https://www.artdependence.com/articles/symbolism-of-the-sea-shell-in-botticelli-s-the-birth-of-venus/
https://www.thecollector.com/still-life-paintings-what-they-mean/
Category: Research/Ideas/WIP
Research/documentation of artists of interest, documents, web pages, notes, works that are in progress etc
Pezizaceae Fungi
%20Blistered%20Cup%20Fungus%20%20(Peziza%20vesiculosa)%20Donkey%20Lane%20Allotments%20Sapcote%20SP%204860%209305%20(taken%205.4.2010)..JPG)
Shell meanings
Along the coastlines of the world, a great variety of shells can be found. Seashells are made by the animals that live inside them and all shells grow steadily outward. Shells are among the most remarkable designs found in nature. Examples are the chambered nautilus, the sundial shell, and the triton shell. Shells are usually perceived as feminine; a symbol of birth, good fortune, and resurrection. Bivalved molluscs represent the womb and fertility.
https://mythsymbolsandplay.typepad.com/my-blog/2016/06/shell-symbolism-.html
https://www.nts.org.uk/stories/why-do-we-collect-shells
Symbolisms of life, fertility, luck, travel, love.
In Lord of the Flies, William Golding uses items and people to symbolize many different things. These symbolic things include Piggy’s glasses, Simon’s epilepsy, the Lord of the Flies, and arguably the most important symbol, the conch shell. The conch shell was first found in the water by Piggy, who then comes up with the idea of using the conch as a blow horn to call for meetings. Throughout Lord of the Flies, the conch shell becomes not only associated with Ralph and his leadership, but with Piggy and his intuitive and wise ideas and Jack and his dictator-like, irresponsible authority. The conch shell, representing law and order, assisted in the election of Ralph as chief and ultimately determines the future of the island. However, as time progresses, the conch shell loses its power, when which allows Jack to rise as chief of his tribe. The conch eventually becomes only a reminder of how rational the boys used to be. Once the conch shell shatters and Piggy dies due to Roger’s illogical decision of triggering the lever and releasing the boulder, the era of rationality completely ends, marking the beginning of a complete savage takeover. At first, the conch represents democracy, power, and civilized behaviors, but in the end, the destruction of the conch shell illustrates the innate evil in human beings and the abrupt end of a civilization.
From the very beginning of the novel, more specifically Chapter 1, the conch shell is used as a blow horn to symbolize order, control,
From the very beginning of the novel, more specifically Chapter 1, the conch shell is used as a blow horn to symbolize order, control,
bird decline
https://www.songbird-survival.org.uk/bird-statistics?gclid=CjwKCAjwp7eUBhBeEiwAZbHwkRKAunDmrryXk-EUMDfpxIE6YF73bahq9acv_2-kq9rB3rpwlML10BoC3AoQAvD_BwE
https://www.birdlife.org/news/2021/11/16/press-release-huge-declines-in-europe-birds-eurobirds/?gclid=CjwKCAjwp7eUBhBeEiwAZbHwkeMPD_4UeRXLc94HscOJDS_Mau-YLP5vR-F_ttijznA9ENOrXTsCwBoCfJEQAvD_BwE
https://www.kew.org/sites/default/files/2020-10/State%20of%20the%20Worlds%20Plants%20and%20Fungi%202020.pdf
research
https://www.bbc.co.uk/ideas/videos/why-morning-light-is-so-crucial-to-your-health/p0bl8d5w?playlist=made-in-partnership-with-the-royal-society
Maria Sibylla Merian
Reading list
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/2015/feb/24/forensics-the-anatomy-of-crime-wellcome-collection-female-artists
https://www.emilyspeed.co.uk/section.php?name=works
https://www.cellprojects.org/exhibitions/ghislaine-leung
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-45486844
https://www.cardiff.ac.uk/people/view/81120-boddy-lynne
Prints
This is a work in progress.
Concept: the link between humans and nature.
I am always learning new things about nature. Whilst making spore prints with mushrooms, I felt that they were similar to our fingerprints. Each spore print is unique, just like our fingerprints.
As I thought about this more, I discovered further similarities. Like that of tree rings and otoliths (the inner ear bones of fish). Each ring in a tree stump represents a year of that trees life; which is the same with rings in a otolith:
I wanted to create something that showed these similarities, and so framed examples. If I were to place this into a gallery setting I would provide information on what each example is. It would be like a museum/science exhibition, educational as well as visually pleasing. I want to reveal to others the connections that happen in my mind when I am learning about nature and how closely our lives are intwined.
Film with audio
Link to watch the film:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1wOoYsDHx9ZdEq7nvoBLHKfu2cbbioX1G/view?usp=sharing
Whilst on some nature outings, I wanted to experiment with some filming.
Nature is very relaxing and comforting for me, and it is very therapeutic. I wanted to try and convey this through the medium of film, so I took out a camera with HD video from the stores.
I didn’t have a strong plan in mind, but just wanted to get out and see what caught my eye, as I often do with my photography.
Upon walking through the forest, it was a very windy day and when I looked up I noticed how much the trees were swaying above.
I feel that trees to us are such strong, sturdy objects. but in fact, they are very fragile; as shown by the amount that were blown over recently during storm Arwen, and other storms alike. I see a connection with trees and fungi in that they too have many different sides: strong, delicate, deadly, beautiful.
I found a small clearing amongst the trees, and placed the camera upside down whilst it was recording like this:
I then walked away and left it to record the trees swaying above.
I later removed the existing sound of the wind, as I found it too stressful and intense. I decided to replace it with birdsong that I recorded within the forest and surrounding areas using a recording device. I removed the background noise, to enhance the calming effect or silence interspersed with soft birdsong. I wanted to create a relaxing moment, that I envision will be in place in a busy gallery environment. As nature is my peaceful escape, I wanted to convey this through my video to the audience
Artists of Interest
Update to artists of interest:
Phoebe Cummings – clay sculpture. Works with clay to make lifelike natural displays, flowers, leaves, branches, moss. Each sculpture is dismantled with water and the clay is re-used again in the next work. I love this idea of renewal and using natural products; it links to her themes and gives an encompassing natural sense to her practice.
Amanda Cobbett – textile artists. Creates intricate and realistic versions of natural paraphernalia using embroidery. She says that we need to pay attention to the little things as much as the big, as when they are gone how will we ever know that they were there?
https://www.theguardian.com/artanddesign/gallery/2022/feb/26/embroidered-sculptures-of-woodland-treasures-in-pictures
Working with Slime Mold
https://futurism.com/hydra-slime-mold-covid
Diemut Strebe, an artist who’s worked at MIT since 2010, recently in an MIT residency program, has a lot to say about the United States’ failure to contain or even meaningfully slow down the coronavirus pandemic.
But she decided to let a single-celled organism called Physarum polycephalum, better known as slime mold, do the talking. In a new project titled “HYDRA,” Strebe and scientist collaborators at the Santa Fe Institute and Australia’s Macquarie University plopped blobs of slime mold onto a map of the USA — one on each of the first ten counties to hit 1,000 cases of COVID-19 per day. They allowed the slime mold to grow, extending its unsettling tendrils outward, in a biological mirror of how the coronavirus spread across the country.
http://slimoco.ning.com/photo/physarum-after-1-week-of-growth?context=latest
https://brandonballengee.com/silent-migration/
