Artwork Title: Cybear, 2013
Artist Statement:
How does humanity define want and need? Unsure? Me too. Modern society continues to produce more waste than we can possibly handle. Our oceans are filled with plastic, our arctic ice is being depleted at an alarming rate, and too many people feel the need to buy the next iPhone because it has a new feature that their two-year-old phone does not. Essentially, as a species we have decided that our convenience is more important than the planet we inhabit. As Annie Leonard says: “there is no such thing as away, when you throw something away, it must go somewhere.” While Cybear is a somewhat comedic approach to responding to this issue, it is created using recycled materials that would otherwise be eventually sent to the landfill. By turning these materials into art, it is one step towards recycling plastics and electronics into something that is not ephemeral. Cybear stands for all of modern society’s want for convenience and entertainment at the expense of the environment we inhabit. Cybear is made up of all second-hand materials which consist of a stuffed polar bear, damaged yet functional laptop, and computer speakers. The bear plays Pink Floyd’s Several Species of Small Furry Animals Gathered Together in a Cave Grooving with a Pict on a loop, which mainly consists of shrieks and cries from various species of animals. Cybear plays this through its paws, while its webcam eye stares back at you.