Lucian Iruegas “All the Places You Go” – 2026 Finalist

Lucian Iruegas – “All the Places You Go”

Fairfield, NJ

Division II: 19–22 Years Old

Stand: Wood, acrylic paint, wire, yes paste, super glue, plastic turntable, acrylic matte medium. Postcards: Strathmore postcard watercolor paper, gouache, acrylic marker, ballpoint pen, acrylic matte medium, stamps, nontoxic fixative.

This piece expresses the inescapability of the climate crisis through the aesthetics of tourism. The post itself both resembles a tree and a postcard stand that would be found in a gift shop. The individual postcards depict renditions of real photographs of natural disasters that occurred in popular tourist destinations. The written portion of the postcards are quotes from articles about the effects and implications of these disasters. The address cites the original photographs and the articles. The stamps come from a collection released by USPS to raise awareness about endangered species in North America. I matched each stamp to a similar animal that is endangered in the country depicted.

Everywhere in the world, even popular tourist destinations, is someone’s home that can and will be affected by our changing world. A lot of these idyllic destinations are rapidly changing in ways that are getting harder to ignore. There is no paradise to escape to in a burning world.