Michael Oatman

Michael Oatman (New York, USA)

Untitled (Unless), 2005

collage, found poster

23 x 35 inches

Untitled (Unless) is directly related to Dr. Seuss’ 1971 children’s book, The Lorax. A kind of spokesman for the environment, the Lorax warns a family of industrialists (led by the faceless ‘Once-ler’) that they are ruining the air, water, and land by their unchecked production. Interestingly, the timber industry responded with a book of its own called The Truax, in which a tree character speaks out against a kind of straw-man environmentalist.