save paper, save animals by nigel tan from singapore

The Earth’s rainforests, notably Amazon, holds within in numerous endangered species slowly being wiped out of existence by the acts of capitalist and consumerist nations. The world as we know is experiencing globalization, and it is much more ‘flatter’ and interconnected than we might like to admit. But truth is, the very paper we use in the manufacturing of paper bags, writing paper and any paper product, comes directly from the destruction of the trees, which are the very homes and hence habitat of these beautiful yet tortured animals.

One can only imagine the horrors faced by these slowly diminishing creatures that have been around for centuries, perhaps even longer than us. It is this very ‘distance’ between, creating this ‘us and them’ mentality, that makes us so apathetic and cruel to their needs, and to create a fiction in our minds that these animals probably do not exist, do not suffer.

Thus the solution and the aim of my project to me are quite clear and came to me at that very instant once I discovered this. Keeping in mind that consumerism is a motion that no one stops I decided to use it as a vehicle; my project’s aim is to ‘bring’ the endangered creatures of the rainforests right into our doorstep by creating own made reusable paper bags and printing graphics of the animals with silk screen printing. The reason for this manner of production is as follows: silk screening is a manual process which allows for more control of the amount of ink used, eventually it will be a more environmentally-friendly approach to the printing as no electronic printers are needed, thus lesser fossil fuels burnt.
The motive behind the project’s principle is simple: the objective is not to stop using paper but rather to just appreciate paper and try to reuse them as and where possible, as shown through reusing used paper bags as a canvas for my posters. My belief is that people are not by nature apathetic and insensitive to the animal’s needs; they simply are not in the know. My job and purpose is to inform them to make the right choice in the future, for the future.