Did you ever wish the trash strewn on your street could rise up, personify and make the human race accountable for its consumption and carelessness? The Prophecy, a photo series from artist Fabrice Monteiro, might be the closest we get to our garbage coming to life. These striking images highlight the need for humanity to awaken from its ignorance. The photo’s scenarios threaten to crush us if we continue to produce massive amounts of junk or remain unconcerned with the impacts of industrial waste.
The woman in the photos is said to represent Mother Earth. In one she strides out of the ocean, her detailed costume constructed from materials that choke her sustenance. Dressed in droves of plastic netting, with a tar-stained bird’s head and a tortoise shell shield, the goddess drags waste from the sea with determination, as if looking for the culprit who has dumped it upon her.
In another Gaia appears to be keeping fresh food from her children as she rises from the ashes of an arid land. The photo tackles the issue of the “Slash and Burn” technique, the practice of burning forests to create room for more agriculture: a traditional method which when done on a large scale produces tonnes of carbon and depletes the soil of nutrients, making it impossible to grow food.
Working with costume designer Doulsy and with support from the Ecofund Organization, Monteiro turned his lens to the destructive forces of a neglected earth. The idea for the project came when the artist returned to West Africa after years of living abroad. Having grown up in Benin in the 1980s, Monteiro was shocked at the drastic change that had occurred along the African coast in that 30 year period. The two artists chose ten sites around Senegal that underscored the major issues for the African country, their composition addressing both the issue of waste as well as traditional practices that threaten sustainability.
As Monteiro told the Huffington Post,
“Out of control consumption of plastics is augmented by a lack of ecological consciousness in the selling of everyday products. Tons of sand from the coast are taken away and used in construction, accelerating the phenomenon of erosion by sea and salt. There is failure to respect the most elementary rules for a sustainable fishing, [as exhibited by] the monostrand nets left behind at sea, large scale daily consumption of charcoal and perpetuation of ancestral techniques of slash-and-burn cultivation.”
There is an urgent global need to create the proper infrastructure to process environmental refuse while also educating citizens about their roles and responsibilities in maintaining a clean and prosperous world. Monteiro says: “It is not only a political or economic problem, but an educational one.”
It is easy to agree on the issue, but it doesn’t seem so easy to take action. Depending on where you live you may be fortunate enough to throw your garbage on the curb and find your streets looking immaculate the next day, but this does not stop a large number of people from ignoring their responsibilities on a daily basis. Although many developed Nations have impressive waste management systems, none have a closed loop system. Even countries like Switzerland, Austria and Germany only recycle half of their goods. The rest end up in landfills. In these developed countries this garbage is not in the public eye but in many countries there are slums built near open air dumps that threaten the health of their inhabitants. If we are to change the the direction of our course, we need to educate people on the impact they have when they don’t recycle, reduce or demand environmentally sound practices.
With an unchecked desire to grow the economy and a lack of action by citizens, our climate is suffering from unprecedented destruction. No matter what corner of the world you inhabit, may the ‘Prophecy’ act as a warning sign. Whether we are threatened by a giantess created from trash or the acidification of the waters and the lack of clean running water, it is time we opened our eyes to very real dangers.
“The Prophecy” can be see at the Louisiana Museum of Modern Art series in their exhibition “Africa: Architecture, Culture and Identity” until Oct. 25.
See more detail in the sites chosen for the shoot: