Artist Statement

Nicole Gordon
Statement on the Deadly Sin Series

Since the onset of the Industrial Revolution the world’s population has risen while the Earth’s resources have diminished. During this period, manufacturing practices have been pushed to the extreme. Side effects from the production and consumption cycle of modern industry are threatening to irreversibly alter our environment on a Global scale.

This series depicts the ways in which the Seven Deadly Sins have driven mankind to forsake the environment. Each piece explores a different way in which one of the primary sins drive consumer demand for excess or motivate industry to satisfy that demand, often despite negative consequences to the environment. Pride, envy, gluttony, greed, lust, sloth, and wrath are all represented in their most environmentally pernicious forms. An 8th work, titled The Culmination, has been added to depict the effects of war on the environment. This piece combines imagery from all of the seven deadly sins into one composition to illustrate how each of the deadly sins throughout history has justified war.

This body of work references 16th century artist Pieter Bruegel’s illustrations on the seven deadly sins. I combine contemporary imagery with iconography sampled from Bruegel’s drawings to illustrate the consistency of the flaws and weaknesses of the human condition throughout history. I sample images that, regardless of their original context, speak across time and space.

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