What’s the true cost of big business when left unchecked?
Produced by set designer and model maker Sonia Haccius, Massive Clearance features a detailed model village being demolished by a shopping trolley/bulldozer, as villagers (each individually hand-crafted) watch on in horror.
The top half of the trolley’s basket contains fake consumer products, while the bottom half has been transformed into a jail cell for imprisoned human rights defenders.
The piece is inspired by realities in Guatemala, where poor indigenous communities have lost their homes and livelihoods to make way for large-scale palm oil and sugar cane production, as well as mining activities by multinational corporations.
From land grabs and environmental destruction, to the imprisonment and murder of human rights activists, Massive Clearance raises important questions about the potential human rights abuses in the supply chains of everyday consumer products.
Source: Sonia Haccius and Trócaire
Format: Custom trolley-bulldozer; model village; clay; paint
Year: 2019
Courtesy of Emmet Sheerin, Joanne McGarry and Trócaire
Irish Global Solidarity in 100 Objects is organised by developmenteducation.ie, an online hub focused on learning about the unequal and unjust shape of the world today, and is coordinated by Aidlink, Concern Worldwide, the Irish Development Education Association, the National Youth Council of Ireland, Self Help Africa, Trócaire and 80:20 Educating and Acting for a Better World.
DevelopmentEducation.ie is part funded by Irish Aid.
