Waste away

This was a part of my Year 13 Art coursework project- we could do it on anything we wanted, so my project was called 'DEFIANCE'.
In this project I attempted to bring tons of social and political issues to attention, so this drawing was the final piece.

I was in a real panic about what I should do for last piece (the last piece is supposed to be the most experimental one, like a grand farewell to the project ) and
as I had already used up tons of issues that I was passionate about for other pieces (e.g. freedom for the Palestinian people, defiance against environmental damage etc.)  therefore I couldn't think of something to draw, so I had to wait for inspiration to strike me.

I have used colouring pencils, promarkers, india ink, trash and metal in this piece. I basically ran around the art class collecting wrappers and stuff that people just had on them to glue on to this piece (and as they were art students, they had a lot of trash on them) <3

The colouring was fun to do BUT THE GLUING WAS A PAINFUL AND TERRIBLE PROCESS because I used a hot glue gun for industrial work (didn't realise there were cool melt ones lolololol) so I obtained many burns and CUTTING UP THE METAL CANS RESULTED IN ME SHEDDING MY OWN BLOOD (as well as ripping my own clothes )

I felt like using REAL TRASH would help convey the meaning behind my piece in a far more effective way

WHICH BRINGS ME TO THE MEANING OF THE PIECE:

There was a huge build up to the general election at the time, so loads of news articles were coming out about how the Conservative Party in the UK (the current party in power) had caused the amount of food banks in the country to increase (this is a party of the 'economy' so they like to make everyone broke).

I guess you could say that this drawing is an external representation of my feelings towards all the content on poverty I had seen in the media and in person.

Inspirations:
1) Supermarkets that have unsold food, bury it all in a landfill when it could be given to people who have nothing to eat.

2) There was a Channel 4 Documentary about kids in Britain living below the breadline which showed the lengths their carers had to go to provide food on the table (one case even involving prostitution). I also happened to be working with my house at school (I was a house captain) to collect items together to donate for a food bank as winter was approaching (we received many donations).

3) That poverty scene in Fisheye Placebo by Yuumei

4) I was especially inspired by a newspaper article that I read- it was about how much food we waste as a country despite the fact that so many people have to rely on food banks to eat. 

The statistic on the piece is a quote from the article (by The Independent newspaper)- "4 million tonnes of surplus food is wasted every year in the UK." But the article also talked about a man who called a radio station, basically crying because of the way he was living. It was so sad. This is the article: www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/…

We waste so much, whilst there are people who cannot afford to eat. It's disgusting.

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More drawings to come! :3