Final Blogger

Title:  Unknown

Artist: Banksy

ARTIST SUMMARY

Banksy is a well known English street artist, activist and film director whose identity is unknown. Banksy uses satirical street art to commentate on political and social issues. He has had several art done around the world, such as: Gaza, Palestine and has held several exhibitions of his art. In said exhibitions, some dedicated art collectors have spent a big amount of money on his art. Even though Banksy hasn’t publicly spoken about Air Pollution, he has had several street art pieces done that commentate about the environmental crisis around the world. I'm unaware of how long it took Banksy to get this particular piece done because he doesn't really name his street arts and makes them in discretion. It’s illicit street art after all.

PIECE SUMMARY

The image above depicts a man wearing a black and white business suit, riding his bicycle with his hands on the air, while wearing a heavy duty gas mask that looks like the ones they used on the world wars. This street art piece was made by cutting an outline of a man riding a bicycle while wearing a gas mask. The piece is  filled in with black and white spray paint. The location of this street art was on Bogota, Colombia. Which is a city heavily affected by Air Pollution.

ANALYSIS

This piece of art, in my humble opinion, represents how stoic we are towards Air Pollution. The man in suit is riding the bicycle without hands, expression that leads me to believe he's happily riding the bicycle because he's wearing a heavy duty gas mask. Heavy duty gas masks are used to filter out asbestos in the air, which are created by Air Pollution. And because he's wearing a heavy duty gas mask ,that keeps him from being harmed by Air Pollution, he's happy.

Title: Air Pollution

Artist: Annemeet Van der Leij

Artist Summary

van der Leij is a Dutch-Israeli artist who was born and raised in Friesland in Northern Holland. She is fluent in five languages and lived in the United States for three years. She characterizes her work as “realistic fine art. She has another art piece that also commentates about pollution. Even though, Annemeet’s identity is known, she is rather reversed and doesn't speak much to the media. She lets her art do the talking.

Piece Summary

The painting shows a bunch of factory chimneys letting a handful of smoke out into the air.  The background color are dark colors with orange, giving the effect that the sun is setting.

Analysis

This piece of art brings attention about the main cause of Air Pollution, which is smoke released by factories. She shows factory chimneys, a lot of them, letting smoke out that is polluting the air. The background is dark, as if the sun is setting, to give a more dark and serious look that represents the seriousness of the problem.