Entry #2 Eco-Art
This weak in class, an artist named Collin Ives came in to talk about his artwork and his goals as an artist. Collin is called an “eco-artist” because he works have to do with the environment and different ecosystems. He films videos to explain how wildlife lives in our hostile society. One of his works was a study on animals that have thrived in urban living conditions like the kit fox or pigeons for instance. I found his study intriguing because I was curious how or why some animals can reproduce and stay alive in a densely populated human society. I found his work interesting because it asked questions like how do birds survive in human habitats. One of his videos was captured through night vision investigation on the urban night fox called the kit fox. This video showed the intelligence of the fox and how it creeps around after hours. It was obvious the fox is a growing breed because it is nocturnal and can live in peace while humans sleep. Kit fox’s seemed very timid but well aware of their surroundings. Like any living creature being aware of environment is a key to survival. Personally I thought the videos and concept was motivating I just wish Collin had more information and data to show how these animals really continue to exist. Collin did get me thinking about how humans survive and our daily tasks, we all do without thinking about. Even though I had a hard time connecting to Collin’s artwork on a personal level, I felt like I got to see parts of human nature people do not see everyday. The wild life does have to be looked after or else species will go extinct. Collin’s videos were powerful but I do not think these videos are enough to motivate lethargic human to help animal’s well being.
In this weeks reading called, Doin Dirt Time, I read about two “eco-artist” whose artwork was very different than Collins. Rachel Dutton and Rob Old used to live in South Central, Los Angeles and one day they decided to change their lives drastically. Dutton specialized in making hay structures but him and his wife wanted to take a more spiritual approach to their lives. They both stopped everything they had been doing and moved to desert to become one with nature. When they got to New Mexico they burned down all of their sculptures to free the spirits and energy from the artwork. At first I thought these two were crazy and probably on a long drug trip but then I thought about how people really get off on destruction. Look at burning man a festival where thousands of artists meet up to burn a gigantic statue. Personally I think burning all of your artwork is destructive waste of time and it seemed odd how they would move to be with nature and does devastating damage to their artwork. Then I realized they really did just want to leave their old lives behind, I guess living in South Central can get to your head. Rachel and Rob are artists but living your old life behind to follow an old Indian’s ways about the apocalypse is just mind blowing to me.
In the next passage I read titled Making Art About Centipedes, I enjoyed some of the ideas more than the last chapter. On page 87 the author says, “As for art, Manes suggests that we move it out of the exclusively human world so that insects, mountain lions and trees can also have a voice.” I like this quote because I believe nature is naturally the most beautiful thing in the world. It is the purest form on life on this earth. Art is in nature and nature is art. When I want to see beauty I could go to a gallery or I could go on a hike and view scenery no human could ever created. I believe nature needs to be acknowledged as art.
John Muir Trail, Troop 15 High Sierra Trip 2008
