Orangutans are one of our closest and most enigmatic cousins. The name "orangutan" literally means "Person of the Forest" and was derived from an aboriginal belief that they were humans hiding in the forest to avoid working or becoming a slave. However, now they've become slaves to our consumerism.
    Palm oil is found in one of every ten household products, from margarine and bread to lipstick and soap, and is consumed by over a billion people across the world. It is also what's driving the orangutan, a species with whom we share roughly 97% of our genes, to extinction. Palm oil plantations are taking over the rainforests of Indonesia and Malaysia, the orangutan's only home, in an effort to meet global demands for the foods and products containing the ingredient. Palm oil can easily be replaced with other forms of vegetable oil but it isn't because it is cheap to grow and companies earn a profit from the rainforest timber the plantations replace. By 2012, palm oil is predicted to be the world's most produced, consumed, and internationally traded edible oil. Orangutans, currently listed as “critically endangered”, are foreseen to be extinct by as early as 2011. Almost 90% of orangutan habitat has now disappeared, and man and the palm oil industry remain the biggest threat to what is left of the orangutan population and their home.

    From February 28 to March 23, 2009, The College of New Rochelle's Mooney Center Gallery will feature a mixed-media installation by Alina Bachmann SAS '09, entitled "Person of the Forest". Using product packaging from items containing the ingredient "Palm oil", Bachmann constructs an environment reminiscent of the tree tops of the rainforest to shed light on an issue surrounding one of our closest cousins, the orangutan. The rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia, the orangutan's only remaining home, are being destroyed and replaced with oil palm plantations to meet the global demand for the ingredient. Dispersed throughout the artist's tree forms are facts and statistics that inform the viewer of this crisis, how we contribute to it through the items we use daily, and what can be done to prevent the orangutan's predicted extinction of 2011 and save the remaining forest. The installation brings this issue closer to home and allows the viewer to examine his/her place in the process. Opening Reception: Sunday, March 1, 2009 2- 4 p.m. In the Mooney Center Lounge, The College of New Rochelle, 29 Castle Place, New Rochelle NY 10805, (914) 654-5423, www.cnr.edu

    1) Where did I get the product packaging?
When I came up with the idea in October 2008, I immediately raided everything in my household looking for palm oil (amazingly I only found about 5 things). I sent out mass e-mails and postings on myspace and facebook telling people about what I was doing and what exactly I needed. I asked the Ursuline sisters and they helped immensely with collecting empty containers. I got permission to set up a designated trash bin in my college's cafeteria labeled with items the cafeteria sold that contained palm oil. I posted an ad on craigslist also and actually had a few people mail me stuff. The majority of the items came from friends and family. I was fortunate enough to have Halloween fall right during when I was collecting so a lot of candy wrappers came from that.

    2) How did I come up with the idea?
I often visit wwf.org when I'm trying to facilitate my creative process. Nature inspires me and ever since I was a little girl, I've been deeply interested in concerns related to the rainforests and coral reefs, so I started by researching those very areas through that website. I came across an article that immediately struck me, concerning the rainforests of Malaysia and Indonesia and the palm oil crisis. I realized right then that I wasn't just reading about rainforest destruction, but unknowingly causing it. I had never heard of this issue before, and considering the facts and statistic I uncovered, and how little is left, I felt the need to do something and make sure others knew too.

    3) Did I draw the orangutans and skeletons?
Yes, I drew them entirely using chalk pastels. They're life-size or close to. They were all drawn and completed around 2 weeks before the exhibition was to open... I actually didn't start the largest orangutan (measures 6 foot 3 inches high) on the Monday of the same week (my exhibition went up on that Thursday)

    4) How did I do the facts that appear throughout the tree forms?
I gathered the information itself from the various sources cited on my artist statement. I tried to group the facts within a single tree under the same tree. For example, the first tree introduces palm oil, where it comes from, how do we know what has it, as well as some information about orangutans and our relationship to them. The next tree involves how oil palm plantations are replacing rainforest and forcing the orangutan into extinction. I made the facts as I worked on each tree form. I'd get to an area that I wanted to put a fact on, see what color I would need, scan a piece of packaging that worked, put it in Photoshop, add the text, and print it out on Glossy photo paper. I would then cut it and attach it to the canvas using Golden's heavy gel medium.

    5) How long did it take me?
I'm a full-time student with a full 6-7 course workload. I had 3 jobs then as well (dropped to 2 in January). ALL of my "free" time was spent on producing the work for the exhibition from about October up until the very week of the exhibition in February. During winter break I worked from at least 10am-3am every day (except Christmas). To calculate the exact hours would be impossible but it's easily hundreds if not thousands.

    6) Where did I work?
The majority of the work was done utilizing two empty walls in a small one-bedroom apt. I worked in the kitchen mostly and used a wall in the living room when it was not large enough to accommodate the tree i was working on (the largest measures about 13 feet across). Luckily for me, the height of the apt's walls matched the height of the gallery space almost perfectly.

    7) What other kind of work do I do?
I'm not limited in medium nor subject matter. I tend to work realistically and enjoy encompassing issues/concepts related to nature and animals but am capable of many other things as well. Installation art has captured my heart recently because I am able to utilize all of my skills across various media and combine it for one cohesive work. I am fascinated with exploring space in relation to my work and have a desire to pursue site-specific creations because of the added challenge. Though I've not updated it recently, you can view my earlier works at http://artiztic.net/art.

    8) What do I want to do with my life?
Ultimately and simply put, I want to educate and inspire people through my art.

For more information on the Palm Oil crisis and the extinction of the Orangutan, please see the following articles:

• "Save Orangutans From Extinction When You Next Shop- and Put an End to the Cruelty of Palm Oil". The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation. 2007.
• "Indonesia's Endangered Orangutan: Palm Oil and Pet Trade Threaten World's Only Arboreal Great Ape". Suite101.com. 2007.
• "Species Fact Sheet: Orangutan". WWF International. 2006.
• "The Last Stand of the Orangutan: State of Emergency: Illegal Logging, Fire and Palm Oil in Indonesia's National Parks". United Nations Environment Programme. 2007.
• "The Oil for Ape Scandal: How Palm Oil is threatening Orang-Utan Survival". Friends of the Earth , The Ape Alliance, The Borneo Orangutan Survival Foundation , The Orangutan Foundation (UK) , and The Sumatran Orangutan Society. 2005.