By: Nick Saige and Morgan Baker

Our purpose for creating this piece was to communicate to the general public the rising issue of consumption that plagues the environment. Tuberculosis, which was once called "consumption," is a disease that deteriorates the lungs. Much like the aged definition, the modern ideology of consumption is also a disease, one that severely diminishes natural ecosystems. The vision for our work sprouted from our realization of the effects of over-consumption on our Earth. The tree is a representation of how the environment is being destroyed by humanity’s insatiable drive to consume.

We constructed the sculpture by stripping an old beach umbrella of its cloth and fastening it to a base. We then began to glue and secure pieces of trash collected from both of our homes to the umbrella, thus, taking on the shape of a tree.