A Bundle of Sticks
Peter Ward
Abstract
‘‘Art does not reproduce the visible but makes visible’’ Paul Klee (1)
“At the heart of today’s ecological crisis lies a terrible failure to understand the essence of our relationship with the natural world. One can of course address that failure rationally and empirically; but the arts (particularly the visual arts) offer different insights into that relationship, and touch people in ways that conventional education and advocacy can rarely do.” Jonathon Porritt, Director, Forum for the Future, UK (2)
As an ecological artist my practice is rooted in a sense of our evolving relationships within the animate earth. Art, as a holistic interdisciplinary process, is the means through which I investigate and share these relationships. It is an intimate response to the social and ecological conditions of our age. Inspired and informed predominantly by the principles of Social Sculpture and instruments of consciousness developed by Joseph Beuys and Shelley Sacks, and by an appreciation of traditional indigenous cultures and practices, A BUNDLE OF STICKS as a simple process, has provided a rich emergent structure through which to examine and develop my work and its potential to enrich and transform our lives. This essay is a document of that process, outlining some of the aesthetic and ecological issues an active and reflective engagement with A BUNDLE OF STICKS has revealed…
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1 From Paul Klee, Creative Credo [Schöpferische Konfession] (1920)
2 Fromhttps://www.universityofthetrees.org/