myths, lies, photos & action: a spiritmorph statement
by Roxanne Amico
Wednesday, September 29, 2010
This post is my artist's statement for the photos http://RoxanneAmico.imagekind.com/ which were first exhibited in the alumni exhibit at Herkimer County Community College in October & November, 2010. The photos and prints will be for purchase, when I figure out prices.
I read this morning that "... More than a fifth of the world's plant species faces the threat of extinction, a trend with potentially catastrophic effects for life on Earth, according to research released on Wednesday... This study confirms what we already suspected, that plants are under threat and the main cause is human-induced habitat loss..." http://www.rawstory.com/rs/2010/09/researchers-onefifth-earths-plants-threat/ Then I remembered this, from E.O. Wilson... "More money is spent in TWO WEEKS in NYC bars, than is spent in an entire year in the entire world to study the diversity of species (and threats to them) on the earth."
There's something really wrong with that... Here's the link to my images: http://RoxanneAmico.imagekind.com/ Statement below...
Thanks very much to Karima Amin http://www.karimatells.com/ and Alex Mead http://www.amprosoft.com/music/ for their support while I wrote this statement which for me has that quality art can have for an artist with each successful manifestation of her art... The sense that I've been trying to say this my whole life, and here it is...
Thank you!
Roxanne
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Artist’s Statement for Roxanne R. Amico
"myths, lies, photos & action: a spiritmorph statement"
September, 2010
“The only myth(s)…worth thinking about…in the immediate future (are) about the planet…[…and our place in the world…]” ~Joseph Campbell
The images contributed to this exhibit are from walks on the land of my home base, near a human-made city lake and creek; a walk seeking intimate relationship with the natural world, and my place in it; a walk intended to cultivate deeper access to experiences of wildlife. As a multi-disciplinary, multi-media artist, my translations of experience are multi-layered. So, this artist’s statement of intent is in three parts…
Part One: My Story…
I believe the purpose of life is to fully live and share it. Human beings share our lives by storytelling. One of my favorite narratives celebrates the beauty and power of existence in a sort of collective song, described in David Abrams’s The Spell of the Sensuous as a “reciprocity…of sensory perception…between [human animals and] all species and the animate landscapes [we] inhabit.” My role as artist is to serve with myths that bring us home to our natural perception of the living world as conscious, co-created. Art is not made in a vacuum. We live in context. Since that context is culture, any cultural reality is a character in any story shared. So, another narrative I embrace includes the two-fold theme of telling the truth about and resisting the current culture within which we live; our stories told, in the spirit of George Orwell, as “…revolutionary acts…in…[times of] universal deceit…”
Part Two: The Culture’s Story…
The narrative of the culture within which most viewers of these photos live is criminally deceitful… Lies that domestication of wildlife in this marginalized, fragmented habitat is normal, and they have no voice in the matter anyway; that human waste pouring into these bodies of water at an industrial scale is acceptable. These lies, this abuse, destroys the possibility of communion and intimacy with the real world, with each other.
Part Three: The World’s Story…
Respectful interaction with these others sharing the earth shows us who and what is at stake in resisting the culture of lies. Engaging their narrative trail in shared natural world experience opens us to empathy with their struggles for survival and nourishment, their tenderness and joy, their fear and confusion about an alienating culture which directly and systemically toxifies the water, air, food, and land they (and we) need.
My Story / Our Story:
These photos are my acts to create a culture of resistance to culture that consumes, carves the world to death. I cannot merely seek (and tell you) stories of the beautiful world, without also (finding and) telling you the horrible injustices. If Joseph Campbell’s call for myths showing us how to live together on the planet is meaningful, our myths and stories must cultivate relationship with all living communities of the nearest landbase, and teach what is needed for defense and protection, including telling the whole story. I want you to identify so strongly with the members of these communities, that you fall in love with the world and take action to stop these systems of abuse at the source.
Roxanne R. Amico
September 2010
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Here again is the link to the photo-images:
http://RoxanneAmico.imagekind.com/
--Notes about the site and how best to view them: In the right column on the page to which the link goes is a thumbnail image, above which it reads, "My Galleries". Click.--That will take you to a page with eight images (so far) for this series for this show. --Each image is titled and dated--They are not priced for sale (yet)--Click on each image you want to see larger on your screen--That click will take you to a new page solely dedicated to that image--And at that page, you can click again to see it even larger.
