Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Joshua Coady
Mrs. Dott
2 November 2017
The Inheritance
A curious child dressed in white squats on a beach to lift up the ocean and look
underneath. He finds what the previous generation left for him - his inheritance. What is
this inheritance? It’s a polluted ocean caused by years of careless disposal of trash.
Why should you care though? It’s not like the problem has reached a tipping point,
right? The next generation won’t be left cleaning the mess or deciding to contribute to
the problem rather than solving it. Can this generation break the pattern of poor choices
and act before the problem reaches a critical point instead of acting after it’s too late?
In What Lies Under created by Ferdi Rizkiyanto in 2011, the Indonesian digital artist
crystal blue waters to find discarded plastic bottles and other trash. The artist uses
visual elements of water, a boy and crabs to simplify a complex message in the hopes
Water is the largest part of the image, but notice the darkness in the water close
to the beach. Could it be more trash just below the surface? The artist chose to make
the waters closest to the beach seem darker to convey something sinister and
dangerous. While it is only implied by the dark water in the image, in reality it is there
causing real harm to humanity. The College of Carlton said that “Direct toxicity from
plastics comes from lead, cadmium, and mercury” (Andrews) This fact suggests the
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trash is not just a problem for the sea life, but it also impacts humans that are further up
the food chain. The darkness in the picture represents the danger and harm that the
plastics are causing. The boy is facing a future with polluted waters and a contaminated
food supply.
The boy in white represents the middle class, not the wealthy and not the poor.
The middle class is the group of people who will forced to accept the challenge the
inheritance presents. The poor are powerless to effect the change and the rich will
simply obtain their food supply from other sources. The middle class will have to face
the problem directly because they will have just enough resource to try and fix the
problem, but not enough to avoid it. The boy, like the middle class, has a choice of what
to do with the inheritance. The trash left in the ocean is around 40 million tons (The
Center for Biological Diversity). This organization also estimates we add 10 million tons
a year into the ocean via improper disposal. How the boy addresses this problem might
be the model of how his generation solves other large problems, such as, world hunger.
If it is not addressed, the problem will just pass along to the next generation until it
The crabs running away from the ocean represents the concept of dwindling
supply of food from the ocean. Around 44,000 known marine animal deaths are
attributed to plastic waste discarded in the ocean (Gertz). This includes fish, crabs,
shrimp, and other varieties of sea life. The ocean is a source of food used all across the
world. In some places like Minamata, China it is the sole source of food for the local
inhabitants. This is how a polluted ocean, containing large amounts of mercury and
other toxins, can cause an epidemic of disease and mental retardation from the fish
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consumed by the population (Jia). In this instance, the source of pollution was the
disposal of large quantity of coal and waste into the ocean by a local factory. The
pollution event caused a large loss of life. Only then did humans take action to address
the problem. People are harming our food, decreasing food supply and poisoning
Ferdi Rizkiyanto did a good job using a wide range of visual elements to present
the viewer with a message that ocean pollution is an urgent problem to be addressed
by the next generation. The previous generations bear the burden of responsibility for
creating this troublesome inheritance. However, there is hope. The boy’s generation can
choose to make a difference or they may ignore it. The question is will be cleaned it up
or simply passed on to the next generation? Either way, the response to this challenge
will become the model for how other major problems such as Global Warming, Rising
Oceans, and National Debt will be handled. By sacrificing financial gain, Ferdi shows
how strongly he feels about the topic. He included the following statement on his
website, “Every non-profit environmental organization may use this artwork, contact me
for a higher resolution image” (Rizkiyanto). The work is a powerful call to action for the
next generation, but only time will tell how the challenge will be answered and if
Works Cited
Conversation, The. “There's Rage-Inducing New Data On The Amount Of Plastic In The
https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amount-plastic-
ocean_us_568ee104e4b0a2b6fb6f696e
Gertz, Emily J. “Ocean Plastic Pollution's Shocking Death Toll on Endangered Animals.”
pollutions-shocking-death-toll-endangered-animals
Jia, YouAug. 6, 2014 , 2:45 PM, et al. “Mercury levels in surface ocean have tripled.”
http://www.sciencemag.org/news/2014/08/mercury-levels-surface-ocean-have-
tripled
Andrews, Gianna. “Plastics in the Ocean Affecting Human Health.” Case Studies, 14
Nov. 2016.
https://serc.carleton.edu/NAGTWorkshops/health/case_studies/plastics.html
Press, Associated. “Henderson Island: 38M Pieces of Trash Washed Ashore From
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/henderson-island-38m-pieces-trash-
washed-ashore-pacific-ocean-n759926
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pacific-garbage-patch/
“The Plastic Problem” Ocean Plastics Pollution, Center for Biological Diversity.
http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/