ALIENS - ALIENATED

Life Calling. Anyone There? Oil on linen 70 x 140 cm

 

 

TATTERSALL'S LANDSCAPE AWARD

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!

 

So on that rather sombre note!

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimbelcombe-fox.com

9 YEARS BLOGGING - ANNIVERSARY POST

It's Everything Oil on linen 50 x 50 cm

It's nearly the end of August and I suddenly realised that I was almost about to miss my Blog's 9th anniversary. I started this Blog in August 2006, never imagining that it would become such an intrinsic aspect of my work as an artist. Some un-imagined outcomes are:

• The act of regularly writing has helped shape and sharpen my ideas.
• The act of writing stirs new ideas too.
• By posting once a week I have a kind of visual diary of my thoughts, paintings and influences.
• Undertaking regular research about my influences and inspirations has broadened my ideas, but it has also been immensely intellectually satisfying.
• Late last year I was invited by the State Library of Queensland to have my Blog archived in perpetuity on PANDORA, Australia's national archive of online sites of significance and ongoing research value. This was totally unexpected, but a delightful acknowledgement for me!
• The ability to link posts etc to social media sites helps broaden my audience.
• A dynamic Blog is also a wonderful way to easily promote my work to all kinds of people - buyers, curators, writers, galleries etc.
• The regular writing has, I think anyway, helped improve my writing. This is a good [actually excellent!] thing because I am about to embark on a Research Higher Degree, a Master of Philosophy, at the University of Queensland, Australia. A thesis is a lot of writing!

One thing I never imagined in 2006, when I attended the artists' PR and Marketing seminar that set me on the blogging path, was that I would ever be invited to give a presentation on Blogging. BUT, this happened a couple of weeks ago! And, it went exceptionally well too. That early 2006 seminar was held at Metro Arts, Brisbane.

Here's a link to my Blog's 8th anniversary post. The most popular post in 2014 is still the most popular one in 2015...and...it is Cosmic Ouroboros

Cosmic Ouroboros oil on linen 120 x 150 cm 2012

 

 

 

One thing that is new in the last year is that I am now on
INSTAGRAM

@kathrynbrimblecombefox

 

 

Below is a screen shot of my INSTAGRAM profile/page

Please follow me!

And, here's another screen shot. It's of one of my other online presences - my website 'gallery' for CODE  - my 2015 solo exhibition

NEWS

 

I have again been invited to participate in the

Tattersall's Landscape $30,000 Art Award

 

and

 

I am delivering the painting tomorrow.

Judging and opening is next week.

 

FINGERS CROSSED!

 

Below is a photo of my Tattersall's Art Prize entry all packed up and ready for delivery.

I've entered Life Calling Anyone There?

 

 

 

Cheers,
Kathryn
www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ART SCIENCE TECHNOLOGY

 On The Edge Gouache on paper 34.5 x 53.5 cm 2001

 

 

HAPPENINGS
Last week I attended a very interesting and stimulating symposium in Melbourne, hosted by Deakin University. The title for the symposium was Unruly Techniques: Linking Knowledge Practices Through Art, Science and Technology.

Also, last weekend, I visited the National Gallery of Victoria's fabulous exhibition Masterpieces From The Hermitage: The Legacy Of Catherine The Great

AND

On Sunday, here in Brisbane, I attended Neil deGrasse Tyson's amazing presentation where he discussed a range of cosmic, intellectual and social topics.

 Neil deGrasse Tyson event in Brisbane August 16 2015. Hosted by THINK INC

So, I had an array of stimulating experiences within a few days. Always a great thing! But, given my interests in art, science and technology, I come away from these experiences with some clearer thoughts and perspectives.

But, some background first.

WERTHEIM SISTERS
Brisbane born [!] twin sisters Margaret Wertheim and Christine Wertheim both made keynote presentations at the Unruly Techniques symposium. Margaret has studied physics and mathematics and is a well known science writer. Christine is a writer, performer and artist who teaches at the California Institute For The Arts in LA. Christine's keynote Pata-Critics: The Art and Science Of Imaginary Solutions was fascinating and will be discussed in another post. Both women live in Los Angeles and are co-founders of the not-for-profit The Institute For Figuring .

CROCHET CORAL REEF PROJECT
Margaret and Christine Wertheim are also the instigators of a most wonderful project ie: The Crochet Coral Reef Project which the website describes as The Crochet Coral Reef is a woolly celebration of the intersection of higher geometry and feminine handicraft, and a testimony to the disappearing wonders of the marine world. It is one of the largest community arts/science projects in the world with around 8,000 people contributing.  I first heard of the project a number of years ago and was intrigued by its hyperbolic math inspiration, as well as the use of handicraft to explain/visualise a difficult concept. The project's intersection with hyperbolic maths is explained HERE. Subtexts include environmental issues as well as disruptive perceptions of a traditional feminine handicraft
pursuit.

Seeking Perspective Oil on linen 92 x 102 cm

I've uploaded this painting because many people who saw it at my recent exhibition CODE commented on it being like coral. This description if often given when my tree-of-life cascades across the painting.

CREATIVITY
Margaret Wertheim made some interesting statements and observations that are dear to my heart. I was thrilled that she clearly articulated them and to such an audience. Early in her presentation...remembering this is at a art, science and technology symposium... she quite forcefully stated that science does not need to have creativity added to it...because it is already intrinsically creative!

And, towards the end of her presentation she made a comment about the crochet hook being a piece of technology - a handicraft technology. She made a plea for the arts to not think of legitimate technology, for enabling creative expression, as only being the kind you plug in, a computer etc. She cleverly and humorously described our fingers as creating digitised work!


SO - Some thoughts-observations:


SCIENCE MORE CREATIVE THAN THE ARTS?
After listening to Neil deGrasse Tyson and thinking about all the other science events, books, Youtube videos etc I've read/watched/attended - something occurred to me. I actually think that science generally is currently much more exciting, innovative, flexible and creative than the arts [generally] currently are! I agree with Margaret Wertheim - science does not need to have creativity added, even bestowed, upon it by the arts or artists or anything else.

Indeed, maybe it's the arts that needs self-examination, to become more dynamic, reach beyond the tight boundaries of the market and go searching for its creative playfulness...to restore a kind of inspirational capacity that contemporary science is stirring.

The so-called art/science nexus, I believe is not about one being good for the other or appropriating aspects of the other, but more about each pursuit maintaining a confident integrity. Science, I suspect is more confident than the arts, which in some areas seems to be needy of science's approval. If there's to be cross inspiration I suggest it comes from a confidence that exudes, not only academic and intellectual rigour, but also playfulness....and all that it encompasses.

PLAYFULNESS
DeGrasse Tyson made a comment that struck me as significant. He said that by being a scientist he could stay a child ie: keep the wonder, play with ideas, imagine the seemingly impossible, have fun. I don't detect a lot of fun in the arts, particularly the visual arts, these days! Perhaps the arts, somehow, disallows the inner child, quelling the kind playfulness that pushes boundaries at the same time as inspiring. Maybe artists need to also feel happy to declare, I love being an artist because it means I can hold onto and love my inner child?

[Christine Wertheim's Unruly Techniques symposium presentation on pataphysics - the fictional in science as distinct from science fiction - gave clues for art's...playful...re-invigoration.]

Tree-of-Life Time Travelling Oil on linen 85 x 150 cm

 

THE RISE OF THE INTELLIGENT GEEK SCIENCE CELEBRITY!
The Neil deGrasse Tyson Brisbane event attracted 2,500 people. He received a standing ovation from the entire audience. The rise of the intelligent-geek-science-'celebrity' is refreshing and illustrates the public's desire to be informed and inspired. People like deGrasse Tyson will help spread scientific literacy, thus leading to increasing public understanding, and informed critique, of 21st century issues. Politicians, policy makers and educators...take note!

Here's me at the Neil Degrasse Tyson even in Brisbane. I got there early - keen!

 

 

OLD AND NEW TECHNOLOGIES
Margaret Wertheim's comment about the crochet hook being a technological tool, is exactly how I have thought about the paint brush and paint. They are technologies - yes, old and traditional - but given they have been around, in some form or another, for 40,000 years I suggest there must be something about brush and paint that is important ...something about us being human. New technologies offer amazing possibilities for everyone including scientists and artists, but they belong to a pantheon of tools that include seemingly simple ones too.

A full and diverse tool-kit reflects sophistication...don't you think? Indeed, it's much more fun if you have lots of things to play with!

And, now to...

CATHERINE THE GREAT
The Masterpieces From The Hermitage exhibition. This exhibition illustrates Catherine The Great's dexterous ability to govern, learn and see the potential in cultural activity, expression and acquisition. The art in the exhibition provides many examples of visual language, that an audience of the time could decipher to gain meaning and knowledge, both explicit and implied.

 A didactic that gives some idea of Catherine The Great's expansive thinking - from the NGV's Masterpieces From The Hermitage exhibition

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

CUT OUT

 Australian Landscape Cut Out Oil on linen 50 x 70 cm 2015

Australian Landscape Cut Out was not in my recent exhibition CODE because it was in Sydney, awaiting, along with many other artists' paintings, for pre-selection viewing for the Wynne Prize. This prize is for the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or to the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists.  Alas, my painting was not pre-selected and it arrived back in Brisbane after CODE was finished. However, the painting below Privileged Landscape? was in CODE and caused great interest.

COSMIC LANDSCAPES
Regular readers will recognise both paintings as 'cosmic landscapes'. They play with perspective, the kinds of perspective contemporary cosmology and astronomy provide. The universe is now literally touched by humankind, as spacecraft progress even beyond our solar system. This has happened progressively since 1957 when the first spacecraft, Sputnik 1, was launched by Russia.

Spacecraft take photographs of, and collect other data about, entities they pass, encounter or land upon. Information and images are sent back to Earth for scrutiny and examination, providing more knowledge about our universal environment...as well as stirring even more awe and wonder.

PLUTO
This year, NASA's New Horizons spacecraft got close to Pluto on its onward journey beyond. Many photographs and other data were sent back to Earth. As with images from investigations of other celestial entities the ensuing descriptions of the Pluto photographs struck me as important, and not just for the obvious reasons. For me it's about how we conceptualise landscape. Indeed, contemporary space research is 'telling' us that landscape exists beyond Earth's horizons! We use descriptive terms to understand other planets, moons etc based on our experience of our Earthly environment. These descriptions take 'landscape' into space!

Here are a couple of quotes from NASA's New Horizons site that illustrate how humankind's descriptive needs bring landscape into universal dimensions. New close-up images of a region near Pluto’s equator reveal a giant surprise: a range of youthful mountains... and... A newly discovered mountain range lies near the southwestern margin of Pluto’s Tombaugh Regio (Tombaugh Region), situated between bright, icy plains and dark, heavily-cratered terrain.

UNIVERSAL LANDSCAPE
Concepts of landscape must expand to include and embrace ideas of a Universal Landscape. An expanded view of landscape may assist humankind in navigating how it deals with 21st century issues that pose existential threats, such as extreme climate change, bio-threats, technological risk and more. How? A Universal Landscape provides us with not only perspectives that are outwardly focused. It also provides us with perspectives of Earth situated within a vastness that clearly shows how beautiful, isolated and vulnerable we are. Indeed, despite exciting discoveries of potential Earth-like planets, currently we humans have nowhere else to go. Perspective is 'telling'...even 'imploring'... us to get on with each other and to look after our Earth-HOME.

THE TWO PAINTINGS
In Australian Landscape Cut Out and Privileged Landscape? I have attempted to question attachments to local landscapes that might blind us the variety of perspectives cosmology is offering. Discernible landscape characteristics of Earth ie: continents, oceans etc effectively disappear when viewed from the vast distances of space. Indeed, so do boundaries and borders, and accompanying notions of nationhood and land ownership. If we remain attached to Earth based ideas of landscape, then 'landscape' and orientation disappear with vast distance ...yet an expanded idea of 'landscape' means we can keep oriented within a universal environment.

In both paintings the starry universe is visible where the continent of Australia has been cut out. This was a deliberate attempt to draw the universe closer, to suggest that our orientation with and by landscape needs to expand beyond the local. Regular readers know of my thoughts on the importance of developing skills in seeing multiple perspective, even simultaneously. These paintings play with ideas of multiple perspective...an interplay between the local and universal, the nano and vast.

The famous image Pale Blue Dot, taken from Voyager 1 as it left the solar system in 1990, showed Earth as a small dot amongst a swathe of other small sparkling entities in space. No discernible Earth landscape features were evident because the planet had become a spec upon a much larger landscape...a Universal one. Humbling indeed.

In the 21st century humankind has an opportunity to re-examine landscape.


PREVIOUS POSTS OF INTEREST

Greener Pastures

New World Habitability: Vacation Anyone?

Pale Blue Dot

Team Humanity

Perspective - Yes Again!

That Word - Landscape


Cheers,
Kathryn
http://www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

DETAILS

 Detail of Universal Code Oil on linen 92 x 102 cm 2015

DETAILS

Fellow-artist friend Mandy Ridley, gave me an idea for this post. Mandy is a very accomplished artist and I encourage you take a look at her website to see some of her amazing work. She commented on the fact that photos of my paintings don't reveal the 'exquisite' details. And, it's true...a photo of an entire painting does not allow the viewer to get close to the paint, to be startled by details that fall into a wholeness when seen from a distance. So, at Mandy's behest I took lots of photos of details.

The photo above is a detail from Universal Code. The detail image above reveals the string of binary code, expressing/instructing the word LIFE, which forms an amorphous encircling of a golden orb. The detail image also shows the 'terrain' of the background paint. I use the word terrain because whilst I manipulated the paint, I also let it do its own thing. With lots of turps and other manipulations, the background layers of colour travelled across the linen surface before settling and drying. The result, which I had hoped for, was a truly cosmic 'terrain' for me to work upon.

PRIVILEGED LANDSCAPE

Below are two detail photos of Privileged Landscape? In both photos you can see the Australia cut-out and the texture of the red/orange/yellow background, which was created with a combination of deliberate 'accident', manipulations and over-painting.

Detail Privileged Landscape Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2015

 

Detail Privileged Landscape Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2015

OBJECTS
Below is a detail photo of the painting Objects.

This painting was another one which really 'popped' when viewed through 3D glasses. The coloured balls seem to levitate away from the painting, whilst the pale coloured smaller balls remained on the surface of the image. The viewer really felt like they were travelling through a 'cosmos', whether it was a trip through the planets or one that passed by atoms. Yet, even without 3D glasses this painting does generate a feeling of travelling through or amongst things.

The detail photo shows one of the coloured balls against the background, which again is like a terrain. I allowed the paint to do its own thing, but with a manipulative eye and a dexterous hand.

Detail of Objects Oil on linen Oil on linen 85 x 147 cm 2015

 Detail of Seeking Perspective Oil on linen 92 x 102 cm 2015

Detail of Future Oil on linen 92 x 102 cm 2015

 Detail of Beyond Yesterday Oil on linen 80 x 55 cm 2014

Detail of Code Oil on linen 60 x 110 cm 2015

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ROLES?

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

It has been two weeks since I posted. This is the longest gap I've had since I started blogging in 2006. I normally post once a week.

 

NEWS

CODE is open! The doors opened on Tuesday and I've been busy...sales, visitors, chatting and more. I hung the show on Monday and I sold the first painting half an hour after the doors opened on Tuesday.

Exhibition Dates: 21 July  - Sunday 2 August
Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Qld, Australia.

I've posted some installation shots of CODE for you. Plus the one below of me on the steps of the gallery.

ROLE AND AGENCY

 

As I have been chatting with people who have visited CODE I have had an opportunity to think about the catalytic agency of the artist and the arts. In most of the conversations I've had people draw upon their own experiences, dreams and thoughts. It's as if the paintings entice and elicit...pulling on people in a way that engages and embraces imagination.

I have previously written that I do not believe the arts or artists have roles. Why? Because, to have a role immediately indicates some kind of prescription, agenda and hoped for or planned outcome/s. Surely the arts is more than this? Surely the arts can agitate, stir and stimulate in ways that are surprising, confronting, beguiling and provoking without an articulated need or prescribed KPIs? Surely the arts are more dynamic than any kind of  'role' could suggest?

As I said...I prefer to describe the arts and artists as having catalytic agency. This description immediately conjures open-ended possibilities for the artist and their audience. An open-endedness means that imagination can take flight...without a flight plan. A destination is not pre-determined...how exciting! It means questions can be asked that have perhaps never been asked before. It means that knowledge can be created in tangential ways. It means that the artist, and the actual artwork, are launching pads which do not remain static. Each visitor with every conversation they have in their own heads, or with the artist or another person, provides another 'life' beyond the materiality of the artwork. This, in turn, means the artwork is much more than a 'product' made by a creative industries practitioner.

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

Over the years I have had many conversations with people who visit my exhibitions. And, even though CODE has been open only two days I've already had some invigorating discussions. The paintings are catalysts...people tell me about their interests, fears, favourite movies, passions, and stories. We take flight together as the paintings draw out of people their ideas about life, Earth, landscape, the Universe, science, culture, philosophy, technology and more.

Regular readers know I love to think about and play with perspective, both literal and metaphoric. Today, through conversations at CODE, I experienced a play with perspective where the possibility of going beyond safe horizons to unchartered territory with others, was realised. I suggest that perspective must be travelled across its close and far distances, in deft and fluid traverse. Advance notice is not necessary...in fact, it could be debilitating, shutting down the playfulness of perspective's improvisational dance. The proposition that artists and the arts have a catalytic agency provides a far more expansive propellant than giving them a 'role' to perform or play. There is no way a simple 'role' could ever be a dance partner with something that has catalytic agency. I see no compatibility. Yet, I suspect perspective is the perfect partner.

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

  CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

CODE - Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

PRIVILEGED LANDSCAPE?

Privileged Landscape? Oil on linen 80 x 140 cm 2015

Privileged Landscape? is another of my cosmic landscapes. Yes, there's Earth with a cut-out of Australia floating around in space, but still tethered to Earth via a thin ribbon.

The title, a question itself, poses many more...is the Australian landscape privileged? If it is, who or what privileges it? What about all the other national landscapes? What about an Earth landscape? What happens if one landscape is privileged over another? And, could the landscape infer other kinds of 'landscape' like a political or economic one?

Pale Blue Dot
When I was painting this painting, I was thinking about the influence of the famous photograph taken from the spacecraft Voyage 1 as it left the solar system in 1991. At Carl Sagan's suggestion the camera was turned back towards Earth and the subsequent photograph called Pale Blue Dot entered into humanity's image lexicon. The perspective of Earth as literally a pale blue dot against a vast universal landscape had a profound impact on people who questioned how special Earth and humanity are? From this vast distance no discernible characteristics of Earth's landscape were identifiable...in a sense landscape, as we know it, disappeared. However, I propose that a new cosmic or universal landscape made an appearance in a reality that had never been documented before. With its appearance, perspective was able to reveal itself as a magnificent and flexible lens to probe the close and far distances of the Universe.

Perspective as a Tool
So, using perspective as a lens or tool, how special is any one country, continent, nation, state? If we think about the sustainability of the planet, privileging any landscape becomes problematic. Indeed, for humanity to survive we need the planet to be nurtured as a whole. Whilst potential Earth-like planets may have been discovered, orbiting the Goldilocks zones of distant stars, there is currently no alternative home for humanity. This is likely to be the situation for a long time. We need to think of Earth as a living whole landscape ... a landscape that exists in a horizon of time and scale that is universal, and possibly multiversal. Our survival may depend on it...

I entered a similar painting to Privileged Landscape? in this year's Wynne Prize which is awarded annually for 'the best landscape painting of Australian scenery in oils or watercolours or for the best example of figure sculpture by Australian artists’. Alas, my entry was not selected as a finalist. I will upload it in a blog post in the coming weeks. Many of my thoughts expressed above were also drivers for my Wynne Prize entry. Plus, I liked to think it critiqued, in an expansive way, the privileging of the Australian landscape in the prize criteria which was set in 1895, ninety-five years before Pale Blue Dot!

___________________________________________________________

NEWS

CODE

Exhibition of new paintings.

Doors open Tuesday 21 July at 10 am!

Exhibition Dates: Tuesday July 21 - Sunday August 2

Open Daily: 10 am - 6 pm

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, new Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia

For more images and words please visit  BLOG page for CODE

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

ENTRANCE

 

Entrance Entrance Mixed media on paper 30 x 42 cm 2015

 

ARRIVING AT A PARTY

Entrance is a fantastic word. It holds meanings that play with nuance. One meaning for entrance is that of a literal entry, like a gate, an opening, a foyer...something that allows or guides arrival at a place. One can also sit entrance exams that upon successfully completing allow entry into an educational institution. There is also making an entrance. For example, a flamboyant person, upon arrival at an event can make an entrance by drawing attention to themselves with their behaviour, style, clothing. They distinguish themselves from others who arrive without notice or attention. And, another meaning of entrance is to en-trance...captivate, beguile, enthral, mesmerise.

 

A flamboyant person, arriving at the entrance of a mansion where a party to celebrate a friend's successful completion of university entrance exams, could make an entrance that was so delightful and captivating that people might be entranced!

 

Where AM I going with this?

 

When I was painting Entrance Entrance [above] I was thinking about space travel. Yep, space travel! I was thinking about people who are planning to go to Mars, a destination they are not likely to return from. That's if they actually arrive! I was thinking about the discoveries of potential Earth-like exoplanets that may promise safe harbour for humanity in the future. It will require intergalactic travel! I read about these things...and...I am captivated by the possibilities. They trigger the imagination is ways that take flight...in a way I am en-tranced!

 

In Entrance Entrance, a cosmic landscape is interrupted by what looks like a gate, fence or bars that obscure the horizons beyond. Does this indicate an entrance to the wonders of intergalactic territories? Maybe it's a warning to tread carefully? Or, maybe humanity has already travelled forth, but cannot return? Maybe 'home' is on the other side? After all, going through an entrance does not guarantee a return.

The colourful 'barrier' may simply be a suggestion to stop and think. Many commentators remark that the 21st century is a 'crossroad' where technology promises amazing things, if we monitor and question carefully. If we don't, there may not be a way to 'turn back'. Just because we can do something, does not mean we should. I love the potential for inter-disciplinary research and investigation, drawing scientists, economists, philosophers, artists, and more together, to pave the future's pathway with rigour and excitement.

 

ENTRANCEMENT

Maybe the fantastic-ness of space travel and the promise of technological enhancements to and for humanity are like the flamboyant person arriving at a celebration...they have made an entrance into the 21st century and we are en-tranced.  Indeed, there is so much media coverage, popular and serious, of Mars trips, newly discovered Earth-Like planets, and seemingly extraordinary technological advances, including the potential of exponential artificial intelligence development. But, what if there are other 'arrivals' into the 21st century that have entered quietly without making an entrance? If they have, hopefully they are of the benevolent kind!

 

I am reminded of an article I wrote about recently. The article, Terminator Robots and AI Risk by Meia Chita-Tegmark, appeared in the Huffington Post in February. Chita-Tegmark is a PhD candidate at Boston University and a founder of the Future Of Life Institute, a research centre and think tank focused on existential risks posed by emerging technologies. In the article Chita-Tegmark writes about humanity's propensity to 'embody' fears in things we can see and warns that the real dangers may lie in the unseen. She writes, The risk of AI is very likely not going to play out as armies of robots taking over the world, but in more subtle ways by AI taking our jobs, by controlling our financial markets, our power plants, our weaponized drones, our media... Evolution has not equipped us to deal with such ghostly entities that don't come in the form of steel skeletons with red shiny eyes, but in the form of menacing arrangements of zeros and ones. 

Chita-Tegmark's article got me thinking...a lot. Shiny eyed and steel skeleton-ed robots or beguiling AIs like the beautiful Eva in the recent film Ex Machina or 30 year old Blade Runner's four awesome replicants are all examples of how making an entrance can en-trance humanity with extra-ordinariness and excitement. This entrancement somehow gives the impression that we are confronting our fears, lessening their influence. But, the outcome may be a diversion of attention from Chita-Tegmark's ghostly entities and menacing arrangements of zeros and ones. These arrive unseen and unnoticed, not attracting attention against the 'flamboyance' of 'embodied' manifestations.

We need to go beyond the surface...beyond entertainment ...beyond entrancement. Being entranced is a very human characteristic and whilst it can be extremely satisfying, it may be one of our most significant existential risks.  

 

You might like to also read these posts and see the paintings too:
IN SIGHT
WHERE THERE'S LIFE THERE'S...
UNSEEN 

 

Count Down To CODE

My forthcoming exhibition

Tuesday July 21 - Sunday August 2

Graydon Gallery, 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.

Open Daily: 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Artist's Talk: Sunday 26 July 11 am - 12 noon

 

CODE WEBPAGE

 

Below is a photo of 3D glasses I take to my exhibitions. Why? Well, it was pointed out to me a few years ago, by a visitor to one of my shows, that my paintings would 'go' 3D with 3D glasses. When it was first mentioned to me I thought 'SURE', but as it transpired, many of my paintings do separate into multiple dimensions when viewed with 3D glasses. It certainly acts as a talking point!

 

 

And below is a photo of four works on paper that have been recently framed in readiness for CODE!

 

 

 Cheers,

Kathryn

 

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

QUESTIONS - THREE PAINTINGS

 Maybe Off Limits? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

These three works on paper all have titles that ask questions, so I thought I would 'curate' a mini online exhibition called Questions. Over the years I have painted other paintings that are also titled with questions, but these three paintings here will be included in my forthcoming bricks-and-mortar-gallery exhibition, CODE .

I like the idea of teasing out mini-themes within a larger exhibition and as I was sorting out images for my CODE catalogue I realised that these three works on paper ask questions which relate to humanity leaving planet Earth, to re-settle somewhere else in the Universe. For example, settlement on Mars is a serious consideration, with plans for human colonisation.

There are many reasons for why humanity's exit from Earth is proposed. One is simply driven by human curiosity, desire and explorative excitement. Other reasons relate to questions about the sustainability of Earth and threats to existence that may force a need to escape.

YET!

'Leaving' Earth does not have to be physical! For example, there is a proposition that in the future we will be able to download our minds onto a computer or robot. A downloaded mind could travel on intergalactic trips, developing memories and even 'sensing' the experience as if physically participating. The downloaded mind could 'outlive' the physical body, taking the identity into forever-land.

Can We leave? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

 

Leaving Earth, both physically and as a downloaded mind, certainly poses many practical, ethical and philosophical questions that relate to the meaning of life and existence. Even downloading one's mind is a kind of 'leaving' in itself. Code becomes the form of departure. But, would there be a way of return, a rescue pathway if needed? Could we retrieve our mind from the downloaded entity?

 

So, what could be off limits? The painting at the top is called Maybe Off Limits? One of the round planet-like balls has lines, like bars, painted across it. Initially this suggests that maybe this place is off limits because of a hostile environment, unsuitable for human habitation. Yet, what if the bars are across Earth? And let's go a bit deeper....What if these round shapes are not planets, but symbolic of ideas?

 

The middle painting Can We leave? again has a round shape with security-like bars painted on it. Is this Earth, with security bars keeping us safe, forcing questions and possibly mitigating hasty decisions? Or are they prison bars, keeping us locked away? But, here's another question, is the round shape symbolic of mind, where the bars could be seen as both/either security or prison bars. What if this round shape is a downloaded mind 'travelling' through the universe long after its physical harbour has died and Earth has been annihilated? And, that leads me to the question Where to Now? the title of the painting below.

 

Where To Now? Mixed Media on Paper 21 x 30 cm 2015

 

 

Where To Now? is a painting of the future. It poses crossroad-type questions. The choice of route determines outcomes. Research into existential risks warns that we, in the 21st century, are at a crossroad. The decisions we make now, especially with emerging technologies, will determine the future in serious ways that will affect planetary survival.   

 

Oh boy...heavy stuff!

 

Yet, I love the contrariness of using painting as a way of posing questions about the pursuits of technology. For me, painting keeps me connected in ways technology cannot. In my imagination I leave Earth all the time! And, in a way, all my imaginings are 'downloaded' into my art...

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

CODED LANDSCAPE AND THE BLACK SOIL PLAIN

Coded Landscape Gouache on paper 15 x 21 cm 2015

 

 

CHILDHOOD LANDSCAPE - BLACK SOIL PLAIN

Regular readers will know that I grew up on a flat black-soil naturally treeless plain on the fertile Darling Downs, Queensland, Australia. The flatness and expanse of distance has influenced my art, but I suspect it also pre-disposed me to an embrace of cosmological/universal distance, both close and far.

 

The distance of my childhood landscape provided uninterrupted visions of Earth's horizon, often blurred on hot days by shimmering mirages. These horizons could also dominate with fantastic fiery crop-stubble burn-offs, as well as the tantalising promises of rain. At night the blackness extended into a sky that twinkled with the Milky Way. Yet, whilst far distance seemed to dominate, close distance was given free reign to entice. By this I mean, it was as if immense distance brought details to attention. For example, spidery cracks that appeared in the black soil as it dried after rain. Bigger and wider cracks  appeared as the soil yielded to drought. This cracking quickly disappeared with the arrival of rain. Other details include the faint tinge of green, across hectares of land, as the seeds my Dad planted grew into crops. Dust, chicken eggs, snake trails, spider webs, ants' nests, small whirly winds, the burst of mushrooms after rain, shooting stars...all these details and more were partners with distance.

 

RECENT TRIP

The photo below was taken by my daughter on a recent trip to my childhood landscape and home. You can see the flatness of the land, naturally treeless and abounding with fertile deep black soil. The relentless blue sky meets the horizon in a definite line, only occasionally interrupted by a farm house. When there's a watery mirage, that blurs the meeting of sky and land, farmhouses seem to swim in a kind of elevated no-place. The crop that had been recently harvested, in this photo, is cotton. Cotton is a relatively new crop for the area I grew up in. When I was growing up, wheat, corn, oats and sorghum were the main crops my Dad and our neighbours planted. 

Kathryn Brimblecombe-Fox and the Pirrinuan landscape

 

 

CODED LANDSCAPE

Now to my painting Coded Landscape. Even though it is only a small painting 15 x 21 cm, distance is obvious, both close and far. A string of binary code 'instructing' LIFE creates a landscape-like contour against a seemingly universal sky. The detail is in the code, yet so is the immense expanse. The painting has multiple inspirations - my childhood landscape, codification of so many aspects of life, perspective [literal and metaphoric], existence, cosmological history, the future and more.

 

For me, landscape and concepts of it, do link everything. How? At the instance of the Big Bang 'landscape' was born in the substance that became the universe, including Earth where our immediate understanding of landscape lies. Yet, in the 21st century we need to untether concepts of landscape from Earth-bound horizons. Whilst we humans arrived billions of years after the Big Bang, we also are 'landscape' because we are made from the same universal star dust.

 

'Landscape' provides a fluid framework for existence to be negotiated upon and within, and in reference to. Essentially it's a matter of perspective...which needs distance, metaphoric and literal! Existence IS landscape! And, perspective, literal and metaphoric, is crucially important for humanity to embrace in the 21st century. I have previously suggested that we need to develop skills of 'seeing' multi-perspectives...even simultaneously.

 

TECHNOLOGY

My Dad is a HAM radio enthusiast. On the farm he had tall aerials to capture and send signals, a shack full of electronic gear, and vehicles equipped with communication devices...and more. He could communicate with people all over the world, and this is well before the age of the internet. So, in this flat horizon-ed landscape of close and far distance, I grew up also surrounded by technology. Not only electronic technology but also the technologies utilised by farmers, particularly farmers who had a predisposition to tech innovation!

 

It is against this childhood background that I imagine 'landscape' as being the continuing framework for existence into a future where technology will have increasing influences, both good and bad. With sophisticated tools of perspective and an 'eye' on 'landscape' hopefully the former outcome reigns!

 

Coded Landscape will be in my forthcoming exhibition CODE

 

 

The Hidden Seen In My Mind's Eye Oil on linen 80 x 120 cm 2004

 

 

 

MY NEXT EXHIBITION

 

CODE

 

Tuesday 21 July - Sunday 2 August 2015

Open daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Graydon Gallery 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com

 

 

COSMIC REVELATION

Cosmic Revelation Mixed media on paper 24 x 32 cm 2015

 

 

It is only 7 weeks until the doors open to my next exhibition CODE.

 

As always I am excited and nervous. But, I do look forward to seeing an exhibition hung and I love chatting to people who come to see it. I like the buzz.

 

WHY CODE?

I've chosen the title CODE for the exhibition because it's a loaded word! It allows me to play with secrets...those that the universe may hold tight, but we humans want to explore and understand. In the 21st century 'code' also takes on technological imperatives that influence our everyday lives. It propels us into the future with its unseen and unheard language working in the background of computer systems around the world. 

 

So, I try to tackle the secrets of the universe with my much loved age-old transcultural/religious tree-of-life. My last post Tree-of-Life Dreaming explains some of the reasons why I love to use the tree-of life as a visual guide in my work.

 

Tackling computer code is a different thing altogether! I am not a computer scientist, however I do understand computer code's instructional symbolism. In some of my recent paintings I have included binary code representing LIFE. In a couple of the paintings I have juxtaposed binary code with the tree-of-life. Now...these were fun to paint...they tickled my sense of humour, but also stimulated lots of thoughts about existence and the future.

 

If you are interested in code and the future you might like to listen to Prof Stuart Russell speaking at the The Centre for the Study of Existential Risk, Cambridge University, about artificial intelligence. His speech was called The Long-Term Future Of [Artificial] Intelligence  I find it rather interesting that there are brackets around the word artificial! It kind-of alludes to intelligence, in its entirety, being questioned. Yet, I have listened to the whole presentation and I am excited about the future. I am also so very happy that really really intelligent people are thinking critically about AI development, to ensure that it will be for the benefit of humans and the planet.

 

COSMIC REVELATION

So, let's talk about the painting above Cosmic Revelation. Well the word revelation gives a bit of a clue, given my previously stated quest to reveal the secrets of the universe! The wavy lines could be strips of code imbedded in waves of energy? Or they could be whispering contours of another universe existing simultaneously with ours? But what about the spaces in between? Are they like the 'unknown' in black holes...some kind of energy concealing the continuity of wavy energy? These alternate spaces play with perception, at one minute appearing to be in the foreground and the next receding away from the viewer. They almost act like a wave themselves...maybe detected from a different angle?

 

Cosmic Revelation is what I call a cosmic landscape! It has landscape elements, yet it is not Earth-bound. Regular readers know of another of my quests....to untether landscape from Earth-bound horizons.

 

Cosmic Revelation will be in CODE. It's at the framers now, being framed up for exhibition. Although, I will also be exhibiting some unframed works on paper, so that buyers can choose their own frames.  

 

INSTAGRAM:

If you just want to see paintings please follow me on INSTAGRAM @kathrynbrimblecombefox

 

 

 

CODE

 

Tuesday 21 July - Sunday 2 August

Open daily 10 am - 6 pm or by appointment

Graydon Gallery 29 Merthyr Rd, New Farm, Brisbane, Australia

 

 

 

Cheers,

Kathryn

www.kathrynbrimblecombe-fox.com