work
If The Earth Is Animated
| category | Painting |
| subject | Political / Social, Landscape, Nature |
| tags | gaia, earth, climate, freestyle landscape, pattern, bruno latour |
| base | 330 cm |
| height | 160 cm |
| depth | 0 cm |
| year | 2020 |
A piece of inanimate material, at the mercy of gravity and centrifugal force, drifting through space in eternal rotation, created by a chain of coincidences: This is the earth of science, which agrees with the patriarchal monotheistic religions that this material is unconditionally at man's disposal. Not even animals are really considered animate; for Descartes, they are nothing but unfeeling, mechanically functioning bodies. Today, the Cartesian concept is applied to the Earth, a construct of climatic data, geological influences, and the willful or casual design of man.
"Consequently, the question becomes the following: why do those who describe the Earth's actions sometimes assert that nothing is taking place in these actions but “strict chains of causality” and sometimes that a great deal more is happening? This amounts to asking why, if the Earth is animated by countless forms of agents, we have sought to conceptualize it as essentially inert and inanimate." (Bruno Latour: Facing Gaia)
A mechanism to be described and explored in order to intervene when it gets out of rhythm, because in this view only man is capable of repairing the faulty shell. If we recognise the Earth as animate, everything changes.
The painting "If The Earth Is Animated By Countless Forms Of Agents" is done with gouache, spray paint and acrylics on unstreched canvas. Distorted, fragmentary but nonetheless beautiful landscapes are combined with found quotes and scraps of words that shook me and should do the same to the viewer. It is part of the series "How to Speak about the Earth", which was started in fall 2020. At its heart is the engagement with the the so called "climate crisis" and Bruno Latour's analysis of the current situation in his book "Facing Gaia".
"Consequently, the question becomes the following: why do those who describe the Earth's actions sometimes assert that nothing is taking place in these actions but “strict chains of causality” and sometimes that a great deal more is happening? This amounts to asking why, if the Earth is animated by countless forms of agents, we have sought to conceptualize it as essentially inert and inanimate." (Bruno Latour: Facing Gaia)
A mechanism to be described and explored in order to intervene when it gets out of rhythm, because in this view only man is capable of repairing the faulty shell. If we recognise the Earth as animate, everything changes.
The painting "If The Earth Is Animated By Countless Forms Of Agents" is done with gouache, spray paint and acrylics on unstreched canvas. Distorted, fragmentary but nonetheless beautiful landscapes are combined with found quotes and scraps of words that shook me and should do the same to the viewer. It is part of the series "How to Speak about the Earth", which was started in fall 2020. At its heart is the engagement with the the so called "climate crisis" and Bruno Latour's analysis of the current situation in his book "Facing Gaia".
