WATCHING THE UNIVERSE

Watching The Universe gouache on paper 30 x 42 cm 2013

 

It's one week since my solo exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS ended. And, it was a great exhibition! I really loved 'putting on a show' for everyone! I wrote a recent post called PUTTING ON A SHOW ... all about the behind-the-scenes activities of exhibiting...paintings!

 

I have not created any new work either during or after the exhibition. But, I have started to think about a body of new work for my next exhibition in 2014...about a year away.

 

Watching The Universe

The painting above Watching The Universe was painted in the few weeks leading up to COSMIC ADDRESS. Yes, I will be continuing the cosmology theme. The background gives an illusion of vast Space, yet it could also be the intimate interior of something only visible with the help of a microscope. Both have Universal dimensions! The line work is indicative of eyes watching, either watching you the viewer or watching the vortex-like Space visible in the middle of the painting.

 

There's a multiplicity of perspectives to be explored!

 

Watching The Universe was inspired by a few influences. 

• Prof Nick Bostrom's theory that we are living in a computer simulation devised by post humans who re-live their human existence via a simulation which they 'watch' and vicariously 'live'. Not only is it a re-living of the human existence but also a re-telling or re-evolution of all existence since the Big Bang. I wrote a recent post COUNT DOWN where I discuss this theory a little more. 

• Another influence is the discovery of various Earth-like planets in other star systems. Here's one article http://news.sciencemag.org/2011/09/super-earth-found-habitable-zone There are plenty of articles 'out there'... so you can discover for yourself. The search for other Earth-like planets opens up the possibility of aliens, or my more kindly term 'space mates', who may or may not be watching us, as we attempt to find and see them. The discovery of other Earth-like planets also poses the possibility that at some time in the far distant future we humans might have somewhere else to call 'home'. Please check out my previous post SUPER EARTHS

• A phrase in Physicist/Cosmologist Prof Joel Primack and Lawyer/Philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams book The New Universe And The Human Future
  
  As much as people around the world hope to find aliens beings on other planets the possibility exists that only our eyes see this universe' P. 65This kind of phrase may seem anthropocentric, but it does not exclude the possibility of other life forms. It actually implies a kind of responsibility for us to continue in our quest to know as much as possible about our Universal environment.

• I was thinking about the increasing surveillance in our lives...drones, mobile phone tracking, street cameras, GPS systems, data collection and more. But, as we watch, and are watched, with all kinds of devices, are we essentially navel gazing? If so, are we [except a few] missing out on 'seeing' the vast perspectives and frontiers of Universal knowledge? Maybe...maybe not? A recent post called LOOKING OUT THE WINDOWS investigates learned myopia [metaphoric and literal].

• In 1995 I painted a work on paper called Dare To Be Yourself. It is one of the paintings in my book For Everyone It is a painting of a family of four being watched! In this case the eyes are 'alien' eyes casting their gazes across a family who did something that was not the norm.

 

Dare To Be Yourself Gouache on paper 28 x 37.6 cm 1997 

 And for those who missed it, here's a video of my exhibition COSMIC ADDRESS

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

 

 

 

 

LOOKING IN THE REAR VISION MIRROR-COSMICALLY SPEAKING

Where? Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

 

 

I am continuing with my driving/traveling theme...even though I know it's tangential and thus perhaps somewhat tenuous....but certainly not feeble! My recent previous posts and paintings that, also tenuously but not feebly, touch upon the driving/travelling theme include On My Travels I Saw - Are We There Yet? - Hope and Looking Out The Windows. 

 

For new readers, the kind of driving/traveling I think about are not drives in cars, airplane flights, bus journeys or even luxury cruises, but rather much more exciting possibilities...jaunts that trip into the imagination, slide around perspective, excite metaphor and reveal cosmic potentials. 

 

 

REAR VISION MIRRORS

In my last post Looking Out The Windows I use a short phrase, written by motoring critic Jeremy Clarkson in a review of a 1999 BMW wagon, to launch into a metaphoric exploration of looking out the windows. Clarkson wrote, Yes, it wasn't equipped with other modern features such as parking sensors, but I solved that when manoeuvring by simply looking out the windows.  .

 

So, looking out the windows helps us literally and metaphorically practise perspective, seeing the close and far distances. Handy, in an age where repeated and continuous experience with the short distance between eye and screen exposes us to, and threatens us with, myopic sight and perspective.

 

In the middle of writing my last post I also thought...well what about the metaphoric possibilities of the rear vision mirror.

 

The rear vision mirror presents us with the fascinating potential for keeping an eye on the past, as we live in the present and look to the future. However, cars and other vehicles, are becoming more computerised and automated, providing occupants with entertainment gadgets, and drivers with assistance packages for parking, reversing, orientating and more. The driverless car/vehicle, already in existence, fitted out with all the latest gizmos, may mean that no-one needs to look out the windows ...or look into the rear-vision mirror. If we loose sight of the past and don't look out the windows to the future, maybe we'll just experience a constant myopic present?

 

To see adequately into the future, we have to expand our view of the past. This quote from

The New Universe and The Human Future by cosmologist Prof Joel Primack, and co-author Lawyer and philosopher Nancy Ellen Abrams, says it all really! It is the first line of chapter 5 providentially titled This Cosmically Pivotal Moment. Note that they say we have to expand our view of the past. Myopia is not a handy afflication when expanding 'our view' is called for.

 

WHERE? oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

So, to the painting above. 'Where?' implies a question about a physical position, but it can also ask about a position in time. The image could be the birth of the Universe, as if seen in a rear vision mirror, which is kind of what happens when cosmologists and astronomers examine images of newly discovered cosmic entities. Light reaching us now started its journey eons ago; the past licks at our heels, and sends light and shadows into the future. But, if we don't look out the windows or look into the rear vision mirror we might miss the light and be caught in the shadows.

 

And, of course, the journey maybe be a spiritual one destined to reveal a place within us.

 

Which brings me to another painting...and question:

 

Are We There Yet?

 

 Are We There Yet? Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm
 

 

UPDATE

Where? was a finalist [one of 70 out 2000 entries] in 'Seeing Stars' an art award hosted by the SKA [Square Kilometre Array] the world's largest and most sensitive telescope being built here in Australia and Sth Africa. It is a collaborative project with many nations on board.

The finalists' exhibition was held in Melbourne at the Yarra Gallery, Federation Square.
You can see the finalists HERE
 

 

COSMIC ADDRESS

My next exhibition:

15 to 27 October 2013 at Graydon Gallery, Brisbane.

I am really excited about this show. Shall keep you posted!

 

Until next week,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

MYTH

Towards The Past and Future Gouache on paper 21 x 29.7 cm 2013

 

I am re-reading a wonderful book I bought and read in the early 1990s. It is Joseph Campbell: The Power of Myth with Bill Moyers. The book is a transcription of a series of conversations which took place between the two men in the years leading to Joseph Campbell's death in 1987. Joseph Campbell 'was the world's foremost authority on mythology', a scholar with deep insights into the interconnnections between mythologies and how they might 'speak' to contemporary society. For more information, please visit the Joseph Campbell Foundation website HERE 

 

Regular readers will know of my long and deep interest in perspective and the potential to develop skills in seeing multiple perspectives [even simultaneously]. Coupled with this is a keen interest in cosmology and the new insights, and perspectives, humanity gains from the unveiling of distances that seem to be getting both smaller and larger. By taking ourselves away from, and outside, Earth- bound perspectives we have an opportunity to 'see' ourselves and humanity in new ways. As I have written before, for me, the most significant realisation is that we all share the one home...planet Earth. In fact, for the time being, and probably into the unforeseeable future, Earth is our only home. There is nowhere else to go! For humanity to survive, and for Earth to provide a continuing and sustainable home, we all need to work to-gether. My recent short story Stirring The Star Dust is an allegorical story about this very issue.

 

So, back to Joseph Campbell. Apart from many many profound observations and insights, I was struck by an answer Campbell gave to a question asked by Moyers.  

MOYERS: What kind of new myth do we need?

CAMPBELL: We need myths that will identify the individual not with his local group but with the planet.

Remember, this conversation ocurred in the mid to late 1980s. We now have people like Prof Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams calling for the same thing, but from a perspective that is steeped in contemporary cosmological research, as well as an understanding of story, myth and the arts. I have previously referred to their recent book, which I have read, keep beside my bed and highly recommend, The New Universe and The Human Future: How a shared cosmology could transform the world. Currently environmental issues, already apparent in the 80s, are now manifesting in noticeable outcomes that threaten food production, climate, water quality and quantity and more. It seems to me that Campbell's call for myths that vision us as dwellers of Earth, and not just by nation, region, religion or race, is vital.

 

 

Seeking The Past and Future Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

 

The basic premises, or resonnances, of age-old symbols can be visually re-articulated to 'speak' to us today. As regular readers know, this is what I search to do in my paintings, particularly with my much loved transcultural/religious tree-of-life. More recently I have been stirred to paint the ouroboros, the age-old symbol of a snake eating its own tail. This symbol was used by the ancients to visually describe the Universe, as they understood and observed it. Today, modern cosmologists also use it to visually describe the Universe and the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds ie: as we understand and observe. For more on this aspect of the ourboros please check out my previous posts COSMIC ADDRESS and SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS 

 

Symbols can speak across time, history and space. It is up to us to listen, ask, seek and explore. Imagination is a key! Why? Because, imagination draws upon human race memory and sensation, not just individual impulses. Imagination can stir the past, present and future. It agitates and stimulates. It is a gift to humanity...a gift of the stars maybe? If you believe we are all, like everything else in the Universe, are made of star dust...remnants of the Big Bang...then imagination is definitely a key! 

 

You might be interested in a 2009 post I wrote called FAITH IN IMAGINATION

 

All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2013

All of Us inspired me to paint Eternity's Breath

 

I've just reworked my COSMOLOGY GALLERY on my website. Please click HERE to see it.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMIC ADDRESS

Cosmic Address oil on linen 90 x 180 cm 2013

I love the idea of a cosmic address? Astrophysicist, Prof Joel Primack, and writer, Nancy Ellen Abrams, use this inspirational coupling of words in their book The New Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World When I read those two words pictures sprang into my head and 'Cosmic Address' above is one of them.

The notion of a cosmic address propels you to perspectives way beyond your everyday street address, to horizons that make notation of one's country even seem myopic. If we all thought of ourselves as living at a cosmic address how would Earth and humanity be viewed? Just imagine taking yourself from inside your cells to the far reaches of outer space. Imagine viewing Earth from these intimate depths to the fulsome distances of space. These kinds of perspective are potentially full of knowledge, insight and awareness...if we're game to look up from our smartphones!

COSMIC VOYAGE ZOOM-IN
The video below is from Primack and Abram's website: It uses the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the ouroboros [snake eating its own tail] as a guage/meter, while taking the viewer on a journey through cosmic scales. Regular readers will know of my interest in the ouroboros. Indeed, it appears in my painting 'Cosmic Address' above. My previous post provides more information on the significance of the ouroboros in my work and as a symbol representing the Universe.

COSMIC TIME TOO
Not only is a cosmic address about a place within the cosmos, but also a time within Universal history. Primack and Abrams make a very incisive argument that humanity is now placed at a pivotal time...a time midway through the life of our sun, the celestial powerhouse maintaining life on Earth. At some point in a few hundred million years the sun, as it builds to its cataclysmic demise, will radiate such heat that human life on Earth will be impossible. Humanity's future is probable extinction. But, the Universe will still continue, our Universal address will still exist albeit changed, but we may not/won't be home, literally or consciously. How can humanity A: ensure that the life of future generations is not made worse by actions and decisions taken now? B: come up with plans to possibly mitigate extinction? C: take advantage of any unexpected opportunities to enhance and/or save life? D: identify risk, even a small one, to Earth and humanity, from afar or from within?

COSMIC ADDRESS Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm
I wanted to create an image that appeared to be both intimate and vast, visceral and cosmic. The ouroboros, its body painted with another age-old transcultursl/religious symbol of the tree-of-life, represents time and scale, yet its circular shape is like a portal, a womb, an eye... The ouroboros seemingly floats in an energised space, that could be outer space or the interior of life's womb. Another tree-of-life grows from an 'horizon', pulsing with life and energy, like blood or those dark forces propelling universal space. The lightning at bottom left is a conduit heralding a new landscape, one untethered from Earth, but one that looks back at the same time as observing all perspective, temporal and spatial.

In order to help us vision our cosmic address I suggest notions of landscape need to be untethered from being Earth-bound. We seem to cling to concepts of Earth-bound landscape that, in terms of geographic locale, somehow identifies who we are and where we come from...even a sense of ownership. Yet, the future is calling us to consider our 'home' and identity, to not only be derived from locales such as regions, countries, nations or continents, but also as citizens of the Universe. This kind of expanded address-vision surely must help unite humanity to work together to sustain life and the planet for near and far future generations?

Please also read more about my ouroboros painting at Snakes Eating Their Own Tails

For more on untethering landscape check out my post Untethering Landscape

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

SNAKES EATING THEIR OWN TAILS

 Cosmic Address Oil on linen 90 x 180 cm

OUROBOROS HISTORY
The age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the snake [or dragon, lizard] eating its own tail is called the ouroboros. From ancient Egypt to the present day, across not only time, but cultures and religions, the image of a snake consuming its own tail, constantly renewing itself, has symbolised life and the Universe. With each era and culture, ouroboros stories and visual representations have 'spoken' meaningfully to people in the context of their social, religious, scientific and cultural milieus...their cosmology.

CONTEMPORARY COSMOLOGICAL OUROBOROS
Contemporary signification of the ourobors as a meaningful symbol of the Universe actually comes from cosmologists, those scientists who study the Universe, its past, present and future history; its quantum and cosmic extremes.  Nobel Prize for Physics winner 1979, Prof. Sheldon Glashow first suggested the ouroborus as a visual descriptor for the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Lord Astronomer, Prof Martin Rees has also used the ouroboros for the same purpose. Plus, Prof. Joel Primack and his wife Nancy Ellen Abrams [philosopher and lawyer], also use the symbol to describe Universal scales and humanity's place within them. This article by Prof Primack explains Glashow's ouroboros and more. I highly recommend Primack and Abrams book The new Universe and The Human Future: How Shared Cosmology Could Transform The World

This article gives you a good overview of ouroboros history.

UNCANNY
What interests me is the recurring signification of the ouroboros as a visual representation of the Universe. Art historian Aby Warburg and psychologist Carl Yung, amongst others, explored the recurring nature of symbols across time and cultures. I understand why. The uncanniness excites me, and embraces me in a sense of companionship with time and all humanity. Relationship through symbolic references, which strike resonances at a core level, promise more than we can imagine. These relationships are with ourselves, others, nations...our histories and our futures...the Universe!

 Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

TREE-OF-LIFE AND THE OUROBOROS
Regular readers will know of my abiding interest in another age-old transcultural/religious symbol, the tree-of-life. I have been painting images, with trees-of-life, for many many years. I know the tree has a power that reaches beyond me. I know this because of the conversations I have shared with people of many religions and cultures...the tree needs no explanation, it just resonates at a seemingly core visceral level. Well...it does mirror our internal body systems!

The tree and the ouroboros have universal voices which can be heard... if we listen. Neither symbol, nor indeed other age-old symbols, succumb to fashion's insidious seduction into short term transience. Rather, they call to us from the depths of history, revealing their potency when asked...when we realise our imaginations are tired of transience. They extend their potent reach into the future as they trigger our imaginations for what might be. Their agelessness urges us to seek horizons beyond the short term, beyond the tenticles of fashion... and politics.

THE THREE PAINTINGS HERE
In all three paintings in this post I have combined the ouroboros with the tree-of-life. Yes, the snakes' bodies are trees-of-life. The snakes eat life to replenish life...symbolic of all life... 'speaking' about past, present and future...creating all dimensions...promising new horizons.

My newest painting Cosmic Address [top] suggests that an 'address' is both a place and a time. But, words such as 'place' and 'time' seem inadequate when thinking on cosmic scales. I suspect that the potency within symbols, such as the tree-of-life and the ouroboros, promises more. Are we game to expand our horizons to embrace our 'cosmic address'? Our future may depend on it!

 

Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153

 

 

In 2009 Dr. Christine Dauber [PhD, B.A, B.A Honours [Art History] University of Queensland], wrote about my work. It must first be understood that 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. Thus, she uses the “tree of life” or “tree of knowledge” as a repetitive motif and in so doing, deploys its spiritual associations as a global referent.

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

COSMIC OUROBOROS

 

  

Cosmic Ouroboros Oil on linen 120 x 150 cm

 

 

Regular readers will know that I have previously written about the age-old transcultural/religious symbol of the ouroboros when I wrote about my painting Ouroboros  [bottom]. The ouroboros symbol is a snake eating its own tail, representing the continuance of life. My new painting [above] Cosmic Ouroboros delves into similar interests, by again combining the ouroboros with the age-old transcultural/religious symbol, the tree-of-life. The tree forms the snake's body, which is the fertile ground for more trees...and life. As I have previously written, I 'see' the tree-of-life as a symbolic template for all of life's systems, pre-human and post-human, nano and vast.

 

I am particularly interested in the appropriation of the ouroboros by modern cosmologists as a visual descriptor of the relationship between the quantum and cosmic worlds. Its age-old symbolic meaning refers to the constant, but simultaneous, consumption and replenishment of life. The cosmic ouroboros extrapolates this to the relationship between the vast and intimate realms of the universe. Nobel Prize winner [1979] , physicist Sheldon Glashow was the first to suggest the ouroboros as a visual descriptor of the connection with, and unification of, the extremes of size and scale.

 

Below is an image from 'Just Six Numbers', by Lord Martin Reese, astrophysicist and Royal Astronomer. This is an image of the ouroboros with its cosmological descriptors and numbers. On the left the numbers and small diagrams represent the microworld, subatomic or quatum world. On the right they represent the various aspects of the Universe 'out there', from humanity to scales beyond the cosmic horizon.

 

In my new painting Cosmic Ouroboros I have included the numbers and small diagrams, with humanity situated at the bottom centre. The ouroboros seems to float in an indeterminable space/place. Is it outer space? Is it an intimate crease in time? Is it everything, anytime, anywhere?

 

 

 

 

Phycisist Prof. Joel Primack and his wifw, lawyer/philosophe Nancy Abrams, also use the ouroboros to visually describe quantum and cosmic realtionships. Primack and Abrams often work and publish together. A good start for you is to visit their site The New Universe And The Human Future: How A Shared Cosmology Could Transform The World

 

What I really like about the work of Primack and Abrams is their desire to help people understand humanity's place within the Universe, from its smallest to largest scales. They comment, quite rightly, that when asked about the Universe most people will think of it at its most enormous scale rather than envisioning it as something small, as well as large. Regular readers will know why I am fascinated by this...it ties in with my belief that seeing multiple perspectives, even simultaneously, is important in a globalised world in which we live locally...and in a world where cosmological research reveals new horizons.

 

Here is a quote from Primack/Abrams

 

Why is this symbol useful? People asked to visualize "the universe" will far more often think of the largest thing they know of than the smallest. Few realize that the universe exists on all scales, everywhere, all the time. This is a truly extravagant thought. Largeness is by no means the most important characteristic of the universe. Focusing on it makes people feel small, not because they are, but because they are simply ignoring all scales smaller than themselves in thinking about the universe. On the Cosmic Uroboros, as I call it, if the mouth swallowing the tail is drawn at the top, humans (at one meter or so) fall more or less at the bottom -- i.e., at the center of all the size scales in the visible universe. Many students are so stunned by this apparently special place that they refuse to believe it and insist it must be a result of some tricky choice of units. I don't know if the center of the Cosmic Uroboros is in fact special, but finding themselves there certainly strikes a chord with most people. Perhaps it hearkens back to the soul-satisfying cosmology of the Middle Ages, where earth was truly the center of the universe. ...

Nancy Abrams is a great advocate for the arts [all of them], as a way of communicating how new cosmological horizons can be meaningfully understood and thus integrated into sustainable and enjoyable living. Symbolism is an integral part of arts catalytic agency and age-old symbols hold truths that can potentially speak to each millenia. By virtue of being age-old their potency burns, otherwise they'd be, what I call, transient symbols. We just have to search for contemporary relevance, meaning and resonnance. I believe the appropriation of the ouroboros by cosmologists is an excellent example of age-old potency being recognised and released. For me, the tree-of-life has the same potential.

 

 

Auroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm

 

  

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com