The Nature of Things
ARTS feature
By Praveena Shivram
with inputs from vani sriranganayaki vanamamalai
We take a look at five hugely diverse contemporary artists working with the environment in ways that are surprising and, yet, sublimely powerful
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In 2011, during a chance visit to the William Ricketts Sanctuary in Melbourne, I had my first, real epiphanic moment. It was the first time that I could actually say, yes, it is exactly because I stood here at this time on this day that this epiphany, flitting about like a restless butterfly, chose to gently alight on my shoulders. It was at Ricketts’ grave and his tombstone that read, ‘Here lies William’s ashes beneath the Tree of Life. Returned to his Mother Earth in this Forest of Love. In the quiet of mind feel his Love and Presence for it is all around.’ It was carved out in stone, in old-world cursive, with something bordering on jauntiness as the letters playfully curved inward. And right at the end, on either sides of the symbol of concentric circles were the words, ‘pmara kutata’, an aboriginal phrase meaning ‘spirit of place’ or ‘everlasting home’. All of Ricketts’ meticulously carved stone sculptures seemed to radiate with that phrase; in fact, his whole life – as an artist, a naturalist,
and an ambassador for Aboriginal spirituality – radiated with pmara kutata, like little dew drops shimmering in the sun. You wanted to hold that phrase, but knew, instinctively, that you couldn’t. And here’s the epiphany – no matter how much you want to hold or feel nature, you can never really fully grasp it. It would, always, flit away again, after resting in your soul for a while. When we set out to find environmental artists for the feature, it was this moment that I was looking for. The pmara kutata-ness, so to speak. Where artists not just used the natural world as their muse but discovered and recreated the spirit of that world in ways that are often surprising, yes, but also sublime in its power. It was, as if, the sand or the rock or the stone or the wood or the bamboo projected an inherent personality that no more spoke of the artist as much as it spoke about the spirit that shaped this matter into a visual indulgence.
Many months ago, while researching for another story, we came across Andres Amador’s ‘Playa Paintings’. It was art he created on the sands of the beach during low tide, using only a rake. ‘The idea came to me while studying geometry, ancient architecture and crop circles. Our ancestors created their magnificent works with very simple tools, but armed with great geometric insights. From there the art has
evolved into many different styles over the years as the medium guides the exploration,’ he says. Based in San Francisco, Amador’s art gives sand a dignity hitherto hidden in either elaborate sand sculptures or everyday sand castles. The lines his rake creates are, somehow, full of meaning and also full of silences waiting to be eventually erased, which ironically, gave it its real source of hypnotic power.
Andres working, biohazard
all images courtesy of andres amador andresamadorarts.com Andres working, Warped Fields 2
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flower of life, 2008
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And then we found Ra Paulette, the ‘CaveDigger’, who manually carves out designs on ancient cave structures and has worked on 14 caves to date. His designs are simplistic, often relying on the easy symbolism of circles, but it is the process that takes your breath away. The cracking of stone, the soft sand falling away, the emergence of the pattern, literally bit by bit, has a certain enigmatic charm, making you always wonder what lies behind the surfaces left behind. ‘When digging and excavating the caves I break down
all the movements into their simplest parts and reassemble them into the most efficient patterns and strategies that will accomplish the task while maintaining bodily ease. Like a dancer, I ‘feel’ the body and its movement in a conscious way. I’m fond of calling this ‘the dance of digging’ and it is the secret of how this old man can get so much done,’ he says. Ra is 74 years old and is currently involved in his ‘most ambitious project’ that he anticipates will take him ten years to complete.
Ojo cave (entry), image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
new project (motif), image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
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new project, image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
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Henrique Oliveira’s work with reclaimed wood caught our attention next. Based in São Paulo, Oliveira has a ‘very peculiar way of painting’, as art critic Ricardo Resende says, and further elaborates: ‘It is this peculiar way of working or his artistic process that turns what he does into a very special painting. Far from conventional. That would justify the development of his plastic research that has wood as the material of his installations and that I dare call paintings. It is not paint, but the scraps of wood that lend colour to his “paintings.” Wood scraps that
carry the discolouration of time. They become paintings that do not remain on the flatness of a canvas.’ Resende couldn’t have expressed it better, as with Oliveira’s work, it literally feels like his vision shatters all conformity leaving you completely alone to deal with the vulnerability of his artwork. There is no generic language, no vocabulary, no history that you can fall back on to interpret the seamless elasticity of character embedded in his art, except that of your own.
Bololô, 2011, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC - USA, plywood, 4.3m x 9.2m x 7.6m, photograph Courtesy of Galeria Millan
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Tapumes - Casa dos Leões, 2009, VII Bienal do Mercosul, Porto, Alegre - Brazil, plywood and PVC photo: Eduardo Ortega / Courtesy of Galeria Millan
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Which is, in a way, similar to what Ya-chu Kang, does. Based in Taipei, Kang’s site-specific installations and mixed-media sculptures invoke a deep sense of nostalgia for that which is gone and a deep sense of identity for that which is. Working mostly with natural materials or abandoned or ‘found’ materials, Kang says his work ‘explores issues of identity, the relationship between human and natural and the social
environment message’. ‘Moreover, I believe that old wisdoms conserve the information of the natural and universal, and we need to understand and respect those messages to keep the balance between human life and natural environment around the world,’ he adds. And, thus began his current exploration with textilebased traditions for that elusive ‘knowledge from ancient cultures from around the world’.
reservations (detail), blueprint all images courtesy of ya-chu kang
the loop, 2014
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And finally, we met Lynne Hull, who was creating art for quite a different kind of audience, altogether. She describes her work as ‘creating trans-species art and sculpture for wildlife’ and she isn’t kidding. So you have ‘Scatter’, a water capture basin for desert wildlife made of carved sandstone; you have ‘Duck Island’ made of recycled wood and branches for waterfowls and turtles; you have 20 inches tall wooden ‘snag sculpture for songbird habitat’; and you have sculptures for wild geese, for aquatic species, for ospreys and otters and for wildlife that perhaps, Hull did
raptor roost l-2, with Ferruginous Hawk: a safe roosting sculpture for hawks and eagles. 14’ tall. Wood, metals, Latex Paint. 1988.
“L’Echelle Entre La Dame Blanche et L’Homme” — the ladder between the White Lady (owl) and Man — a metaphor for contact between species. The top of the 15th century tower contains an installation for nesting for the owls, who clear rodents from the village. The interior installation is a private dialog between artist & birds. Les Arques, France, 2003. 35’ tall, wood.
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not even originally intend it for. But, most of all, you have a unique syntax for contemporary art that seeks to create an aesthetic which appeals to all – humans and animals, alike. ‘Lynne Hull’s unique ecological artistic projects pioneer the creation of new models for trans-species cultural exchanges, bio-diverse dialogues, and eco-communal relationships. She is mending Western civilisation’s split between human and non-human nature by conferring on the human artist the role of curator of the Earth’s living art gallery,’ says art critic, Gloria Feman Orenstein.
grandmother trees, snag sculptures for songbird habitat, 20’ tall, Wood, latex paint, 1991
all images courtesy of lynne hull Otter Haven, a day resting site for otter, Green River Greenbelt, 12’ x 7’ x 8’, Wood, 1993.
Cob wildlife viewing blind, a screen to hide people approaching the pond from the wildlife using the pond. 32’ x 8’, “Cob” (clay, sand & straw mud), branches, stone and gabion box foundation, East Drake Pondworks project, 2006-07.
Duck Island, with Canada Geese. A floating sculpture for waterfowl and turtles. Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, Colorado Recycled redwood, branches & other recycled materials, 1998
‘Scatter’ Hydroglyph (part 3 of 5), A water capture basin for desert wildlife. Near Moab, Utah. Carved sandstone, 4’ x 3’ x 3”, 1987
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To all these hugely diverse artists, we asked them the same three questions, to understand their relationship between that which they take and that which they create. Their responses, as diverse as their art, held, for me, that which I was seeking – the spirit of place.
How does the physicality of nature its texture, colour, tone, structure make its aesthetics come alive?
Andres Amador
More and more I am coming to terms with the nature of the physical location I am working with and learning to incorporate and even highlight the unique qualities. I’m actually basing locations I work with on the features I can collaborate with. Working with nature, I had to accept that some portions of my work would start to dry up, or a wave might eat into it or many people had walked through, leaving many footprints, or even with people
helping me needing to accept their limitations in following my instructions. However, the things that I might previously have considered ‘imperfections’ I have found to add interest to the overall image. Texture, tonal variation, colour intensity - the happenstance of the conditions that day. These variables are fickle in what they can offer, however, and many times it may not hit the mark in terms of the overall image I feel good enough about to print.
henrique oliveira
When I started to work with used plywood on my early installations, it was a memory of construction sites, precarious inhabitations and decadent urbanscape that could be found there. It was only later on, as the works evolved into more complex forms that I started to fully understand the use of this material towards a greater plasticity. Consequently, when I added other materials an idea of nature started to form. One of the first steps was to using PVC tubes as a structure. When combined to the plywood boards, it gave an elastic feeling, adding a liquid quality to a material that normally is dry and brittle.
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Cutting the bender board (a flexible kind of plywood) into strips and attaching them together, I could create smaller works – liberating them from the wall and creating more compact sculptural pieces. At this point, I started to get interested in the possibility of giving back this material, which is extracted from the trees, its original form. With this passage, there was shift of the focus of the work: from the city to nature. The very aspect of the laminates stapled together became a kind of ‘bark’, expanding the creation process to several possibilities. Nature did not serve as a model for the works anymore; instead, a natural internal process led the work to a situation where it became possible to mimic natural objects.
Lynne Hull
Certainly, my relationship and appreciation of the natural elements impact my design. My artworks are very much my design, as I realised early on that it is impossible to ‘replicate’ nature but artworks can be designed to be compatible with nature. While being out in nature is my joy, using natural or ‘human made’ materials to fit the specific needs of the
species I am working with and still create an aesthetic artwork which assists the species and fits with the local environment is usually my goal. Some of my artworks are hidden from humans, made only to assist other wild species. I hope they fit the aesthetics, or at least the appreciation, of the wildlife using the piece.
Ra Paulette
The physicality of nature as the elements of wonder, beauty, sacredness would not be here on earth without the presence of the human being. These are not qualities or aspects of external objects, but the action of the potential of human perception. Thus, my unique neurology and life experiences are the
instruments that create the aesthetics of this earth. Paradoxically, the artist must ‘forget her/himself ’ for this to take place. So this ‘me’ has everything and nothing to do with this expression. When art happens, it is life celebrating itself.
Ya-chu Kang
The amazing parts of nature are born from our mysterious universe. Artists often find ideas from our natural environment, transforming the forms and shapes from plants and animals. I am learning everything from nature and try to welcome the indigenous elements to guide my thought. I am not only using the natural materials themselves but also trying to bring their character and identity into the work. The meanings of the materials themselves are usually part of the concept of my work. It is
the unpredictability of time that is inherent in nature’s fingerprints which ultimately stimulates my practice. I often need to touch and feel the materials to complete my ideas, especially when they are new for me. Growing up in Taipei city is not always easy to be so close to nature; therefore, I hope people can touch and feel the natural physicality through my project and appreciate the hidden beauty within the environment.
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What do you think is the message inherent in our environment, especially with the medium in which you work?
Andres Amador
Once I started to perceive the deeper patterns of life around us – the movement of the waves, the interaction of wind and sand, the growth of plants, the deposition of sand from wind and water, I began seeing that everything we see is there because of its own process, and that process is still occurring, whatever that means in the circumstance.
Art that is meant to last only a short time, my art being an extreme example, has the impact of causing a viewer to acknowledge, however subconsciously, the ephemerality of life. The accelerated process of life and death that occurs to my art is a metaphor for the process that all things are undergoing, each in its own way.
henrique oliveira
I never intended to pass any kind of message through my works; on the contrary, I believe that what makes an art piece interesting is its refusal to be translated into literal meanings. It doesn’t mean that we can’t interpret it; people have interpreted my works in different ways. Some have seen ‘the power of nature overcoming the civilisation’, others ‘the abandon expelling its matters out of buildings’.
In a show in the United States, someone went even further and saw the Rain Forest in one of my painterly wall installations. These are examples of interpretations that were made possible by the materiality. These works represent elements that hold the potential of triggering alternative ways of facing reality.
Lynne Hull
I hope my work can help humans wake up to the beauty of nature and the magical mystery of our wild relations, who enrich our lives so strongly. Can appreciation of the natural beauty in our environment encourage humans to take action to protect it? As much as I
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appreciate all that science has taught us, I don’t see scientific data reaching people in ways that stimulate action and conservation as well as the emotional contact of art. It is also my goal that my artworks are ‘scientifically accurate’ for the species.
Ra Paulette
We are the message, the messenger, and the recipient of the message. When this message manifests itself as thought/action it reveals our purpose and place on earth and in the universe. The necessity of human presence isn’t organic, it’s poetic. In some mysterious way, life is
compelled to evolve to the stage of being aware and appreciative of itself. The sunlit caves are fitted carefully into the natural world as a love song life is singing to itself through the conduit of my personal gifts. Our place, our job in the world is to be lovers of life.
Ya-chu Kang
Natural beauty for me is when it is not able to be manmade. On the other hand, artists transform natural beauty shifting the natural through various contexts. It is also very difficult to find any object that is 100% organic. Weather, climate, humidity, temperature, and so on, could all be elements that give the work a different view. The same materials could carry different messages when they are located in different sites and countries. For
example, the bamboo tablet attached on the ‘The Loop’ sculpture’s surface echo the culture of handmade bamboo baskets, and it represents the lifestyle and the connection between humane and the natural in Thailand. The work ‘Cradle Umbilical’ at the Guandu Natural Park in Taipei performed the idea of ‘cradle to cradle’ by using various salvaged natural materials from the park.
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What kind of impact do you think your art creates? Do you think it is more about reverence for nature or the organic relationship of man with nature?
Andres Amador
My art started out as an intellectual exercise, one based on geometry and orderliness. Over time it has shifted towards appreciation of the sources of my inspirations (generally nature based) and an appreciation of the ephemerality of life. That probably explains the reverence for life that has begun to emerge in my work at a more overt level. Reverence for nature fosters a more organic way of working with it, and
when working with nature, coming to deeply understand its mysteries fosters reverence. It feels like humanity is beginning to make a sharper turn towards this approach to living. Our collective consciousness has evolved to recognise the varieties of humanity, now it is beginning to evolve to encompass the larger awareness of what deserves our respect and consideration.
henrique oliveira
I never wanted to reverence nature neither to pose eco-discourses. I like to think my work as a kind of symptom of our time. It sometimes may reflect our desire to recreate, to understand and to control nature through genetic knowledge. It may also be seen as an image of the pathologies of contemporary world, as an analogous of the disorders of the human body and the body of society. Other researches of mine focus on art history to develop a kind of three-dimensional painting language. And independent of my intentions, some people
will pay attention to the recycling process, so, for them, it will appear environmental issues are implicit on these materials. When some of my works are less compromised with a previous project, other works materialise ideas that were clear in my mind before being shaped into reality. I like to think that layers of meaning can keep being unveiled beyond the obvious visual impact of its textures. Changes in the perception of time and space can take place after experiencing its architectonic dimensions.
Lynne Hull
I hope my impact is creating reverence and appreciation for the wildlife species who share our planet. I feel the relationship of man and nature is too based on commodity and of ‘resource’ and not enough on acceptance that humans are connected to all beings and cannot survive without them. I hope seeing wildlife
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using my artwork touches people emotionally so they fall in love with a species and assist in saving it. Currently, I’m looking for scientists working to save threatened and endangered species to offer my skills to ‘illuminate’ their data to the public.
Ra Paulette
This medium of sunlit caves engulfs perception in evocative dichotomies: The light of the sky with the embrace of being underground; the physical intimacy of sitting in a small alcove while viewing grand pillars and arches; the attempt of focused vision to take in the surrounding relief carving while peripheral
vision is enhanced; and leaving the immersive experience of the cave into the panoramic vistas and landscape. I have witnessed in myself and others the deep/expansive emotions that these juxtapositions effect. They suggest that the journey of going within ourselves may not be as dark and scary as we imagine.
Ya-chu Kang
I think my art is more about the relationship between human and natural, contemporary and traditional. People, nowadays, forget how important nature is for us. Nature doesn’t need humans and its constant reaping of resources, yet we need nature to survive. Hence, I intend to bring the consciousness and awareness of environmental issues to the audience by seeing, touching and feeling. Most of my environmental art engages with people, such as walking on the carpet which was made by dirt, lying on the tree bark blanket and wooden cradle, creating the body images from the sun by Cyanotype technique, making the straw facemasks to be part of an installation. I create
opportunities for people to get involved with nature, and hope to even affect the process and change the result by their intervention. Natural is everywhere but also nowhere. People could have stronger perceptions and memories through their participation, and might change their original thought or give themselves a new way of seeing things. I am not trying to change people’s minds; I try to offer an alternative approach to asking questions and challenging one’s own perception of nature through an art discourse.
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By Praveena Shivram
with inputs from vani sriranganayaki vanamamalai
We take a look at five hugely diverse contemporary artists working with the environment in ways that are surprising and, yet, sublimely powerful
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In 2011, during a chance visit to the William Ricketts Sanctuary in Melbourne, I had my first, real epiphanic moment. It was the first time that I could actually say, yes, it is exactly because I stood here at this time on this day that this epiphany, flitting about like a restless butterfly, chose to gently alight on my shoulders. It was at Ricketts’ grave and his tombstone that read, ‘Here lies William’s ashes beneath the Tree of Life. Returned to his Mother Earth in this Forest of Love. In the quiet of mind feel his Love and Presence for it is all around.’ It was carved out in stone, in old-world cursive, with something bordering on jauntiness as the letters playfully curved inward. And right at the end, on either sides of the symbol of concentric circles were the words, ‘pmara kutata’, an aboriginal phrase meaning ‘spirit of place’ or ‘everlasting home’. All of Ricketts’ meticulously carved stone sculptures seemed to radiate with that phrase; in fact, his whole life – as an artist, a naturalist,
and an ambassador for Aboriginal spirituality – radiated with pmara kutata, like little dew drops shimmering in the sun. You wanted to hold that phrase, but knew, instinctively, that you couldn’t. And here’s the epiphany – no matter how much you want to hold or feel nature, you can never really fully grasp it. It would, always, flit away again, after resting in your soul for a while. When we set out to find environmental artists for the feature, it was this moment that I was looking for. The pmara kutata-ness, so to speak. Where artists not just used the natural world as their muse but discovered and recreated the spirit of that world in ways that are often surprising, yes, but also sublime in its power. It was, as if, the sand or the rock or the stone or the wood or the bamboo projected an inherent personality that no more spoke of the artist as much as it spoke about the spirit that shaped this matter into a visual indulgence.
Many months ago, while researching for another story, we came across Andres Amador’s ‘Playa Paintings’. It was art he created on the sands of the beach during low tide, using only a rake. ‘The idea came to me while studying geometry, ancient architecture and crop circles. Our ancestors created their magnificent works with very simple tools, but armed with great geometric insights. From there the art has
evolved into many different styles over the years as the medium guides the exploration,’ he says. Based in San Francisco, Amador’s art gives sand a dignity hitherto hidden in either elaborate sand sculptures or everyday sand castles. The lines his rake creates are, somehow, full of meaning and also full of silences waiting to be eventually erased, which ironically, gave it its real source of hypnotic power.
Andres working, biohazard
all images courtesy of andres amador andresamadorarts.com Andres working, Warped Fields 2
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flower of life, 2008
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And then we found Ra Paulette, the ‘CaveDigger’, who manually carves out designs on ancient cave structures and has worked on 14 caves to date. His designs are simplistic, often relying on the easy symbolism of circles, but it is the process that takes your breath away. The cracking of stone, the soft sand falling away, the emergence of the pattern, literally bit by bit, has a certain enigmatic charm, making you always wonder what lies behind the surfaces left behind. ‘When digging and excavating the caves I break down
all the movements into their simplest parts and reassemble them into the most efficient patterns and strategies that will accomplish the task while maintaining bodily ease. Like a dancer, I ‘feel’ the body and its movement in a conscious way. I’m fond of calling this ‘the dance of digging’ and it is the secret of how this old man can get so much done,’ he says. Ra is 74 years old and is currently involved in his ‘most ambitious project’ that he anticipates will take him ten years to complete.
Ojo cave (entry), image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
new project (motif), image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
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new project, image courtesy of cavediggerdocumentary.com
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Henrique Oliveira’s work with reclaimed wood caught our attention next. Based in São Paulo, Oliveira has a ‘very peculiar way of painting’, as art critic Ricardo Resende says, and further elaborates: ‘It is this peculiar way of working or his artistic process that turns what he does into a very special painting. Far from conventional. That would justify the development of his plastic research that has wood as the material of his installations and that I dare call paintings. It is not paint, but the scraps of wood that lend colour to his “paintings.” Wood scraps that
carry the discolouration of time. They become paintings that do not remain on the flatness of a canvas.’ Resende couldn’t have expressed it better, as with Oliveira’s work, it literally feels like his vision shatters all conformity leaving you completely alone to deal with the vulnerability of his artwork. There is no generic language, no vocabulary, no history that you can fall back on to interpret the seamless elasticity of character embedded in his art, except that of your own.
Bololô, 2011, Smithsonian National Museum of African Art, Washington DC - USA, plywood, 4.3m x 9.2m x 7.6m, photograph Courtesy of Galeria Millan
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Tapumes - Casa dos Leões, 2009, VII Bienal do Mercosul, Porto, Alegre - Brazil, plywood and PVC photo: Eduardo Ortega / Courtesy of Galeria Millan
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Which is, in a way, similar to what Ya-chu Kang, does. Based in Taipei, Kang’s site-specific installations and mixed-media sculptures invoke a deep sense of nostalgia for that which is gone and a deep sense of identity for that which is. Working mostly with natural materials or abandoned or ‘found’ materials, Kang says his work ‘explores issues of identity, the relationship between human and natural and the social
environment message’. ‘Moreover, I believe that old wisdoms conserve the information of the natural and universal, and we need to understand and respect those messages to keep the balance between human life and natural environment around the world,’ he adds. And, thus began his current exploration with textilebased traditions for that elusive ‘knowledge from ancient cultures from around the world’.
reservations (detail), blueprint all images courtesy of ya-chu kang
the loop, 2014
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And finally, we met Lynne Hull, who was creating art for quite a different kind of audience, altogether. She describes her work as ‘creating trans-species art and sculpture for wildlife’ and she isn’t kidding. So you have ‘Scatter’, a water capture basin for desert wildlife made of carved sandstone; you have ‘Duck Island’ made of recycled wood and branches for waterfowls and turtles; you have 20 inches tall wooden ‘snag sculpture for songbird habitat’; and you have sculptures for wild geese, for aquatic species, for ospreys and otters and for wildlife that perhaps, Hull did
raptor roost l-2, with Ferruginous Hawk: a safe roosting sculpture for hawks and eagles. 14’ tall. Wood, metals, Latex Paint. 1988.
“L’Echelle Entre La Dame Blanche et L’Homme” — the ladder between the White Lady (owl) and Man — a metaphor for contact between species. The top of the 15th century tower contains an installation for nesting for the owls, who clear rodents from the village. The interior installation is a private dialog between artist & birds. Les Arques, France, 2003. 35’ tall, wood.
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not even originally intend it for. But, most of all, you have a unique syntax for contemporary art that seeks to create an aesthetic which appeals to all – humans and animals, alike. ‘Lynne Hull’s unique ecological artistic projects pioneer the creation of new models for trans-species cultural exchanges, bio-diverse dialogues, and eco-communal relationships. She is mending Western civilisation’s split between human and non-human nature by conferring on the human artist the role of curator of the Earth’s living art gallery,’ says art critic, Gloria Feman Orenstein.
grandmother trees, snag sculptures for songbird habitat, 20’ tall, Wood, latex paint, 1991
all images courtesy of lynne hull Otter Haven, a day resting site for otter, Green River Greenbelt, 12’ x 7’ x 8’, Wood, 1993.
Cob wildlife viewing blind, a screen to hide people approaching the pond from the wildlife using the pond. 32’ x 8’, “Cob” (clay, sand & straw mud), branches, stone and gabion box foundation, East Drake Pondworks project, 2006-07.
Duck Island, with Canada Geese. A floating sculpture for waterfowl and turtles. Arvada Center for the Arts, Arvada, Colorado Recycled redwood, branches & other recycled materials, 1998
‘Scatter’ Hydroglyph (part 3 of 5), A water capture basin for desert wildlife. Near Moab, Utah. Carved sandstone, 4’ x 3’ x 3”, 1987
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To all these hugely diverse artists, we asked them the same three questions, to understand their relationship between that which they take and that which they create. Their responses, as diverse as their art, held, for me, that which I was seeking – the spirit of place.
How does the physicality of nature its texture, colour, tone, structure make its aesthetics come alive?
Andres Amador
More and more I am coming to terms with the nature of the physical location I am working with and learning to incorporate and even highlight the unique qualities. I’m actually basing locations I work with on the features I can collaborate with. Working with nature, I had to accept that some portions of my work would start to dry up, or a wave might eat into it or many people had walked through, leaving many footprints, or even with people
helping me needing to accept their limitations in following my instructions. However, the things that I might previously have considered ‘imperfections’ I have found to add interest to the overall image. Texture, tonal variation, colour intensity - the happenstance of the conditions that day. These variables are fickle in what they can offer, however, and many times it may not hit the mark in terms of the overall image I feel good enough about to print.
henrique oliveira
When I started to work with used plywood on my early installations, it was a memory of construction sites, precarious inhabitations and decadent urbanscape that could be found there. It was only later on, as the works evolved into more complex forms that I started to fully understand the use of this material towards a greater plasticity. Consequently, when I added other materials an idea of nature started to form. One of the first steps was to using PVC tubes as a structure. When combined to the plywood boards, it gave an elastic feeling, adding a liquid quality to a material that normally is dry and brittle.
76
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Cutting the bender board (a flexible kind of plywood) into strips and attaching them together, I could create smaller works – liberating them from the wall and creating more compact sculptural pieces. At this point, I started to get interested in the possibility of giving back this material, which is extracted from the trees, its original form. With this passage, there was shift of the focus of the work: from the city to nature. The very aspect of the laminates stapled together became a kind of ‘bark’, expanding the creation process to several possibilities. Nature did not serve as a model for the works anymore; instead, a natural internal process led the work to a situation where it became possible to mimic natural objects.
Lynne Hull
Certainly, my relationship and appreciation of the natural elements impact my design. My artworks are very much my design, as I realised early on that it is impossible to ‘replicate’ nature but artworks can be designed to be compatible with nature. While being out in nature is my joy, using natural or ‘human made’ materials to fit the specific needs of the
species I am working with and still create an aesthetic artwork which assists the species and fits with the local environment is usually my goal. Some of my artworks are hidden from humans, made only to assist other wild species. I hope they fit the aesthetics, or at least the appreciation, of the wildlife using the piece.
Ra Paulette
The physicality of nature as the elements of wonder, beauty, sacredness would not be here on earth without the presence of the human being. These are not qualities or aspects of external objects, but the action of the potential of human perception. Thus, my unique neurology and life experiences are the
instruments that create the aesthetics of this earth. Paradoxically, the artist must ‘forget her/himself ’ for this to take place. So this ‘me’ has everything and nothing to do with this expression. When art happens, it is life celebrating itself.
Ya-chu Kang
The amazing parts of nature are born from our mysterious universe. Artists often find ideas from our natural environment, transforming the forms and shapes from plants and animals. I am learning everything from nature and try to welcome the indigenous elements to guide my thought. I am not only using the natural materials themselves but also trying to bring their character and identity into the work. The meanings of the materials themselves are usually part of the concept of my work. It is
the unpredictability of time that is inherent in nature’s fingerprints which ultimately stimulates my practice. I often need to touch and feel the materials to complete my ideas, especially when they are new for me. Growing up in Taipei city is not always easy to be so close to nature; therefore, I hope people can touch and feel the natural physicality through my project and appreciate the hidden beauty within the environment.
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What do you think is the message inherent in our environment, especially with the medium in which you work?
Andres Amador
Once I started to perceive the deeper patterns of life around us – the movement of the waves, the interaction of wind and sand, the growth of plants, the deposition of sand from wind and water, I began seeing that everything we see is there because of its own process, and that process is still occurring, whatever that means in the circumstance.
Art that is meant to last only a short time, my art being an extreme example, has the impact of causing a viewer to acknowledge, however subconsciously, the ephemerality of life. The accelerated process of life and death that occurs to my art is a metaphor for the process that all things are undergoing, each in its own way.
henrique oliveira
I never intended to pass any kind of message through my works; on the contrary, I believe that what makes an art piece interesting is its refusal to be translated into literal meanings. It doesn’t mean that we can’t interpret it; people have interpreted my works in different ways. Some have seen ‘the power of nature overcoming the civilisation’, others ‘the abandon expelling its matters out of buildings’.
In a show in the United States, someone went even further and saw the Rain Forest in one of my painterly wall installations. These are examples of interpretations that were made possible by the materiality. These works represent elements that hold the potential of triggering alternative ways of facing reality.
Lynne Hull
I hope my work can help humans wake up to the beauty of nature and the magical mystery of our wild relations, who enrich our lives so strongly. Can appreciation of the natural beauty in our environment encourage humans to take action to protect it? As much as I
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appreciate all that science has taught us, I don’t see scientific data reaching people in ways that stimulate action and conservation as well as the emotional contact of art. It is also my goal that my artworks are ‘scientifically accurate’ for the species.
Ra Paulette
We are the message, the messenger, and the recipient of the message. When this message manifests itself as thought/action it reveals our purpose and place on earth and in the universe. The necessity of human presence isn’t organic, it’s poetic. In some mysterious way, life is
compelled to evolve to the stage of being aware and appreciative of itself. The sunlit caves are fitted carefully into the natural world as a love song life is singing to itself through the conduit of my personal gifts. Our place, our job in the world is to be lovers of life.
Ya-chu Kang
Natural beauty for me is when it is not able to be manmade. On the other hand, artists transform natural beauty shifting the natural through various contexts. It is also very difficult to find any object that is 100% organic. Weather, climate, humidity, temperature, and so on, could all be elements that give the work a different view. The same materials could carry different messages when they are located in different sites and countries. For
example, the bamboo tablet attached on the ‘The Loop’ sculpture’s surface echo the culture of handmade bamboo baskets, and it represents the lifestyle and the connection between humane and the natural in Thailand. The work ‘Cradle Umbilical’ at the Guandu Natural Park in Taipei performed the idea of ‘cradle to cradle’ by using various salvaged natural materials from the park.
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What kind of impact do you think your art creates? Do you think it is more about reverence for nature or the organic relationship of man with nature?
Andres Amador
My art started out as an intellectual exercise, one based on geometry and orderliness. Over time it has shifted towards appreciation of the sources of my inspirations (generally nature based) and an appreciation of the ephemerality of life. That probably explains the reverence for life that has begun to emerge in my work at a more overt level. Reverence for nature fosters a more organic way of working with it, and
when working with nature, coming to deeply understand its mysteries fosters reverence. It feels like humanity is beginning to make a sharper turn towards this approach to living. Our collective consciousness has evolved to recognise the varieties of humanity, now it is beginning to evolve to encompass the larger awareness of what deserves our respect and consideration.
henrique oliveira
I never wanted to reverence nature neither to pose eco-discourses. I like to think my work as a kind of symptom of our time. It sometimes may reflect our desire to recreate, to understand and to control nature through genetic knowledge. It may also be seen as an image of the pathologies of contemporary world, as an analogous of the disorders of the human body and the body of society. Other researches of mine focus on art history to develop a kind of three-dimensional painting language. And independent of my intentions, some people
will pay attention to the recycling process, so, for them, it will appear environmental issues are implicit on these materials. When some of my works are less compromised with a previous project, other works materialise ideas that were clear in my mind before being shaped into reality. I like to think that layers of meaning can keep being unveiled beyond the obvious visual impact of its textures. Changes in the perception of time and space can take place after experiencing its architectonic dimensions.
Lynne Hull
I hope my impact is creating reverence and appreciation for the wildlife species who share our planet. I feel the relationship of man and nature is too based on commodity and of ‘resource’ and not enough on acceptance that humans are connected to all beings and cannot survive without them. I hope seeing wildlife
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using my artwork touches people emotionally so they fall in love with a species and assist in saving it. Currently, I’m looking for scientists working to save threatened and endangered species to offer my skills to ‘illuminate’ their data to the public.
Ra Paulette
This medium of sunlit caves engulfs perception in evocative dichotomies: The light of the sky with the embrace of being underground; the physical intimacy of sitting in a small alcove while viewing grand pillars and arches; the attempt of focused vision to take in the surrounding relief carving while peripheral
vision is enhanced; and leaving the immersive experience of the cave into the panoramic vistas and landscape. I have witnessed in myself and others the deep/expansive emotions that these juxtapositions effect. They suggest that the journey of going within ourselves may not be as dark and scary as we imagine.
Ya-chu Kang
I think my art is more about the relationship between human and natural, contemporary and traditional. People, nowadays, forget how important nature is for us. Nature doesn’t need humans and its constant reaping of resources, yet we need nature to survive. Hence, I intend to bring the consciousness and awareness of environmental issues to the audience by seeing, touching and feeling. Most of my environmental art engages with people, such as walking on the carpet which was made by dirt, lying on the tree bark blanket and wooden cradle, creating the body images from the sun by Cyanotype technique, making the straw facemasks to be part of an installation. I create
opportunities for people to get involved with nature, and hope to even affect the process and change the result by their intervention. Natural is everywhere but also nowhere. People could have stronger perceptions and memories through their participation, and might change their original thought or give themselves a new way of seeing things. I am not trying to change people’s minds; I try to offer an alternative approach to asking questions and challenging one’s own perception of nature through an art discourse.
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