I am staring out of the window looking at all of the forgotten, on an Earth in flames. I want the memorial to commemorate all of the human lives that were not deemed important or essential enough to save: the poor, the people of color, everyone dispensable to those in authority. The message I want to convey is that they will never be forgotten because I won’t allow them to. This memorial acts as both as a reminder and educational piece of what was left behind on Earth; what sacrifices were made in order to ensure that the human race would still prosper.
In the year 2250, climate change drastically changed the lives of humans on Earth. The heating of Earth’s planet has become so severe due to the thinning of Earth’s ozone layer protection. The emission of harmful gasses into the atmosphere has eliminated Earth’s natural defense and thus government officials have been building an alternative source of life for humans: Paradise. Paradise is a spaceship built to sustain human life in space, but obviously this ship could not take on the task of saving seven billion lives. Paradise was built by the billions of dollars that were gathered by the wealthy to secure their position in a life after Earth. It is important to acknowledge that every person who was saved agreed to play their part to contribute to a working society. Thus, in addition to the wealthy who bought their way onto Paradise, tradespeople of all kinds were brought onto Paradise in order to ensure a wide diversity of skills and trades in order to distribute labor amongst all within the spaceship.
The memorial will be placed in our museum about Earth on Paradise. It was important for us as a society to remember where we came from because Earth was our origin of birth and although nationalism existed, it developed to a sense of globalism. In addition to physically being in the space of other art forms depicting life on Earth, it will be featured in our history books here in Paradise. The museum will encompass all aspects of Earth, good and bad included, and “The Forgotten Left to Burn” will be placed amongst the history of Earth before our departure.
The legacy of our new world is one that willingly sacrifices human life. A legacy of racism and elitism. This memorial visually depicts clear cultural dynamics within our world which roots itself in anti-Blackness. This memorial makes you question the makeup of the society around you, evaluate how each and every person was deemed saveable. However, in addition to that, it calls for the continual memory of those who were left behind. Thus, this image should be included in every textbook in Paradise about life at Earth. A traditional monument with the hopes of revisioning history would not do my art’s concept justice. Too many monuments in tradition have been created to honor white men. However, my memorial does the opposite and instead shines light of the horrors capable of white men while also remembering that Black lives that were lost in humanity’s transition into Paradise.
