Far Away from the Blue Mountains Painting

This piece contemplates the strain on resources we continue to put on the planet and the impact this exploitation has on climate change. It draws inspiration from two contemporaneous but unrelated events. In October 2013, Grangemouth petrochemical factory, Scotland’s largest industrial site, was threatened with closure. On 26th October 2013, huge fires were reported in the Blue Mountains in Australia. Tony Abbott, the then prime minister, dismissed talk of a link between climate change and the fires as 'complete hogwash', although concerns were raised by the UN climate change chief Christiana Figueres. She drew a link between the two stating it was 'absolutely clear' that there are 'increasing heat-waves in Asia, Europe and Australia and that these will continue in their intensity and frequency'. These two events provoked questions about the future of our planet. At a time when capital is unrestricted, neoliberalism reigns and production can rapidly be shifted to access cheap labour, organised labour now holds very little power. The new fires in Australia that destroyed 20% of the forests in 2019-2020 only seem to confirm Figueres' statement. I chose to use a pink-tinted background that was directly inspired from the pink smoke coming out of burning forests. The landscape created although appealing at first glance reveals some toxic colours such as a radioactive yellow, plunging us into dystopia.