The Great Banana Fish Migration

Abstract

In this reflection, I tell the story of The Great Banana Fish Migration, a picture book I worked on throughout my time in the MES program, and I use it as a framing narrative to understand my return to Canada after being away for more than seven years. Having observed a sense of hopelessness pervading Canadian society upon my return, I explore the origins of this way of thinking and how it can act as an obstacle for positive social and environmental change. In my exploration I delve into how art can empower individuals to adopt alternative perspectives that creatively fuel awareness, resistance, and resilience. I also include examples from my ongoing artistic practice creating banana fish character art as examples of my findings on creativity. In an effort to embody the implications that art can have on culture, I recount the conception and creation of the project, Banana Fish in the City, where I create 100 ceramic banana fish figurines and place them around Toronto with a message of hope to disrupt the notions of hopelessness that inspired my research. Turning a critical eye to this project, I describe how my intentions may have been misaligned with the understandings of art and hope that my research uncovered. The execution of this project also allowed me to realize that the transformation I sought to catalyze in others was actually ongoing within myself and looking at the imagery in The Great Banana Fish Migration, I was able to understand my research on creativity, art, and hope from a deeply personal perspective that summarizes my own subconscious quest for hope, direction, love, and purpose throughout my time in the MES program. This reflection ultimately serves as a diary documenting my personal growth through the program, as a record of how the banana fish as both a concept and art object have grown in tandem with me, and as an example of the kind of thinking that I advocate for as a response to hopelessness in the face of societal and environmental crisis.