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Nature as switch, is a title I have come up with throughout my exploration in fine art, I intend to carry it on for the FMP. Nature is all of our beginnings and today in this modern society most of us are driven by technology, we are hooked. We can now get wifi almost anywhere and the majority of western society is consistently in contact with a device of some kind. Social media consumes us particularly amongst the young affecting the youth of the west in a way we don't know the true repercussions of yet. But we do know the mental health issues and serious stress problems arising due to this pressure of an online presence. Even now I am expressing these thoughts I am doing it via technology, via a blog (a form of social media), because this type of communication is so embedded in our way of life. I have been researching the psychological effects of natural landscapes on people and came across a study by Matt White an environmental psychologist who experimented by testing the impact of people seeing images of green spaces and blues spaces (greenery and watery settings). The individuals stress levels decreased when seeing these green landscapes more so when there was water in them. Humanity is becoming more and more distanced from nature. In London green spaces are disappearing due to the rising price and demand of land in London and therefore further building is happening meaning more housing thereby meaning more people who will not be in contact with the environment which they rely on. I have been following the activities of the Instagram @urbangrowthlondon, a community organisation improving the urban environment, I have subscribed to their email and intend to get involved and volunteer, to make a small impact on some individuals’ lives in communities where nature is sparse. Our growing disassociation with the environment is exactly why I feel the need to make art about it, I wish to visually reconnect and bring awareness to this issue. Using the environment is a way to help those with the stress and anxiety brought about by the pressure of our online personas and the fact we are able to be in constant contact via technology with anyone. This is causing people to never be able to take a step back from work, school, friends and just be alone.
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Another serious interest of mine that is another reason why we should be more in contact with the environment is the current global environmental crisis we are currently in. ‘The World Counts’ link below, shows live the growing issue we humans are causing to our home. We are living in the Anthropecene era. One that will be defined by how we solve and finally deal with the issue we have put ourselves in. The mass of humans (32 percent), along with that of their domestic animals (65 percent), now makes up 97 percent of the total biomass of land vertebrates, this fact found in the book ‘The Shock Of The Anthropocene’, by Christopher Bonneuil and Jean-Baptiste Fressoz hammers home the crucial situation we are in and the importance as a generation to correct the mistakes of our predecessors or there wont be a world in which future generations will survive . Therefore in this critical situation I see an importance to make art which stimulates others to reflect on and realise their role in the degeneration of our environment. It is so easy to ignore, as our day to day lives are set up to not consider our impact; our rubbish is taken away, our CO2 emissions invisible. We can very easily live our lives without seeing the direct impacts we are causing. I have been experimenting with interactive art from smells to sounds to enterable spaces because I see this as a way to make the viewer have direct contact with organic forms to create an experience that contrasts with that of our daily lives- surrounded by screens, a place of reflection. By using the senses one is forced to acknowledge the environment they are in whether it is through memory or association. In the book ‘Nature’, by the Whitechapel gallery Hans Hacke discuses the fact that the categories of the world- physical, biological, social and behavioural are interchangeable. There is no hierarchy and nature within art is a platform in which to explore these interrelationships. There is an importance to engage with the issue as we are the issue.
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My performance, The idea was I was mother nature- naked and vulnerable -and I was being strangled by this plastic sheet, an analogy of our plastic waste that is suffocating and slowly destroying nature.
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Historically nature particularly the sea has been seen as a source of health, the sea air was a well known believed cure for any malady particularly popular in the Victorian period was the belief that a trip to the sea would cure you. Though this belief started with the ancient greeks and romans, of which this belief has carried on through time as author Isak Dinesen said ‘The cure for anything is seawater-sweat, tears or the sea’. Though today we know that it is not really the sea air that helps an illness but is more the environment, as psychologically it produces endorphins and a sense of relief/freedom. The ocean in literature is a symbol of the subconscious, equally in Jon Kabat- Zinn’s ‘Mindfulness for beginners’ he uses the analogy for oneself using the ocean’ the ocean can be rough and wild but if you go deep there is always calm beneath- you cant always reach the stillness but it is always there. As I have been dealing with a lot of stress I have been looking into ways of stress reduction for myself personally through mindfulness ect. of which has unconsciously become a strand of my research. Through making smells and using sounds I intend to create spaces in which one can relate or associate with a moment or memory, I have been making smells of the sea in order to transfer the psychological health benefits of the sea to inside the setting in which my art is placed, hopefully inducing calming thoughts while listening to the regularity of waves as there is a steadiness to the sea, a monotony which we often cant find in our own lives. The smell artist Sissel Tolaas does just this she believes smell is a crucial sense, used and understood(often unconsciously) by people to trigger their memories. Her desire is to counter the ‘continuous wholesale deodorisation’ of the world. She has experimented with this to enhance our understanding of our surroundings and to reconnect us with our sense of smell, a sense she believes is being lost. Historically in Britain Nosegays were popular in the 18th century they could be from a bunch of flowers to a scented ribbon/fabric they were used to disguise horrid smells of cities by holding to your nose or used as a form of flirting between two people courting. The idea of giving people different scents to take away from my work is one I need to work on as so far I have not been that successful in preserving the smells for long periods of time unless in a mason jar, I need to work and improve this skill. Natural dying and use of plants with particular health benefits have been an important strand in my work, because of my interest in mental and physical wellness expressed through art. I also think natural dying makes links to the past and the origins of colour of which appeals to me. I wish to experiment further with theses ideas to see whether there is any worth in them.
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My most recent Installation using naturally dyed fabrics, all dyes made from plants meant to be beneficial for your health. Intention to create a ‘wellness hub’. Below a scent of the sea I made from seaweed and a pile of sand from Dorset and a pile of stinking rotting seaweed, accompanied by a sound I recorded of crashing waves.
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The exhibition ‘Art for the Environment’, which was at The Nunnery has been the most beneficial exhibition that considers the environment as a main subject matter for me, Magz Hall is a sound and radio artist who made a garden shed with various radios creating an intimate space that recalled the outside with sound of nature and narration of natural experiences. By just placing a shed in a gallery space with some sounds she is able to create the ability to experience the outdoors. Equally in Mark Dion exhibition at the Whitechapel exhibition he made various installations of hides but one was a human size cage filled with Zebra finches this use of live art has given me insight to the impact of using what which is living within art, it immediately causes a reaction that art is more than that which is just material. The artist Rachael Champion uses growing to explore the relationship between industry, technology and nature, the direct contrast of nature and industrial materials creates questions of our responsibility in the natural world but also arises the issue of our crushing of natural habitats through our industrialisation and continuous building.
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My installation of growing cress and spider plants in front of a film I took in front of the winter sea in Dorset
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Mark Dion, at the Whitechapel gallery- Cage containing Live Zebra Finches
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The exhibition ‘Natural Selection exhibition’ by Andy and Peter Holden was very informative and interactive in a way that made the learning of issues of disrespect of the land. The exhibition ‘Gullet’ at the Cell project space by Julia Crabtree and William Evans had live algae in jars and also what was particularly interesting is the use of the heated floor with a digitally created carpet as the heat enlivened the sense of touch. Equally at the Zasludowicz collection the HRM199 exhibition there was a room where it sound cancelled so you were in complete silence and time passed insanely quickly, this use of sound and impressions of time interests me. The most recent exhibition I went to was at Kettles Yard Cambridge the piece by Rana Begum in the church was a large site specific sculpture of bamboo baskets making a wave like form which you walked under, this all encompassing form I really enjoyed and want to echo this size and feeling produced.
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Rana Begum’s installation currently at Kettles yard
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