The photographs are meant to be a work of quietude and transformation, engaging the audience to imagine and create their own worlds and ideas of our relationship with nature. The landscape elements (trees and sky) serve as metaphorical spaces and entrances where our imagination can run free to re-create, re-attach and mesh with nature.
‘Beneath the Canopy’ is part of a series of 10 photographs that explores issues pertaining to our relationship with nature with particular focus on the damaging attitudes of our culture where the environment is concerned. Through this work I have a desire to make amends for destructive environmental behaviours and to be part of a healing process to strengthen the bond between land and people.
The photographs are meant to be a work of quietude and transformation, engaging the audience to imagine and create their own worlds and ideas of our relationship with nature. The landscape elements (trees and sky) serve as metaphorical spaces and entrances where our imagination can run free to re-create, re-attach and mesh with nature.
BACKGROUND
The Western Worlds’ conception of nature as a thing to be owned, mined and fenced positions us as consumers of the very forces upon which we rely for our existence. In the process of destroying our planet humans appear to be indifferent to or incapable of changing their behavioural templates. However, far from being a recent phenomenon this split or dualism is deeply in-grained and can be found in our religious and spiritual traditions. Spirit is envisaged as rising upward, into transcendent realms, whereas nature, which includes bodily sensations and feelings, draws us downward toward the demonic. For me one way of addressing these seemingly overwhelming challenges is through the disarming – and perhaps circuit-breaking - activity of play. In arriving at this position the words of arts academic Professor Brian Boyd have been inspiring. According to Boyd, “Play, widespread through the animal kingdom, is a mechanism that evolved to help us practice important life-saving skills in a safe circumstance. Because humans gain most of their advantages via intelligence, they are inclined towards cognitive play, and in particular, cognitive play with pattern. Humans are natural-born pattern-extractors: reading regularities in the environment is crucial to ensure our survival and prosperity….”
‘Beneath the Canopy’ is part of a series of 10 photographs that explores issues pertaining to our relationship with nature with particular focus on the damaging attitudes of our culture where the environment is concerned. Through this work I have a desire to make amends for destructive environmental behaviours and to be part of a healing process to strengthen the bond between land and people.
The photographs are meant to be a work of quietude and transformation, engaging the audience to imagine and create their own worlds and ideas of our relationship with nature. The landscape elements (trees and sky) serve as metaphorical spaces and entrances where our imagination can run free to re-create, re-attach and mesh with nature.
BACKGROUND
The Western Worlds’ conception of nature as a thing to be owned, mined and fenced positions us as consumers of the very forces upon which we rely for our existence. In the process of destroying our planet humans appear to be indifferent to or incapable of changing their behavioural templates. However, far from being a recent phenomenon this split or dualism is deeply in-grained and can be found in our religious and spiritual traditions. Spirit is envisaged as rising upward, into transcendent realms, whereas nature, which includes bodily sensations and feelings, draws us downward toward the demonic. For me one way of addressing these seemingly overwhelming challenges is through the disarming – and perhaps circuit-breaking - activity of play. In arriving at this position the words of arts academic Professor Brian Boyd have been inspiring. According to Boyd, “Play, widespread through the animal kingdom, is a mechanism that evolved to help us practice important life-saving skills in a safe circumstance. Because humans gain most of their advantages via intelligence, they are inclined towards cognitive play, and in particular, cognitive play with pattern. Humans are natural-born pattern-extractors: reading regularities in the environment is crucial to ensure our survival and prosperity….”
