THE RIVER SPEAKS 2

 

The River Speaks 2 takes as it's point of departure the notion that all things are interconnected.

Our perception is too fast to see the trees growing. We cannot witness the flowing of the landscape as our lives are simply not long enough. But within trees and roots, the urge to grow, expand, increase is inevitable.

That is to say the flow of energy through the plant is recorded in the forms of its trunk, branches, leaves and roots. A feather is engineered for flow - specifically to guide air movement above and below. These are the kinds of reflections that led to The River Speaks 2.

This work utilises the central assemblage component of the Sharing the Waiwhakaiho version of The River Speaks. pointing as ever to this page and The River Speaks (1).

 

Context

 

 

The idea that all things are connected is found in many cultures, particularly in Polynesian philosophy. In Western art, da Vinci wrote "Observe the motion of water on the surface of water, which resembles the behavior of hair."

After da Vinci: study for the head of Leda c.1505-7 is a pencil on paper copy I made a few years ago. I saw this drawing, among 90 or so in 1989 in London at the Whitechapel. I slept with the catalogue under my pillow for nearly a decade. And then everyone should know my sensitivity of touch is nowhere near da Vinci. His original was a silver point etching which I tried to render in pencil, not entirely successfully.

 

 

The process of the theorist in attempting to describe real phenomena by engineer E. Atlee Jackson .

This diagram reveals a nonlinear, interconnected worldview.

 

Media structure of my MA thesis project Hybrid cultures, nonlinearity and creative practice.

While over a decade old, my thesis project set me thinking about how interconnections might operate in an art project, and has been the basis of activities since.