Tuesday, February 24, 2015

BRIDE IN THE LANDSCAPE - ONLINE EXHIBITION

Living With Distance Diptych 120 x 160 cm


Over the last week I have been posting some older paintings on Instagram . I've also posted some to Facebook. These paintings are from my early 2000s bride-in-the-landscape series. And, something strange and pleasing has happened...people are responding to them in slightly different ways to responses I received 13 or so years ago. Did people like them years ago? Yes, but not quite in the same way.

BRIDE-IN-THE-LANDSCAPE
The painting above Living With Distance reminded me of some of the weather maps/images we Australians have recently been viewing with great interest. Cyclone Marcia hit the coast of Queensland, at Yeppoon, last week, causing great destruction. The accompanying heavy rains have caused flooding across the central and inland coast. Interestingly, when I uploaded this painting to Facebook and Instagram, I had one person comment that it looked like a weather image. This person is from California! I was thrilled that someone had picked up on what I also had seen in my own work.

When I painted Living With Distance I was thinking about the young brides who follow their rural-based husbands into the distance of geographical isolation. However, I was also 'playing' with the idea of distance within a relationship.


Assimilation Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm
 
Assimilation is also reminiscent of a weather map/image. The bride's form seems to becomes the indicator of water flow or cloud cover! When I painted this I was thinking about the country bride who becomes absorbed by the land. Her life depends on the ebbs and flows of the landscape...AND the weather. She also becomes part of a community where women are a force of spirit and involvement in everything from the arts, education, welfare, health and well being.
 
 
Flying Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm
 
 
 
Memory Oil on linen 80 x 100 cm
Previous posts The Moon and Memory
 
 
FLYING
The four paintings above all have a hovering or flying theme! The bride and her spirit watch from above, yet she is intrinsic to the patterns and rhythms of the land. In Flying the bride is like a cloud. Her shadow is cast across the landscape which she is a part of, but also separate from. Her presence has influence. It's as if she is a custodian or symbolic of Mother Nature looking after her Earth.
 
In Memory the bride and her young self as a child hover over a landscape that is cosmic in appearance. Maybe this is one of my early cosmic paintings...and I was not even aware of it until NOW! The phases of the moon symbolise the passing of time. The bride reflects upon the dreams she had as a child. Or, maybe the child is projecting into the future?
 
 
Life Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm
 
Life visualises the milestones of a girl's life. Birth, childhood, education, marriage, pregnancy and motherhood, death! This painting is a bit DARK methinks! I'll let you think upon that for a bit!

A DECADE ALONG
So, why are my bride-in-the-landscape paintings resonating with people in a slightly different way to ten or more years ago? There could be a number of reasons. A lot can happen in a decade. Here are some considerations, off the top of my head.

  • With the deluge of imagery on the internet and social media available today, maybe we are generally more aware of patterns across such things as weather maps and bride-in-the-landscape paintings?!
  • We currently have a heightened awareness of domestic violence, and whilst my paintings are not about domestic violence, the vulnerability of the bride symbol does affect people, even subliminally.
  • We also have heightened discussion about same sex marriage. The idea of marriage is being re-negotiated, albeit slowly, on social, religious, political and economic fronts.
  • I have daughters and I am aware that young women today are balancing many considerations against those that could be considered more traditional dreams, such as marriage and children. I am also aware that young men are taking part in these discussions. The latter is probably the thing that seems so different to when I got married, for instance!
  • Due to the internet, non-stop news, social media etc there is more awareness of the status of women in other cultures. These include traditions of marriage. And, some of these shock us.
  • And another possibility at a subliminal level. Maybe the vulnerability of Earth's sustainability seems more fragile when a bride's presence evokes purity and the call to Mother Nature?

The paintings above are only a selection of my bride series of work.

With International Women's Day next week, I will post some more of my bride paintings. Also, I have some exciting news about a painting and a UK publication! Shall keep you informed.



TESTIMONIES
My Mum's exhibition Testimonies is up! Here are the details.

My Mum, Elsie Brimblecombe, has been exhibiting her paintings for a few years now. She is inspired by the written word. Each of her exhibitions has been themed to a particular writer and book/poems.
This year's exhibition is a series of paintings inspired by the modern Greek poet Yannis Ritsos . The two paintings below will be in Elsie's exhibition.
 
Place: Upfront Club - 31 Maple St, Maleny, Queensland, Australia.
Dates: 20 February - 18 March 2015
Please check the Upfront Club for opening times - they open from 7.30 am 7 days - you can have breakfast, lunch, dinner, morning and afternoon tea there, but just check what days they open till late etc. They also have live gigs there, so you could combine seeing some art and listening to music!
 
Cheers,
Kathryn

Monday, February 16, 2015

ART - MOVIES - ARTIFICIAL INTELLIGENCE


Code oil on linen 60 x 110 cm 2015
Pulsing, unnatural colours create an artificial looking environment. Some of the tree's branches appear to be sections of a computer motherboard. One branch twists its way across the unreal sky. As it curls into a small twist it ends with painted binary code 'instructing' LIFE. 


GOING TO THE MOVIES
There are a couple of movies coming out soon that I'm really looking forward to seeing. One is called Chappie from District 9 director Neil Blomkamp.

The other movie is called Ex Machina directed by Alex Garland.

Both  movies are stories involving artificial general intelligence, robots and human reactions to them.

Both movies are being screened at a time when serious discussions about artificial intelligence [AI] and potential artificial general intelligence [AGI] are occurring around the world. These discussions are taking place at various new scientific and philosophical research centres eg: Centre for the Study of Existential Risk at Cambridge University. 

There are potential advantages, and  also potential major risks associated with accelerating developments in artificial intelligence, and possible future super artificial intelligence. What may have been considered scifi ten or more years ago, is no longer a tenant of the impossible. 

KINGSMAN: THE SECRET SERVICE
Last week I saw another movie... Kingsman: The Secret Service I loved it...a spy spoof, with Colin Firth as one of the leading characters. But, there are links to the discussion about technology's capability to transform/change humanity. In the movie a super-rich malevolent megalomaniac attempts to take control of human free-will via implants triggered by sensors activated in mobile phones. In a way, his deranged intelligence, coupled with his immense technological power, are metaphors for  the fears and hopes surrounding AI and AGI. We also see low Earth orbit satellite destruction, remote control of vehicles and a lot more techno gadgetry; much of it spoofing James Bond movies.

EXISTENTIAL RISK
Yet, like a couple of other movies I have recently written about  [Interstellar and The Hunger Games], Kingsman: The Secret Service channels fears of existential risk. It's not overt, but it pervades as a background resonance. Rather than spoiling the movie for those who have not seen it, all I will say is that existential risk caused by climate change is a catalyst for the story. This is essentially the same catalyst for the story that unfolds in Interstellar. Each movie takes entirely different storytelling paths though.

The existential or catastrophic risks and fears associated with AI and AGI seem to drive Chappie and Ex Machina. I am particularly looking forward to Chappie as I have seen a few previews and I am fascinated that even in a few minutes Chappie's 'personality' was obvious. Chappie is an 'intelligent' robot. But, even though Chappie is clearly a robot, the moviemakers have successfully utilised anthropomorphising techniques [beyond making it a biped with head and arms] to create a character with personality, intelligence and seeming sentience. For example, in the previews, we see the robot engaging with a dog, just like a human would. And, we see the robot drawing, en plein air, a picture of a car it is observing. Portraying a robot to relate to an animal, particularly a dog [humankind's best friend], and creating 'art' are clever ways to anthropomorphise! I gather that in Ex Machina a scene where the intelligent robot, Ava, is drawing is also pivotal. Yet, there is a danger in anthropomorphising robots, AI, AGI etc...I think anyway. By doing so we project ourselves onto the robot/AI. That projection is a kind of wishful thinking with all its inherent blind spots!


http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com.au/2011/06/meeting-place-of-mind.html
Meeting Place Of The Mind Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm
 

ART AND AI/AGI
I am keen to see what Chappie does with its drawing. I am also keen to see Ava's drawing. Why? Because there's drawing - and then there's drawing! Yet, there must be something about art and creating art that we humans understand as an essential sign of  being human. So, if a machine can 'create' art then it must pass THE TEST [Turing Test]. But as I wrote above, there's drawing - and then there's drawing...rendering something perfectly with technical and realistic virtuosity is not necessarily art or creative. What would happen if the robot/AI made a mistake, how would it problem solve? Indeed, maybe making a mistake would be a sign of human-ness?


Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com