EXO

 Exo Gouache and watercolour on paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

EXOPLANET
'Exo' a prefix, has Greek origins. It means external, outside from. In the last few years I have been introduced to the word exoplanet, which is a planet that orbits another star ie: it is outside our solar system. Astronomers have discovered quite a number of exoplanet candidates, which then go through further analysis before they are confirmed as exoplanets. Of these a small number are considered to be orbiting in the habitable zone of their host suns. To be considered as potentially habitable, the planet must orbit in the Goldilock's Zone ie: not too hot nor too cold, thus the possibility of an environment that may support human life. Or, the other tantalising possibility is that an alien life may exist on these planets.

Previous exoplanet posts!
Super Earths
New World Habitability: Vacation Anyone?
Entrance

EXODUS
'Exodus' is a noun, again with Greek origins, that means a mass departure of people...to somewhere 'outside of' or 'external to' a place of origin. The discovery of exoplanets has some people dreaming of alternative planetary 'homes' for us humans. For example as the Earth tumbles towards its demise, whether human induced or not, maybe there are places we humans can escape to? The only problem is that identified potentially habitable exoplanets are a looooong way from Earth, with present propulsion technology delivering us there in multiple hundreds of thousands of years. We'd need to develop speed of light travel to drastically reduce travelling time...let alone various other issues.

Previous 'Exodus' post:
Home

EXO
My painting  Exo [above] could be of an exoplanet, but then again it could be something else that's outside or external...but from what? Maybe it is another universe? Maybe it's inspiration, freedom, a speck of dust, a thought...waiting to be grasped?

Yes, Exo it is one of my cosmic landscapes that can be 'read' as something vast at the same time as something intimate. By playing with perspective I try yo give a sense of movement or travelling...perhaps a speed of light kind of travel?

Exodus Gouache and watercolour on paper 34.5 x 44 cm 2015

EXODUS
In Exodus I imagine humans having to flee Earth to take up 'residence' on a distant planet....an exoplanet identified as welcoming! In this painting a person is glued to their computer, while a rocket takes off with a flight path that sees it traverse space before 'leaving' the known to venture into the unknown beyond the painting. 

Here's a 'haves and haves not' scenario for you! I imagine that some people will be chosen to leave and others will be convinced, through simulation, that they are also to leave. But, because life has become a simulated 'experience' they are unaware that mortal death actually awaits them. I wrote this short poem a couple of years ago for my Flick of a Switch post: 

It’s time for Earthlings to flee their dying planet. Another home had been prepared. The ships have been built and one by one the people come, ready to embark.

The nervous excitement soars as count-down is commenced.

The last few seconds... 3-2-1

Blast off!

A sensation of flight.

For some, the simulated experience is so comforting that mortal death arrives before they realise it.

For others ...a new life!

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Exo and Exodus are part of my ongoing series looking into the future of humanity, ideas of untethering landscape from Earth-bound horizons, posthuman futures, age-old symbols and more....

Please check out some of my recent posts: 

A Posthuman Habitat?

Two Humans: Uploaded 

Human Landscape

Text and Code

Picturing the Posthuman

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

A POSTHUMAN 'HABITAT'?

I am Am I? Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

This new painting [above] follows on from some other recent paintings where I have incorporated binary code. 

In I am Am I? I have repeated binary code 'instructing' the words I am, I AM, Am I?. 

These 'instructed' words exist outside some kind of portal which maybe a destination or possibly it's a place of departure...a place already left behind? Yet, you can still see, although faintly, the markings of this place under the dark blue. Maybe the blue is a sheath that co-exists in parallel with what seems to be a  more colourful world beyond? Maybe this sheath is another kind of 'habitat', one where downloaded minds, in a posthuman future, might 'exist'. This sheath could be some kind of a sophisticated superconductor, holding everything together? The small trees, my interpretations of the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the tree-of-life, are reminders of human embodied existence. I have placed them alongside the binary code to indicate that they are also 'code'. In a posthuman future the tree symbol may embed  a  'code' that simulates human feelings, emotions, desires and more? 

If minds are downloaded for an 'existence' in a posthuman future surely questions about I would be significant...but then again maybe not...hence the ????

So...these downloaded minds may have 'left' the world glimpsed through the portal in the middle of the painting. Maybe it was the only way to escape some kind of apocalyptic situation that threatened the extinction of humanity and the annihilation of Earth? 

The place seen through the portal may be the past, or possibly the future.

What do you think?

As you can tell, I am having fun with these new paintings. 

And, yes...this is another painting that I would call a cosmic landscapes!

Other recent posts and paintings are:

Two Humans: Uploaded 

Human Landscape

Text and Code

Picturing the Posthuman

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

TWO HUMANS - UPLOADED

 Two Humans Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

NEWS

On February 4th 2016, in Adelaide, South Australia, I am part of a panel discussing 'Space and Popular Culture'.

This public event is being hosted by the International Space University and the University of South Australia’s ‘Southern Hemisphere Space Program’. It will be at 6 pm, at the BH2-09 Lecture Theatre, City West Campus, Adelaide. Click HERE to visit the public events page and register.

HUMANS - POSTHUMANS

I am having fun with my code paintings. Regular readers will know that a few of my recent posts have explored code and text in my work.

Two Humans. 

In Two Humans I've painted/instructed the word Human in binary code, twice. I've used multiple colours to give my humans some kind of nuance, personality, individuality. Both of my humans seem to hover in space, but then again the background may be the inside of a computer or a generated simulated environment, which would require even more code. But, it could also be space too.

This painting could be one of my cosmic landscapes...maybe a posthuman landscape...a post-Earth landscape. Perhaps it’s a future image of uploaded minds tripping around space, exploring its expanding parameters, long after our Earthly anchoring landscape no longer exists. I wonder if they'd 'feel' nostalgic, or a sense loss, anger, frustration...? Whatever, they might 'feel' I imagine them forming a kind of scape within the fabric of the universe! Kind of lonely really.

But, my two humans are not necessarily two separate humans...for indeed one could be a backup! I know, I know... the colour sequence does not match/mirror, but maybe this is deliberate? Maybe its more like an upgrade potential?

There are many interpretations! 

Previous Post
HUMAN LANDSCAPE

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

HUMAN LANDSCAPE

Human Landscape Gouache on paper 66 x 30 cm 2015

Firstly: Please click HERE to read my latest newsletter - Christmas greetings and studio news. 

MORE TEXT AND CODE

This post follows on from my last one Text and Code where I wrote about my interest in using text, but also binary code. I am interested in the latter not only for the 'instructional' capacities of binary code, but also to tease out its aesthetic possibilities, in juxtaposition with other symbolic and representational elements...such as my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life and landscape.

Human Landscape

So...in this post I have uploaded my latest work on paper Human Landscape  [above] where binary code instructs  Human and Landscape. The string of binary code takes on a horizon-like appearance, as does the word Landscape. I am playing with a number of things though. In this algorithmic contemporary world our lives are influenced by code on a daily, if not minute by minute, basis. Some would say that our lives are determined by it eg: travel, banking, email, social media, new media art, data collection and more. There's also an interest in how the body, embodiment, phenomenology and the human sensorium are possibly envisaged, manipulated, eroded, enhanced, transformed, alienated by the digital world. So, in my paintings I am keen to explore ways to expose code, possibly transform it, maybe enhance it or even erode its invisibility, by making it visible. This visibility is not provided by the digital but by the human hand...extracting code from normally 'clean' and precise looking presentations. There is a contrariness in my desire to paint code...it's fun.

Human Landscape is a triptych, like I Am Am I ? in my last post. And, because both paintings are made up of three separate parts, they can be arranged in different combinations. I am not precious about their arrangements, because new stories may emerge. But, the arrangement of Human Landscape as seen above, for me at least, tells a story about the connections the human body has with the land. When we die, whether buried or cremated, our body returns to the land, in some way or another. And, ultimately when the Earth is savaged by the death throes of the Sun, our remains, every human ever born along with our Earth, will be scattered across space, returning to star dust. Thus, I have painted a human figure as if it is the land, with its legs and arms extending into river-like or horizon-like trajectories. The tree-of-life is growing out of this 'embodiment' of land transforms the figure into a kind of root-like connective element too. For me the small tree creates perspective, not only visual, but also temporal. The bottom image, for me, is the future. 

Regular readers will identify that Human Landscape is also a cosmic landscape, and part of my quest to untether  ideas of landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

The painting below Coded Landscape is another 'landscape' where I have used binary code to create the impression of maybe mountains or possibly some kind of structure seen from above, maybe a track, a billabong or even....the remnants of landscape in space?

Coded Landscape Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2015

I have previously painted landscapes with text. Here are a few:

This is a Landscape Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2001

In This is a Landscape I have written landscape over and over again, between the tree trunks. 

          Works on paper from Here Comes The Bride exhibition at Soapbox Gallery, Brisbane, 2003

  Text included painting middle row second from right. This painting is called Bride in the Landscape

The images above and below show a small selection of the around 70 works on paper I exhibited in my solo exhibition Here Comes The Bride held at Soapbox Gallery, Brisbane, 2003. The exhibition had a sub-theme of the bride in the landscape. I included text in a few of the paintings. I warn you , the text is a bit dark, but the paintings are essentially about the body being embraced, or possibly consumed, by the land. These paintings were inspired by my observations of country women...those women who often literally work the land, along side their farmer husbands/partners, but also the women who give so much of their spirit to rural communities. These women often sacrifice, not only material things, but companionship, culture, education. Yet, many try to encourage these things to occur in their communities. I've witnessed this first hand.....participated in it too.

        Works on paper from Here Comes The Bride exhibition at Soapbox Gallery, Brisbane, 2003
                                         Text included middle row middle and top left.

Below is another example of text...but also another kind of code ie: the $ sign. This painting is called Earth For Sale and is painted entirely with small $ signs, which are not discernible form a distance, however, they become evident when the painting is viewed up close. As I have previously written this is a deliberate ploy on my part, to provoke the necessity for close scrutiny as well as taking perspectives from further away. This dance back and forth is like a cosmological dance with perspective. 

Earth for Sale Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2008

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com  

TEXT AND CODE

I AM Am I ? Gouache on paper, Triptych 66 x 30 cm, 2015

I have used text in my paintings for some years, but mainly words, not code. I've listed some of my earlier work  at the bottom of this post. My interest in code entered my paintings, this year, in 2015.

In fact, my last exhibition was called CODE.

RIBBONS OF BINARY CODE
Regular readers will know that I have been experimenting with painting binary code as text 'instructing' certain words. But, my interest is not only the words or the code. I am also interested in how binary code can be an aesthetic element that can 'dance', or be juxtaposed, with other visual elements, such as symbols, landscape forms and more. And, in turn, how this aesthetic element can make visible something which is not visible, but incredibly influential in our daily lives. I am interested in how this new visibility, in tandem with other pictorial elements, can translate into re-interpretations of symbols, landscape and more.

I treat the binary code as a seemingly playful element, that the viewer is not initially aware of. The playfulness is achieved by using colour, often multiple colours, for the strings of zeros and ones, forming them into ribbons that evoke bunting, party ties and more. An example from earlier this year is  Unseen [below]. The playfulness, however, is deliberately provocative. I am questioning how unseen code influences so many aspects of contemporary life. Viewers, whilst seeing colourful twirling ribbon-like markings, are initially unaware that these are painted zeros and ones. They need to get up close...a deliberate 'tactic' on my part, as it conveys the necessity to enquire, scrutinise and question. Some viewers do not even recognise the zeros and ones, as code. These reactions mimic [metaphorically] the unawareness many people have of the algorithmic world operating beyond our sensibilities. I've watched people view my paintings, as they move from a distance, to up close, then back again. After seeing my work up close and then returning to a distance, my paintings become something other than the initial first impression. And, then...when viewers put on 3D glasses, many of my paintings separate into layers.

PAINTING CODE!
The provocativeness does not end there though. Contemporary new media art uses code, eg: imbedded in computer-based artist tools or, in some cases, where artists may write their own code. I am but a painter of the traditional kind, so cannot 'use' code to help me manifest my work, but I can 'use' it in other ways. By painting zeros and ones, imbedded within larger visual and aesthetic contexts that a painting implies, I make code visible. By painting it with my hands-on technique of brush and paint, I suggest, that I 'cleanse' it of its 'perfection', by messing it up...with colour, uneven brushstrokes and possible mistakes! A kind of reverse engineering?

Unseen Oil on linen 90 x 80 cm 2015

I AM Am I?
My new triptych I AM Am I ? 'plays' with binary code in a slightly different way to some of my other recent works ie: Picturing the Posthuman and Beyond Mortality This new work does, however, echo some of my interests expressed in this recent work. Generally, I am fascinated by the trajectory humankind seems to be taking...one where being human is under some kind of re-negotiation, where promises of technological enhancement abound. However, whilst there are pros, there are also potential negatives, recognised and unrecognised, that could mean annihilation of the human species. [Regular readers will know of my interest in existential risk posed by emerging technologies research.]

So...in my new painting I have painted, in the middle section, 'I  AM' and 'Am I', in binary code. There is a recognisable question mark after the coded 'Am I' to create a dislocation between statement and possible question. On the bottom section I have painted binary code that instructs the question mark sign...plus a ? mark, re-enforcing the need to ask questions. The top section plays with figurative and landscape elements - horizon lines, planetary shapes and my age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. The tree's roots seem to travel along the horizon line to meet the two figures. The roots then plunge into the 'soil' via the figures' limbs. Yet, the middle binary code section offers another kind of 'soil'. I've even 'watered' it, as you can see from the way the paint has run.

I have deliberately made sure that I AM is in capital letters. Why? I AM means something different to I am. The latter invites a continuation of a sentence, a description of some kind, whereas the former is a statement. Hence the following....Am I?

I have a  lot more thoughts about this work, but I will now leave it for you to 'play' with.

EXAMPLES OF OTHER TEXT BASED WORK

Water Harvesting Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2009

Risk Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm [unframed] 2010

 Planet $ Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

PICTURING THE POSTHUMAN

Picturing the Posthuman Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

 

PICTURING THE POSTHUMAN

 

TRANSHUMAN and POSTHUMAN

I have been thinking about posthumanism, transhumanism, existential risk posed by emerging technologies, and artificial intelligence...especially regarding increasingly autonomous weapons eg: weaponised drones. AND, I have been thinking about how to convey some of these ideas in my paintings, without being  illustrative or providing an 'artist's impression' - like a scifi image.

 

Posthumanism is a kind of end point of transhumanism. Transhumanists believe that the human is compromised by biology. They propose that technology can alleviate biological limitations and enhance abilities, such as intelligence. They aim for 'singularity', the ultimate posthuman condition. But 'singularity' could mean that  there's no body at all. The ultimate cleansing! And, definitely posthuman! An example is: downloading minds to be algorithmically encoded for an eternal unembodied 'existence'. However, I'd argue that the posthuman label could be applied well before the body became completely obsolete. 

It's all absolutely fascinating! 

 

PAINTING

And, my interest in creating paintings that 'speak' of these fascinating, but also concerning issues, is a contrary one!  Painting, with brush and paint like I do, is not hi-tech. What can something that sits outside the contemporary technological frame generally, and new-media frame specifically, provide? For me...it reminds me of being human.

 

So, to Picturing the Posthuman  - here is a painting that seems to offer two choices, but it's much more complex than that. The spiral of binary code repeats the word 'resurrection'. It implies that a posthuman existence, such as the downloading of minds, could be classed as some kind of intent to resurrect 'life'. The small tree...yes, my transcultural religious tree-of-life... is surrounded by colourful dots, that could be stars, thoughts, other small but indiscernible trees? At the outer edges there are random zeros and ones, indicating the present day world where technology influences our lives. 

Like two galaxies about to collide, this painting presents a possible tense situation. Another way of thinking about the painting is that two posthuman worlds exist, one where existence is an ordered posthuman future, the other where technology has become self propelling and out of the control. leaving humanity in a chaotic posthuman half-life future. But then...who's to say this is not already the case? 

I am sure you can think of a few scenarios for this painting too...I've certainly got more...

 

The cosmic background suggests time...time to make decisions...or that it is time to make the right decisions. As cosmologist and astronomer Lord Martin Rees, wrote in his 2003 book 'Our Final Century' What happens here on Earth, in this century, could conceivably make the difference between a near eternity filled with ever more complex and subtle forms of life and one filled with nothing but base matter.Martin Rees, Our Final Century: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century—On Earth and Beyond (New York: Basic Books, 2003) p.7-8

NEWS

 

I am very excited to let you know about a scholarly article which has been published about my paintings Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox: Paintings 2002 - 2010 by Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD. Art History]. The article has been published online at the innovative PANOPTIC PRESS. 

 

To whet your appetite here are two quotes:

 

It must first be understood that in these latter paintings, Brimblecombe–Fox is not so much concerned with landscape painting per se, but in a Warburgian sense, searches for the universal connections, or common ground between people, races and religions. In doing this she searches for a means to overcome the violence that exists in and between barriers to cultural understanding. Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD. Art History].

and

Similarly, in relation to Brimblecombe-Fox’s more recent work, the description “contemporary landscape artist” can actually  be deceiving, for although she still uses elements and images that are drawn from nature such as a tree, a leaf or an island, she travels in new dimensions as she expands her concerns with the landscape into global questions on ecology and world harmony. Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD. Art History].

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

THE EVERYWHERE ABYSS

The Everywhere Abyss Gouache and Watercolour on paper 29 x 37 cm 2015

 

 

SYDNEY PEACE PRIZE

This week, I went to Sydney to attend the Sydney Peace Prize lecture and dinner. This year's very deserving winner is Australian artist George Gittoes. An inspired choice by those who selected him. It's the first time an artist has been given the award and he is among illustrious company. You can read about previous winners HERE .

 

GITTOES - ART

Gittoes, since 1986, has worked in many war and conflict zones around the world, either with Australian Peacekeeping forces or on his own volition. He draws, paints, photographs and makes documentary films. His photographs are photo-journalism, capturing human extremes for records and witness. His drawings are intimate connections with those who are experiencing or have experienced the extreme depravity of human behaviour. I have seen a couple of photos of him drawing in the field [so to speak] and you can see the connection between him and his subjects...and those who mill around to see what's going on. Drawing takes time and in this time Gittoes' attention on his subject gifts them a restored humanity, sometimes at the edge of death or in death. The technologically un-mediated aspect of these encounters injects life, fully cognisant of its extremes. Gittoes's drawings, more often than not, have handwritten text around the borders or on one side of the paper. Here, he tells his stories about the encounter he has taken time to draw.

 

Gittoes' paintings, painted in his studio, use the drawings and photographs as referential points, to create images that are majestic...because they are intensely about life and humanity, in extremes. The images can be very confronting for Gittoes does not sensor. After drawing someone and looking intently into their eyes, there's a silent pact to tell their story. In Gittoes' case these stories are more often than not unimaginably shocking. The paintings are not simply copies of photographs or even the drawings, because Gittoes uses paint like it breaths new life. There is nothing pristine, cleansed or simply copied. His paintings resurrect life, at the same time as intensely critiquing warfare and conflict. They are not simply didactic, but instead declare 'I Witness' and now you do too!

 

Gittoes gave an amazing speech at Sydney's Town Hall. It was more like a conversation, where different stories lead to insights that are also confronting. The thing is...these insights are from someone who has spent decades not only witnessing war and conflict and their aftermaths, but also spending time with people, talking, drawing...and helping. Remarkably he and his partner Helen Rose live much of the time, in Jalalabad in Afghanistan, where they have set up an artists' community called the Yellow House.

 

THE ARTIST

One of Gittoes paintings that I think is really interesting is called The Artist, oil on canvas 210 x 173cm, 1996. You can see it on Gittoes' website on this page 5th down on the right side or at his Brisbane dealer's Mitchell Fine Art site HERE.

 

Gittoes has painted a figure who holds a paint brush, an artist. This figure seems to hover above an abyss, but you soon realise that safe passage is afforded by small yellow stepping-stone-like clouds that the artist paints. In the background, what seems like a cityscape is actually an array of gun shells littering the horizon.  So, I ask, how bad could the abyss be, if on the surface warfare has scarred the landscape, left it denuded and life is still? Maybe the abyss symbolises change? Maybe it symbolises confronting the self on the surface, in order to discover depths of humanity?

 

The artist wears night vision glasses, those vision-aides that soldiers use to see at night. I have thought about these night vision glasses a lot...why does an artist need them? Gittoes seems to be saying, if you want safe passage, if you want peace, let the artist guide you...the artist is a warrior too, but one who bravely creates the possibility of new worlds, communication and connection. Given, that the artist can paint stepping stone clouds, it's obvious the artist can traverse the abyss from its depths to its surface. The artist can move about the abyss like a guide!

 

THE EVERYWHERE ABYSS

So...the abyss in Gittoes' painting The Artist really got me thinking about 'the abyss' as a concept.

 

The abyss is not such a bad thing! It actually reminds us of human endeavour. It is the space we straddle where concepts of the sublime swamp us with majestic and poetic thoughts. It propels us! It can offer renewal.

 

My new painting seems to speak of a cosmic abyss...yes another of my cosmic landscapes! Without the abyss and its opposite, the horizon....where would life exist? Maybe nowhere...a nowhere place that seduces with simulation....................................................................the computer, ipad, smart phone????? That's why I have painted an 'everywhere abyss' to remind us to look up from our screens.

 

The horizon is something I have previously written about. Indeed, growing up on the flat treeless black soil Pirrinuan Plain in S W Queensland, the horizon was ever present. It lay in the west as a flat line, which often disappeared behind a mirage, or was swamped by grey rain, or incredibly delineated by stunning sunsets. Yet, in the East the majestic Bunya Mountains cut a silhouette against the sky. I lived on a flat plain at the bottom of a mountain range...maybe even abysses have horizons?

 

 

Horizon Posts

Coded Landscape and the Black Soil Plain

In Sight

Beyond Yesterday  

Art Science Imagination and Wonder

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

IN THE CRADLE AND THE FUTURE

In The Cradle Gouache and water colour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

This new work on paper plays with the idea of the 'cradle of civilisation' which historically refers to the fertile crescent between the Tigris and Euphrates rivers where first civilisations appeared around 6,000 years ago. But, the 'cradle of civilisation' can be interpreted in other ways. One of these is to think about the human mind as a cradle...after all civilisation was determined by humankind's abilities to invent practical tools and systems, as well as aesthetic, intellectual and social ways of being.  To be civilised connotes many nuanced and sophisticated creative, intellectual, spiritual behaviours, processes, imaginings. 

 

So, my painting In The Cradle could be read as some kind of aerial map of river systems or it could be a kind of mind map. The branching tree line-work not only gives the impression of water systems, but also synapses in the human brain. As regular readers will recognise, the tree-shape references my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life and all that it means to humanity's past, present and hopefully into the future.

 

The three red dots are referential points or symbols of humanity. One dot is embraced within the branching tree-river-synapse. Another red dot is cradled by the arching line and the last dot sits at the end of this line. I see this as marking points on a trajectory...a trajectory for humanity. The last red dot sits outside the cradle of civilisation or even life, as if it is about to launch to something beyond. This could represent a post-human future where the cradle is no longer needed, where the signs of life, represented by the tree, are also no longer needed. Maybe this is heralding the transhuman future where humans and machines merge? I wonder what part, if anything, of the tree as a symbol of life, will remain?

 

The red dot at the end of the arching line does appear to have a choice though. It could continue on a trajectory that loses sight of the tree. Or, it could swing back and rejoin...obviously changed by its trajectory, but still connected to something familiar.

 

Regular readers will also recognise that In The Cradle is another of my cosmic landscapes. Yes, a landscape, but one untethered from Earth-bound horizons, thus taking in the universe as our vast environment. By doing this, the cosmological perspective is offered as a way of viewing humanity and its future.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

BEYOND MORTALITY

Beyond Mortality Mixed Media on Paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

 

I know the title Beyond Mortality sounds serious and huge...and it is both of these! And, where did the idea come from you might ask?

 

It has come directly from thinking about my own reactions to my university research. I am delving into some pretty hefty topics, that certainly do make me wonder. One of these topics is existential risk posed by emerging technologies...the kind of risk that could cause humanity's annihilation. An associated topic is artificial intelligence and potential threats posed by self-learning entities, seen and unseen. All of this spills over into topics such as transhumanism, singularity and posthuman futures. There's an Australian transhumanism site that you might like to look at HERE. As with most things, there's both positive and negative possibilities associated with many of these topics.

 

BEYOND MORTALITY

You can see where the Beyond Mortality title has come from! Yes, thinking about the future, the role of technological 'enhancements' of the human and what 'existence' might mean. The obvious thought that comes to mind is that 'beyond mortality' means immortality. I suspect it might be, strangely, much more complicated than that...

 

In Beyond Mortality I have taken the Christian idea of ascension, coupled it with binary code, and cosmological time and space.  But, the idea of ascension is not only a Christian one. It is shared by a many religions and spiritual beliefs, including Judaism and Islam. My painting also plays with ideas of resurrection, which is what the binary code is 'instructing'. By combining ascension and resurrection with technology's 'promise' of transhuman and/or posthuman futures I'm playing with questions about existence, re-existence [even de-extinction] and mortality. Needless to say there's no resolution or even a stationary viewpoint, but rather, a intellectual and imaginational 

discursiveness that has stimulated my visual 'play'.

 

And, for regular readers...yes...Beyond Mortality is also one of my untethered landscapes. Even the mountain is unleashed from wherever it came from, Galgotha, Calvary or even 'Metaphor'! Yet, the ribbon of colourful binary code creates a landscape-like contour in space, maybe suggestive of new types of scapes where downloaded consciousness-es might 'exist'? The ribbon also seems like it's giving directions, making a pathway...

I wonder if once we are on the path...are there places to get off, make detours, see other directions?

 

On that kind of sobering note....
Cheers!
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com  

IRRESISTIBLE

 Irresistible Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2007

SEDUCTIVE
I've decided to upload a couple of older works on paper for you. I was browsing through my images and these two struck a chord. Both are quite seductive really. Seductive in a way that promises  joy, humour, peace and fun with seemingly wild possibilities.

Irresistible makes me smile. It could be the eye of an alien, the sun experiencing massive solar flares, or it could be a map of some kind, as if someone is above a landscape. I quite like the alien eye option! But, then again....I do like the landscape one too. And, gee whiz...the sun flare is also exciting. But, hey, it could be a microbe seeking a host, a flock of sheep, an overflowing dam, a drop of rain....

My Heart Sings 56 x 115 cm 2005

 

 

HEART SCAPE

My Heart Sings is ten years old and it still makes my heart sing. When I painted it I remember thinking that the markings captured the movement of a heart...a happy heart too! A kind of melody creating a scape across time. Yes, this painting is a landscape, a heart landscape, but also another aerial landscape where the markings could be traces of flotsam and jetsam, or perhaps leaves dancing in the wind, or ripples across water. But, let's untether landscape from Earth. This painting could be the surface of another planet, vaguely similar to Earth, but different. I can see shapes that might indicate landforms created by wind or the movement of water. But, then...maybe this is a scape of a section of a galaxy, a small piece of the Universe tracked by the movement traces of stars, moons and planets.

 

UNIVERSITY

I hope you have enjoyed these two paintings. While I am doing my M. Phil at the University of Queensland I will be uploading some new pieces, sketches from my desk, but also revisiting some older works. I am interested in how my research might provide new perspectives of older works, but also strike inspiration for new ones too.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

FROM THE PRIMORDIAL SOUP

 

From The Primordial Soup Pencil on paper 2015

 

 

FROM MY DESK

This is another sketch from my desk. Yes, my desk at university, where I spend a lot of time these days. Regular readers will know I have returned to university to undertake an M. Phil [research higher degree]. So, while I am reading, writing, taking notes I try to capture some of  the images that float through my head. My sketchbook and pencils are sitting beside my notepads and library books, ready to picked up when inspiration arrives. Sometimes, it's a bit hard to capture inspiration, but the image above, I think, has been caught rather well. 

 

So, how did this image happen? What was I reading when it suddenly popped into my head? Well...I had been given a task to write 1000 words about an artwork and the chosen piece was 'The Crochet Coral Reef' curated by Margaret and Christine Wertheim. So, it's not actually a piece, but an ongoing project that includes collaborative community activities and exhibitions around the world, involving over eight thousand people [as of 2015]. Please read about it here on the Wertheim sister's website for their not-for profit Institute For Figuring [IFF] based in Los Angeles.

 

CROCHET

Yes, the 'Crochet Coral Reef' is created with the traditional women's handicraft of crochet. And, it's far more complex that you might think! The coral-like pieces created by crochet artists are also 3d representations of non-Euclidean hyperbolic geometry. 3d modelling of hyperbolic geometry had remained elusive, despite it appearing in nature ie: lettuce leaves, coral. It remained elusive until 1997 when Dr. Daina Taimina, a mathematician at Cornell University, showed how it could be modelled in 3d by creating coral-like forms using crochet, a handicraft she had learnt as a child.

 

In 2005 Margaret Wertheim, a physicist and science writer and her sister Dr. Christine Wertheim, an artist, writer and academic decided to crochet coral using Dr. Taimina's techniques. Both sisters had learnt crochet, along with other handicrafts, as children growing up in Brisbane, Australia. Christine suggested they create a coral reef. [IFF] As Australians [Queenslanders!] they had a connection to the Great Barrier Reef, one of the ten wonders of the world, and under increasing threat.

 

Please have a look at the many and various images of 'Crochet Coral Reef' marvellous exhibitions on the IFF website . There's an array of different types of exhibitions, from those where the crocheted coral is amassed to create colourful reefs, to those where amazing individual pieces are placed on plinths, taking on a prophetic gravitas.

 

ENVIRONMENT

As time has gone by, the choice of crochet material has extended beyond traditional woollen yarn to include plastic wrappers, wire, video tape and more.[IFF] This is a deliberate confrontation with the detritus of the Anthropocene, especially in the marine context. Yes, the 'Crochet Coral Reef' project is not only an expression of creative handicraft and a modelling of hyperbolic geometry, it is also deliberately placed within important environmental discourses.

 

The' Crochet Coral Reef' project seriously provokes commentary about environmental  degradation, ocean sustainability and global warning. But, hey...let's take it to the full whammy...I argue that the project warns of existential risks, those threats that may cause annihilation of humanity and the planet. However, the project's human elements ie: community collaboration and the hands-on crochet technique, unmediated by hi-tech equipment and intervention, remind us that touch and time can be reclaimed. As it confronts us, the 'Crochet Coral Reef' project also offers multiple pathways for re-thinking...the hyperbolic taking us on a roller-coaster that provides multiple perspectives.

 

So, how did my sketch From The Primordial Soup erupt from this story of crochet, hyperbolic  geometry and environmental discourses?

 

Here goes...

 

PLASTIGLOMERATE

I had previously read about a new geological term...plastiglomerate! Yes, it is actually a geological term to describe a new rock, a mixture of natural materials combined with plastic, being delivered from the sea. You can read about plastiglomerate on the Geological Society of America GSA Today website.

 

With this new 'rock' in mind, it's easy to see confluence with the multi-material morphed coral forms in 'Crochet Coral Reef' exhibitions eg: check out the 2014 exhibition at NYU in Abu Dhabi and the 2015 one in San Antonio, Texas.

 

As I thought more about plastiglomerate and pondered the far reaching critical possibilities of 'The Crochet Coral Reef' project I asked questions. Is plastiglomerate a metaphor for a new kind of birth, a mutation where detritus and DNA are mixed? Are we witnessing a prophetic delivery where mutations are, in fact, inevitable? Have they already occurred in other areas so far undetected? As landscape coughs up these new entities, what is humanity's fate?

 

Given that life may have begun in the primordial ocean I think it is interesting that plastiglomerate has been created in, and delivered by, our 21st century oceans. This is what inspired From The Primordial Soup.

 

 

Sap Of Life Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm 2012

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

DAMNED

Damned Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm 2011

 

 

ENVIRONMENT IN THE 21ST CENTURY

Recently, in the news, there was a report about an abandoned silver mine near Texas in S.W Queensland on the border of New South Wales, Australia. Contaminated ponds pose risks to the local Dumaresqu River, which flows into the McIntyre River, which then flows southwards into the Murray Darling. Apparently, it only needs a minimal amount of rain to fall to cause havoc with overflow into the river systems.

 

This kind of situation is totally unacceptable, especially in the 21st century where no-one, mining companies and governments, can claim ignorance of environmental sustainability issues.

 

DAMNED

The work on paper above Damned [and detail below] was painted a few years ago, but it still 'speaks'...even 'screams' to us today. The word 'damned' is repeated to appear like water in a holding facility, such as a dam or a pond. It could also be the bed of a river or creek. Obviously I am playing with the word dam!

 

To be damned is a serious thing - conjuring an array of different possibilities from the wrath of God to condemnation, anger, frustration and denouncement. And...if we pollute and contaminate our waterways we are damned in a way that potentially threatens our very existence!

 

 

Detail Damned Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm 2011

 

 

VALUE

The thought that human existence, along with plants and non-human animals, can be threatened by contaminated water may seem extreme, but we are all interconnected in such a way that even a small risk must be taken seriously.

 

The news report mentioned above is just one story, but there are many potential stories like it. Questions about 'value', normally referring to money, dominate debates. Who pays reparation, especially when a mine, or similar, goes into liquidation and there is no money left to maintain or fix? This is compounded when governments have requested inadequate financial assurances at planning or approval stages. While people wait for an answer it could rain and tip the water level in contaminated ponds into wider catchments with potentially devastating results. What is value and what is valued?

 

RISK

In my painting Risk [below and Detail underneath] I have painted strips of rain, water in a dam or creek/river bed, and underground aquifers in small blue $ signs. The word 'Risk' is also painted in small $ signs, but the colour red signals a warning, perhaps multiple warnings, about how we value money, water, life and existence.

 

Risk is not a condemnation of money as a symbol of exchange. Rather, it is a provocation to think about the many aspects of value.

 

CURRENCY

And, there's a play with notions of currency! The currency of water as it ebbs and flows, a system of money in use in a country, being current - contemporary, implied momentum within a system such as political currency.

 

Maybe if we take risk seriously - currency in all its permutations will be re-negotiated, re-imagined even?

 

 

 

Risk Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2010 [Sold]

 

 

 

 Detail Risk Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2010 [Sold]

 

 

LANDSCAPE

The two paintings above Damned and Risk are landscapes - loaded ones! Regular readers know of my love of landscape and my attempts to re-think what landscape is in the 21st century. I have my cosmic landscape which try to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons. I also have my Earth-based ones, such as the two above. Yet, the link is imaging the future...

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ALTERNATE UNIVERSE/S

Alternate Universe Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm paper size 3005

 

 

ALTERNATE - UNIVERSE 

Alternate and Universe when coupled together bring to mind a couple of possibilities. There's the colloquial judgement made about someone who appears to not notice how their behaviour affects others...as if they are living on another planet or in another universe! Then there's the theory of a multi-verse, where there's more than one universe, existing simultaneously or maybe consecutively...or in some other dimensionality yet to be discovered.

 

Alternate Universe [above] is ten years old...I painted it in 2005. Yes, my interest in the cosmos is not new. I was probably a bit more grounded ten years ago though! By this I mean, I had not clearly thought about untethering concepts of landscape from Earth-bound horizons, one of my current quests, both intellectual and creative.

 

TEN YEARS AGO

The painting below Other Universes is a little more recent, but it has a similar far away, yet also a strangely close, feel. As in Alternate Universe the markings seem whimsically intimate on the one hand, yet suggestive of endless vastness at the same time.

 

 

 

Other Universes Gouache and watercolour on paper 15 x 21 cm paper size 2011

 

 

WATCHING

The two paintings below 'speak' about watching or observing. The first one suggests an observance of the Universe by others and the second painting suggests that the universe is undertaking the watching or observing. Yet, when you think about it, the universe is everything, so that any observation is witness to...well... everything, intimately and openly, inside and out, Earthlings and aliens...and more!

 

The two paintings below are more recent ie: 2013 and 2015 and reflect my ongoing interest in searching the universe for scapes of all kinds. The most obvious is landscape. I am interested in how we might re-think concepts of landscape in the cosmological21st century where exoplanets entice with possibilities for future human habitation, after we plunder the resources of our current planetary home. It is worth thinking about landscape, in the broadest sense, to explore humankind's relationship with something that keeps us 'grounded' [literally and metaphorically], emotionally, spiritually and physically. It may help us sustain Earth, at the same time as acting as a cautionary sensor for future explorations beyond Earth's horizon. And...that's where my quest to un-tether notions of landscape form earth-bound horizons comes from. By extending our landscape perspective into space it provides us with multiple vantage points to observe ourselves, our Earthly home, our Universal environment, time and space.

 

 

 

Watching The Universe Gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2013

 

 

The Universe Watches Everything Gouache on paper 21 x 30 cm paper size 2015