The World in a Grain of Rice
by Lloyd Alter, Toronto on 02.20.07
Imagine piles of rice. Each grain represents a person. Imagine performers carefully weighing out rice to represent statistics:
- the populations of towns and cities
- the number of doctors, the number of soldiers
- the number of people born each day, the number who die
- all the people who have walked on the moon
- deaths in the holocaust.
"The statistics are arranged in labelled piles creating an ever changing landscape of rice. The statistics and their juxtapositions can be moving, shocking, celebratory, witty and thought provoking. "
It is so hard to grasp the statistics and the quantities of the things that we talk about. What is a ton of carbon dioxide? How do we relate to such huge numbers? But we all know how big a grain of rice is, and seeing piles of these tiny grains can be truly shocking. At MassMoCA through Feb 25.
That's startling and creative, but I can't help but shudder at the atrocious waste. One of the biggest environmental concerns is not whether or not we can get sustainable fur or cute office supplies, as one might believe when looking at some Treehugger articles, but whether or not people in developing nations will be able to grow enough to eat because of the massive droughts and other natural disasters caused by sweeping climate change. What a privileged world you, I, and the artists live in that we can see hundreds of pounds of rice as a medium for creativity rather than lifesaving food.
Laughingrat, I do believe that such piles of rice are indeed wasteful if considered as potential food for those who are most hungry. And I would agree that there are probably many other small inert objects that could be used for a similar set of statements. But if you consider the potency of this work as a means to put our individual egos and concerns in the context of these larger populations, then the size and importance of issues that are usually kept to words becomes unavoidable. as viewers, we are left to consider our insignificance, and if fortunate in self-reflection, realize the luxury of standing before big piles of *whatever* that reinforce just how lucky we are as that little grain that can look back on all the others.