ENTRANCE

 

Entrance Entrance Mixed media on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

ARRIVING AT A PARTY

Entrance is a fantastic word. It holds meanings that play with nuance. One meaning for entrance is that of a literal entry, like a gate, an opening, a foyer...something that allows or guides arrival at a place. One can also sit entrance exams that upon successfully completing allow entry into an educational institution. There is also making an entrance. For example, a flamboyant person, upon arrival at an event can make an entrance by drawing attention to themselves with their behaviour, style, clothing. They distinguish themselves from others who arrive without notice or attention. And, another meaning of entrance is to en-trance...captivate, beguile, enthral, mesmerise.

 

A flamboyant person, arriving at the entrance of a mansion where a party to celebrate a friend's successful completion of university entrance exams, could make an entrance that was so delightful and captivating that people might be entranced!

 

Where AM I going with this?

 

When I was painting Entrance Entrance [above] I was thinking about space travel. Yep, space travel! I was thinking about people who are planning to go to Mars, a destination they are not likely to return from. That's if they actually arrive! I was thinking about the discoveries of potential Earth-like exoplanets that may promise safe harbour for humanity in the future. It will require intergalactic travel! I read about these things...and...I am captivated by the possibilities. They trigger the imagination is ways that take flight...in a way I am en-tranced!

 

In Entrance Entrance, a cosmic landscape is interrupted by what looks like a gate, fence or bars that obscure the horizons beyond. Does this indicate an entrance to the wonders of intergalactic territories? Maybe it's a warning to tread carefully? Or, maybe humanity has already travelled forth, but cannot return? Maybe 'home' is on the other side? After all, going through an entrance does not guarantee a return.

The colourful 'barrier' may simply be a suggestion to stop and think. Many commentators remark that the 21st century is a 'crossroad' where technology promises amazing things, if we monitor and question carefully. If we don't, there may not be a way to 'turn back'. Just because we can do something, does not mean we should. I love the potential for inter-disciplinary research and investigation, drawing scientists, economists, philosophers, artists, and more together, to pave the future's pathway with rigour and excitement.

 

ENTRANCEMENT

Maybe the fantastic-ness of space travel and the promise of technological enhancements to and for humanity are like the flamboyant person arriving at a celebration...they have made an entrance into the 21st century and we are en-tranced.  Indeed, there is so much media coverage, popular and serious, of Mars trips, newly discovered Earth-Like planets, and seemingly extraordinary technological advances, including the potential of exponential artificial intelligence development. But, what if there are other 'arrivals' into the 21st century that have entered quietly without making an entrance? If they have, hopefully they are of the benevolent kind!

 

I am reminded of an article I wrote about recently. The article, Terminator Robots and AI Risk by Meia Chita-Tegmark, appeared in the Huffington Post in February. Chita-Tegmark is a PhD candidate at Boston University and a founder of the Future Of Life Institute, a research centre and think tank focused on existential risks posed by emerging technologies. In the article Chita-Tegmark writes about humanity's propensity to 'embody' fears in things we can see and warns that the real dangers may lie in the unseen. She writes, The risk of AI is very likely not going to play out as armies of robots taking over the world, but in more subtle ways by AI taking our jobs, by controlling our financial markets, our power plants, our weaponized drones, our media... Evolution has not equipped us to deal with such ghostly entities that don't come in the form of steel skeletons with red shiny eyes, but in the form of menacing arrangements of zeros and ones. 

Chita-Tegmark's article got me thinking...a lot. Shiny eyed and steel skeleton-ed robots or beguiling AIs like the beautiful Eva in the recent film Ex Machina or 30 year old Blade Runner's four awesome replicants are all examples of how making an entrance can en-trance humanity with extra-ordinariness and excitement. This entrancement somehow gives the impression that we are confronting our fears, lessening their influence. But, the outcome may be a diversion of attention from Chita-Tegmark's ghostly entities and menacing arrangements of zeros and ones. These arrive unseen and unnoticed, not attracting attention against the 'flamboyance' of 'embodied' manifestations.

We need to go beyond the surface...beyond entertainment ...beyond entrancement. Being entranced is a very human characteristic and whilst it can be extremely satisfying, it may be one of our most significant existential risks.  

 

You might like to also read these posts and see the paintings too:
IN SIGHT
WHERE THERE'S LIFE THERE'S...
UNSEEN 

 

Count Down To CODE

My forthcoming exhibition

Tuesday July 21 - Sunday August 2

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Open Daily: 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Artist's Talk: Sunday 26 July 11 am - 12 noon

 

CODE WEBPAGE

 

Below is a photo of 3D glasses I take to my exhibitions. Why? Well, it was pointed out to me a few years ago, by a visitor to one of my shows, that my paintings would 'go' 3D with 3D glasses. When it was first mentioned to me I thought 'SURE', but as it transpired, many of my paintings do separate into multiple dimensions when viewed with 3D glasses. It certainly acts as a talking point!

 

 

And below is a photo of four works on paper that have been recently framed in readiness for CODE!

 

 

 Cheers,

Kathryn

 

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

QUESTIONS - THREE PAINTINGS

 Maybe Off Limits? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

These three works on paper all have titles that ask questions, so I thought I would 'curate' a mini online exhibition called Questions. Over the years I have painted other paintings that are also titled with questions, but these three paintings here will be included in my forthcoming bricks-and-mortar-gallery exhibition, CODE .

I like the idea of teasing out mini-themes within a larger exhibition and as I was sorting out images for my CODE catalogue I realised that these three works on paper ask questions which relate to humanity leaving planet Earth, to re-settle somewhere else in the Universe. For example, settlement on Mars is a serious consideration, with plans for human colonisation.

There are many reasons for why humanity's exit from Earth is proposed. One is simply driven by human curiosity, desire and explorative excitement. Other reasons relate to questions about the sustainability of Earth and threats to existence that may force a need to escape.

YET!

'Leaving' Earth does not have to be physical! For example, there is a proposition that in the future we will be able to download our minds onto a computer or robot. A downloaded mind could travel on intergalactic trips, developing memories and even 'sensing' the experience as if physically participating. The downloaded mind could 'outlive' the physical body, taking the identity into forever-land.

Can We leave? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

 

Leaving Earth, both physically and as a downloaded mind, certainly poses many practical, ethical and philosophical questions that relate to the meaning of life and existence. Even downloading one's mind is a kind of 'leaving' in itself. Code becomes the form of departure. But, would there be a way of return, a rescue pathway if needed? Could we retrieve our mind from the downloaded entity?

 

So, what could be off limits? The painting at the top is called Maybe Off Limits? One of the round planet-like balls has lines, like bars, painted across it. Initially this suggests that maybe this place is off limits because of a hostile environment, unsuitable for human habitation. Yet, what if the bars are across Earth? And let's go a bit deeper....What if these round shapes are not planets, but symbolic of ideas?

 

The middle painting Can We leave? again has a round shape with security-like bars painted on it. Is this Earth, with security bars keeping us safe, forcing questions and possibly mitigating hasty decisions? Or are they prison bars, keeping us locked away? But, here's another question, is the round shape symbolic of mind, where the bars could be seen as both/either security or prison bars. What if this round shape is a downloaded mind 'travelling' through the universe long after its physical harbour has died and Earth has been annihilated? And, that leads me to the question Where to Now? the title of the painting below.

 

Where To Now? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

 

 

Where To Now? is a painting of the future. It poses crossroad-type questions. The choice of route determines outcomes. Research into existential risks warns that we, in the 21st century, are at a crossroad. The decisions we make now, especially with emerging technologies, will determine the future in serious ways that will affect planetary survival.   

 

Oh boy...heavy stuff!

 

Yet, I love the contrariness of using painting as a way of posing questions about the pursuits of technology. For me, painting keeps me connected in ways technology cannot. In my imagination I leave Earth all the time! And, in a way, all my imaginings are 'downloaded' into my art...

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

CODED LANDSCAPE AND THE BLACK SOIL PLAIN

Coded Landscape Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2015

 

 

CHILDHOOD LANDSCAPE - BLACK SOIL PLAIN

Regular readers will know that I grew up on a flat black-soil naturally treeless plain on the fertile Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The flatness and expanse of distance has influenced my art, but I suspect it also pre-disposed me to an embrace of cosmological/universal distance, both close and far.

 

The distance of my childhood landscape provided uninterrupted visions of Earth's horizon, often blurred on hot days by shimmering mirages. These horizons could also dominate with fantastic fiery crop-stubble burn-offs, as well as the tantalising promises of rain. At night the blackness extended into a sky that twinkled with the Milky Way. Yet, whilst far distance seemed to dominate, close distance was given free reign to entice. By this I mean, it was as if immense distance brought details to attention. For example, spidery cracks that appeared in the black soil as it dried after rain. Bigger and wider cracks  appeared as the soil yielded to drought. This cracking quickly disappeared with the arrival of rain. Other details include the faint tinge of green, across hectares of land, as the seeds my Dad planted grew into crops. Dust, chicken eggs, snake trails, spider webs, ants' nests, small whirly winds, the burst of mushrooms after rain, shooting stars...all these details and more were partners with distance.

 

RECENT TRIP

The photo below was taken by my daughter on a recent trip to my childhood landscape and home. You can see the flatness of the land, naturally treeless and abounding with fertile deep black soil. The relentless blue sky meets the horizon in a definite line, only occasionally interrupted by a farm house. When there's a watery mirage, that blurs the meeting of sky and land, farmhouses seem to swim in a kind of elevated no-place. The crop that had been recently harvested, in this photo, is cotton. Cotton is a relatively new crop for the area I grew up in. When I was growing up, wheat, corn, oats and sorghum were the main crops my Dad and our neighbours planted. 

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and the Pirrinuan landscape

 

 

CODED LANDSCAPE

Now to my painting Coded Landscape. Even though it is only a small painting 15 x 21 cm, distance is obvious, both close and far. A string of binary code 'instructing' LIFE creates a landscape-like contour against a seemingly universal sky. The detail is in the code, yet so is the immense expanse. The painting has multiple inspirations - my childhood landscape, codification of so many aspects of life, perspective [literal and metaphoric], existence, cosmological history, the future and more.

 

For me, landscape and concepts of it, do link everything. How? At the instance of the Big Bang 'landscape' was born in the substance that became the universe, including Earth where our immediate understanding of landscape lies. Yet, in the 21st century we need to untether concepts of landscape from Earth-bound horizons. Whilst we humans arrived billions of years after the Big Bang, we also are 'landscape' because we are made from the same universal star dust.

 

'Landscape' provides a fluid framework for existence to be negotiated upon and within, and in reference to. Essentially it's a matter of perspective...which needs distance, metaphoric and literal! Existence IS landscape! And, perspective, literal and metaphoric, is crucially important for humanity to embrace in the 21st century. I have previously suggested that we need to develop skills of 'seeing' multi-perspectives...even simultaneously.

 

TECHNOLOGY

My Dad is a HAM radio enthusiast. On the farm he had tall aerials to capture and send signals, a shack full of electronic gear, and vehicles equipped with communication devices...and more. He could communicate with people all over the world, and this is well before the age of the internet. So, in this flat horizon-ed landscape of close and far distance, I grew up also surrounded by technology. Not only electronic technology but also the technologies utilised by farmers, particularly farmers who had a predisposition to tech innovation!

 

It is against this childhood background that I imagine 'landscape' as being the continuing framework for existence into a future where technology will have increasing influences, both good and bad. With sophisticated tools of perspective and an 'eye' on 'landscape' hopefully the former outcome reigns!

 

Coded Landscape will be in my forthcoming exhibition CODE

 

 

The Hidden Seen In My Mind's Eye Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2004

 

 

 

MY NEXT EXHIBITION

 

CODE

 

Tuesday 21 July - Sunday 2 August 2015

Open daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Graydon Gallery 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

COSMIC REVELATION

Cosmic Revelation Mixed media on paper 24 x 32 cm 2015

 

 

It is only 7 weeks until the doors open to my next exhibition CODE.

 

As always I am excited and nervous. But, I do look forward to seeing an exhibition hung and I love chatting to people who come to see it. I like the buzz.

 

WHY CODE?

I've chosen the title CODE for the exhibition because it's a loaded word! It allows me to play with secrets...those that the universe may hold tight, but we humans want to explore and understand. In the 21st century 'code' also takes on technological imperatives that influence our everyday lives. It propels us into the future with its unseen and unheard language working in the background of computer systems around the world. 

 

So, I try to tackle the secrets of the universe with my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. My last post Tree-of-Life Dreaming explains some of the reasons why I love to use the tree-of life as a visual guide in my work.

 

Tackling computer code is a different thing altogether! I am not a computer scientist, however I do understand computer code's instructional symbolism. In some of my recent paintings I have included binary code representing LIFE. In a couple of the paintings I have juxtaposed binary code with the tree-of-life. Now...these were fun to paint...they tickled my sense of humour, but also stimulated lots of thoughts about existence and the future.

 

If you are interested in code and the future you might like to listen to Prof Stuart Russell speaking at the The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University, about artificial intelligence. His speech was called The Long-Term Future Of [Artificial] Intelligence  I find it rather interesting that there are brackets around the word artificial! It kind-of alludes to intelligence, in its entirety, being questioned. Yet, I have listened to the whole presentation and I am excited about the future. I am also so very happy that really really intelligent people are thinking critically about AI development, to ensure that it will be for the benefit of humans and the planet.

 

COSMIC REVELATION

So, let's talk about the painting above Cosmic Revelation. Well the word revelation gives a bit of a clue, given my previously stated quest to reveal the secrets of the universe! The wavy lines could be strips of code imbedded in waves of energy? Or they could be whispering contours of another universe existing simultaneously with ours? But what about the spaces in between? Are they like the 'unknown' in black holes...some kind of energy concealing the continuity of wavy energy? These alternate spaces play with perception, at one minute appearing to be in the foreground and the next receding away from the viewer. They almost act like a wave themselves...maybe detected from a different angle?

 

Cosmic Revelation is what I call a cosmic landscape! It has landscape elements, yet it is not Earth-bound. Regular readers know of another of my quests....to untether landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

 

Cosmic Revelation will be in CODE. It's at the framers now, being framed up for exhibition. Although, I will also be exhibiting some unframed works on paper, so that buyers can choose their own frames.  

 

INSTAGRAM:

If you just want to see paintings please follow me on INSTAGRAM @kathrynbrimblecombefox

 

 

 

CODE

 

Tuesday 21 July - Sunday 2 August

Open daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Graydon Gallery 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com