As we first enter the gates of the botanical garden we encounter an outlying industrial district. This first painting arguably has one of the most recognizable sci-fi symbols, the glass dome. In the construction of fictional worlds, Spatial relationships are often used to illustrate power relationships or show xenophobic dynamics. This spatial patterning of above/below can often be transformed into inside/outside. Many futuristic cities as depicted in science fiction use this model. The imagery of the glass dome is most often associated with degradation of the environment. Typically, it is only within the dome that agriculture and sustainability is possible, while outside of the dome lays a desolate and toxic atmosphere. In my illustration the glass dome takes on an uncertain role. The glass orb encapsulates and quarantines an industrial source of pollution. The botanical element in the painting is the air plant. The air plant is placed within the midst of the pollution.
For this piece I chose Air plants because of how they primarily survive off of nutrients that they gather from the air. Air Plants extract Dust as well as decaying leaf and insect matter from the air.
The painting shows the Air plants placed within the glass dome as if to filter the pollution and render the emissions less toxic. The uncertainty arises here because of the dead and discarded airplants that lay strewn about outside of the dome. While air plants suggest consideration for the environment, the toxicity is merely shifted elsewhere. Instead of the air itself taking on pollution, So while the air appears clean with its periwinkle hue, the pincushions of pollution are littered throughout the dead-looking fields.