i CONSUME
Posted: May 31, 2012 Filed under: the ash tree, Uncategorized | Tags: Aesthetics, arts research, eco art, Environmental art, indigenous culture, Technology Leave a comment »an ecologically orientated meditation upon the shopping trolley…
I LIVE
I BREATHE
I CONSUME
I WILL USE WHAT I NEED AND MORE, IF IT IS AVAILABLE (precluding another trip) AND WILL NOT BEAT MYSELF UP ABOUT IT
I WILL BE THANKFUL
AND SHARE WHAT I HAVE AND CONTRIBUTE THROUGH IT AND GIVE BACK
ENOUGH
and more if i can
Meditating more upon A BUNDLE OF STICKS, I continued the process of binding for ease of carrying, tying my systematically gathered driftwood three times, choosing only that lying within reach atop the pebble line I was purposively pacing, with discarded rope and cord to create a handle.
So now my mind wandered; those things that I had collected were being held within a conceptual bag – I was ‘shopping’ for firewood, cruising the super-abundant-market of nature, listening to the metaphysical muzak of wind and tide, contented with my suitable wares.
And all of an imaginative moment I correlated my primally hewn bundle with a smooth gliding shopping trolley, carrier of provisional goods!
Admittedly a swivelly-wheeled, magnetically-aligned, metal grilled chariot would not fare well in my immediate domain, but such admission of purpose, my common goal to acquire those things that were necessary for my sustenance and the recognition of an intrinsic, primitive humanity – to gather and then consume – allowed an inner acceptance, an admonishment of any guilt I may feel towards such inherent tendency, and also a chance to reflect upon the nature of those things I might consume, so much at my finger tips, readily within reach, thank you very much wonderful world!
PW2012
mummer-me-a-bundle-of-sticks
Posted: May 30, 2012 Filed under: the ash tree, Uncategorized | Tags: arts research, eco art, Ecology, Environmental art, FAGGOT, indigenous culture, Nature, social sculpture Leave a comment »In a vain attempt to appreciate the conceptual nature of my ongoing MA ART & ENVIRONMENT project, A BUNDLE OF STICKS, I have been tempted by drastic but most sensible measures. What could be more logical in light of my year long, artfully intensive and obsessive research into the practical, metaphorical and ecological implications of this primitive action and entity than to embody a most literal interpretation in practice?
a latent bundle (pward 2012)
‘The Ashen Faggot is a West Country Christmas Eve custom – it’s a large log with withies bound around it to make a bundle which is burned indoors in the hearth. Drinks are consumed as each withy breaks in the flames, which sounds like an excuse for a good drink! The practice still survives in country pubs notably the Lutrell Arms in Dunster, Somerset – their faggot consists of twelve thick sticks bound in a bundle using ash withies and the Dunster Carol is sung while it burns in the vast fireplace. It’s a revived custom dating back to the 1930s but with much older roots.’ calendarcustoms.com
workshop (pward 2012)
How often have we heard the phrase ‘to listen to nature’, or been puzzled by an intuitive resonance of substance or place? ‘Each according to their own nature’, we may declare, or ‘the substance of things may only be perceived through practice’ said Mr Beuys. As I struggled to consolidate and configure the diverse and intrinsic ramifications of A BUNDLE OF STICKS towards my own emerging practice within the confines of a 7000 word dissertation I was struck by how much I had begun to see the world through it – how I had become both the subject and object within the the nature of my study.
seeing the world through a bundle of sticks (pward 2012)
As an artist there is a definitive emphasis on the sensory appreciation of and response to the world, which may then be most mystically synthesised with our intellectual, relational and tactile dexterity to perform our communal craft. An adult interest in earth spirituality and indigenous culture has been both enjoyed and indulged through the more traditional celebrations of our ecological connectivity, its ritual, its power and its lore, to enable an active expression of this essential sensibility within my evolving environmentalist practice.
And for a change, more pictures and less words …
camouflage 1 (pward 2012)
“Owing to the failure of intellectual leadership, the breakdown of religion, and the short-cuts to culture, our minds are now for the most part demoralized; in any true sense we know nothing, we understand nothing, we are incapable of reflection.” John Stewart Collis; THE WORM FORGIVES THE PLOUGH (LONDON; Vintage, 1973)
sticks for ears 1 (pward 2012)
a good cure for a headache (pward 2011)
lampost (pward 2012)
For more images visit my mummer-me-a-bundle-of-sticks gallery on facebook
PW2012
an education in sustainable arts: why on earth would I want to do that?!
Posted: April 28, 2012 Filed under: activ8, the ash tree | Tags: Arts, Ecology, Environmental art, Social change, University College Falmouth 2 Comments »Following misapprehension and discontent aired on the ecoartnetwork about the lack of interest from graduates towards new courses exploring aspects of cultural response to climate change, sustainability and other such globally (and locally) important issues, I would like to offer some thoughts based on my own experience as part of one such course – the MA Art & Environment at University College Falmouth[i] developed by Dr Daro Montag and the RANE group in the UK.
a childhood in nature (from the ward family photo archive)
For those of us who are deeply involved in ecological art and its development the many attitudes and assumptions we take for granted within our practice and vocation are maybe not always obvious – how perhaps we have been fortunate enough to be introduced during our childhood to the sense of empathy and responsibility that we hope to catalyse in others, or the practical skills and knowledge relevant to the ecological remediation actions we propose and even the power and potential of art as a means for social change. The pressing and desperate sense of responsibility we all feel towards the present crisis often clouding our perception as to what is right before our eyes. It is often also the case that we do not fully acknowledge those art practices that fall outside the mainstream of our vocational intent such as object making, art for therapy and pleasure and the multitude of functions that it plays both individually and culturally in our lives.
“Re-engaging with the raw materials from which our lives are shaped is a potent reminder of the difference between what is real and what is only illusory” Anna Konig[ii]
During my MA in Falmouth the discrepancies between our individual motivations and assumptions has become one of the most dynamic aspects of the course, providing an excellent opportunity for discussion and reflection on the nature of our approaches to what is ultimately a hugely diverse area of art practice. Participants on the course range from artists (painters, sculptors, photographers, performers) to management consultants, activists, conservationists, garden designers, ornithologists and fashion designers. While our individual dedication to environmentalism has been unquestionable and created an incredible sense of community within the group, our attitudes and experience of the function and form art might play within our political objectives has been a constant matter of philosophical debate. Such healthy and open-minded conversation has allowed us all to crystallise and define the way our own individual aptitudes might be utilised or simply how we might chose to respond towards the process of ecological reconciliation we hope to support.
teaching ecology (from the ward family photo archive)
However, one of the main bones of contention to be levelled at the course has been that we had primarily enrolled on the course as artists, whatever that meant to us at the time, and not as environmentalists or social practitioners, even though we all had an interest in ‘the environment’ in some way. What quickly became apparent was the course’s emphasis on issues and on the scientific interpretation of such issues, albeit framed within the context of (environmental) art, which led to a stimulating but often badly managed forum for philosophical debate. Many of us felt that such focus detracted from our main objectives – that is to explore and develop as contemporary artists, rather than as environmentalists, to investigate the dynamics and material of communication through art practice rather than through a deeply emotional engagement with the politics and despair of our times. But then is it really possible to explore one without the other? Can we detach the matter of politics and science from our practice as artists?
“The opinion that art should have nothing to do with politics is itself a political attitude…” George Orwell[iii]
Art in the West is too often a statement or expression of our privilege obtained through imperial domination. Until we can be honest with ourselves about this dimension of our behaviour, accept it as part of our nature and how it is manifest in our art, we will continue to produce work that potentially aggravates rather than alleviates the social and ecological issues we are facing. The dynamic ecology of this planet implies responsibility for its care – if we do not look after it all we are merely destroying ourselves – this makes no sense at all. However such an attitude of care is the complete antithesis of the dislocation and disconnection perpetuated by our civilisation, which purposefully aims to deny our individual power to respond in favour of corporate interests.
The prevalent attitude within art education is still that of modernism – art should and can only refer to itself, rather than anything of the world, that it should not be treated exclusively as ‘instrumental’ towards one cause or another, and that by doing so it in some way decreases its quality and value as art. But it must be remembered that such an attitude is certainly one of the attractions of art – to ‘escape’ from or avoid or skirt around the responsibilities that the world presents – to deny our influence and power in the world – and politically this is certainly not discouraged. It is generally only after some degree of life experience that our, and arts, potential as a powerful medium of social change becomes apparent and that we begin to recognise our aptitude for such work. Regarding the value and quality judgements levelled at ‘instrumental’ art, it is maybe better to see this as a challenge to produce work that simply sweeps aside such accusations. Indeed, those actions, which are not recognised as ecoart, are often the most effective through their ability to sidestep anti-environmental propaganda and stand up in their own right, and this is increasingly becoming the case.[iv]
217 holes (paper + polythene bags; pward 2010)
But then the fact that art is in some way escapist should really come as no surprise, nor our tendency to keep it that way. We live in a civilisation that has developed through a desire to often detach itself from the harsh reality of living on this earth, to dislocate itself from the means of production and sustenance that represent the memory of our long struggle with and against nature in order to survive thus far. To change this attitude towards this constant everyday labour and to celebrate and embrace it as our primary objective on this earth is maybe one of the greatest issues that ecoartists might address. But such action boldly contradicts the very structures upon which it seems our comfortable survival depends, and it takes a great deal of courage to make the leap of faith that such a calling implies.
Added to all this, as the contemporary tendency towards mind-altering drugs and passive consumption belies, the world we live in, that we have created through our inherent inclination towards comfort and security and which is constantly (and not perhaps innocently) portrayed by the media, is no longer a pretty place nor one that inspires any sense of trust or joy in our ability to behave differently. It is no wonder that we do not want to spend our time choosing to look any deeper at the crises we are presently facing, nor that we do not believe in our ability to constructively engage with them. Obviously those of us who are fortunate enough to have sensed some alternative means of associating with the world are more in a position to communicate our understandings, but this takes not only a willingness but also an aptitude and highly developed skill set to do so.
picking up sticks with michael, west somerset (pward 2012)
This is not to say that artists are not deeply concerned with such issues, or that by any means every artist shares such ecologically orientated political goals, but that it is often not the motivation behind an individual’s choice to do or become an artist. And while it may seem that the sensitivity towards the world that art may promote should possibly go hand in hand with a sense of our power and responsibility towards nature, this is seldom the case. Maybe art has an intrinsic function within human society – to heal or to question, or to catalyse change, or simply to celebrate and entertain through our manual dexterity and the resultant intellect that its has engendered – but it cannot be taken for granted that such eventualities are always for the good of all. It is maybe more often simply a self-perpetuating expression of our existence within the world and to perceive it differently is maybe yet another manifestation of our arrogance to believe that we can control the course of nature.
“I will act as if what I do makes a difference” William James[v]
But let’s say, just hypothetically, that we can change the course of history, or at least our perception of it. That we can through our sensitive and sensible actions prolong our habitation as part of this earth, not just in our own interest but in its best interest, then how might we go about it? And how might we, as seemingly individually inconsequential aspects of this planet and universe, begin to appreciate its ever-changing complexity in order to confidently deploy such actions? And, more pertinently to this article, how might we encourage and catalyse such perception in others whose education thus far has unceasingly portrayed its opposite? What in our artist’s palette might appeal to or attract any potential recruits to the ‘cause’? Personally the prospect of ruminating over the causes and effects of our civilisation’s suicidal tendencies or representing a scientific appraisal of such information or even contemplating the agricultural methods by which we may redress such folly does not appeal to the more artistic bent within me. It certainly would not be why I may have adopted art as a career of life path, despite my current understanding of its relative importance.
timeless discoursed (paint; pward 1998)
It seems that we may need some understanding of communication, often displayed in the more commercially practical forms of art, such as graphic design, illustration and storytelling and the means thereof, before we begin to appeal to those in doubt. This is not to say that we adopt the subversive or underhand tactics displayed by most corporately motivated propagandists, but that we are aware of the power of such methods. For example, how might we make something seemingly mundane and unappealing attractive without undermining the spiritual self-worth of our audience or employing deception on any level? And how might we learn to observe the world through fresh eyes and convey our enquiries, through skillful and sensitive application to the circumstances we are experiencing? Or how have we already received and interpreted the plethora of imagery and sensory messages, both natural and artificial, bombarding us everyday throughout our lives? And even, what is the motivation behind them? What art offers us is perhaps the opportunity to explore such aspects of our experience, both intuitive and rationally empirical, and to transform them into something that further enriches and promotes our being[vi].
My own (eco)artistic inclination (and interest) would be to offer educational opportunities to explore these very means by which we may artfully communicate, not as a means to impose our beliefs upon another but as a reciprocal approach to respond to nature and the world in which we energetically exist. As a practising painter I sought to express the experiences I absorbed while in nature, its magic and wonder, its intimate relational complexity if you like, in the hope that through observation of such devotionally created objects I might inspire or channel some of the wonder that I felt to others. I have since appreciated the limitations of such a medium while also becoming aware of the diversity of other means through which such spirited information may be conveyed. While I understand that this is maybe not the motivation or method behind all artists work I do feel it portrays many of the elemental concerns which inspire people to become artists and that engage artists almost devotionally with the natural world.
“At the heart of today’s ecological crisis lies a terrible failure to understand the essence of our relationship with the natural world. One can of course address that failure rationally and empirically; but the arts (particularly the visual arts) offer different insights into that relationship, and touch people in ways that conventional education and advocacy can rarely do.” Jonathon Porritt, Director, Forum for the Future, UK.[vii]
Whether we are seeking to express a relatively literal response to climate change or oceanic pollution, or to more intuitively engage ourselves and an audience (of whatever form) with the resplendent diversity of this world it is still the ‘mechanics’ and philosophy of communication that underpin our practice. To explore such, admittedly quite practical, methodology is surely the essence of our art practice rather than the subjective discussion and spurious study of political issues, despite their implications to our response. As artists we must learn to observe the world through a variety of lenses and to interpret the ‘data’ gathered in a way that may appeal to and engender a response in others. Without such aptitude and skill maybe we should not call ourselves artists at all. Likewise if the work that we produce, in whatever form, does not embody the beliefs and processes we profess to keep then maybe that too should be brought into question.
family outing 1996 (from the ward family photo archive)
This then brings me to another doubt I have about the offering of such educational experiences as forwarded in the original question – how is the prolonged disembodied study of empirical and academic theory and data an expression of our joyful or meaningful existence as part of this most physical planet? It is maybe better to focus on activities that lead to a genuine sense of well-being amongst participants, or at least activities that appeal to self-confessed or appropriate aptitudes, rather than focusing on the desperate conclusions of the environmental sciences, or gazing into a book or computer screen for hours on end. Such practice more often than not promotes a deepening sense of dis-ease about the situation and a consequent manifestation of guilt through our own disempowerment.
‘The only sound enough motivation for doing anything is joy. All other motivations, such as guilt, compulsion, obligation and duty only lead us to dissatisfaction, tension and resentment. When we are engaged in what truly gives us joy, we lead ourselves inevitably to more and more challenging, powerful lives which affect more and more of the world.’ Christopher Spence[viii]
Maybe, an art education towards sustainability could be asking ‘How might we utilize art towards ecological reconciliation?’ rather than proposing ‘This is how we might utilize art towards ecological reconciliation!’ – offering spaces for open-ended and individually creative responses in what is after all a relatively new and incredibly diverse movement. In a similar vein, while we have a responsibility to the planet and all its inhabitants, our responsibility to ourselves as agents of change within the ecosystem is also vital. Any experience or activity that does not promote or engage its participants with such principles, or offer support for any apparent short-sightedness relating to the emotional or physiological implication thereof, should seriously reconsider its methodology.
a bundle of sticks residency, courage copse (pward with katy lee, 2012)
So what roles can art play in this unfolding drama, and what activities might promote a more powerfully embodied communicative response? My answer would have to be ‘MANY AND OFTEN but not necessarily big and noisy’! I have already suggested that art practice may still be (and traditionally has been) the most responsible and sensitive way by which we may observe and express the world, especially when performed in conjunction with other disciplines. I do however feel that its more specific power is in its skill and understanding, learnt or otherwise, by which it communicates – whatever that may immanently imply. But then there are so many beguiling contradictions and peculiarities in this world that it would be impossible to offer any general overarching formula. For example, maybe the only genuine way to deal with the impending global catastrophe is to celebrate our shared humanity, to embrace our exceptional nature and to rejoice in our implied communality. An element of art is the celebration of our technological and aesthetic dexterity. However this also intrinsically affirms our supposed dominance and our privileged reliance on others to provide the practical and material means that support such privilege. Without a change in the way we perceive art within society as well as the nature of work and labour in this world, towards an art and society within ecology, we will continue to struggle with an attitude of disinterest, and against an attitude of self-interest, perpetuated through a phenomenological misunderstanding of the nature of our interconnected existence, and a lack of conceptual understanding of the totality of what we are trying to achieve.
“A literal restatement of how things are and an emphasis on external action alone will not help us to end the great suffering of nature, or the dangerous contradictions inherent in our view of progress. It will also not help us develop more reverential perspectives toward other living beings, or deal with the complex questions of our supposed stewardship. The way we inhabit the world will not be transformed simply by information. As the coordinator of a UK climate change organisation has said: “We have enough information to have caused us to change our lifestyle decades ago. What is holding us back?” Deeper levels of connectedness are vital if we are to find the energy and commitment needed to make such enormous changes.[ix]” Shelley Sacks, Social Sculpture Research Unit, Oxford Brookes University.[x]
To conclude I would like to add that my own experience of such an educational framework has been a most enlightening and productive one, maybe not always enjoyable and hardly ever confirming my limited expectations of what such a course might provide. But then that is maybe how we learn and, as already mentioned, the nature of such work is that its method is still very much in the making. Likewise, my experience and opinions are personal ones encouraged by my own aptitude and interests as a practising eco-artist with a background in graphic design and illustration, and a definite inclination towards a sense of animate belonging in the wild environment. While by no means perfect according to the sustainable values we might judge our actions by, this experimental course[xi] that I ventured upon has offered an excellent and flexible opportunity to actively participate in and shape itself to suit the needs of its contributors, while providing a rich source of differing opinion to play against my own strong views. And ultimately it has provided a caring and diverse community of similarly motivated individuals to continue to share and develop my practice with.
earth dancing (paint; pward 1998)
But the most essential aspect of the course, and what I feel sets it apart from other art courses, is the numerous field trips when we leave the ivory towers, the lecture theatres and indoor studios, away from the self-effacing reams of academic pontification, to participate more fully with the world – to actively contemplate our subject in its correct context, accompanied by the birds and beasts, the wind and rain, getting our hands dirty at last…
PW2012
[i] http://www.falmouth.ac.uk/201/courses-7/postgraduate-courses-43/art-and-environment-ma-2855.html
[ii] Anna Konig The Joy of Making, Resurgence Magazine ISSUE 263 • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
[iii] http://orwell.ru/library/essays/wiw/english/e_wiw
[iv] http://www.ucl.ac.uk/art-history/about_us/academic_staff/dr_tj_demos/Demos-Art_After_Nature.pdf
[v] from Suzi Gablik; THE REENCHANTMENT OF ART (London; Thames and Hudson; 1991)
[vi] See the work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe who explored holistic science as a means towards sensible perception in the 18th Century. His work is currently cited by many inter-disciplinary and ecoartists such as Shelley Sacks (www.universityofthetrees.org) and Jan van Boeckel (www.naturearteducation.com) who utilize his idea of ‘organs of perception’ as a means towards behavioural transformation in their practice, and contemporary holistic scientists such as Dr Stephan Harding (www.schumachercollege.org.uk).
[vii] from http://www.universityofthetrees.org/about/instruments-of-consciousness.html
[viii] from AIDS Time to Reclaim Our Power by Christopher Spence (LONDON; Lifestory; 1986)
[ix] from http://www.universityofthetrees.org/about/instruments-of-consciousness.html
[x] http://www.social-sculpture.org/
[xi] The MA Art & Environment Course at University College Falmouth led by Dr Daro Montag could often be seen as an experiment in a form of Social Sculpture, as proposed by the German artist Joseph Beuys, bringing together diverse but interested parties into an open-ended dialogical structure. The creative potential of the course has possibly been best displayed in its ability to circumvent and accommodate the criteria for running an MA course within a mainstream educational establishment while still fulfilling its ecozoic intentions.
Worthygate Wood
Posted: April 10, 2012 Filed under: BIOSPHERic, eARTh, Uncategorized | Tags: Appledore Arts Festival 2012, Environmental art Leave a comment »PEBBLE RIDGE – stage 1 – BUCKS MILLS TO PEPPERCOMBE – 2.5 miles – 7412
As part of my research towards the Pebble Ridge mini-expedition I will be performing in June for the Appledore Arts Festival I visited Worthygate Wood, a National Trust property stretching along the 2-and-a-half-mile coast path between Bucks Mills and Peppercombe. This will be the first section of the walk and I feel it important, as an artist, to get a sense of the area and its topography that we will be navigating, to add to the more empirical geological, geomorphological and historical information I am accruing to share as part of the experience, before embarking on our little adventure.
from worthygate wood (pward 2012)
I climbed out of the historic village of Bucks Mills, nestled in its wooded valley, quaint cottages tumbling to the dramatic North Devon coast, a brook burbling idyllically along its length to cascade onto the beach below, once powering a mill or two and maybe the Lime Kiln that sits atop its cliff-top derelict harbour face, smoke drifting idly from stone chimneys. I could feel my breath rasping in my chest and throat. My calves aching, unused to the steep gradient the rickety steps were helping me ascend. What was I letting myself and my fellow Pebble Ridge walkers in for?! I had already been uncomfortably surprised by another section of the walk – its steep ascents and descents and twists and turns perched on the cliff edge, slippery and remote.
Yet as I neared the top of the climb catching panoramic glimpses of Bideford Bay and beyond, I realized I had entered an utterly enchanted woodland. There was no sound here of our mechanized civilization, just the waves and wind and the birds singing of their springtime quest. Oak, holly and hazel cloak the disappearing cliff edge. Tops brushed landward by the ocean-fuelled breeze, a shelterbelt for the more delicate forms – the blue tits and chiffchaffs hiding amidst the twigs, bluebells shooting through the soft soil. The land is a series of slumps and ridges created as the massive rock beneath slides and shatters below, raw material for the storm beach skirting its base – my precious, magnificent pebble ridge. A little tense, I push on, not knowing the physical extent of my foray.
a different palette, worthygate wood (pward 2012)
Nearing Peppercombe I allow myself to relax, deciding not to descend to the red-rocked valley – I would only have to climb back out again! I stop and kneel beneath a gnarled oak, among the sappy fresh shoots, and mark my place on a stone with another stone, sinking into the damp mulch, staining my jeans green, attuning myself to another rhythm.
Eventually I amble back, taking time to appreciate this magical place, more comfortable now – it has become familiar even after our passing encounter earlier. And how different things appear on the return journey – distances, gradients, perspectives, sensations. The weather is changeable, casting shadows where before were none and the chill evening air provokes scents and a light more akin to a mystical realm.
Recently I have allowed myself the space to really begin to feel nature again, to breathe in its power and subtlety. Appreciating the sense of a place. I bend down to dig the soil, to pick up sticks, to hold them in my hands and form them in some primitive way. I leave my personal investigative manipulations of matter and substance as a contribution, as offerings to the enchantment, as expressions of my joy and thanks. Maybe they will draw another’s attention to the mystery of this place or become playthings for those who already know it as home.
3 stones on a swaying branch and honeysuckle wreath, worthygate (pward 2012)
As evening fell fast, I could only imagine the woods full of thick sea mist, the mossy oaks twisting in and out of vision, the spirits of the past and future whispering in the wet, salty air – children playing, woodsmen working and smugglers cowering from their pursuers.
I met just two other people during my two hour walk, both gasping and sweating from their efforts, struggling on toward a distant destination, ardently seeking health and happiness beyond the disease of our civilization, with no time to absorb the essence of the place or to intuit its many histories, as surprised as I by the paths harsh drops, climbs and turns, not clear within the detail of any map.
At last to see the hopeful glow of gorse and blackthorn flowers like radiant stars in the dusky light, to envy the moles their cliff top abode and the peregrine mewling from his perch, the ravens acrobatically asserting their aerial domination, smaller birds chirruping an evening song and even a hare who shyly lollopped away having had enough of spying on my suspicious, strange human antics – graffiti for the squirrels, a cairn for a mouse.
And while I record my various attempts to assimilate this sense of wonder through artful form I realize how privileged I am to enjoy such a fully animate experience, and how no mechanistic recollection of these tactile moments could ever really capture or fully convey their all-encompassing empathy – merely memories in thought and sense, energetic traces of a time past but precious all the same.
molehill soil ball; gorse and blackthorn stars, worthygate (pward 2012)
PW 2012
what’s all this eco-art stuff then?!
Posted: April 9, 2012 Filed under: activ8, the ash tree | Tags: Environmental art 1 Comment »a timely but virtual recapitulation…
Before I run away with myself, elaborately following a theoretical furrow to a field of academic un-eventuality, it is maybe time to check myself, to redress the questions pertaining to an always-questionable practice, to reevaluate the efficacy of the unempirical and to tease out some meaning where there is too often none. After all, this is a self-confessed practice of practicality, a means towards an indefinable end, a gesture of integrity and hope in this ecological hinterland of increasingly dramatic consequence…
cross, worthygate wood (pward 2012)
“Ecological Art or “Eco Art” is a contemporary form of environmental art created by artists who are concerned about local and global environmental situations, and who take art making to a functional format.” Cynthia Robinson[i]
So I have heard the blather of the long-bearded professors, (the pessimistic prophecies of Doctor Doom), seen the footsteps of our forefathers and mothers, blazing the trail towards an art with purpose[ii], an art for ecology, placed firmly within the processes of nature, unambiguously offering opportunities for resilient resolution or reconciliatory remediation with our posthumously ill-considered behaviours, hand-in-hand with all our relations…
But,
Does it work? Does it actually do exactly what it says on the tin?! Is my well-meaning propaganda appropriately effective or not? Or is it just another purposeless plaything for the privileged, wrapped in academic self-adulation as a momentary means to alleviate our guilt-ridden consumption?
And if it does do as it says it does, just how does it do it? What are the means of my altruistic interactive intervention, if that is what it is? What technological advances does my knowledge base implicitly employ? And how might I better become what brings me such joy, and share the shapeless form of circumstantially inspired intention with those of us who need it most? Thankfully we all have our own way, our individual reaction to our intrinsic responsibility, all as apt as the next (or not)…
branch support 1, birdhill (pward 2012)
I have recently taken part in an exhibition (in case you hadn’t noticed)[iii], in a place that many aspiring environmentally inspired artists would more than likely envy. But as I stood quietly invigilating, listening to the disinterest and disaffected opinions of an already sensually overwhelmed passing audience, of how ‘art is just a nonsense’, how all this is ‘a waste of time’ or quite simply ‘boring’, I wondered whether all the effort was worthwhile!? To my mind the work was maybe misplaced or underrepresented amidst the ensuing noisy circus round about, and it merely confirmed my growing unease and inner sense that such traditional expressions of artfulness are simply (self-indulgent and costly) celebrations of our innate aesthetic dexterity, rather than a means to honestly question and possibly transform our socially destructive paradigm. It also occurred to me how miniscule and insignificant our efforts seem within the massive churning machine that is our society. While I would not deny the pleasure of such affirmative events and the essential networking that may take place, and despite the inspirational happenings that had given rise to the work on show, and the tasters of our interactive talent shared among those who attended the private view, such decontextualised, 2-dimensional appropriations of practice can no more than scratch the surface of an artist’s political intent – a passionate desire to engage him or herself and others in meaningful creative discourse and action; to learn through experiential means and manipulation of the matter in head and hand. But then again from tiny acorns mighty oak trees grow…
Many of the ways through which we are presently exploring this multi-dimensional means of communication, this propaganda pedalo, are leading the past makers of marketable things, things once wanted and appreciated in a world of plenty, of profit and unproblematic consumption (or so it seemed) to a practice of curation (of a kind). The skills now deemed necessary in this artful emergence are those of composing situations[iv], of manipulating experiential space (and the animate influences within) to guide another and ourselves into a rapidly shifting land of altering perspectives, of new matter dressed in ever more elusive garb (rather than just saying it how it is), in an effort to deceive the unwary skeptic toward open-minded interaction. But then no one wants it to be easy do they? Where’s the fun in that?! Where’s the oh-so-very-clever ‘money’s worth’ over-educated elitism there?! Where’s the mystery, the sleight-of-hand, the search and seek, the free time well spent, the carefully crafted subversive means, and where’s the freaking reward?!?! Is the only way we can get ‘Jane and Joseph public’ to really stop in their tracks, to sit up and listen, to spend some quality time with a well-crafted and superbly spirited object of our carefully refined imaginations, shocking enough of ourselves awake, to heartlessly corrupt our own sensibility of security and comfort? But then all to often these are the very proper means towards our physical or imaginative participation[v].
stick form 1, birdhill (pward 2012)
Obviously they aren’t the only means by which we may approach our aspirations, the self-sustaining path towards a meaningful and long-lived career. There are of course more subtle and charismatically intelligent responses to the problem at hand. It sometimes all seems to be a ridiculous game of who-knows-who, of biased evaluations of worth and value, of twisted logic and a retarded sense of power and purpose. But then how do those with integrity disengage themselves from those without? How does the ‘genuine’ overcome the reputation of diseased economic deception imposed by the media of our disenchantment, the cynical job’s-worthys, the absolutely no-common-sense brigade, if that is actually the way things are?
Lou Reed once sang, “You need a Busload of Faith to get by”[vi]. I must say I would have to agree. That, and a belief that truth will shine through, that purpose and spirit will disentangle us from the mythical monstrosity that is our modern age.
split stone, northam (pward 2012)
So, to return to the original question, ‘what is all this eco-art stuff then?’ …
It is quite obviously not the traditional (or contemporary) means by which artists may make a living, selling their skillfully and intelligently crafted wares and services to any who may afford them, or entertaining the masses with outrages of the imagination and exquisitely fashioned indulgence. It is however formed through a similar process but disseminated and received through quite another. The motivation behind an art of ecology is for reconciliation with our own nature within the universal abundance, rather than an acquisition of material for our selfish ends. It is an art for the world and all its creatures, for its soil and seas, its mountains and molehills alike. Its form is not determined by style, fashion or marketability (although such matters may still influence any available funds), but by sense, purpose and meaning, by practicality and suitability, by ethic and empathy and wonder. It is often created in consultation with others whose knowledge is in some ways greater but whose shared aims inspire generosity, whose integrity engenders selfless reciprocity.
human interference 2, northam (pward 2012)
It is, by nature, the embodiment of its aims, aligned through process with the means of its own fruition, able to admit its own failure but progressing all the same, with humour and goodwill despite the odds against it. It is servitude beyond ambitious originality. It is facing things head on, not avoiding responsibility, but maybe approaching them ‘at a slant’. It is hope and resolution in the face of disaster[vii].
So I best get on with it!
[ii] For an in depth account of the hopeful march away from meaningless Modernism read The Reenchantment of Art by Suzi Gablik
[iv] SITUATION – Edited by Claire Doherty (LONDON; Whitechapel Gallery; 2009)
[v] PARTICIPATION – Edited by Claire Bishop (LONDON; Whitechapel Gallery; 2006)
[vii] For more discussion and insight into the practical and theoretical manifestations of eco-art see http://www.ecoartnetwork.org/
3 colours to save the world
Posted: April 6, 2012 Filed under: eARTh, the ash tree | Tags: earth pigments, Environmental art Leave a comment »
a ceremonial painting action for…
HEVVA! HEVVA! . The Core Building . THE EDEN PROJECT . 5412
Thank you to everyone who took part and contributed to the opening evening of HEVVA! HEVVA! – an exhibition at the Eden Project, as part of the BIOTIK programme, to celebrate the ShortCourse/UK/Cornwall[i] expeditions organised by Cape Farewell and University College Falmouth in 2011 (see previous posts[ii]). Particular thanks are due to Bryony Stokes[iii] for co-ordinating the show, to Saffron Orrell[iv] for making fabulously-filling packed lunches for everyone and to Jan Nowell for bravely leading the mini-expeditions to the ‘cockroach infested’ Tropical Biome in the thick of night, and of course to the (noisy but often elusive) tree frog who graced us with her presence. The exhibition is an incredibly rich and accomplished display of our incredible diversity as creative practitioners.
hevva! hevva! exhibition; ‘hevva’ trott from eastenders; sue bamford’s wonky bunnies; ‘ian beale’ lizard, tropical biome, the eden project (2012)
Despite popular opinion the exhibition was not a tribute to ‘Hevva’ Trott, who recently made a tragic exit from the British sitcom Eastenders (- as misunderstood miscreant Ben Mitchell realized what he had done, he screamed “HEVVA! HEVVA!” Other references were to be found in Sue Bamford’s poignant naming of her 400 marvellously handmade wonky bunnies, ‘George’ (yes every one of them!?)[v], after Hevva’s sadly orphaned son, and the fantastic green lizard with turquoise eye-shadow I met in the Tropical Biome on Tuesday who insisted his name was ‘Ian Beale’!). Nor is Eastenders in any way a cultural response to climate change as some would have us believe! (Or is it!?) As Siôn Parkinson of Cape Farewell so poetically postulated, HEVVA! HEVVA! is in fact a reference to the ‘hue’ Cornish fishermen would historically cry from the cliffs as they spied shoals of pilchards ‘bluing the sea’ – drawing our attention to the powerfully dependent relationship we have always had with our immanent environment.
However, this exhibition, nor to my mind the ethos of Cape Farewell and the ShortCourse/UK expeditions, is not about Art or for that matter Science or History or any other discipline we might care to mention, but the response we might make as communal beings to the overwhelming global environmental catastrophe we are presently facing, whether that is seen as climate change, the economic crisis, ocean pollution or increasing social injustice – they are all of course a result of the same malfunction in our misled civilisation. So, this is not a time to pontificate about past poetic preference or continue conflagration for the sake of cultural aggrandisement. The work and conversations engendered by our experiences on these multi-dimensional expeditions, of which this exhibition is an expression, are more about how we as artists, scientists or whatever, may work together, in an informed and creative way, to discover, communicate and catalyse the means by which we may rise to the challenges we are facing. It is time to get to work! It is time to get our hands dirty!!
My own contribution to the event took the form of a participatory painting ceremony using natural materials gathered in connection to the 3 expeditions we were lucky enough to enjoy. The action was originally conceived and performed on St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly during the SC/UK expedition in May 2011[vi]. It is my belief that part of the necessary response to our present ecological situation is to reinstate, re-enchant and deepen our more spiritual connection to the earth on which we depend. This spirituality is not some fanciful romantic notion of otherworldly divine intervention but a recognition of the profound practical connections and respect we must assert within our material existence on this planet in order to survive. While Art alone may not offer all the answers to such demands it may in its modest way offer some useful suggestions.
Gary Snyder[vii], mountaineer and so called ‘poet laureate’ of the Deep Ecology movement[viii] said, “The closer you get to real matter, rock air fire wood, boy, the more spiritual the world is.” It is hoped that the processes of my own art may share such an ethos. This simple ceremonial act peformed as part of the opening event, and also to create my installation for the show, represents and celebrates both the ShortCourse/UK/Cornwall expedition and our relationship with the substance of this earth.
3 colours to save the world, participatory painting action at HEVVA! HEVVA! 5412 (photos courtesy saffron orrel 2012)
The materials used were gathered from places visited during the expedition:
- The rock is 400+ million year old Igneous Serpentine from Kynance Cove on the Lizard Peninsula. In April 2011, the SC/UK expedition visited the Marconi Museum at Poldhu[ix] also on the Lizard, where Marconi sent messages across the Atlantic using the invisible medium of radio waves – a fantastic metaphor for how our intent as artists may be communicated through our work.
- The white pigment is kaolin based (granite run-off) china clay collected from a disused quarry site near the Eden Project. China clay is still used as a whitening agent in paper production.
- The brown pigment represents the 40000-year-old iron rich glacial ‘ram’ (topsoil) from St Agnes on the Isles of Scilly[x].
- The black pigment (Bideford Black)[xi] represents the carbon locked in the earth. It was gathered on the North Devon coast near my home. Bideford Black is a coal-based clay and was mined commercially until 1969 (used for many things including the boat building industry, for artists paint, for camouflage on tanks in WWII and even by Max Factor in the manufacture of mascara). This 350 million year old coal based clay was created in logjams of semi-tropical tree ferns, similar to those seen in the Gardens of Tresco.
It is hoped that the enormous time scales expressed through geology may give some perspective to the crises of our own age, and our own significance in the grand scheme of things.
mayan mural; zapatista army of national liberation, new mexico
I recently watched a documentary about the prophecies of the Mayan culture of Central America[xii]. Contrary to popular Western opinion, the contemporary Mayan people see 2012 and the crises we are presently facing not as the ‘end of the world’ but as the beginning of another era and as an exceptional opportunity to come together with each other, the planet and ourselves, to actually live as the truly incredible potential we are as part of this wonderful planet.
This ceremony has been devised to focus our attention on actions we might take towards such aims.
Participants were asked to concentrate on something they might do towards ecological reconciliation as they marked the stone and paper with pigment. The painted stone was then placed in the Tropical Biome as a legacy to the ShortCourse/UK/Cornwall expeditions that began here last April and as a totem of our response to climate change and in thanks for our experiences and sustenance as part of this incredible planet. The paper will be retained as a document of our experience…
3 colours to save the world, hevva! hevva! group painting 5412 (earth pigments on laos elephant dung paper)
PW 2012
[viii] Deep Ecology is a philosophy based on the premise that human beings are merely an aspect of the universe rather than that which it revolves around. Norwegian born Arne Naess coined the phrase in 1973, since when it has been the underpinning principle of much of the environmental movement. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_ecology
ART AS FLUX
Posted: April 2, 2012 Filed under: activ8, the ash tree, Uncategorized | Tags: earth pigments, Ecology, Environmental art, Social change Leave a comment »gentle actions towards an art of healing and reconciliation
To continue with themes arising in recent posts and discussions on this site around the practical and ethical aesthetics of art within society, accorded to the newly appropriated ecological and phenomenological intentionality of contemporary and personal understanding…
layers, particpatory painting action by marland school, earth pigments (pw 2010)
We cannot ‘fix’ things because they are never ‘broken’, they have only changed in form.
We cannot ‘mend’ that which we do not fully understand without the whole wherewithal.
We may only perceive their new arrangement within our inherent predetermination
Adding flourish to the flow towards our own and all’s mutually beneficial meanderings…
After suffering the discomfort of back pain for some time I recently ventured to a Bowen Technique[i] therapist to hopefully alleviate, or make better, the problem that has been restricting my movement and hence personal life experience. This holistic healing practice acts through carefully and intuitively considered non-invasive manipulation of the soft tissue surrounding our muscular structure. As a holistic therapy it believes that all ailments or dis-ease of the body are created through a complex of interconnected conditions that might block the flow of energy within and around it – a healthy body being one that allows its intrinsic processes to function at their own rate and in their own way. It aims not necessarily to specifically cure ailments but to promote conditions within the body that may enable self-healing, or at least transformative processes to occur – simple, well-intentioned pressure in a specific part of the body promoting a chain of events throughout its whole, which in turn will hopefully provide enough movement in the body’s energies to enable change. The process does not dictate a correct outcome, a right-way to be, although it may suggest means to promote fluidity and hence movement, it works simply on an assumption of the body’s ability to ‘heal’ itself. To accompany the gentle pressure applied during Bowen Therapy, it is also recommended that subjects drink plenty of water and move regularly to further facilitate the process.
Coincidentally, the practitioner I chose had previously completed a physics degree which, combined with the treatment being received, reminded me of the ideas of F David Peat (also a physicist) described in his book Gentle Actions, Bringing Creative Change to a Turbulent World[ii]. His theory, reached through personal and shared observation, is that simple well-intentioned social and ecological actions performed in a specific place may promote healing, while amplifying their repercussions around the world. Systems theorist Buckminster Fuller likened such dynamics to the trim tab, a mechanical device added to the rudder of large boats to facilitate changes of direction through minimal incremental leverage[iii]. These ideas were further explored in relation to Art, Environmentalism and Climate Change at a conference in Oslo in 2010[iv], and are evident in the Trigger Point Theory developed by Aviva Ramani[v] in which locations for restorative site-specific ecologically engaged action are identified through sensitively disposed cross-disciplinary analysis. While others (namely chaos theorists) entertain the plausible infeasibility of a butterfly softly beating its wings in leafy suburban England causing a hurricane in tropical Antigua[vi]!
Whether you believe in the efficacy of such treatments and theories or not, it cannot be denied that they provide rich metaphors for our potential actions as artists (or, more simply, communal beings) within society. And while such applied technologies greatly interest me in their efforts to resolve the immanent difficulties we are presently facing it is the open-endedness and non-prescriptive determinism of such actions and the philosophical position that they imply which I feel is most pertinent at this time. Such faith in the processes of nature to redress any damage that we may perceive to have made within our environment is maybe the only truly ecocentric[vii] position to adopt, as opposed to anthropocentric tamperings engendered in our efforts to ‘save ourselves’ from our own sense of self-importance and infallibility. Such guilt-ridden ‘fix-it’ motivated actions are doomed to failure until we learn to accept responsibility for our past misdemeanours. To see them as they are, and how we are, as imperfect beings in an imperfect world (or perfect beings in a perfect world!?) whose nature is to fumble through life seeking comfort and nourishment, in our efforts to survive. It can only be hoped that we might learn from our mistakes and move on, intrinsically inquisitive, endlessly meddling in our ways. We might, for example, just take a step back.
back and front, 4 willow leaves (pward 2009)
“We can receive only what we already have! We can become only what we already are! We can learn only what we already know! It is a matter of realizing potentialities. It is not a matter of ‘adding to’ but of ‘developing,’ of ‘evolving.’ We contain within ourselves a world of capacities, of possibilities, which the outer world summons forth, speaks to, releases. Perhaps this is why we learn most about ourselves through devotion to others; why we become joyful and active as we respond to the formative forces in the materials in our crafts: their potentialities call forth our own, and in the dialogue of which I have spoken,we discover our own inner vision by bodying them forth.” — M. C. Richards[viii]
So what are the implications to contemporary art practice of such open-endedness? And how might the elemental poetry of fluidity complement the specific but constantly evolving social, economic and ecological issues we are facing? Or more specifically what actions might we reasonably (or unreasonably) make to unblock the barrage of unfortunate misdemeanours for which we are apparently responsible?
For millennia religious practices, especially in the East, have adopted such policy towards harmonious relationship with the animate earth and ourselves, based in the understanding that nothing is constant but change (and that even change takes different forms throughout time), that only through careful and sensible consideration of all conditions present within a situation can suitable decisions and interventions be made. This does not however imply that such actions should be peaceful or gentle, merely that they are relative and appropriate to each individual circumstance. For example, Zen Buddhist traditions might encourage short-sharp shocks. A quick slap or poke with a stick (obviously within a intentional healing context!). Others, more elaborately inspired and motivated rituals to prompt movement within a situation toward a new more ethically affordable position. Unfortunately in this apparent civilization we have lost confidence in our intuitive abilities to make such decisions, both personally and communally, amid the turbulence of material insecurity and progress. It is therefore only through renewed experience that we might appreciate the full implications of our actions. Until then it might be hoped that quiet gentle actions may provoke enough reaction without further disturbance to the delicate intricacies of the natural world of which we are (presently) an integral part.
3 not hammers (pward 2010)
If nothing more art can maybe create opportunities for such experience, while also providing a flux in the ‘machine’, a means to lubricate our fixed perceptions, of moving-on our redundant behaviours through questioning its good sense, here and now. Furthermore, art may be seen as an amplifying force, a mechanical means to multiple the implications of our actions, to ‘communicate’ them within the arena of their intentional field, to repercuss our creative, well-meaningness within the dynamic disturbance to which we intrinsically contribute. Whatever the outcome we can be assured that we have acted out of an implied personal integrity, neither good nor bad but insistent. By not predetermining an ‘outcome’ to our work and actions, whether that is the making of art objects and performances or educational or experiential processes, we are simply encouraging the use of an audience’s (and our own) innate creative intelligences and adaptability to interact with any circumstance provided, through which we may identify and experience the confidence to use those faculties beyond the realm of the art experience.
While such practice either shows complete faith in the processes of nature, or a complete disregard and lack of responsibility towards our immanent ecology and ourselves, it has to be preferable to the plethora of scientifically imposed ‘solutions’ from who-knows-where that are constantly bandied about by the powers-that-be or any other hapless loon caught up in their own deluded self-importance. To see art as just that – a flux, a means towards a movement, or a movement in itself; or as water, an elemental agent of change, gently eroding the stultifying conservatism that epitomizes our age – allows us the freedom to not see it as the solution, but an ongoing investigation towards a resolution, an act of reconciliation with our nature and with nature itself.
FLUXUS manifestos, by George Maciunas, 1963, and Joseph Beuys, 1970[ix].
PW 2012
[ii] F DAVID PEAT; GENTLE ACTIONS bringing creative change to a turbulent world (Italy; PARI PUBLISHING; 2008)
[iii] What is a “trimtab”? Buckminster Fuller referred to the function of a trimtab in nautical design as a metaphor for how individuals could make a difference in the world and potentially change the course of humanity. A large ship moving through the ocean has great momentum. Turning the rudder changes the direction of the ship but with great effort. Using a trimtab — a small flap on the trailing edge of the main rudder — creates a low-pressure area next to the rudder allowing the main rudder to turn the ship with substantially less effort. In airplanes trimtabs are used in a similar fashion. They are often affixed to the wing and tail flaps to greatly reduce the control force required by the pilot to maintain position and stability. With respect to Buckminster Fuller Challenge, the trimtab metaphor is used tocharacterize a comprehensive strategy, that is conceived in such a manner and strategically placed into the prevailing system at such a time, in such a place, where its effects can be maximized, thereby creating the most advantageous change with the least amount of resources and energy on a relative basis.
Buckminster Fuller on the Trimtab Principle “When I thought about steering the course of the ‘Spaceship Earth’ and all of humanity, I saw most people trying to turn the boat by pushing the bow around.” “I saw that by being all the way at the tail of the ship, by just kicking my foot to one side or the other, I could create the ‘low pressure’ which would turn the whole ship. If ever someone wanted to write my epitaph, I would want it to say ‘Call me Trimtab’.” – From What’s a Trimtab?
“Something hit me very hard once, thinking about what one little man could do. Think of the Queen Mary — the whole ship goes by and then comes the rudder. And there’s a tiny thing at the edge of the rudder called a trimtab.”
[iv] Climate Change responses: The Gentle Actions of the Trim Tab, by Karen O’Brien “… I will present some ideas for potential trim tabs, including the important role of artists in catalyzing creative change.” http://www.livinglearning.org/GA.htm
[v] http://www.cultura21.net/activites/workshops/trigger-point-theory-as-aesthetic-activism-performing-ecology
[vi] In chaos theory, the butterfly effect is the sensitive dependence on initial conditions, where a small change at one place in a nonlinear system can result in large differences to a later state. The name of the effect, coined by Edward Lorenz, is derived from the theoretical example of a hurricane’s formation being contingent on whether or not a distant butterfly had flapped its wings several weeks before. (Wikipedia)
[vii] Ecocentric(ism) is a term used in ecological political philosophy to denote a nature-centered, as opposed to human-centred, system of values. (Wikipedia)
[ix] from http://www.artnotart.com/fluxus. Fluxus art was often presented in “events”, which Fluxus member George Brecht defined as “the smallest unit of a situation”. The events consisted of a minimal instruction, opening the events to accidents and other unintended effects. (Wikipedia)
HEVVA! HEVVA!
Posted: March 31, 2012 Filed under: the ash tree, Uncategorized Leave a comment »2-12 April 2012 The Core Building . EDEN PROJECT . Cornwall
I am choughed to announce (and be part of) an exhibition showcasing artwork by 21 emerging artists and designers from across University College Falmouth as part of Cape Farewell’s ShortCourse/UK – representing our creative response to a series of short, rural expeditions made around the landscapes of Cornwall in the context of climate change.
Looking forward to seeing you there…
Reception and live programme: 5 April, 6-9pm
3 colours to save the world (participatory painting action using earth pigments and rock gathered as part of ShortCourse/UK/Cornwall Expedition; pward 2012)
Acknowledgements to Mark Perham Photography, Sion Parkinson (text/Cape Farewell) and Josh Flatt (design).
http://www.capefarewell.com/news/events/661-hevva-hevva.html www.shortcourseuk.org
MAKING THINGS THAT MAKE THINGS HAPPEN
Posted: March 31, 2012 Filed under: activ8, the ash tree, Uncategorized | Tags: eco art, Ecology, Environmental art, social sculpture 2 Comments »“A fundamental aspect of this developing practice was exploring the possibility of making things happen rather than making things.” Mary-Lou Barratt (www.social-sculpture.org)
As a visual artist it has been my tendency and interest throughout my life to make things; things of beauty, provocative things – to explore the world through sensory tactile experience – to engage with the physical materials of the animate earth. Through such experience I have hopefully been able to communicate my relationship with that earth, my sense of wonder at its magic, mystery and power.
Yet as a political and social being, as part of the universal ecology and the responsibility it implies, it seems imperative at this time of ecological crisis that as artists we employ our power to make things happen– to question the behaviour that has brought our civilization to the brink of self-destruction, to challenge its ecocidal tendencies and to unearth and offer means to resolve the challenges to survival we are facing.
Joseph Beuys, 7000 Oaks, Kessel, Germany
As much as I appreciate the political and performative confidence and artistry of such as Joseph Beuys, Shelley Sacks (www.universityofthetrees.org) and Mierle Laderman Ukeles, and the cross-disciplinary ecological applications and intelligence of Aviva Rahmani (www.ghostnets.com) and Helen Mayer and Newton Harrison (www.theharrisonstudio.net), my own tendency is to shy away from such confrontational and interactive engagement towards a more intimate and personable meditative practice, more akin to traditional than contemporary art practice.
So is it possible to satisfy both aspects, both intentional aspirations, of my communicative practice – to inspire and catalyze and embody action towards ecozoic[i] sensitivity, towards resilient, sustainable development, towards ecological reconciliationn – through the process of making? Is it possible to make things that make things happen?
Similar matters were recently covered in an article in Art MONTHLY Magazine by Morgan Quaintance[ii], drawing attention to how the prevalence of and recent preference for socially (community) engaged participatory practice has somewhat negated the individual and personal experience engendered by more traditional art forms, and highlighting the potential for imaginative, emotional and sensorial participation in such work. The article did not however engage with the purposeful or transformational intent or efficacy for which much socially and ecologically engaged practice is motivated, nor the means by which art objects may catalyse such functionality.
As easy as it is to blur the definition of a ‘thing’, alternatively becoming a guided participatory performance, a ritual or activist event, can an art object alone, in the more traditional sense, motivate action or perceptive and behavioural transformation? It is obviously impossible to remove such objects from the contextual conditions of an age but are such transformations and motivations triggered through the sphere of the imagination, through our sensorial and aesthetic responses? And if they are how might we encourage prolonged sensible engagement with these objects of our attention?[iii]
we are the power (pward 2009)
Such intentional and purposeful use of art brings propaganda to mind. For example, the posters of the early 20th Century, which blatantly incite people to rise up and act in defence of nation or state, often through a dismissal and undermining of intrinsic self-worth by a strategic deployment of idealized and idolatrous imagery. Another form being the overwhelming blanket of advertising which aims to promote material consumption for profit and individual gain, often in the name of ‘progress’. Such means merely serve the dominant political power of the time and are often further enforced through fear of violence and ultimately aims to disempower the people and their environment[iv]. However, despite its more negative associations, when we look how propaganda is defined[v] it is obvious that more often than not this is what we are appropriating in eco-art practice, albeit in the name of all our relations rather than just a few.
the magic and wonder of it all (mud/paint); drinking from a natural spring, co galway (pward 1996)
So how might we promote and embody ecozoic action through our art and its residual objects? What are the mechanics behind the ability to empower people, to incite action, through our art and and its practice without dictating an outcome or undermining the innate intelligence of our species? And how might we rise to and resolve such challenges through art?
Some might say that such purposeful intentionality, or hope of social or ecological transformation, is antithesis to our role as artists[vi] or else impossible within the cosmic perception of our realities. Whichever, as responsible communicators acting within and responding to the social, economic and ecological circumstances of our age it is maybe fundamental to our practice that we ask ourselves such questions before we continue…
(A version of his article was originally published @ www.aefalmouth.blogspot.co.uk)
PW 2012
[i] ecozoic - an era or epoch marked by the reintegration of human endeavors into a larger ecological consciousness (www.ecozoic.org) – a term coined by the environmentalist Thomas Berry in 1991.
[ii] Morgan Quaintance, Private Moments; Art Monthly, Issue 354, March 2012, p7 (www.artmonthly.co.uk)
[iii] These ideas are explored as part of the work towards ‘New organs of perception’ which is a phrase that stems from the scientific work of Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749 – 1832), and refers to a participatory, holistic mode of seeing. It offers an alternative to the onlooker consciousness of natural science – from www.universityofthetrees.org
[iv] Paulo Freire, PEDOGOGY OF THE OPPRESSED (London; PENGUIN; 1970)
[v] Propaganda is a form of communication that is aimed at influencing the attitude of a community toward some cause or position.
[vi] Re: Andy Webster (www.andywebster.info/www.rane-research.org) Phd research.
FORM FOLLOWS FUNCTION but what does function follow?
Posted: March 30, 2012 Filed under: activ8, the ash tree, Uncategorized | Tags: Aesthetics, eco art, Environmental art, Technology Leave a comment »How Art informs Engineering and Technology…
Responding to an article in Conservation Magazine, Powered by Art* raised on the ecoartnetwork, and the proliferation of images of aesthetically orientated design towards renewable energy, another stimulating conversation has begun exploring the way that Art informs Engineering (or technology). Following on from my last two articles looking at the relationship between Art & Science and the nature of Arts-based research, and with regards to my interest in the practicality and application of Art I would like to briefly venture once more into the realm of applicable/practical aesthetics…
Framed (pward 2009); Crushing pigment, Peppercombe, North Devon (pward 2010)
What has appealed to me most about ecological art is its functionality – its willingness to address issues, to set out to do something (rather than just make something) in the world, to act towards a specific social or ecological goal, an end of some kind rather than simply (but profoundly) produce a statement or celebration of our tactile, sensorial or intellectual dexterity.While most aspects of Art may be justified (considered socially and/or ecologically beneficial) in some way it is the experienced application of certain and specific skills, the craft of Art if you like, which render its technological dimension. Technology, in my understanding and in whatever form, is the practical manifestation of skills and knowledge, determined through whatever means – artistic, intuitive, scientific – in order to achieve a particular end, to practically address a problem or issue physically, intellectually and even psychologically.
By such definition technology or engineering is by no means inferior (if it was ever in question) to the abstract, open-ended investigations employed by artists, scientists and academics worldwide, it is simply the raison d’être of such inquisitiveness and the means by which such sometimes-spurious theoretical conjecture may be tested in the world – it is quite obviously the other side of the coin. Indeed without technology, or the appliance of ‘science’, where is the integrity in our practice? Where is its meaning in the world?
The first Solar Thermal plant has gone live in Spain – Hundreds of mirrors focused on the tower containing salt, heats up to incredible temperatures which in turn heats water which stays hot for many hours giving base load power generation…
We are all aware of examples of technology or engineering, which is generally perceived in contemporary society as the appliance of scientific understanding achieved through rigourous testing and experimentation, that exhibits an ‘aesthetic’ quality, that are considered ‘beautiful’ (I will refer to such as ‘pretty’) or more cynically that have been designed to appeal to the fashionable, stylistic sensibilities of our time. But as we are also very much aware such ‘cosmetic’ qualities are fickle and seldom add anything to the practicality of the solution. So while such decorative design may again celebrate our cultural self-importance it is merely a further indulgence, another extravagance in our struggling, depleted world.
If, however, our appreciation or perception of beauty is not superficial but born of a sense of the intelligent and sensible choices made in developing, creating and applying solutions to the problems we face in this world then maybe we are beginning to understand our own existential wonder, our miraculous becoming, our harmonious endeavour, this relational brilliance, this ecological industriousness. Our work on this earth is about making choices, of discovering which choices are the most appropriate to a time and a place and an implied purpose.
It is about appreciating and realizing not only the nature of the materials/resources we use to resolve the issues arising from our bodily movement through this world but where they come from, how we gather them, who gathers them, who is affected by their extraction during and after our intervention, what happens to them or what influence they have when we have finished using them. Also can the extent of the intervention or disturbance we have made be justified in relation to the interdependent animate earth in which we reside, as well as our own selfishly derived imperative?
So the aesthetic of technology/engineering is not just a visual dimension (superficially) incorporated into its design, it is all the qualities exhibited by the appropriateness, sensitivity, efficiency and practicality of choices made in its manufacture – the materials, the labour, the locations and the awareness of its immanent decomposition. It is that jolt in the gut when we enjoy how something we encounter works on so many levels. It is a holistic appreciation of how a problem raised has been sensibly addressed entirely or not…
furrowed fields, pembrokeshire (pward 2012)
The majority of beings in this world are daily faced with practical problems – how to get food and clean water, how to maintain adequate shelter and to keep warm, how to make clothes, how to get from A to B in their endeavours, how to stay healthy, to ease pain or mend a broken bone, how to fix a vehicle or care for livestock – relatively few are in a position to contemplate the appropriateness or relative aesthetics of this or that activity or object, nor developing understanding towards such ends. Those of us privileged enough to do so are utterly dependant on the hard labour and practical knowhow of others to maintain our position. Those others often receive no benefit from our material and intellectual privilege. It is therefore our responsibility to not only appreciate and respect the division and disparity of labour that our technology and communal co-existence dictates, but to also employ our own skills, privileges and aptitudes to ensure a fair and healthful society for all.
Function is created through a circumstantial demand or disparity within a society or ecology. (Necessity is the mother of invention.) Technology is the means by which we might address such difficulty. So how might we determine what our needs are and therefore what technology and engineering needs to achieve? Maybe it is ‘Art’ that allows and promotes such perceptive and sensible practical determination.While we may use a variety of means and methods to research and enable our art in this world, our craft or technology if you like, it is the integrity and skill of our intention and application towards communal resolution of shared difficulties, whether local or global and in consideration of all our animate relations, through which we might measure our humanity.
PW2012
