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.
Life Calling. Anyone There? is currently in the 2015 Tattersall's Landscape Art Award, here in Brisbane, Queensland, Australia. This is an award devoted to landscape and attracts a $30,000 prize. You can see all the finalists on the slideshow on this link HERE
Unlike a lot of art awards, this is an invitation competition. I am thrilled to have again been invited to participate.
The opening was a few nights ago...and what a fabulous opening it was too. The best thing was that so many of the artists were there. The winner of the award is well known Brisbane-born artist Noel McKenna . His winning entry Farm Scene is number 47 on the slide show mentioned above. And, congratulations to Noel.
The judges for the 2015 award were Tattersall's Club Committee Member, and former Club Chief Executive Officer, Michael Paramor, Curatorial Manager of Australian Art QAGoma, Jason Smith, Director of the Art Gallery of South Australia, Nick Mitzevick and Associate Professor of the Faculty of Education and Art at the Australian Catholic University, Lindsay Farrell. You can read more about the history of the prize HERE
The exhibition of entries will be on public view from September 7 - 18 at Waterfront Place, Brisbane. If you are in Brisbane, please pop in to see the paintings.
Life Calling. Anyone There?
I entered Life Calling. Anyone There? because at about the time of choosing which painting to enter there was news about a Russian Billionaire, Yuri Milner, donating one hundred million dollars to listen for aliens. You can read about it here on Wired. I was interested that two observatories would be part of this very interesting project...and one of them is Australia's Parkes Telescope . The listening project is called Breakthrough Listen and the aim is to focus on listening for, rather than trying to communicate with, aliens [extra-terrestrial intelligence]. The data that is collected will be open source, so anyone can access it.
There's a whole other 'conversation' about the pros and cons of listening for and/or trying to communicate with aliens! That's another post.
So...I thought Life Calling. Anyone There? would be a very apt painting to enter the Tattersall's Landscape Art Award because when I painted it, I was thinking about the fascination we humans have with questions about aliens. As I wrote in my previous post about the painting the search for extra-terrestrial intelligence is a serious scientific pursuit. The SETI Institute in California must be a fascinating place to work! Of course the search for life does not necessarily begin and end with the search for intelligent life. There are many scientists undertaking research in signs of any kind of life, from microbes to more. There's even an area of research called astrobiology. Check out NASA's astrobiology site!
TWO LANDSCAPES
Life Calling. Anyone There? depicts two landscapes - one in the foreground and the planet. Yes, regular readers will identify that this painting is one of my attempts to untether notions of landscape from Earth-bound horizons. The idea that a whole planet is a landscape maybe unusual, but in many of my paintings I propose that the whole universe is a landscape. After all...it is Earth's environment! This is becoming clearer as images from outer space, back towards Earth, place it within a universal perspective. The most famous photograph Pale Blue Dot, taken as Voyager 1 left the solar system in 1990, had a profound influence on how people viewed planet Earth. And, yes I am now going to direct you to the post I wrote for my own painting called Pale Blue Dot!
In Life Calling. Anyone There? two trees-of-life seem to call to each other, via the 'transmitter' of leaves. The viewer is unsure which way the 'conversation' is going. Who made contact first? Initially the viewer might assume that the landscape in the foreground is Earth...but it does not necessarily have to be! And, the planet...that's not necessarily Earth either. This ambiguity raises the possibility that beings on two other planets maybe communicating with each other!
BUT
There's also a metaphoric, rather than a speculative, reading of Life Calling. Anyone There? There are so many alienated souls on Earth calling for help and assistance, recognition, acknowledgement and more. Who is listening to them? Currently catastrophic geo-political events are causing unimaginable suffering to people fleeing from their homes, seeking refuge in other countries. Currently, the rates of suicide seem to be increasing. Currently, domestic violence causes weekly deaths of women and sometimes children...here in Australia. The abyss-like divides that occur with opportunity, wealth, safety, compassion and care, are like the mammoth distances between two planets.
Seems to me that any alien who observed us Earthlings might not think we're enlightened or intelligent enough to bother communicating with!
Life Calling. Anyone There? Oil on linen 70 x 140 cm 2014
Life Calling. Anyone There?
What does this mean?
Regular readers will know I like to be ambiguous by implying multiple possibilities.
It's all about perspective...multiple perspectives, even experienced simultaneously!
One possibility is that 'life', in my painting's title, is humanity calling out to aliens living in other parts of the Universe. Indeed, the search for alien life is a serious investigation. It's actually got a name SETI [Search For Extraterrestrial Intelligence] and there are various scientific research centres around the world, eg: the SETI Institute in California, USA. Please put some time aside to visit the SETI Institute's site to read about its activities, its history, the history of the search for extraterrestrial intelligence, and more. The Carl Sagan Centre sits under the umbrella of the SETI Institute. Its focus is on astrobiology, the study of life in the Universe. Its research seeks to understand the concept of habitability, on our planet and elsewhere in the solar system. [Carl Sagan Centre] If a planet's habitability seems to suggest life supporting systems, then there is the potential for not just simple life forms, but also intelligent ones...ha...like us...or even less/more so...or differently so!
Another possibility is that 'life', in my painting's title, is not actually humanity calling! It might be extraterrestrially intelligent beings ie: aliens calling out, seeking a response from other intelligent beings. Who knows?
But 'life' in my painting's title could just mean LIFE of any kind, simple, complex, physical or not? Surely the impulse of... and for.... life is a kind of resonating communication of rhythm and imperative force...across the universe [and possibly the Multiverse]?
Life On Earth
While scientists search for signs of life, from the simple to the more complex, in the Universe, we humans could be accused of not listening to 'life' here on Earth. I wrote in a recent post TEAM HUMANITY:
War and conflict rage in various locations around the globe, causing death, mayhem, social destruction and more. Innocent victims are caught up in the horror, loosing life and limb, fleeing homes and seeking refuge in other places. Long term effects are equally as deplorable and damaging.
What can we do?
It seems blame, reprisals, sanctions, increased surveillance and threats are what 'we' do. It seems that escalation is the currency of the moment. A pervasive fear exists. Politics fails to offer hope.
There's a loss of faith in the human race...surely humanity can do better than this?
With increased technological abilities to communicate and observe I wonder if we are really 'hearing' what we are 'listening' to? What is fear obscuring? What is loss of hope camouflaging? Does the fast paced and insidious nature of technology really help us listen in a way that allows hearing? Indeed, conflict is often the result of feeling unheard. It makes us alien to each other, until we don't even know ourselves and the 'alien' lurks within.
Life Calling. Anyone There? Oil on linen 70 x 140 cm 2014
So...to the painting. 'Life' is represented by the two trees. Yes, they are my interpretations of the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol. The trees are connected by floating leaves. These are 'signals' of indeterminate nature...possibly? Yet, despite Earth-like landscapes, the viewer should not assume that either the foreground or the planet, are Earth. Indeed, the connected trees-of-life may represent communication between other life forms 'out there' on two other planets.
Yet, I've often written that I see landscape as a metaphor for the human psyche. The two landscapes in Life Calling. Anyone There? could be aspects of the human soul or the alienated 'self' attempting reconnection in ways that go beyond technological imperatives, hence the suggestion of random leaves from the tree-of-life. The trees seem to sing into the wind, sending a lilting lullaby into space. The wind takes the lullaby to places known and unknown, seeking reconnection.
While life still calls...there is hope.
And, landscape is untethered from Earth-bound horizons, both physical and not!
Here's me chatting, very briefly, about Life Calling! Anyone There? This was recorded at my exhibition Untethering landscape, mentioned below.
UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE
2-14 September
Please check out all the details on the exhibition's page HERE
