My work 'From Earth, with Love' is an exploration of the new possibility where humans and non-humans are allowed to communicate verbally with each other. It demonstrates the abusiveness that we have applied to non-humans in our time on this planet, and how one would expect someone to respond to that abuse in the bluntest of manners. I wanted this work to be more about audience reaction than meaning. I wanted them to feel the initial shock and anger over being cursed at for absolutely no reason, so to communicate how it may feel on the non-human side when we abuse it. The idea came from a desire to take delve into a new possibility for the relationship for humans and non-humans, something I felt I had failed to do in my previous work, as well as experimentation. The new possibility I decided to explore was one wherein our relationship is no longer one way on a communicative level. Currently we use the environment to our hearts content, but never know how it might feel about that. We always look for signs of discontent, such as pollution or salinisation, but we never receive verbal feedback as we do in human to human relationships. When I asked myself, 'what would be the first thing a tree, a significant symbol and representative of the non-human world, say to humanity?', the very first thing that come to mind was the words 'Fuck you'. More specifically, 'Fuck you for everything that you've done. I was doing perfectly fine before you lot came along and started ripping everything up for your own green. Do you even care about my feelings at all?!'. In short, the relationship I would consider closest to the possible verbal relations between humans and non-humans is that of an abusive marriage, where one side is forced to submit to the other without a say in what goes on. My previous work focused too much on representing the current relations through visualisation. This is the easiest and least complicated way of showing how it is, but it doesn't present anything new. My previous work would follow what I would consider to be an 'HSC English' formula. I would show the image and the have to explain the visual techniques and how they contribute to the overall meaning and feeling the work is supposed pertain to. Never in any of my previous work or experimentation have I truly focus upon the initial reaction of the work, where a combination of simplicity and self-interpretation gives meaning to the work rather than long winded explanation. Our lesson in week 5 on 'Affect and Body Politics' taught me to treat the work as an experience rather than a symbol. When designing the tree initially, I had the letters fit in with the style of the branches, wavy with spikes coming out of the ends. I quickly realised however that the letters were becoming lost within the tree, and only those who looked hard enough could see the hidden meaning. I am not going for hidden meaning at all. The reason the work is completely colourless is so that the responder is only able to focus on shape, and therefore be forced to make out the letters. I want people to look at the work straight away and be able to read what is says clear as day, so they can take immediate offense to it. I want them to take onboard those initial feelings of 'What did you just say to me?' and 'Why did you say that?', and reflect on moments where they may have caused others to think or say the same thing to them. I want the work to be somewhat of a role play where the non-human abuses the human and the human takes offense. I want to put the audience directly in that possibility so that they may gain a new experience and understanding of our relationship with non-humans. In terms of artist inspiration for my work, the main figure would be Banksy, someone I've admired for a long time. Banksy's strength as a street artist is taking familiar innocent images and setting that people are familiar with and re-appropriating them to create a new provocative meaning. I aspired for my work to have that same level of provocation. The tree is an international symbol of peace, tranquility and nature, so by juxtaposing it with a provocative statement, I hope to develop a strong reaction from the responder. Bibliography - Art and Affect, History of Emotions, Available at: http://www.historyofemotions.org.au/events/art-and-affect/ (Date accessed: 8/9/2017) - Emelife, A, How provocative art gives historic palaces new life, BBC Culture, Available at: http://www.bbc.com/culture/story/20151111-how-provocative-art-gives-historic-palaces-new-life (Date accessed: 9/9/2017) - Banksy, Street Art Bio, Available at: http://www.streetartbio.com/banksy(Date accessed: 15/9/2017) - Barks, I, Swear World Coloring Book Will Help You Stop Swearing And Start Coloring In 2016, Bored Panda, Available at: https://www.boredpanda.com/curse-sweary-coloring-book-sarah-bigwood/ (Date accessed: 16/9/2017)
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