Backyard Superfund
Roscoe Wilson (Hamilton, OH)
Woodcut, 24” W x 38” H
Artwork:
This woodcut print is an illustration of destruction of our environments at the hands of oil companies. There is a person in a hazmat suit dumping a substance into a wetland. Superfund sites are all around us. I live in Hamilton Ohio where there is a superfund site from Chem Dyne company that dumped chemicals into the Great Miami River and left its site contaminated. This is only 1 mile from my home.
Artist Statement:
In 2010, I became deeply affected by the Deep Water Horizon (BP) oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Millions of gallons of oil spewed from the well into the ocean and the long-term effects are still unknown. Eighty-seven days elapsed before the well was capped but questions still remain about the long-term effects of the spill on the environment, safety regulations and company negligence. That tragic event changed my trajectory as an artist from making work about the over-consumption of material goods to fossil fuels. My recent work incorporates sculpture, paintings and prints that use the over-consumption of fossil fuels as their central theme. Powerful oil and coal companies have an overwhelming grip on all our lives, from our daily activities to our political systems. We are manipulated into consuming more every day.