“At this rate, we could all become Earth’s refugees soon. And Planets like this one are hard to come by.” This is the text that accompanies Pejac’s latest art project, a series of photographs and a short movie called “Heavy Sea.”
Pejac is a Spanish artist flirting with several expression techniques like street art or urban hijacking, but his latest creation sees him approach the more conventional art of photography and filmmaking. However, the main focus here is the message, and his images surely are powerful enough.
We rarely stop to wonder where all our trash goes. We know we put it in the dumpster in the evening and next morning it is gone. If we wake up earlier than usual, we might even catch the people who take it, but they’re just a noise in the background, some men doing their job and nothing more. And frankly, as long as we don’t see the trash anymore, we don’t even care where it ends up. They’ve picked it up, so now it’s their problem.
The truth is, the problem belongs to all of us, especially those who live in the more industrialized countries. We produce tons of waste each year, and only some of that is recyclable. The rest ends up in huge landfills, but like the secret military bases, they’re placed in remote areas, far away from the population’s eyes.
Well, now, thanks to Pejac, we at least know where our tires go to die. They end up in a sea of black rubber that stretches as far as the eye can see, waiting for a miraculous way through which it will all disappear someday, but that will never happen. Instead, the sea will continue to grow until, one day, it will simply be too large to be contained.
Pejac used an orange lifesaver as a contrasting piece in the dark rubbery sea, symbolizing the malicious effect our way of living has on our planet, but also on ourselves. Sure, you could be tempted to call the artist a bit of a hypocrite, assuming he too has the same lifestyle as the rest of us, but then again what does that make the rest of us, who don’t even stop to think about, let alone raise a flag for everyone else to see?
Sometimes resembling one of those partially saturated images where only one object keeps its color, Pejac’s photographs have a burdening atmosphere. It will definitely make us look at our tires differently. At least for a day or two, until we get back to our old, wasteful ways.
"Boy meets car, boy loves car, boy gets journalism degree and starts job writing and editing at a car magazine" - 5/5. (Vlad Mitrache if he was a movie) Full profile
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