NEW CREATIVES
‘Does making things, makes us human’?
- Can animals make things? A few can; like birds making nests, beavers making dams, termites, bees, ants construct nests and mounds. However, generally animals do not make things for any other purpose than shelter.
- Both fauna and flora are parts of an organism maintaining the planet and its atmosphere.
- The planet and its organism provide sustenance to humans and animals alike.
- Humans make and have been making things for millions of years. The making of things is in proportion with the vast destruction stemming from the humans’ needs.
File:Litchfield National Park-Termite en.wikipedia.org
Terradaily.com
What
are we making?
- Are
we making ourselves vulnerable by creating artificial intelligence to
mirror our own?
- Implanting micro machines to enhance our abilities is already happening. Is this making us progressively physically weaker?
A biochip sqlspace.com
mootee.typepad.com
Humans make machines to make food on vast scales, draining natural
resources from the planet to fuel machines with no thoughts for the future of
the planet and eventual future generations.
Poly tunnels in southern Spain
Without
copper, there would be no electricity or any of its ensuing technology
Acid mine drainage from a copper-nickel mine.personal.psu.edu
As the maker of beauty:
‘A
combination of qualities, such as shape, colour or form that pleases the
aesthetic senses, especially the sight’. ‘A combination of qualities that
pleases the intellect’. (Oxford
‘Beauty
is in the eye of the beholder’. An
old proverb which relates twofold to being human, as it is true that beauty and
its appreciation are true to each individual. It also relates to the fact that
you have to be human in order to appreciate beauty.
Through the ages, humans have made objects of beauty through various
arts, paintings, sculptures, music, literature, dancing, clothes and
jewellery. Not only has there always
been a desire to beautify one self, but beauty is now made as a product through
the media.
Once again, the making of beauty being very much in proportion with the
destruction caused by its many demands.
From manufacturing make-up using animals and chemicals, to creating an
unrealistic virtual idea of beauty, encouraging cosmetic intervention, beauty
has become artificial and very much man made.
Making cosmetics
advocacy.britannica.com
As the makers of warfare:
Through the centuries, being human has also meant making war. Inventing more and more sophisticated weapons
has evolved in parallel to how life is
valued. Technology has developed in the
20th century particularly in the western world, although sadly the 21st
century shows the third world joining in the race for even more powerful tools
to use in warfare.
care2.com
Hiroshima deadhorse 1995 Alaska in pictures.com
I realise that the angle I have chosen is a negative one and I have
chosen to do so first.
This I have done, as I feel that it is important to remain realistic
and accept the fact that being human is not particularly good when looking at
the impact humanity has on the planet, its flora, and fauna. However, the most negative part of this side
of being human, is the ability to understand and disagree with the destruction I
have highlighted above, but carry on regardless.
I am as guilty as anyone. I am
passionate about many issues relating to pollution, animal welfare and the
greed and wanton destruction created by global corporate. But I do not respond proportionally to the strength
of my feelings.
Should I use my art as a soap box?
I have collated a lot of photographs on the internet as part of my
research, and this has led to me becoming
more and more aware of the damage caused by the makings of mankind. Furthermore, my research has enabled me to
discover some very interesting websites set up by passionate people who are
raising the awareness of what is happening to the planet. They also raise awareness of many issues not
highlighted by the media. These are
unknown to a large majority of people.
So, before I look at the more positive aspect of the makings of things
by humankind, I need to mention that I have chosen not to visit what makes us
different to gods as per the Oxford
As the makers of the arts:
Humankind has the will and ability to create beautiful things such as
buildings, sculptures, paintings, jewellery, clothes. Humankind is compelled to beautify the
necessary and also create objects of no use, purely for their beauty.
Music, literature, dance, film making, photography and so many other
visual and performing arts are present in everyone’s life. It is very much a part of our humanity. I could at that point download many examples
of beautiful pieces of art, but as I mentioned at the start: ’Beauty is in the
eye of the beholder’. I do not intent to
argue the case of my choices, and will download instead the most beautiful
thing that humankind make use of to make so many things.
In Conclusion:
My answer to the question: ’Does making things makes us human?’ is very much ‘Yes’. Our making will undoubtedly be our unmaking. The piece I intend to create will reflect this. I will use the planet to demonstrate the magnitude of self-destruction humankind is blindly heading for, led by the greatest of our making: Money.
I decided in the end on painting the earth as it is now, rather than a past, present and future earth. I felt it was too obvious. It also would give me more freedom painting it, as the earth would be larger.
I decided to use as an example of our makings, the massive amount of plastic forming huge masses in the seas and oceans. A large part of these masses are made of offcuts from the plastic industry. These are washed down drains and subsequently in rivers and seas. Plastic is now part of the food chain.
I spent some time cutting old wire plastic coating into tiny pieces. I managed to find wires that were been thrown away by the IT department at college. They came in a variety of colours.
During the whole of the research and reflective time I had before starting, I changed my mind several time. I realise that this is inevitable as it is part of the research process. However, the difficulties for me started when I had to actually start to paint. I spent a whole morning experimenting with photograms, using salt crystal, fine salt and different sequence of dipping the paper before exposure. I tried different exposure settings also.
So, I had it all planed, I would spend the following day, bleaching the photograms and stick them on the canvas, then I would paint the base for the earth and it would be ready to paint the following day. this would give me the next few days before completion, to transfer my research on my blog, as well as catch up on my log. Life can be so simple. Yet I realised to my dismay that when I tried to alter the photograms with the help of bleach, it didn't go plan. The photograms did not react at all. I was thrown by this completely. I could visualise the effect I intended to give to the universe, and suddenly it was not possible anymore. I painted the universe instead.
I proceeded into painting the earth as well and tried different positions for the plastic pieces into the more relevant area on the planet. I was not happy with the result as I am trying to make a point about the vast production of plastic, and the application of plastic onto the canvas just looked pretty and did not translate well the message I am trying to express.
I had found a fluorescent yellow plastic bottle at college and decided to cut it into slivers and cover India with them. I used a scalpel to do this and discovered that I was barely able to scratch the surface of the bottle. This made me angry as it underlines the fact that manufacturers produce plastic which appears to be so tough that it is even resistant to a scalpel. I thought long about this and decide to make a statement by gluing the bottle to my painting.
I then contemplated the idea of using two of these bottles and the plastics cut pieces and make an hour glass. I had the opportunity to get tutoring from Chris Jenkins a local 3D artist. His input was very helpful as he suggested for me to just make the hour glass and forget the painting. I considered this and after spending a fair amount of time soul searching, I reached the following conclusion.
Making the decision of gluing a plastic bottle to my painting was a huge step for me. One question has stayed with me from the completion of our first project this year. Am I an artist? The trend for the last 25 to 30 years, has been conceptual art. The idea and self expression of an artist being the primordial purpose of most of the pieces created. I have felt that being a painter was very
'passe'. However, I personally feel that it is about time a more traditional art of painting made a comeback. I want to express my thoughts through my art but I want to be able to have the freedom to demonstrate this using traditional and acquired skills. During a visit to a university open day, I saw the work of a final year student who had spent many hours pouring cement in tights and had coloured the cement a sickly beige/pink colour. The cement had been manipulated in such way that it looked like semi formed excrement. I shall refrain from passing comment on this but will ask a question: 'should art be a form of self therapy? '
This brief has been a long and tortuous journey for me but it has helped me to place myself better as a developing artist. I have decided to keep to my idea of gluing the bottle against my painting as a statement of anger against what we make as humans: we believe that thought is what makes us human and that our making is our strength. Personally, I believe that we are clever fools who have great difficulties in learning anything from the past and even greater difficulties in considering the future whilst we are so busy creating in the present. We aspire to improve our needs in every aspects of our lives, without considering the overall impact of our actions. This is why being human is such a wonderful thing, we don't really know where we are going but we are anyway.
CONCLUSION
In the end the plastic bottle glued on the painting didn't happen. It was judged too obvious - a fact I readily admit to. However, for me it was more the personal emancipation of sticking an object on a painting. It is difficult to get to the concept part of my project. So I painted another earth on a bigger canvas but the planet remained the same size as I wanted to make it look samll and vulnerable (didn't include stars either to make it more lonely). I used a palette knife and a texture compound to increase the thicknesss of the seas and oceans. I used cut pieces of plastic bottles and stuck them on the oceans to highlight the plight of plastic pollution. I used also cut recycled cable wires and stripped wires as well as copper wire to underline the systematic stripping of natural ressurces and its resulting outcome on the planet.
The result is a planet which looks attractive and glittering from a distance, but becomes much more serious and unatural as you get closer.
I am pleased with the outcome for the following:
- I persevered and started again many time . This has made this painting more substancial to me.
- I was able to accept criticism and admit I was being too litteral.
- I was told what to do and although I agreed, I didn't, and indeed could not do so. It is my painting , my thinking and my decision.
