“Greed”

The first narrative reveals the negative effects of mining not just to our land, but to our animals. Ironically, the herd of deer in this image are on the other side of the “No Trespassing: Active Mining Area” sign. The sign is to keep humans out, for our own safety. This “barrier” that we put in place doesn’t stop wildlife from living on their land, and from getting hurt, which was their home long before the mine was even developed.

The second narrative reveals over-consumerism. I wanted these vehicles to be packed closely together, and without a visible end, hidden away from human eyes. The reason they are hidden is to show that most of the human population doesn’t have to see or deal with what happens to our discards (in this case vehicles) when we want something bigger and better.

The third narrative deals with selfishness of humans. The day that I followed the roadkill remover around, we picked up 50 animals. Every year, the remover estimates to pick up 2000 deer and 500 small animals in the Northern Black Hills of South Dakota, and this does NOT include Interstate 90. Each deer’s neck was tied with a wire and dragged up into the vehicle. At the end of the day, they were tossed into a heaping pile at the landfill. We build a road over these animals’ homes, take the lives of these animals, make sure our vehicle isn’t damaged, and then treat these animals as nothing more than trash to throw away.