ECO Art: Polar Bears Raise Spirits & Awareness

Before you scroll down, think about this picture. Is there any significance to it? Polar bears, the all-time favourite mascot for climate change – does it mean anything? I’m thinking of gummy bears here, and this picture, apart from being aesthetically pleasing and pretty, doesn’t mean very much to me.

Which makes me wonder about the significance of such public displays when it comes to activism / awareness raising. Are actions, intentions, and reactions always in line?

Let me know your thoughts.

The cynic,
Eileen

Polar bears, polar bears, polar bears! At Inhabitat, we’ve seen these mascots of global warming used in all sorts of ways to call attention to environment issues: floating, dancing and swimming, but now to raise awareness, ecoideasnet is blowing them up and letting them fly away! Taking natural soap and helium gas, the Japan based eco/social-network created a set of white and cuddly polar bear shaped clouds and let them go where few have gone before.

Originating from behind a faux iceberg landscape in a Japanese park, the bearish clouds are brought into existence and then left to float up to the heavens. The aim of the display is to provoke the onlooker to consider a deeper, more environmentally dire meaning contained within each cloud: Are these, metaphorically speaking, endangered-animal souls being sent to heaven? Or are the forms simply a representation of how delicate and short-lived the state of our current bear population is? Whatever the answer, who would have thought a day in the park could be so profound?

Luckily the event’s intention is actually not to trouble you, but to draw your attention to ecoideasnet – a new medium for people to spread and promote their latest green undertakings.

By Moe Beitiks, from http://www.inhabitat.com/2010/04/03/eco-art-polar-bear-clouds-raise-spirits-and-awareness/

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