ALIGNED? MISALIGNED?

Top: Drones Swarming - Seeking Alignment Watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2020

Middle: Misaligned? Watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2020

Bottom: Aligned? Watercolour on paper 30 x 42 cm 2020

Aligned or misaligned? 

I have placed these three paintings close together. While they can be viewed separately, I also see them as a triptych, each one visually playing off the other. 

I was thinking of what it means to be aligned or misaligned. With advances in AI, there are discussions and debates about how to align AI with human morals and ethics.* In terms of technology and signal transmission and reception, alignments between nodes are pivotal eg: with swarming technology, wifi connectivity enables formation alignment and mission capabilities. There are many ways to think about alignment and misalignment, for example from literal placements, for example, fences, building and public artwork, in an environment, to philosophical questions about relationships between between means and ends. Alignments of many kinds have impacts on survivability! Then there are old sayings based on superstitions, such as - because the stars are aligned in certain ways, good or bad things might happen.

Each of the three paintings above reflect some of my thoughts about alignment and misalignment in the age of the drone. Needless to say, they also reflect upon other issues, but alignment is the theme that is common to all three paintings. 

Drones Swarming - Seeking Alignment 

In this painting, binary code 'instructing' the word DRONE is repeatedly painted across the paper. Rather than painting actual drones, I decided to represent each drone as an algorithm. This strips away the physicality of the drone, exposing it as an advanced node in a networked and interconnected militarised system. Swarms of drones can act as their own system, creating flying meshes of networked nodes. As the technology advances, if one drone is 'taken out', a swarm will be able to re-calibrate - realign - to continue on a mission. Here, alignment could ensure lethality.

Misaligned?

This painting plays with the superstition that when stars are aligned in certain ways, good or bad things can happen. I have placed stars with nodes that are normally in a drone's operational network. The lines connecting these nodes represent signals. However, these signals are disrupted by the stars, potentially forcing misalignment in the drone's network. Whether this is a good or bad outcome, depends on your point of view. The lone tree. my interpretation of the tree-of-life, stands as a witness.

Aligned?

This painting visually parodies computer graphics that might be seen, for example, on a remote drone pilot's screen. The landscape beyond the graphic-like markings is ambiguous. Is it a sky, is it land-based. Maybe it is a landscape seen through clouds? Is something targeted? Maybe the blue box with a red cross sectioning it, is a kill box? If so, has the target been located, and have friendly forces and civilians been evacuated from the kill zone? Is everything aligned for a surgical strike? What kinds of ethical questions arise? The computer graphic is not neutral.

* Prof Toby Walsh is one of the world's leaders in AI and robotics. He, like others, often speaks about the alignment issue. For example a talk recorded for the Future of Life Institute  

NEWS

Our Inside Voices  

was recently published in Brisbane, by And Also Books. Featuring fifty authors, it is an assemblage of reflections about COVID-19. Happy to say I am one of the authors, as is my mother, Elsie Brimblecombe.

Cheers,

Kathryn

DRONES - NO DRONES - DRONES - NO DRONES: ONLINE EXHIBITION

Mass Exodus

PLAYFUL EXERCISE?

This online exhibition is an exercise. It plays with the positioning of images. 

I have placed a non-drone painting, then a weaponised airborne drone painting, one after the other. 

What happens when I position paintings that do not depict drones, or indications of their presence, with images of weaponised drones? Are the non-drone paintings of trees-of-life, Australia, and the sun, colonised by the drone images? Or, do the paintings depicting trees-of-life, Australia and the sun remind us of life in the face of  destructive technologies? In a sense, do they combat the drone images? 

If you took the non-drone paintings away from the images of weaponised drones, are they different paintings? Without a militarised context, do they lose agency or gain it? Or, if you have seen them positioned with the paintings depicting militarised technology, can you ever forget - unsee?

The last two paintings depict human figures, Through the Mist of Time and Forever Watched. The latter does not depict a weaponised drone, but it does indicate surveillance - or does it? As I placed these last two paintings, I saw that Through the Mists of Time could provide another perspective for Forever Watched? A perspective that was not militarised. What do you think? 

COSMIC LANDSCAPES

All the paintings are landscapes - cosmic landscapes, landscapes where you too can fly. This poses even more questions, but I will leave them for you to ask.

All the paintings in this post are from 2016 and 2017, and they are all gouache on paper. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

 Not a Game

 Across Time and Space

 New Sky

 Between Existences

 Persistent Surveillance and Strike

 Run Off

 Sky Drone Net

Future and Past

 Anomaly Detection

 A New Sun, A New Day - Somewhere

Combat Proven, Long Range, Long Dwell

Through the Mists of Time

 Forever Watched

FOREVER WATCHED

Forever Watched Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

In Forever Watched a group of human beings stand together under a cage of yellow rays. Is the source of these rays a spotlight, a protective force-field, surveillance signals from an obscured drone, or maybe a computer-graphic rendering of a kill zone? Maybe humanity is being lit by a star on a cosmic stage? Is it God sending divine light? Is it magic? 

This painting is another of my cosmic landscapes where I play with perspective, literal and metaphoric. With cosmic perspectives, events such as conflict and war are clearly futile, and over consumption of natural resources seems like a death wish. Risk takes on new dimensions when we really think about the fact that, for the time being anyway, Earth is our only home! Looking after it and ourselves seem like sensible things to do.

But, there are forces afoot that create and maintain tension.

The 21st century is an era of pervasive and ubiquitous surveillance. In the 22nd century, will the 21st century be considered the beginning the 'forever watched epoch'? 

Surveillance occurs when data is collected from GPS systems and mobile phone usage. And, internet usage and browsing history delivers more data. Crowd monitoring in shopping centers and at events gleans even more data. We are under surveillance at airports, our documents cross-checked, our bodies and belongings xrayed, and our movements around the globe recorded. 

There is a plethora of ways for people to be watched, passively or aggressively.

In some areas of the world airborne drones monitor individuals and groups for signs of behaviour that, for those watching, may indicate malign intent. This kind of surveillance acts as a type of military policing, placing fear into those who are constantly watched and monitored. That a drone could quickly turn from surveillance mode to killing mode couples surveillance with lethal weaponry in one device. The drone, with its various sensors, then becomes a multi faceted dexterous device - private detective, witness, analyst, prosecutor, judge and executioner combined!

Being watched, however, can be considered a way to ensure citizenry safety - a protective practice. Yet, there is something rather creepy about being under constant scrutiny. And, have things become bad enough to require constant scrutiny/protection?  Arguably, being forever watched could be considered an insidious way to insert mechanisms of control across domains. 

Welcome to the "everywhere war"(Derek Gregory, 2011).

Cosmic Testimony Gouache on paper 56 x 76 cm 2017

Cheers,

Kathryn

THAT WORD - LANDSCAPE

Childhood Memory oil on linen 55 x 80 cm 2001 - 2002

That word LANDSCAPE

Let's pull it apart!

Here are some meanings from Online Oxford Dictionaries

• All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal:
• A picture representing an area of countryside:
• The distinctive features of a sphere of activity:

All a bit dry really. None of these descriptions give a clue to the dynamism, contention, potentiality, history, deep meaningfulness of 'landscape'.

TREELESS PLAINS
I grew up in a landscape of treeless plains framed by endless flat horizons to the west and majestic mountain ranges in the far east. The sky, whether it was clear blue or stormy black, met the land with impact. Sheer geographical flatness drew the sky into an ongoing scape that lifted you to heaven at the same time as grounding with intent. As the seasons changed so did the colours: ploughed black soil, lush green seedlings and depending on winter or summer crops, the land seemed to blaze with colour, the deep reds of sorghum-to the shimmering gold of wheat-to the bright yellow of sunny sunflowers and more. The night sky was like gazing upon jewels seemingly flung at random across dark velvet. My childhood landscape was immense in more ways than one.

The above paragraph fulfils the first description of the word landscape; All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal:

Night Time Electric Storm [Across The Flat Plain] Oil on line 55 x 80 cm 2013

 

PAINTING
The second dictionary description A picture representing an area of countryside: Well, this is where the last sentence of the above paragraph My childhood landscape was immense in more ways than one. comes into play. Why? Because, as an artist I paint the landscape. Over many years I have gone from literal depictions to more abstracted ones. And, now I have launched myself beyond the horizons of  my childhood environment, beyond even Earth's horizons, to tackle the penetrating perspectives offered by cosmology.

FLYING
I often wonder if I'd be 'flying' about the cosmos viewing the universal 'landscape' if I had not experienced the distance and space of the flat plains of my childhood. The Australian landscape is immense, yet most people live close to the edge where sea and land meet. The long interior is sparsely inhabited. I remember many city or foreign visitors, to my family childhood home, becoming quite agitated by the distance and flatness. They felt vulnerable and looked forward to returning to their known, but more closely contained environments. Maybe living with and in the openness of a literally vast landscape engendered a kind of bravery in me to take 'flight'?  After all, there was literally nowhere to hide on the flat Pirrinuan Plain* [See below].

On My Travels I Saw oil on canvas 90 x 100 cm 2013

 

For me the literal landscape goes well beyond planet Earth. Indeed the first description above: All the visible features of an area of land, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal: does not discriminate between Earthly or other geographies. Yet, it is how and why we depict 'landscape', as described in description two, that propels 'landscape' into other realms beyond the literal.

And....

This takes us to the third dictionary description of landscape The distinctive features of a sphere of activity: Yes, the word landscape is used to describe other kinds of human endeavour and activity eg: political landscape, landscape of the soul, spiritual/religious landscape, landscape architecture, historical landscape, legal landscape...and I am sure you can think of more. We also use other landscape linked words as descriptors ie: political terrain, safe harbour, life's road, rivers of consciousness, Operation Desert Storm and I am sure you can also think of more! 

So, now I am going to tie all three dictionary descriptions together. 

LANDSCAPE! - LANDSCAPE! - LANDSCAPE!
Regular readers know that I see the Universe as our environment. I am inspired by cosmological theories and discoveries of the vast and intimate distances of the Universe...and maybe the Multiverse. ..a massive 'landscape' indeed. For that reason I paint 'landscapes' that play with perspective, creating an ambiguity of place, space and time that hopefully induce the viewer to cast their imaginations beyond our Earthly home to our Universal horizons. 

I propose that the new and different perspectives cosmology offers humanity may provide ways to reflect on issues that currently seem overwhelming or problematic. One of these is the concept of land ownership and the history of war and conflict that surrounds it. With cosmic perspectives the idea of land ownership, with its incumbent borders and boundaries, seems to pale into insignificance. Even more thought provoking is that if we viewed land, and ownership of it, with cosmic perspectives, conflict and war become even more futile than we already acknowledge.

Life Takes A Cosmic Perspective oil on linen 90 x 137 cm

 

Imagine if land ownership, borders and boundaries did not exist, but were replaced with a custodial kind of imperative that humanity shared. Maybe concepts of state and nationhood would be renegotiated? Maybe war and conflict would be reduced, even significantly? The 'landscapes' I paint are not just depictions of scenery, although imagined, they are also quietly political. How? By drawing attention to new perspectives that have the potential to force major shifts in how we view ourselves and our planet, various dearly held paradigms, which are increasingly cumbersome in a global sense, may crumble. My quiet activism brings me to the third dictionary description of landscape The distinctive features of a sphere of activity: where I propose that my work sits within a political 'landscape'...as well as others!

I will go a little further to add that my quest to untether 'landscape' from Earth-bound horizons as well as my desire to untether the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life from traditional visual interpretations to reveal 21st century meaningfulness, are pursued with a sense of hopefulness. For me, hope and engendering it, are also imbued with political agency.

Hope Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2013

AND

 

That brings me to my forthcoming exhibition

 

UNTETHERING LANDSCAPE

From Earth-Bound Horizons 

 

2 - 14 September here in Brisbane

Please visit the exhibition's site HERE

 

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* The Pirrinuan Plain
My brother Wilfred Brimblecombe has a photography blog where he has uploaded images of Pirrinuan.
Dry Rain On The Pirrinuan Plain
Pirrinuan Railway Siding
Pirrinuan Paddocks in the 1980s
White Cloud Black Soil Distant Creek


Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

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

ART, PERSPECTIVE AND POLITICS

 All Of Us Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm [image] 27 x 33 cm [framed]

 

 

As of last night Australia has a new government, with the Liberal National Party/ Coalition winning decisively. Political landscapes constantly change yet where does my favourite topic, perspective, fit into the picture? After all if we use the term 'political landscape' perspective must be lurking there somewhere! Surely....

 

I shall tell you a story:

 

COSMIC PERSPECTIVE AND POLITICS

As regular readers will know the painting below Super Earths Discovered is a finalist in the $25,000 Tattersall's Landscape Art Award here in Brisbane [details below]. The award was announced 3 nights ago at a fun opening night function...I did not win...but I did talk to lots of really intrigued and interested people about my painting, and that's part of my story. 

 

Everyone I spoke with 'got' that cosmic perspectives [spatial and temporal] force a clear realisation that we all share the planet...there's nowhere else for us to go, we are here together for the foreseeable and probably unforeseeable future! Thus, with a cosmic perspective, manmade regional, state, national borders, boundaries and politics disappear becoming essentially meaningless.

 

Yet, in this disappearance, I'd suggest, new ways of seeing not only Earth, but also ourselves, are offered. Now that's where new political agency lies. Are we brave enough to look for it, and then embrace it?

 

For a more creative story about getting to the point of perspective please read my short story Stirring The Star Dust: A short story about digging.

 

Politics and perspective...a complex and fascinating topic! Too much to write on a BLOG post, but one more perspective! below...based on my own experiences exhibiting overseas.

 

 

Super Earths Discovered Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2013

 

Galactic Horizons and Beyond Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm 2012

 

 

ART'S CATALYTIC AGENCY AND POLITICS

In December 2005 I was invited to hold a solo exhibition at the Abu Dhabi Cultural Foundation in the United Arab Emirates. The conversations I shared with people, who came to see my exhibition from all over the region, were humbling, wonderful and shifted my perspectives on many issues. These conversations were triggered by my paintings, but whilst they were initially about the paintings they soon became something more...so much more. Men, women and children opened up to me, and I to them, to the point where differences disappeared and similarities were revealed.

 

I have called these conversations agenda-less, but certainly not directionless. It struck me that the agenda-less quality was very important. Why? Without agenda there is no prescription. Without agenda detours can be explored, new pathways revealed. Without agenda new perspectives can be experienced. Agenda-less-ness can lead to discovery, revelation and inspiration...all potentially highly politically charged! And, challenging for the status quo.

 

The catalytic agency of the arts to trigger agenda-less, but not directionless, conversation should not be ignored. But, unfortunately it is. Taking notice of this agency has powerful and meaningful political potential.

 

In 2011 I wrote a BLOG post called DIPLOMACY which describes some of my thoughts with regards to the catalytic agency of the arts. I have based the post on my own experiences exhibiting in foreign countries.  

 

The painting Histories below is one of those that triggered marvellous conversation.

 

 Histories Oil on linen 80 x 200 cm 2005

Previous post:

EMERGENT PATTERNS IN CONVERSATION

 

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TATTERSALL'S LANDSCAPE ART AWARD

The finalists can be seen by clicking HERE

 

Congratulations to Jun Chen for his winning work Brisbane River

 

and Highly Commended to the collaborative work by

Imants Tillers and Michael Nelson Jaggamara

 

and commended to both

Mostyn Bramley-Moore and Rachel Ellis

 

The exhibition of finalists will be on public view at

Waterfront Place, 1 Eagle St, Brisbane

9 - 20 September

Open weekdays 7 am - 6 pm

Enquiry and Sales Desk open 11 am - 3 pm

 

 

______________________________________________________________________

 

 

COUNT DOWN

 

FOR

 

COSMIC ADDRESS

 

solo exhibition

 

15 - 27 October

 

Graydon Gallery, New Farm, Brisbane

 

All the details are on my COSMIC ADDRESS PAGE

 

 

 

Until next time,

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

COSMOLOGY

                                            Other Universes Gouache on paper15 x 21 cm

Regular readers will know of my interest in cosmology. As I research and think more about spacial and temporal distance and perspective, in terms of how the human race might 'see' itself and its environment, I get more and more excited about art's agency. This agency has catalytic potential to ignite our hearts and imaginations revealing how we may re-vision our innate links to, and identity with, the universe and the new scientific understandings of its enormous capacity.

As I have written previously, developing skills in seeing multi-perspectives, both literally and metaphorically, are of paramount importance as we live locally in an increasingly globalised world, but also in a world that is propelling itself into the extreme vastness of possible multi-universes, as well as the intimate vastness of the nano and beyond. Art's capacity to reveal new perspectives, stimulate new imaginings and to provide experiential opportunities opens possibilities for a cosmic compassion that embraces self, others and cosmic distances.

In my recent Ouroboros post  I mention husband and wife team Prof. Joel Primack and Nancy Abrams. Prof Primack is a Profesor of Physics at the University of California, Santa Cruz. Nancy Abrams is a lawyer and has a BA in History and the Philosophy of Science. It is very exciting when you come across people who are passionate about the importance of visioning our place within the envirionment, not only our local and global ones, but also those beyond. They advocate for art's capacity to provide conduits between science and humanity's identity. Here is a quote from a 2001 paper Cosmology and 21st-Century Culture witten by Primack and Abrams.

All possibilities are still open because the meaning of this new cosmology is not implicit in the science. Scientific cosmology, unlike traditional cosmologies, makes no attempt to link the story of the cosmos to how human beings should behave. It is the job of scholars, artists, and other creative people to try to understand the scientific picture and to perceive and express human meanings in it.^‡ A living cosmology for 21st-century culture will emerge when the scientific nature of the universe becomes enlightening for human beings.

Please visit the Primack/Abrams website I am defnitely buying their book 'The Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World'.

                                              Ouroboros Oil on linen 122 x 153 cm
                             Ouroboros will be in my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER

With an expanded view of our environment, as a cosmic one, it is likely that as new perspectives are revealed we not only realise the extreme importance of our actions, but also may discover new ways of nurturing our immediate home, Earth. Indeed, as I have written before, new and multiple perspectives, possibly seen simultaneously, hold the potential to stimulate questions we have previously not thought to ask, thus potentially providing answers we did not know existed. This dialogue fosters new and more confident interpretations of our place within the cosmos.

                                               Cosmic Dust Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

Regular readers will be aware of what I call my 'quiet activist' work, particularly commenting on the hasty expansion of the open cut mining and coal seam gas extraction in Australia. Whilst these paintings that focus on particular issues are more obviously political, I believe any art which suggests new perspectives that provoke questions which may ultimately provide answers that cause change, are also political in the broadest sense. I also believe that any art, with a grasp of beauty's power to provide hope, is political. Regular readers will know I have written about beauty many times before.

                                                   The Beauty Of Oil on linen 36 x 36 cm
There are many environmental and sustainability issues confronting us in the 21st century. The following quote by Primack and Abrams in the Introduction to 'The Universe and The Human Future: How a Shared Cosmology Could Transform the World', which is online at
http://new-universe.org/Excerpts.html , is a sobering reminder of humankind's potential for either good or bad.

Earth is incredibly special, more so than anyone imagined before recent discoveries of hundreds of other planets orbiting nearby stars. And our era is an incredibly special moment even on a timescale of billions of years: we are the first species that has evolved with the capability to destroy our planet. Will we do so? Or will we successfully negotiate over the next two generations a transition from exponential growth in environmentally harmful activities to a sustainable relationship to this remarkable planet, the only hospitable place for creatures like us in the explored universe? The answer could affect not only humanity but the entire future of intelligence in the ultimately visible universe.

                                       Murray Darling Currency Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm
                    Murray Darling Currency will be in my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER

And, of course Lord Martin Rees's book 'Our Final Century' poses many questions and warnings about humankind's potential to not survive the 21st century. Here is a quote I have placed on this BLOG a couple of times:

It may not be absurd hyperbole—indeed, it may not even be an overstatement—to assert that the most crucial location in space and time (apart from the big bang itself) could be here and now. I think the odds are no better than fifty-fifty that our present civilisation on Earth will survive to the end of the present century. Our choices and actions could ensure the perpetual future of life (not just on Earth, but perhaps far beyond it, too). Or in contrast, through malign intent, or through misadventure, twenty-first century technology could jeopardise life’s potential, foreclosing its human and posthuman future. What happens here on Earth, in this century, could conceivably make the difference between a near eternity filled with ever more complex and subtle forms of life and one filled with nothing but base matter.Martin Rees, Our Final Hour: A Scientist’s Warning: How Terror, Error, and Environmental Disaster Threaten Humankind’s Future in This Century—On Earth and Beyond (New York: Basic Books, 2003) p.7-8

Now, this all brings me to my forthcoming exhibition QUIVER. It is an exhibition exploring notions of Mother Nature. My previous post, with a glimpse of some of the paintings, is HERE The following is an extract from my artist's statement.

In an age where environmental and sustainability issues battle with increasing energy needs, water viability and food production, re-examination of Mother Nature’s story, myth and symbolism may provide new perspectives which are not only Earth bound, but also directed to and from the cosmic world. 

You will notice in the painting Mother Nature [below] that the female figure, representing Mother Nature, seems to fly knowingly and confidently in an expanse that can be interpreted as outer space, or perhaps the inner reaches of the nano world. She is everywhere, she is Us.

                            Mother Nature Gouache on paper 52 x 63 cm framed                                           Mother Nature will be in QUIVER

Pleae check out this new article by Carolyn McDowall in her online Culture Concept. it is an article about QUIVER 
QUIVER 17 -29 April
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, new Farm, brisbane, Australia.
Open daily 10 am - 6 pm
More details HERE

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ELEMENTAL DANCE

Elemental Dance Oil on linen 55 x 80 cm

 

I hope those of you who read my last post 'Love-Valentine's Kind' enjoyed a bit of fun. Dancing is also fun! It is also transformative in a number of diverse ways. It is great exercise, so can help with weight reduction. It can be a very social passtime where frissons of romance blossom. It can take an individual to places within as they lose themselves in the energy of movement and music. I've seen my daughter dancing in ways which indicate she has lost herself in the moment. I remember the same feelings when I was younger and used to prance around my parents' living room. I have seen how dancing, with the need to remember sequences and work as a team when in a group, assist in alleviating attention deficit issues and sequential thinking blockages. I know dance can express more than words can say...it's like a painting!

The Whirling Dervishes are, of course, one of the most famous examples of the transformative power of dancing and movement. Check out this website for more information. The repeated whirling movement mirroring the revolving or circular motions of the universe within us and beyond to the multiverse.

In the painting above 'Elemental Dance' I have tried to capture Mother Nature's embodiment of life, the quiver, the quake and the jazz! Everything is in a constant state of movement, whether quickened or slowed. Life is a symphony! It is an ongoing one propelled by nature's pulse. The painting below 'Into The Symphony' is an older painting, but 'speaks' of the nuances of life's rhythm.

In 'Elemental Dance' the female figure representing Mother Nature is the link between everything. The two trees-of-life erupting from her head and feet connect her to all seemingly opposite elements. The  red umbilical-like cord which connects her heart with the larger tree-of-life is the universal/ multiversal pulse.

We are dance partners with Mother Nature! Sometimes we take steps that do not synchronise, such as plundering resources in ways that are detrimental to the environment. But, the dance will go on   sometimes with tempo and other times with restorative slow waltzes.

I consider my work at one level to be quite political in a provocative sense rather than an overt one.

Regular readers will know I have written about this before, particularly in reference to beauty. By

harnessing beauty, love and compassion we have the capacity to neuter violent and agressive argument. The very act of harnessing then can be seen as the supreme political act.

BEAUTY POSTS

Lifeblood

Beauty and The Vortex

Beauty as a Portal

Beauty Gives Hope a Chance

Into The Symphony Oil on linen 120 x 160 cm

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/09/into-symphony.html

http://kathrynbrimblecombeart.blogspot.com/2008/09/into-symphony-again.html

COUNT DOWN

For Everyone: Words and Paintings

Book Launch!

Details HERE

APRIL QUIVER

17-29 April

Solo exhibition

Graydon Gallery, Merthyr Rd, New Farm Brisbane

QUIVER is an exhibition of new paintings inspired by concepts of Mother Nature. Using the age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life symbol, Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox explores distance from the nano to the multiversal. In this distance where perspective, both literal and metaphoric, takes on multi layered dimensions, the quiver …tremble….vibration…of all life reminds us of the shared rhythmic pulse across time and space. 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

P.S. If you are looking for THE perfect Valentine's gift, then make sure you check out 'Love...Valentine's Kind'