the very people who inhabit
the world, mankind. To progress our own development, acts of grand
urbanization, deforestation, and oil drilling have been committed. Human are
essentially sucking the world dry of resources and are doing little to replenish
the earth. I decided to put emphasis on these issues because I was inspired by
an article published in National Geographic entitled The Curse of Black Gold.
The article centers around an oil refinery in Nigeria, the resulting pollution,
and international struggle over the production of petroleum. These issues
have affected every nation, whether they are fighting for the oil, producing it
or using it; my work will be a warning of what is to come in the future.
Beware of Self-Destruction serves as a visual timeline marking periods
of great migrations, large urbanization, vast deforestation, ecologically
impacted oil spills, and recession of land due to rising water levels. In doing so,
the traditional cartography of the world is slowly altered. An image of the
world map was reproduced nine times on a large canvas in a narrative, grid
pattern. As the viewer’s eyes move from one reproduction to another, the blue
waters and green terrain will turn into black waters and gray terrain,
representing the enveloping oil and pollution. The land masses themselves will
also reduce in size as the sea level rises over time due to global warming. I
have incorporated rough dates to each map starting with 1900 with 25 year
intervals to 2125. Dates for urbanization and oil spills came from CNN and
Associated Content.
The origins of where color change begins to happen are actual locations
of major oil spills, deforestation, and urbanization. For example, in the 1950
map, more specifically in America, there are light green spots in northern
California, New York, and Chicago that were not there in the previous map. In
between that time, there was a major growth in population of those areas
which eventually lead to urbanization, indicated by gray spots. The dark blue
spot that appears off the coast of New York marks the major oil spill that took
place in the 1940s-1950s; those dark blue spots over time become black.
What once was a blue and green paradise slowly becomes a daunting grey
and black blur.