Destruction of Wonder

Abstract

The human hand asserts dominance over nature, but one of the many things that we've seen throughout this pandemic is how nature eventually takes over—no matter how oppressed it may have been. Animals were able to roam free in areas often inhabited by humans. Trees were able to take a two second break from being cut down, before the toilet paper frenzy took its toll. And needless to say that visually, the sky and air quality changed without humans constantly in outdoor settings.

The sky is one element of nature that humanity has been unable to completely and directly control. Sure, we have polluted the air and the oceans, but we have not been able to physically cut out a piece of the sky and place it somewhere else for our own liking.... On the contrary, we have been able to do this with trees. We cut down millions of trees and replant them in unfamiliar territories for our own pleasure and perpetual usage. The untouched natural object, that is the sky, provides the manipulated urban trees space to breathe and demonstrate their idealized forms.

The distinct separation between environments that nature "builds", versus the environments that we build around and through nature, begs for close examination so that we might better our relationship with the spaces we inhabit and expand the discussion on the lasting effects of our presence within them.

This series of photographs showcases the harmonies and dissonances that occur between nature (trees and sky) and the built urban environment.