THE PROTECTED AND THE UNPROTECTED
For the last decade my work has explored the relationship between the natural world, a simulated world and how humans adapt; in disappearing natural landscape. My attraction to the use of beeswax, cast bronze, pigments, reflective surfaces, charcoal, cast salt and cement, is not only appealing for their sensuous tactile qualities; but symbolically conveys a reference to hermetically sealing the image from reality, suggesting the desire to protect the vulnerable and the beautiful.
The ability for a culture to create a simulated world-may inhibit the need or desire for humans to preserve the natural environment. We may fade into the landscape-where there is neither the real representation or the real remaining. However, it may most likely be –technological innovation that will contribute to preserving or replicating the natural world.
The struggle to balance -protecting the unspoiled landscape and allowing for human progress, seems to highlight the need to rethink our place in the world. The ability to -adapt has always been a fundamental part of survival. How humans choose to adapt and what we choose to protect –will take center stage, regarding this struggle, in a reimagined world.
Shauna Peck