'Cigarettes' Series

Statement: This series is part of a continuing exploration of industrialization and the ways in which it transforms an environment. I chose to express these ideas in a very constructed manner. To create these constructions, I used a unique collection of media: cigarettes and matchsticks as well as the packaging boxes of these materials. Cigarettes are a suitable building material for this series, as the destructive transformations cigarettes cause to bodies is comparable to the destruction industrialization causes to the environment. The matchsticks, shaped like trees, represent nature. Besides being related to the act of smoking, a match is appropriate to represent nature as it is made of wood and is a very natural product in that sense. Cigarettes, on the other hand, are an appropriate representative of industrialization, due to the unnatural process through which cigarettes are produced and the harmful chemicals that are added to the tobacco.