This painting covers the topics of Vanity, Greed and Pollution, the three are all related.
Take the Whale for example, they are hunted and killed, their
bye-products used for cosmetics (Vanity), men trade and sell
this product on the global market (Greed), then discard
through waste, packaging, and wanton use of energy etc.(Pollution).
Vanity and Greed have been with us for thousands of years, but
Pollution is a relative newcomer to Man's "Curriculum Vitae".
In a modern society, like today's, everything we do needs a
form of energy, to acquire energy we need fuel, this in turn
leads to Pollution.
This downward spiral with pollution affects everyone on the planet, no matter how you live or insulate oneself !
Mega-conglomerates have overdosed on Vanity, Greed and Pollution on a gigantic scale, with total disregard of the consequences. They respond to outcries of foul play with token gestures of aid for clean-up programmes, evading the global environmental issues for which they in turn are responsible.
They manoeuvre back and forth taking advantage of loopholes within the law, therefore the system is aiding and abetting these "Polluters" to render our laws, useless !
Under the shallow guise of "progress" ordinary peoples health is deteriorating at an alarming pace. Carcinogens due to emissions from motor cars and trucks, Nuclear contamination from power stations and negligence from companies polluting the water courses, and in turn people ingest pollutants through their diets.
The obsession with "Vanity" and the "Self" as become endemic within society today.
"Egomania": pungent obsession with self-exaltation, beauty, worshipping the outer shell, while the inner self regresses into a fragile false state, sometimes leading to "Self" destruction. There is also a twisted vanity when in some circles of society people exclude the "Disabled" and mentally ill from being a functioning part of society.
Vanity has even entered into child birth, designer babies are on the menu, birth control and fertility treatments are big business, pioneers of the above have become rich and famous. Scientists will one day through genetic and biological experiment create a race of super beings, pure, perfect, free from all ills. Ordinary or defective people will become unnecessary second class citizens.
The food chain will be exploited to the full, "Greed" will have a field day.........at this moment "Patents" concerning and controlling what we eat are being sought, "They" are legally buying the right to genetically manipulate the food we eat for gain, the consequences will be enormous.
How much of this new technology will go to the "Third World" to alleviate famine and starvation, will it help their infrastructure. I doubt it very much !.....they have nothing to give in return. What have we as human beings become ? "Yes" we have become "Greedy" "Vain" and a "Polluter" of our planet "Earth"
The obsession with 'image' prevalant in today's society is roundly criticised in, for example, Buddhist writings. There the 'self' is recognised as a creation of society, an epi-phenomenon of ignorance not of worth. In a connected and holistic society (which our global civilisation certainly now is) the self is a myth. No social being on this planet maintains any form of lifestyle without the help of others. Language itself, as Wittgenstein came to see, helps define the 'self' to which we cling so fervently. Without social recognition and support this 'self' disintegrates, leaving the person feeling empty and worthless.
Yet our individual value is not as a social icon, but deep within. Every human has tremendous potential, abilities that don't rely in any way on the 'labels' of status waved about by fickle and ignorant people. Social institutions are collective forms, any member can be replaced by any other and the function persists unchanged, just as cells in a body are constantly replaced. The 'worth' claimed for themselves by executives, stars, politicians and the 'professions' often relies more on historical social tolerance, than on talent beyond the average...