Marie Antoinette

The new theme for my Monotype work is "Art for Social Change." I have decided to look in to aspects of global inequality of resources. This includes resources such as food, water, and natural materials. I will expand on these concepts as I produce the art. This week I am going to focus on the issue of world starvation and disproportionate consumption of food in first-world countries.

Many of us know the history of the French Revolution and the story of Marie Antoinette. This revolution stemmed from the discomfort of the masses from the exploitation of the wealthy. The wealth lived in such luxury and were so out of touch with what was going on outside their own palace walls that they were somewhat ignorant of the desperate state of the common people. Marie Antoinette is famous for her famous saying, "Let them eat cake!" This phrase can be used to sum up the attitude of first world countries to all the starving countries around the world. Living in a first world country myself I knowingly include myself into this statement.  I want to use the symbol of Marie Antoinette to raise awareness about how the distribution of wealth is more extreme than most people can even imagine. In America alone 60% of income is made by only the top 1% of the population. Now take this statistic and look at it on a global scale. I believe it is time to search for a new system of economics. One which will look out for the struggling nations, preserve our planet by being efficient and using the resources wisely and modestly to support the growing population.