Kirsten Stolle's Pesticide Pop

 

    Kirsten Stolle is an amazing artist who works mostly with text based images and collages to fight for several causes: Herbicide Free Campus, Pesticide Action Network, and Real Food Media. Her installation at College of Charleston's Halsey Institution of Contemporary Art is exhibiting "Only You can Prevent a Forest." This collection uses advertising strategies used by agrochemical corporations to bring their use to light.

    There were two pieces of this collection that I was most interested in. Pesticide Pop and Plant Protection had left me thinking the most about the piece itself as well myself. Pesticide Pop is a large piece that I have pictured above, ten individual pictures, that all have different household weed killers or chemical mixer for your garden. Stolle uses the similar seductive power that chemical company use to advertise; they are simple photos turned into pop art because of the bright colors. This has made this object the center of our visual and almost desirable even though I personal hate these chemicals. They can all be found at a local hardware store even though similar chemicals like DDT have been banned in the country. DDT is a chemical that was being sprayed to kill mosquitoes, but it was killing lots of wild life where it was being sprayed. Another chemical, herbicide atrazine is banned in the European Union but not in the US. This chemical is a known endocrine disruptor and kills plants. Many times we don't know what companies are spraying or killing to make a profit. Another topic brought up in class is the bioaccumulation of how these chemical are effecting us. While at first the concentration of a chemical is small, as it moves up the Energy Pyramid, the concentration can grow to a deadly amount in predators which are humans. This effect has already been seen with the Hudson River and medicine accumulation has started to affect the drinking water.

    Overall, I chose to write about this art piece because it really did attract me to it because of the bright colors. This piece made me think about the chemicals my parents keep at home to take care of their yard and garden and our homes' negative effect on the ecosystem.  I think these chemicals should be banned and I hope one day everyone will realize how bad weed killers are for themselves.

I came alone so I took a selfie.