Artists for the environment

Artist John Dahlsen reuses waste plastics to create artworks that communicate an environmental message. Look at his works Environmental Wallworks, Plastic Bag Art, Art Installations and Art Totems¹. Be sure to read the artist’s statement at the end of each section.

Choose one of Dahlsen’s artworks that interests you and write a blog entry that includes information about:

• the material used by the artist

• what you think the work is about

• what you think the artist was trying to communicate to the viewer

• how the material relates to the meaning of the work

• whether you think that this is an effective way for the artist to communicate a message about his environment.

Click on Sacred Sites 2002-03² and then Sacred Sites II : Gunyah, Jibbon and RNP, a series of Allen’s digital artworks using photographs taken at Gunyah and Jibbon beaches and in other areas of the Royal National Park, located near her home.

Allen believes that we all have sites that are sacred to us. She says that these are ‘associated with a sense of rapture’. Write a blog entry that includes information about:

• what you think Allen means when she talks about sites being ‘associated with a sense of rapture’

• why Allen might have called these works ‘Sacred Sites’

• how you think Allen might feel about the area she represented in the images

• the message that you think Allen was trying to communicate

• how these images might make others interested in the natural environment and its care and preservation for future generations to enjoy

• a site that might be ‘sacred’ to you and why it is so.