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Joshua was born in Pittsburgh, but he currently works outside of Brooklyn.
He received his Bachelors of Fine Arts (BFA) from The School of Visual Arts in 2004.
He launched the "Air Bear" project in 2006.

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Air Bear Project From Joshua Allen Harris

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Air Bear Project From Joshua Allen Harris

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The artist has attached his art piece, which is made from white garbage bags, to the New York's subway's air ventilation.
When a train goes by, air inflates the garbage bags to reveal a white polar bear. As the last of the air is exhausted, the polar bear crumbles and deflates.

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The artist identifies himself as an environmentalist. He sees the shift from public transit as one of the major driving forces of climate change. Loss of sea ice is a reason why polar bears are listed as a threatened species. In this piece, as a train full of passengers passes by underneath on the subway, the polar bear inflates, symbolizing it is coming to life. Moments later as the train is gone, there is silence, and the polar bear deflates, which symbolizes death.

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However, there are weaknesses with the artist's piece. Allen Harris falls short of hitting the mark, since the issue of climate change is more complex than getting more people to take public transit or carpooling. At the moment, this is a good start, especially for some people living in larger cities like New York or Toronto. This allows people to use personal vehicles less, which eases congestion within the city for those who need to drive allowing them to travel faster, idle less, and use less gasoline.

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Unfortunately, with issues as complex as this, there is never one blanket solution. For example, humans live on an interconnected planet where transportation distance is not really an issue anymore. Buying or shipping something from any e-commerce business like Amazon or Ali-Baba allows someone to receive his/her package within 1-2 days. This is only possible with the use of airplanes, trains, ships, and trucks running globally 24/7. We live in a capitalist society driven by consumerism. Joshua's art piece, although it starts a dialog it falls short of the mark. This tells people to use less and buy less; however, ultimately, this idea would leave people jobless among other unforeseen issues. In order to maintain the status quo, the only adjustment that can be made to combat climate change would have to come technologically.  For example, a form of technology using "green" transportation (i.e. electric, hydrogen etc.)

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http://joshuaallenharris.com/