Ashley Baldwing Smith
The Space I Inhabit

This artwork was based upon a proposal for me to explore methods to highlight environmental and cultural issues of global warming and pollution. To investigate how art can draw attention to cultural issues of the 'throwaway society' such as, consumerism and littering. Moreover, how little regard some people have for the rest of society and the area they live in. More specifically, the area I live in. Research revealed that not only is the habit harmful to the user, but masses of carbon dioxide is released in the production of the canisters. In addition, as the littered canister may still contain gas, they are not recycled.
Part of the method was to collect the canisters from a fixed location and the finished work would be a snapshot of time and space - a narrative about a section of society that use or pass through that space. Very early on, I realised that a major part of my practice research is about the collecting of the canisters and that this needed to be documented. The completed journal, documents twenty walks and includes over thirty photographs.
My intention was encourage the viewer to stop and think, if only for a moment, about what we, as a species, are doing to society and to the planet.