I found the process of this piece really interesting. The idea of monotonously repeating the same thing over and over and over and over. I felt like I was mirroring the habits of the smokers who leave their cigarette butts day in day out. It was obsessive, much like I imagine some of the smokers habit is to them. After going to the same space everyday and collecting the cigarette butts, I feel like I'm a part of their habit. Its like I know a part of the person, a part of their routine, a part of their addictions whatever that might be, whether its tobacco or the social aspect or just having a moment of silence, without ever meeting them. My work is a documentation of a part of their lives. Each cigarette a moment out of their day. And now all of that is reduced to a cigarette butt, lost in a sea of thousands of others. Because pollution doesn't care about your day or your story or your life. It makes no difference to the animals that it kills, or the sea it pollutes. But to that one person its a small salvation.
I want to change how we dispose of cigarette butts, not stop the smokers. So that the person who needs 2 minutes peace can take a breather in a cigarette break, while the animals and earth aren't harmed as part of the deal.
My Piece, while not as big and immersive as I would have liked, is big enough that it catches your attention and looks aesthetic in a way cigarettes butts don't usually appear. When you stand back, the Cigarettes are no longer recognisable as butts, but look similar to DNA strands, or simply a graph or pattern. Another positive from painting the cigarette butts is that the piece is clean, and not smelly at all. I think this piece is effective in my goal of showing the scale of local pollution, however my next step would be to experiment in larger scale and complete immerse the viewer in a room of cigarettes, so there is no escaping it. No turning the other cheek, looking the other way or pretending it isn't happening, the viewer will be made to accept it.
