TEAM HUMANITY

Hope Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2013

Recent dreadful events around the world leave us feeling bewildered and frightened. For those directly affected it's far far worse.

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?

But, what can I do?

And now, my thoughts turn to how the arts could be an agent of change, an agent revealing new perspectives through which life can be viewed, revealing alternative pathways to seek solutions for all sorts of problems and issues. An agent that helps us re-discover our humanity...our 'team' which works and plays together on our shared planet.

Pale Blue Dot Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm 2014

Am I being naively optimistic, illogical? Maybe? But, where there's hope.....

CATALYTIC AGENCY
I've previously written that I do not see the arts has having a role, but rather a catalytic agency. The word 'role' insinuates prescription, not only in method but also in outcomes, thus for me it is too reductive, and vulnerable to manipulation through agenda. Whereas, 'catalytic agency' denotes a freer more wide ranging agenda-less, but not directionless, capacity. Who knows what new and surprising perspectives could be stirred and revealed? The arts per se are not the solution, but their catalytic agency can be a potent ingredient helping to stir humanity's imagination, generating creative and new questions... and answers. It's more hopeful!

But, what are art's barriers?

These barriers scream for attention, truly narcissistic in intent, myopic in vision, sensationalist but not sensational...secretly holding hands with apathy. Here's some examples:

• The ubiquity of fashion and style,
• money commandeering as value,
• the cult of celebrity,
• labels misidentified as meaningful symbols,
• sentimentality mistaken for beauty,
• simple copying misunderstood as piercing appropriation,
• super/hyper-reality quelling nuance,
• technical virtuosity mistaken for creativity, 
• didacticism masquerading as wisdom,
• virtual reality insidiously eroding the psyche.

Planet $ Oil on linen 30 x 30 cm

 

MASS MEDIA
With mass media and its incessant reminder of disaster and mayhem in pictures, videos and words, the arts must somehow differentiate to be distinguishable in the maelstrom. And, to be distinguishable and affective [ie: transformative] the arts cannot simply or only reflect back. Indeed, this kind of reflectivity is ably and grotesquely the domain of 21st century mass media. It cannibalises disaster swooping for graphic images. Why would art want to compete? Mass media persistently reminds us of the blood, gore and human suffering, which I suggest, desensitises and neuters us to the point where hope fades, fear cascades, contempt for humanity escalates. Better to bury your head in the sand or in fashion or other 'entertaining' diversions?

So, what about the arts and hope...and team humanity?

And, how do I engage with current events in a way that does not neuter me?

All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm

I think generating, or trying to generate, hope is astutely political. So, that's what I try to do in my paintings. I find inspiration in cosmology, the scientific study of the universe, if not the Multiverse. The ever increasing perspectives it reveals, across the close and far distances of the Universe, demand our attention! And, why should we indeed pay attention? These perspectives offer us new ways of viewing ourselves and our planet. For instance, they make it both painfully and beautifully obvious that 'Team Humanity' has only one shared home! Shouldn't we work together to look after ourselves and Earth, not only for the now but also the future?  Cosmic perspectives reveal new questions and demand rethinking about land 'ownership', borders and boundaries. They also re-contextualise human history against Uni/Multiversal history, begging reappraisals of relationships, from the individual to the international. All of this does not mean no robust debate, but it might mean de-escalation of war and conflict, horror and destruction?

Meeting Place Of The Mind Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

So, in my paintings I try to visually interpret cosmic perspectives in a way which is hopeful, but also questioning eg: Planet $ above. I use age-old transcultural/religious symbols, mainly the tree-of-life plus landscape. With both, I attempt to untether them from traditional visual interpretations by catapulting them into Space and beyond.

My intentionally ambiguous 'scapes' disallow didacticism, thus leaving it up to the viewer to explore and interpret, even if they are initially disorientated.

The dark side, however, does still exist in absentia. It is not ignored, but acknowledged and then deliberately set aside. To not acknowledge would be naïve. The active choice to set aside means hope reigns.

Blood Connection Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm

A SELECTION:
Of Previous Posts Linked To This One-In Some Way Or Another!

WAITING FOR THE BEEPS
AGENDA-LESS BUT NOT DIRECTIONLESS
COSMIC OUROBOROS
STIRRING THE STAR DUST: A Short Story About Digging
DIPLOMACY
ART PERSPECTIVE AND POLITICS
BEAUTY GIVES HOPE A CHANCE
BEAUTY AS A PORTAL
AFTER THE IMPLOSION

Life Takes A Cosmic Perspective Oil on linen 91 x 137 cm 2014

 

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

 

 my next solo exhibition

 

2 - 14 September 2014

 

Graydon Gallery

29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia, Earth, The UNIVERSE

Please visit Untethering Landscape's Webpage HERE

 

Cheers,

Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

BIRTH OF LANDSCAPE

Birth Of Landscape Oil on linen 138 x 168 cm 2014

 

Birth of Landscape continues my attempt to untether landscape from Earth-bound horizons. I am so serious about my quest that I am calling my next solo Untethering Landscape. I have made a separate page for the exhibition which you can view by clicking HERE

 

My idea for Birth Of Landscape [above] was to somehow capture a sense of landscape being born from the Big Bang. Yes! After all, without the Big Bang there would be no landscape...yet let's think about this...maybe there would be landscape...but without conscious and curious awareness by beings such as ourselves, would landscape 'exist'? There may be other curious and perceptive beings like ourselves 'out there', but whilst it's a tantalising thought, we have not met them yet! So, until such a time, let's explore landscape, let's rethink what it might be, let's expand our horizons beyond Earth into our Universal [and maybe Multiversal] environment.

 

Why?

 

Why? Scientific research is expanding our knowledge of the Universe, from the quantum to the vast, at an amazing pace. The 21st century is truly the cosmological age...cosmology being the scientific study of the Universe. The fascinating thing is that cosmology is a multidisciplinary field that crosses broad areas of science...and philosophy. Big questions about life, past, present and future are being asked. And...our relationship with our environment is an important part of the investigatory process.

 

 

SOME THOUGHTS AND OBSERVATIONS

 

Dr Michio Kaku

On Thursday night I attended the most wonderful presentation by theoretical physicist and futurist Dr. Michio Kaku. The packed audience loved it too. I went alone...and strangely did not run into anyone I know. Now, this is somewhat unusual in Brisbane, particularly when there is a massive attendance at an event, like there was on Thursday night. It was like....after dark the geeks come out to play! I absolutely loved it.

 

Dr. Kaku spoke about a range of issues and explorations from artificial intelligence, downloading/mapping our minds, travelling into space via our downloaded minds on lazar beams, abilities to be able to re-insert memories in dementia patients, issues to do with potential insertion of false memories and legal/ethical implications, time travel and so much more.

 

For me, the overarching question, dilemma, excitement is a need to think about what it means to be human in the 21st century. And...for me...untethering landscape form Earth-bound horizons will help us ponder what it does mean to be human, because by releasing our vision and horizons we see new perspectives, not only of our planet, but also of ourselves.

 

 

 Detail Birth of Landscape Oil on linen

 

 

THREATS

I love being a generalist. I love it because it means you can pick up links between things, events, ideas.

 

Here we go!

 

Dr. Kaku suggested that the main threat to humanity's growth, and ascension from what he calls level 0 to level 1, will be tribalism, aggression and those elements that cause conflict and war. Interestingly, only days beforehand I had read an article in the Otago Daily Times by Prof Kevin Clements, Director of the National Centre for Peace and Conflict Studies at the University of Otago, NZ. He is a wonderful and inspiring man. I know him...met him first when he worked at the University of Queensland. In his article Safety Possible Without Surveillance Prof Clements says, Our real security lies in the quality of the relationships we have with each other, rather than the security of our nation state. Whilst Prof Clements is writing about New Zealand's involvement in the 'Five Eyes' surveillance/security arrangement, the essence of his argument can be taken globally ie: the real threat to humanity [and the planet considering the range of bio/technological weapons available] is NOT getting on with each other!

 

Also, if you have time please watch this very recent panel discussion on the topic The Future Of Technology: Benefits and Risks . The event took place at MIT and was the launch of an exciting think tank Future of Life Institute . The panellists were Dr George Church (synthetic biology), Dr  Ting Wu (personal genetics), Dr  Andrew McAfee (second machine age, economic bounty and disparity), Dr Frank Wilczek (near-term AI and autonomous weapons) and Jaan Tallinn (long-term AI and singularity scenarios). One of the many things I took away from listening to the panel was that it's important that we get on with each other!

 

And, for another related perspective on the issue of what it is to be human in the 21st century, you might like to read An Economist's Guide To War And Peace by Steve Killelea, Executive Chairman of the Institute for Economics and Peace . Steve Killelea is an Australian, who sold his IT company before he launched into a life as a full-time advocate for peace. I have heard him speak, and his passion and energy are evident.

 

BIRTH OF LANDSCAPE

So, to the painting above! The background is fire and brimstone...the Big Bang. Superimposed onto this background is a 'landscape' in formation. As you can see the circular object is not complete...the background is evident between the forming 'landscape' elements. This circle could be planet, it could even be Earth, but it could also be symbolic of  smaller or even larger universal entities. The small tree, cradled within the forming 'landscape', represents....life...yes it is my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life visualised for the 21st century ie: it has gone cosmic!

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

*****NEXT EHIBITION - Brisbane - September

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

BEAUTY AND THE VORTEX

Finding The Light Oil on linen 100 x 70 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/finding.html

I have uploaded some of the paintings that will be in my forthcoming exhibition VORTEX. Here's a short statement I have written for the exhibition:

Solo exhibition exploring vortexes, taking the viewer to cosmological extremes and to intimate spiritual places. The turmoil of the outer vortex, depicted in images of environmental degradation, is balanced by images of the inner vortex where stillness offers a place to listen to ourselves. VORTEX traverses distance by playing with perspective and using the age old trans-cultural/religious tree-of-life as a guiding motif which explores the intimate and vast, both temporally and spatially.

Regular readers of my BLOG will know that I have been writing about vortexes for some time now. The statement above just touches upon some of my thoughts. It is always quite difficult to condense something, one is somewhat obsessed by, into a short statement!

I see VORTEX as being a coherent exhibition with paintings exploring the beauty of stillness at the core of the vortex...and other paintings exploring the turmoil on the outer vortex, particularly in regards to the 'madness' I see happening with CSG mining on prime food producing farmland. AND, regular readers will know my thoughts there!

OUTER VORTEX
Yet, my paintings exploring the turmoil of the outer vortex are not ugly...well I don't think they are! I see beauty as offering hope. I cannot see the point in creating more ugliness or reminding people of it in an unrelenting way. There's enough in the mass media to remind us of the plunderous and degrading activities which the human race has inflicted upon the Earth. Image after image, seemingly imploring for enlightened solutions lose their impact after awhile. We become desensitised and in the process we feel neutered, as if the problems are SO huge there is no way we can make a difference. Now.... this is where beauty has the power to uplift as it reminds people of paradise... that if beauty can still exist, even in imagination, the potential to resurrect any 'paradise lost' is still there.

One painting of the 'madness', which will be in VORTEX, is the painting below, called $oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! This painting questions value by using small $ signs to signify water, soil and coal. It's prophecy is not attractive, yet I feel that beauty still stretches its hand out through the turmoil to the viewer, in a way which stimulates hope rather than destroying it. http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

As I have written a number of times before, I prefer to consciously elide ugliness. This means that ugliness, and all its contingent erosive attributes, exists in absentia in my work, thus negating criticisms of naivity. Indeed, as regular readers of this BLOG know, I have spent many years living in rural Queensland, and whilst I am not a soil or water expert, I do arrive at this point in my life, with decades of practical experience and observations, which are visually parley in my paintings.

I have previously written about beauty http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/03/beauty.html

$oils Ain't $oils...Anymore! Oil on linen 70 x 100 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/12/oils-aint-oilsany-more.html

VORTEX CORE

The painting at the top of the page 'Finding the Light' and the three paintings below, were all inspired by my imaginatings of what it might be like to be present inside a vortex at its core. The first time I closed my eyes and imagined the stillness, I felt calm. As I have written before, this stillness offers a quiet where we can hear things we did not know we could hear, see things we did not know we could see, and feel things we did not know we could feel. For me this beautiful sentient place is a place of hope, where the human race may find answers to questions it did not know to ask.

Compassion Oil on linen 100 x 100 cm 2010

                           http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/07/compassion.html

Colour Of Stillness Oil on linen 100 x 60 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/10/knowledge-of-stillness.html

                                                                  Hovering At The Centre Oil on lnen 30 x 30 cm

                               http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2010/08/hovering.html

SUPERCONDUCTORS

If art can trigger the collective imagination, to take us to places of stillness where hearing, seeing and feeling things we were previously unaware of is possible, then art could be called a superconductor!

Here's an explanation from http://www.superconductors.org/INdex.htm of what a superconductor literally is:

If art can be seen as a superconductor, we can now think about what might create resistence to render it impotent and inert. Maybe ugliness, in a way which regurgitates mass media's reportage, is one resistor? And, maybe beauty is a potent transistor?

Concepts like this tickle my imagination and have done so for a long time. My Dad is a HAM radio enthusiast and I grew up with electronic bits and pieces, plus our farm was uniquely identifiable by Dad's tall aerials. Our cars were always equipped with HAM radios, Dad made our first TV in the early 60s, and our first record player also. Here's some info for those of you who do not know what HAM radio is. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amateur_radio  AND...One of my brothers is in IT and his current specialty is supercomputing.

In another post I will write about art and its potential to be a superconductor for cultural diplomacy. Unfortunately, 'show and tell' type attitudes are resistors. I draw some of my thoughts from my own experiences exhibiting in London, Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Seoul.

VORTEX

22 Feb - 6 March 2011:  Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane. I will be at the exhibition daily 10 am -6 pm, so it is a chance for me to chat to people. I had a great time chatting at my exhibition FRISSON in March this year.

Cheers,

Kathryn

http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com/

http://twitter.com/brimblecombe  [Follow me!]

http://au.linkedin.com/in/kathrynbrimblecombe 

ONE

A few posts ago I said I was starting a large work which I wanted to appear like a wave of colour or a map of colour where boundaries fused. Well...the painting is nearly finished. The image above is me working on some of the last bits! My arm gets very tired!

My idea was to use my tree-of-life motif pouring it over the canvas with a multitude of colours creating from a distance a vision of a wave...yet up close the viewer sees where colours begin and end. I played with the idea of how a map when viewed up close will clearly show where boundaries exist yet when seen from a distance the boundaries are indiscernible. Thus, reminding us that the Earth is one planet with manmade markings meaning nothing when viewed with a distant perspective. As readers of this BLOG know I am very interested in both literal and metaphoric perspective with the latter holding clues to how we might negotiate a globalised world in which we live locally.

I was thinking about the colour which is released from white light hitting a prism. Ultimately all colours emanate from the one source. Humanity and life are like the colours released by a prism...ultimately we are one. We all share the common signs of life ie: breath and pulse. Plus we share the urge for identity which ultimately manifests in the creation of culture and religion, which unfortunately often lead to conflict. Yet, the primal urge for identity is the same.

I believe deep thought about perspective will reveal new pathways for peace on Earth and compassionate negotiation [of oursleves and others] of the distance between the global and local.

I am calling the painting 'One'.

One Oil on linen 90 x 200 cm 2009