THE LEAVES ARE LEAVING

The Leaves Are Leaving gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

THE WORLD

As masses of people flee their homes, due to war, conflict, drought, famine, poverty and suppression of many kinds, what does it mean for the soul of humanity? Displaced people flee homes in one country to seek refuge in another, some leave homes to live a homeless life in their own countries, and others never find new homes except in camps and settlements for displaced people. Others, die trying to find a new path. 

As the world runs amok people retreat to extreme beliefs, setting up polarisations that neuter balanced political traction, social cohesion and cultural understanding. Retreat to extremes represents another kind of exodus. A kind of exodus that seems to make things worse.

THE LEAVES ARE LEAVING

In the Leaves Are Leaving a mass of people are on the move, their silhouettes atop a hilly horizon. All the people are red. A flame-like swathe of red leaves shoots upwards into a turbulent sky which is dotted with groupings of red dots. I've deliberately painted the people, the leaves and the dots red - because they all represent the same thing - life. 

Regular readers will know that the leaves are from the tree-of-life, a recurrent theme in much of my work. Here, the tree is not portrayed. It has relinquished its leaves, sending them to seek refuge and safety in realms beyond. 

SUN/DRONE AND DUAL USE

The colourful radiating rays peeping through the stormy clouds could be a sun, but regular readers will realise that they could also be the surveillance and targeting signals of an obscured drone. These rays are symbolic of the insidious infiltration of militarised style surveillance that pervades our physical and online lives. That the rays could be a sun or a drone's surveillance signals demonstrates the increasingly blurred lines between civilian and military use of digital and cyber infrastructures and systems. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

ANTHROPOCENE

Anthropocene Gouache and watercolour on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

In Queensland, Australia, where I live, we have just experienced Cyclone Debbie. Luckily I live south of where the eye of the storm hit, but this cyclone was so massive that it has affected the entire Queensland coastline. Take a look at images taken from the International Space Station HERE

So, with Cyclone Debbie in mind, my new painting Anthopocene 'speaks' to what seems to be an escalation in natural disasters not only in frequency, but in size and ferocity over the last few decades. The term Anthropocene has entered our lexicon to describe a new geologic era, one where human activities have influenced atmospheric, geologic, biospheric and hydrolic systems on Earth. You can read more about the Anthropocene on various websites including Anthropocene   and Smithsonian . com

ANTHROPOCENE

I started Anthropocene well before Cyclone Debbie threatened. Why? Because, things like drought, mass forced migration of people, floods, coral bleaching and firestorms intersect with increasing surveillance, political tensions, social schisms, terrorism and war. These in turn intersect with increasing developments in technology, emerging new technologies, exploration of space and neo-liberal hijacking of seemingly everything in order to monetise it. All sounds rather dire really!

In Anthropocene I take a cosmic view of human activity! There's fire, coral bleaching, flooding rains, drought, mass forced migration/exodus - and - cross-hair targets, a weaponised Reaper drone and space based assets [GPS and communications satellites] representing their dual-use civilian/military status. Then, there are some fervent red trees - trees-of-life, their branches turned inwards as if creating an airway where their filaments-leaves can filter invasive forces - a promising breathing space. Even the radiating surveillance rays of an obscured reconnaissance force cannot infiltrate the breathing space. 

Perhaps life has other plans for us? 

NEWS

My painting The Tree of Life Sends its Energy Underground is the front cover of the next Australian Women's Book Review Please click on their website where you can see the image, plus read my artist's statement. And, you can order the review! 

In February an interview Portfolio: Dronescapes by Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox I did with Maggie Barnett from the Centre for the Study of the Drone, Bard College, New York was published on the Centre's fabulously informative website. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox

EXODUS

Mass Exodus Gouache and watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2016

I've been thinking about the future. I know most people say we must live in the present, but I like to think about the far distant future too. 

I've previously painted images that 'speak' about an exodus of humanity from planet Earth.Whilst it does not take up all my thinking space, I do wonder about how, why and when exodus might take place...if at all. 

Some questions I ask are:

• Will it be an exodus of necessity? If so, will it be because we humans have 'stuffed' planet Earth to the point of needing to escape it? Or, will there be an ordered and well thought through exodus to avoid the effects of the sun's demise and resultant solar system collapse?
• If we need to escape before a planned and thought through process was undertaken, how do we choose who gets to go? Will a situation of 'the chosen' occur? That could get ugly!
• If we escape in the far distant future will humans be recognisable as human or will we have morphed into posthuman modes of being either through biological mutation or assisted augmentation ie: artificial intelligence, downloading of minds and other introduced human-altering processes?
• If and when we escape the demise of the Earth, how do we get to our chosen new planetary home in a far distant alternative solar system? I mean it will take a looooong time to get there, unless we've developed new speed-of-light transport systems. Or, maybe when we escape it's actually as some kind of mixture of DNA, and other additions deemed appropriate, that can be activated upon arrival at our new planetary home. Who or what would do the activating...robots of course! Then they'd be the nursemaids...just imagine!
• What if other beings live on our chosen new home...and they don't want us? 
• Or maybe as the sun starts its progressive deterioration, we develop extremophile   characteristics that prolong our habitation of planet Earth until it's just not viable. Then we return to the stars from which we came? 

 Now to my new painting Mass Exodus. 

So, what was I thinking about when I painted this image? All of the above actually. Plus, thoughts about the mass exodus of people from the Middle East and Africa. Yes, mass exodus here on Earth right now! 

Mass exodus is about life on the move, life escaping drastic situations, life trying to re-establish itself somewhere else, life severing ties to the known, homes left abandoned. It's about treacherous journeys. It's also about those who welcome or don't welcome strangers. It's about change.

In my new painting, I've taken  what is hopefully seen as positive spin on life leaving planet Earth...or maybe the small blue dot is symbolic of home, whether it be a house, a country or a planet? The colourful tree-of-life that emanates from the small blue dot signifies that leaving is perhaps part of the process of life. Like a tree in the forest, it reaches to it highest point. Over years its seeds are blown about in the wind, to land on new soil. Sometimes new growth occurs and sometimes not. I'll leave you there...I am sure you can see where my mind was going when I painted Mass Exodus.

NEWS

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Reminder!

Thursday 4th February

'Space and Popular Culture'

Panel: Me, Dr. Sarah Jane Pell, Josh Richards 

with facilitator Dr. Alice Gorman

Public Event

Adelaide 

ALL INFO CLICK HERE

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A recent interview with me for the REMIX Project looking at Queensland ARI Heritage 1980 - 2000

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com 

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