Proactive Art

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Valentine animal rights animals animation bear cut out cute ethics graphic design illustration love paper romantic vegan cosmic shadow theatre rescue nonviolence activist

May 23

A paper cut-out animation I made for Animals Asia in their fight to stop ‘moon’ bear bile farming in Asia. It was used in their Valentine’s Day campaign.

That month the cruelty of the bear farming industry was exposed to the Chinese people on an unprecedented scale, with the issue dominating headlines for weeks internationally (BBC World). The reaction from the public was of overwhelming opposition to this barbaric industry.

Bear bile farming causes extreme suffering to the animals and is also unsafe for people who use the ‘medicine’ (clinically disproven to actually work!). Farmed bears have open wounds into their gall bladders, which are permanently infected and never heal. Every drop of bile is collected from these sick bears and sold on to consumers. I stand behind the people of China and support them in calling for bear farming to end.

You can find plenty of things to do to support and raise awareness on the subject by visiting Animalsasia.org

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Isabella Rossellini animals biodiversity climate change extinction fishing funny insects marine sea life sexy vegan fish acting set design

Dec 07

Green Porno

rossellini

Isabella Rossellini, famous for acting (in films such as Blue Velvet and Death Becomes Her) and modeling (fourteen years at Lancôme), now ventures into creating a short television and online series, Green Porno. Critically acclaimed and provocative, the series is directed and written by Rossellini as she also acts out the reproductive habits of insects and marine animals, both scientifically accurate yet extremely entertaining.

“The secret to Green Porno is that they allow of us to laugh but they also communicate true scientific information,  because of what I learned in doing research for this series I felt strongly that there needed to be an added environmental  element to really inform people how delicate the futures of these creatures are.”

She uses her sexuality in a sophisticated and entertaining manner to attract attention to the delicate (and often very strange) lives of animals.  In her second series, dealing in particular with marine creatures which are massivly consumed as food such as the anchovy, shrimp and squid. In between  the quirky acting out of their sexual roles, Rossellini includes snippets of marine biologists speaking about the particular animal’s future.

As the observer is captured by the entertaining aspect of the short films, they are also forced to think about such feats. Awareness helps us decide in our decision making. I find it important to understand that the massive exploitation of animals for human use is interconnected with and endangers other spheres of human life such as climate, health, politics, etc. and of course the ethics of not harming helpless sentient beings.

Watch the newest season SEDUCE ME: The Spawn of Green Porno

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animals art biodiversity city conservation environment extinction installation mirror sculpture street art bear eagle deer owl buffalo mountain goat elk endangered species

Dec 01

Silver Phantoms of the Wild

mirror animals

The British duo Tim Maslen & Jennifer Mehra communicate about the natural world’s place in today’s ‘human world.’ Their Native Series (2007) use the mirrored sculptures of animal contours to express their concern for the particular species threatened by extinction.

They are placed in the urban environment as sculptural installations. The particular species chosen for these temporary interventions were natives of - but are no longer present in - the areas in which their simulacra are placed. Some of these phantoms remind us of the American Buffalo extinct to NYC, Roe Deer banished from London, and the European Brown Bear driven out of Berlin.

Maslen & Mehra’s animal shapes, rather than being ‘filled-in’ representations, reflect the urban environment around them - displacing their identity outwards. They are creatures which share our space, but only as cut-outs, windows, absences. These mirrored forms call out to the very thing that has displaced them - confronting us with the the phenomenon of habitat loss, species driven to extinction, and our own alienation from the animal kingdom and the natural world.

I am moved by the idea of seeing yourself in the reflection of the wild creature. Playfully you can try to recreate the pose of the animal and maybe identify yourself with the eagle, wolf, or bear. But the human mirrored image eventually will evoke the fact that we are the ones who drove these beautiful creatures to their demise.

Give that reflected ego a break and learn about which animal needs your attention in your region by looking at the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species . Once you’ve found a species of interest contact your local wildlife conservation group. Volunteer, donate. If you have a talent that you can show, organize a benefit. Learn about which politicians are the greenest (that are against hunting, for example) and support them by voting. You can also go veggie - or better yet - vegan. “Each snowflake in an avalanche pleads not guilty”. It has been proven in history, be it in art or not, that every individual has the power to change or influence the world they live in and it begins with that awareness…

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conservation deforestation installation rainforest sculpture water tree art

Nov 28

Ghanaian Ghost Forests

trafalgar sq trees

Angela Palmer places the stumps of 10 rainforest trees, complete with their roots, as an installation around Trafalgar Square in central London to highlight the issue of deforestation. Laser beams marked the height the trees would have reached in the wild in comparison to Nelson’s Column.

Their presence worked to highlight deforestation in countries like their native Ghana which has lost 90% of its rainforest in the past 50 years. Questioning the future of these precious resources is vital. As vital as the air we breath and the water we drink -because rainforests are responsible for the filtration of these.

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Friedensreich Hundertwasser architecture art climate change conservation environment plants sustainability

Nov 20

The Straight Line is Godless: Hundertwasser’s Organic Architecture

hundertwasser

“Above all art distills for us our common humanity; it questions and puzzles and challenges. There is a shamanic aspect to this and artists are, like shamans, movers between worlds, between the visible world and the invisible one, able to heal individuals and society. Art can work above ground, in the heightened, precise super-realism of social portraiture, but also below-ground, working different and deeper spells of restitution on the invisible realm of symbolism. Re-balancing the relationship between human communities and the natural world is a feature of shamanism, and artists play that same role, a role which needs and deserves public support through policy priorities, through funding and through recognition that this re-balancing role at the core of deep art is now urgent in response to the unbalanced chaos of climate.”

-KT Tunstall*

Organic forms, a reconciliation of humans with nature, and a strong individualism - these are all themes in the work of Friedensreich Hundertwasser (1928-2000) one of the best-known contemporary Austrian artists. Although his work as an architect can be compared to Antoni Gaudí in its use of biomorphic forms and tile mosaic works, Hundertwasser remains sui generis, as he was the first to incorporate natural features of the landscape into housing projects. But most importantly, his ideas, which were rather controversial and strongly parallel to what I am trying to prove: That artists should have a moral responsibility to the world around them. Hundertwasser addressed the idea of planting trees in an urban environment was to become obligatory: “If man walks in nature’s midst, then he is nature’s guest and must learn to behave as a well-brought-up guest.” His structures implemented the use of live foliage on rooftops, trees growing through the inside of buildings, etc. All of which showed his respect for nature and the fact that it was here before us. Although Hundertwasser rejected rationalism, the straight line and functional architecture**. His green roofs can be seen implemented in housing today; It works as insulation -lowering the use of air conditioning. It also reduces storm water run-off, provides a home for wildlife, and contributes to a clean atmosphere…

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* 1 Julie’s Bicycle. “Climate Change Long Horizons” British Council, 2009

** Wieland Schmied (ed.), Hundertwasser 1928-2000, Catalogue Raisonné, Cologne: Taschen, 2000/2002, Vol. II, pp. 1167-1172.

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architecture installation biodiversity conservation seeds seed bank engineering

Nov 13

Sacred Biodiversity: The Seed Cathedral

seed cathedral

seed cathedral day

More along the lines of the earlier mentioned “seed vaults” I would like to now refer to the UK pavilion at Expo 2010 in Shanghai, also known as the Seed Cathedral. A multi-layered landscape treatment directed by designer Thomas Heatherwick. This sculpture structure referenced the race to save seeds from around the world in banks, and housed 60,000 plant seeds at the end of acrylic rods, held in place by geometrically-cut holes with the rods inserted therein.*

The designer says he was inspired by the “relationship between nature and cities”. The Seed Cathedral is a platform to show the work of the British Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew and their Millennium Seedbank, the largestplant conservation project in the world. “Our focus is on global plant life faced with the threat of extinction and plants of most use for the future. The seeds we save are conserved outside their native habitat.”**

During the day, the seeds rods act as optic fibers and draw daylight inwards to illuminate the interior (pictured above).

At night (below), light sources inside each rod allow the whole structure to glow. As the wind moves past, the building and its optic “hairs” gently move to create a dynamic effect.

seed cathedral night

“After the Expo, just as dandelion seeds are blown away and disperse on the breeze, the Seed Cathedral’s 60,000 optic hairs, each one containing the huge potential of life, will be distributed across China and the UK to hundreds of schools as a special legacy of the UK Pavilion at the 2010 Shanghai Expo.”***

What I enjoy most about this installation is the structure’s organic resemblance to microscopic spores and pollen. The reoccurring theme of the microcosm mirrored in the macrocosm….

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* http://www.heatherwick.com/uk-pavilion/

* http://www.kew.org/science-conservation/save-seed-prosper/millennium-seed-bank/

*** http://www.treehugger.com/sustainable-product-design/awe-inspiring-seed-cathedral-wows-at-shanghai-world-expo-2010-photos.html

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Dyveke Sanne Svalbard Global Seed Vault biodiversity conservation extinction plants seed bank seeds architecture lights

Nov 13

Art in the Arctic: The Svalbard Global Seed Vault

seed vault

Plant species are dying out at an unprecedented rate. The current extinctions are largely due to the growth of human populations, which move into, exploit and destroy the natural habitat. Despite the best efforts of conservationists, thousands of extinctions are occurring.

On the Norwegian island of Spitsbergen, in the remote Arctic Svalbard archipelago, about 1,300 kilometres (810 mi) from the North Pole, a massive structure pierces out of the ice.* The facility which preserves a wide variety of plant seeds in an underground cavern, known as The Svalbard Global Seed Vault, providing protection both incremental and catastrophic loss of crop diversity held in traditional seed banks around the world. This Seed Vault is a refuge for one of the most important natural resources on earth.

On 10 March 2010 the seed count at the Svalbard Global Seed Vault passed half a million samples.**

Norway has a policy which requires the commission of art work to accompany any government project exceeding a certain cost; Across the outside of the building’s concrete entrance is a light installation that helps visibly mark the seed bank as it lays surrounded by snow, reflecting polar light in the summer months, while in winter, a network of 200 fibre-optic cables give the piece a muted greenish turquoise white light.

Dyveke Sanne and KORO, the Norwegian agency overseeing art in public spaces, have worked together to fill the roof and vault entrance with highly reflective steel, mirrors, and prisms.***

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* Charles, Daniel (23 June 2006). “A ‘Forever’ Seed Bank Takes Root in the Arctic”. Science 312 (5781): pp. 1730–1731.

** http://www.croptrust.org/main/arcticseedvault.php?itemid=852

*** http://web.me.com/dyvekesanne/www.dyvekesanne.com/svalbard_global_seed_vault.html

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conceptual installation sculpture art

Nov 11

99 Wolves

99 wolves

On a more metaphoric and less direct note, Cai Guo Qiang has created a hanging installation of 99 wolves which could be an interpretation about our tendencies of war.

“I wanted to make something that related to the destiny of mankind. As we know, glass walls are not structural and invisible walls are the hardest to destroy. I made ninety-nine wolves. They’re moving very tightly, very collectively in a pack strongly in collision with this invisible wall. After they fall down, they get up and they run around again ceaselessly, and then end the cycle. I’m hoping this reflects the destiny of Mankind when they make mistakes repeatedly.
On the surface this looks very realistic and very figurative, but I’m hoping to convey something more abstract, something more spiritual.”

-Cai Guo Qiang

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Guerrilla Girls Suffrage art culture jamming graphic design performance women's rights

Nov 10

History is Herstory Too: Women’s Rights

guerrilla girls

women's suffrage

It is clear from the earliest records that civilizations have mostly regarded women as inferior, to be repressed. The forces unleashed by the Enlightenment and the demands of the Industrial Revolution led inevitably to the emancipation of women. The fight was long and hard, with the right to vote coming to many advanced democracies only in the twentieth century. Here are just two of many graphic expressions of protest:

The 1913 march on Washington was the first nationally-organized parade sponsored by the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Over 8,000 participated in the march, and thousands more gathered to watch. When some onlookers began to assault women, Washington police failed to protect them.

The resulting scandal proved embarrassing to the authorities. The March 1913 parade captured the imagination of the American public and became one of the movement’s defining moments. Above is a poster depicting U.S. women suffragists demanding for the right to vote.

Directly above the just mentioned political protest is an image depicting an art group devoted to fighting sexism within the world of visual fine art.

The Guerrilla Girls were an anonymous group of radical feminist artists established in New York City in 1985, known for posters, books, billboards, appearances and other creative forms of culture jamming that expose discrimination and corruption. The members are known for the gorilla masks they wear to keep their anonymity. Trained as visual artists, their first work was putting up posters on the streets of New York decrying the gender and racial imbalance of artists represented in galleries and museums. Over the years they expanded their activism to examine Hollywood and the film industry, popular culture, gender stereotyping and corruption in the art world.

With discrimination, social distortion, sex slavery of women, “corrective rape”, domestic violence and other horrors still prevailing in most of the world, one might commence to imagine a matriarchal society and wonder how the gentler gender, free of repression, would go about trying to sustain our planet and its future children…

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Debord Marx Situationists anti-capitalism conceptual movement political society theoretical art

Nov 09

The Situationists

Situationists

Investigating ideas in proactive art I have come upon a theoretical movement which has influenced much of the examples I am yet to discuss.

The Situationists, “having to do with the theory or practical activity of constructing situations.” Their main goal was to obtain anti-capitalism in human life, which is characterized by a Marxist and surrealist perspective on aesthetics and politics. They also rejected that art be separated from politics.

Though based on Marxist and Young Hegelian thoughts, the Situationists were remarkably differently from the established Left, anti-Stalinist and were against all repressive regimes.*

To them, the capitalist order limited the scope of our life experiences. For this purpose they suggested and experimented with the construction of situations, namely the setting up of environments favorable for the fulfillment of such desires. Using methods drawn from the arts, they developed a series of experimental fields of study for the construction of these situations, like unitary urbanism, psycho-geography, and the union of play, freedom and critical thinking.

Their theoretical work, which I would like to focus more on, peaked in 1967 with the highly influential book The Society of the Spectacle by Guy Debord.

He criticised the spectacular features like mass media and advertising of having a central role in our advanced capitalist society. The spectacle is a fake reality which masks the real capitalist degradation of modern human life due to society’s passive nature.

Since its foundation in 1957, the Situationists rejected the concept of 20th century art that is separated from important political events, as that failed to grasp the present mission of the artistic avant-garde, and conforms to the game of reactionaries.** They proclaimed these conservative forces forbid revolutionary ideas from artists and intellectuals to reach the public discourse by attacking artworks which express comprehensive critique of society, by saying art should not involve itself into politics. After such separation by the conservatives, artwork becomes sterile, banal, degraded, and can be safely integrated into the official consumer culture and the public discourse, where they can add new flavours to old dominant ideas and play the role of a gear wheel in the mechanism of the society of the spectacle.***

Debord starts his 1967 work drawing from Marx, which argued that under a capitalist society the wealth is degraded to an immense accumulation of fetishized commodities, Debord argues that in advanced capitalism, life is reduced to an immense accumulation of spectacles, a triumph of mere appearance where “all that once was directly lived has become mere representation”.†

* Bandini & 1998 Preface to second edition
** The Counter-Situationist Campaign in Various Countries, Internationale Situationniste #8, 1963.
*** Debord 2006 Report on the Construction of Situations.
† Debord G.E. (1967) : thesis 17, 42