The topic for my senior art show will discuss endangered animals and the human consumerism of those animals causing their endangerment. Seeing as there are hundreds of species of animals being hunted for a plethora of reasons, I narrowed my results down to ten species: Bengal tiger, eastern massasauga rattlesnake, Barbay lion, butterfly splitfin, Guam Kingfisher, Wyoming toad, Kurdistan newt, thick-billed parrot, Miyako grass lizard, and the African leopard. These animals endangered for their own different reasons with one shared reason being loss of habitat due to human infiltration. 

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My show, Advocating Visually, will display this consumerism of endangered animals through ceramic “China plates.” Eight of the animals will be displayed on earthenware ceramic plates separated onto four shelves (two plates per shelf) while the rattlesnake and Bengal tiger will be on a pedestal between the shelves, with two shelves on each side holding the plates. The choice of describing them as “China plates” is to play off the human idea of purchasing expensive plates and never using them, only owning them for display purposes. While they are plates—common household items used daily—they are untouched and meant to look nice; the same goes for these wild animals. My goal for this show is to influence people to take a step back from environments that they do not belong to and leave the indigenous species currently existing there alone, or donate and help wherever they can to prevent further habitat destruction and animal losses.