Environmental Politics in Illustration (and Animation): Social Change Through Storytelling4/27/2023 Sze Hang Lo BA Illustration and Visual Media Is illustration political? For Wenqian Yan (known as Yuumei), her creative practice is inextricably linked with environmentalism and politics. Her first comic follows a group called Knites, who fly kites with strings of light nightly to bring stars back to a polluted sky. Knites is an exploration of the conflict between globalisation and environmental protection in her birthplace, leaning on Chinese cultural motifs and societal values. “To the Chinese people living in poverty and working in factories toward their dream of a better tomorrow, pollution is the least of their concerns. Corruption runs rampant from corporate to government as environmental safety is pushed under the table, and the innocent citizens caught between the consequences of their greed” (Yan, 2023). Her ongoing comic, Fisheye Placebo, explores how government surveillance and censorship plays a role in Chinese environmentalism. “…farmers who protested the illegal dumping of chemicals in a small town in China were shut down by the police, and any news about it was censored from TV and the internet through the Great Firewall of China. I realized one can't just talk about environmentalism when censorship and no freedom of speech was preventing people from sharing the truth” (Yan, 2023). For Yuumei, illustration is used to weave fantastical narratives that criticise the real-world political forces threatening the environment. While Yuumei uses character-driven storytelling to address specific socioeconomic issues within the topic of environmentalism, Japanese filmmaker Makoto Shinkai creates broader, generalised narratives centred around supernatural forces of nature. Shinkai explores environmentalism with a strongly apolitical approach. Speaking about his 2019 film Weathering with You, a fantasy story set in a Tokyo threatened by torrential rain and flooding, Shinkai explained: “I tried to remove any kind of deep message about global warming or climate change or politics. This is first and foremost entertainment” (Chen, 2020). Shinkai prioritises emotional connection over a political message in his practice, thus his high-concept films tend to centre around an exploration of the human relationship with the environment, rather than an explicit call to action. Despite this, it is hard to say that his practice is entirely ‘apolitical’. Rather, Shinkai is acutely aware of the political and cultural contexts that has shaped his practice. Following up on the previous statement, he elaborated, “…the inspiration for this film does come from the global warming that is actually happening in the world. In Japan, we’re seeing a lot more rain nowadays, and destruction due to excessive rain” (Chen, 2020). His ‘neutral’ approach to topics of environmentalism is in fact deeply influenced by Japan’s history of extreme natural disasters and the way in which Japanese society has adapted in the wake of these events. Shinkai’s decision to be ‘apolitical’ can be considered a political act in itself, especially as his recent films gain international recognition and acclaim. After all, he is no longer operating within a Japanese industry bubble, and his global success as a filmmaker brings a need for responsibility in communicating this ideology to a global audience. As discussed in The Politics of Design, “A design cannot be disconnected from the values and assumptions in which it was created, from the ideologies behind it. It can be difficult to see how visual communication and ideology are related because ideology is in everything around us, we perceive it as natural” (Pater, 2022). Is Shinkai’s 'apolitical’ stance on environmentalism truly neutral, or is he simply perceiving it as natural? Although I may not be explicitly vocal about environmentalism, many of my design choices within my practice are still driven by my own ideological beliefs. My ongoing illustration series aims to explore the ‘potential for wonder’ in the Hong Kong everyday, featuring many elements of nature in juxtaposition to the dense urban space. Like Shinkai, my series are not intended as a political statement, but are still deeply influenced by my personal beliefs about the need for nature to be valued and preserved. The scenes that I illustrate — and the decisions involved in that design process — will either challenge or align with the Asian cultural context that values social and economic progress over the natural environment. Beyond the topic of environmentalism, I believe that my creative practice is inherently political, most significantly because of the choices I make as a designer and illustrator. Politics in art is never as simple as what is being shown in the final outcome. Chen, N. (2020) The global warming-inspired anime storming Japan’s box offices. Available at: https://www.dazeddigital.com/film-tv/article/47368/1/weathering-with-you-japan-anime-makoto-shinkai-interview-your-name (Accessed: 25 April 2023).
GKIDS Films (2019) Weathering With You [Official Subtitled Trailer, GKIDS]. Jul 23, 2019. Available at: Youtube (Accessed: 26 April 2023). Pater, R. (2022) The Politics of Design. 8th edn. Amsterdam: BIS Publishers. Yan, Wenqian. (2023) About. Available at: https://www.yuumeiart.com/about (Accessed: 24 April 2023). Yuumei (2018) Knite Ch1 - The Bringer of Stars [Digital art]. Available at: https://www.yuumeiart.com/knite-ch1-the-bringer-of-stars (Accessed: 24 April 2023).
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
|