second-hand suffering
INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT
"Second-Hand Suffering" is a lead on paper artwork that was done as an independent project in 2017. This piece works to depict the issue of second-hand smoking that stems from parents smoking around their children and subjecting them to the potential effects of being around an environment as such.
CONTENTS OF THIS PROJECT
RESEARCH
Before starting this project it was important to look at inspiration pictures of other work people have done not only on passive smoking but on the topic of smoking in general, whether this be in the sense of the opposite perspective of this piece and glorifying smoking or being a similar idea to my own. I looked at all different kinds of mediums that had these kinds of messages behind them to inspire my own work and get the creativity flowing in how to represent what I wanted to do. At the time I created this I was looking into portraiture and photorealism in my high school art class and this really influenced the idea behind the final project and the medium that it was done in.
Another aspect of my research was for writing up my artist statement that accompanied the artwork to explain what it was about in depth. This involved lots of research into actual facts and statistics on passive smoking and getting numbers for precisely how many people are affected and the impacts that it has on their health. This was really eye opening for me as even though I already had an idea of how bad passive smoking could be and a topic I am passionate about, I had no idea just how high the numbers were and what some of the affects were on children's health both in childhood and as they ventured through their own adulthood later on in life.
PROGRESS OF PROJECT
These photos show the progress of the artwork from basic outlines and layering of shading different tonal values to get to the final artwork that was created.
ARTIST STATEMENT
Second-Hand Suffering comments on the prominence of passive smoking in everyday society and the potentially fatal effects it can have on innocent, non-smokers, an issue that is commonly overlooked in comparison to the effects and impacts of smoking causes directly on those that choose to smoke. Up to 600,000 people are killed every year due to passive smoking, a third being children of whom have parents that smoke around their children daily, unwillingly becoming the victims by inhaling the smoke that they are forced to be around. Research done on the effects of passive smoking, particularly on children of parents who smoke, revealed that these children are likely to inhale nicotine smoke that is equivalent to if they were to smoke 60 to 150 cigarettes a year. They are also at an increased risk of serious lung infection, reduction of lung function and becoming more prone to ear infections and suffering asthma attacks.
Smoking is an addictive lifestyle that is chosen by people who decided to start smoking and then continue the habit with the knowledge of the bad consequences that could possibly or eventually endure, whereas the children and others who suffer from passive smoking as a result of this are forcibly exposed to this bad addiction and lifestyle, experiencing the same effects as actual smokers go through. Most expecting mothers are advised by doctors to give up smoking when pregnant as there can be damaging effects to the baby if they continue to smoke throughout their pregnancy. However, there is no advisement towards continuing this after the child has been born and throughout their childhood, instead a lot of parents take the habit back up soon after thinking that the stage where damage can be done has finished.
In the artwork, I have used my younger brother Cameron as an example and representation of the effects of passive smoking. The hand holding the cigarette to his mouth is not his own, indicating the act of how parents may as well be 'forcing' their child to smoke as they unknowingly still subject them to the same effects and damage that they would from actually smoking a cigarette directly. His facial expression is a mixture of neutral and smiling, demonstrating how children are unaware of what they are being exposed to as they are conditioned to this environment and used to their parents smoking around them, blissfully happy but not in the know of what is happening.
The airport flight board acts as a record of how many deaths are caused by passive smoking. The times are relatively close together, displaying the rapid pace that these deaths are occurring and the frequency in which this happens around the world with so many children. The term 'delayed' signifies that the effect of passive smoking has been slowed down, perhaps due to when parents attempt to try and quit but end up back in the habit or other reasons, but that they are still on track to damaging effects if the parents do not stop projecting this lifestyle onto the person at risk. Common names have been used in the children as most people will recognise the names as people they know personally such as family and friends, reinforcing the point that the effects of passive smoking can happen to any of the people they might know and makes the artwork more relatable to the audience. This is especially for those who smoke realising themselves that their behaviour of smoking is not only putting them at risk but putting their loved ones at risk as well.
FINAL ARTWORK
The final artwork consisted of the main A3 portrait of my brother portraying the effects of passive smoking alongside an accompanying piece that is the flight board showing the frequency of deaths and damage caused by passive smoking.
