Art and Design: Visual Resources Center

Poster

Floating Moai

Sebastian Aravena

Chile

2019

environmental crisis

H:29-1/2" x L: 27-1/2"

ink on paper

This poster was created and selected to the Mankind’s Fragile Heritage initiative, by the International Association of Designers of Russia, to be exposed in September of 2019. The concept is about the global crisis and the potential harm to our cultural heritage. The Moai is a very important material heritage of Rapa Nui people and for all the chilean country, it’s a symbol of their culture. Its presence in the island, its iconic recognition and its relationship with the sea, makes of a maoi an ideal object to start to work: the moai it is a symbol of all humanity… Then, one of the most important damages that the environmental crisis creates is the rise of oceans levels… and there comes the lifejacket. As a sign of what could happen: Humanity needed for help, humanity lost in the sea, Rapa Nui is sunken. “My poster work tries to simplify different elements in a single and strong image capable to express one particular concept by a context mixture. I’am very interested in how simple forms can detonate flows of significance and interpretations for the observers, sometimes very far away of the original meaning of these forms. Finally, the elements works as triggers of their own contexts, and all is about the contexts and their crosses” says Sebastian.
included in the posterists in the world International Poster Design Exhibition at Purdue University.

PITW3