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Joshua Coady

Mrs. Dott

AOIT English III

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

creates an image of a child dressed in clean clothes, on a beautiful beach lifting up

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

of provoking a strong reaction to a big issue facing the next generation.

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

reaches a breaking point.

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

remaining food harvested from the oceans.

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

Rizkiyanto’s message was heard.

Works Cited

Conversation, The. “There's Rage-Inducing New Data On The Amount Of Plastic In The

Ocean.” The Huffington Post, TheHuffingtonPost.com, 7 Jan. 2016.

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https://www.huffingtonpost.com/entry/amount-plastic-

ocean_us_568ee104e4b0a2b6fb6f696e

Ferdi Rizkiyanto, What Lies Under. 2011, Digital Art, http://ferdi-rizkiyanto.blogspot.com

Gertz, Emily J. “Ocean Plastic Pollution's Shocking Death Toll on Endangered Animals.”

TakePart, 20 Feb. 2015, www.takepart.com/article/2015/02/20/ocean-plastic-

pollutions-shocking-death-toll-endangered-animals

Jia, YouAug. 6, 2014 , 2:45 PM, et al. “Mercury levels in surface ocean have tripled.”

Science | AAAS, 26 July 2017.

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

Pacific Ocean.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 16 May 2017.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/world/henderson-island-38m-pieces-trash-

washed-ashore-pacific-ocean-n759926
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Society, National Geographic. “Great Pacific Garbage Patch.” National Geographic

Society, 9 Oct. 2012. https://www.nationalgeographic.org/encyclopedia/great-

pacific-garbage-patch/

“The Plastic Problem” Ocean Plastics Pollution, Center for Biological Diversity.

http://www.biologicaldiversity.org/campaigns/ocean_plastics/