Back to Nature

Let me preface this entry with a bit of my own background on the matter of environmentalism. I grew up in Chicago and had never heard of compost until I was 21. Still though, I was a vegetarian for almost a decade, and attempted to connect with progressive movements whenever I could. My husband sat in trees to avoid them being logged. We lived in the middle of nowhere for a long time, in that back-to-the-land kinda way. I have lived in houses with people that devoted their lives to primitive skills education. I also lived in a house with an FBI informant responsible for sending a dozen people to jail for serious sentences for eco-activism, activism that he was originally a strong proponent of. One of the people he helped convict committed suicide after his capture. Another ex-roommate lost his mind in the miasma of extreme leftist politics. A lot of ruined lives, and the environment and socio-economic class structure is still fucked. What I am looking for now is compromise, and preferably compromise that I don't feel really guilty about.

That said, I couldn't really get my head around Rachel Dutton and Rob Olds motivations for this secondary, deeper severance of themselves from culture. They seem to be valuing their experience as part of Nature as the ultimate state of being, but I am not sure how it makes sense as a reaction to this sudden sense of impending doom. They felt that their scaled back existence as artists living rurally was not active enough in the face of the looming catastrophe, but I still get a hint that they feel a greater social obligation and I do not understand how learning tracking skills supports the greater society. It seems almost like a performance piece done without an audience.

I found Christopher Manes' interview, Making Art About Centipedes, much more aligned with my own beliefs. There should be a reintegrating of Man into a more egalitarian framework in relation to each other, other species and the environment, but we should also enjoy the time we have. Regardless of humanities presence, the climate shifts: it is its nature. But right now we do have it good and we should enjoy what we can, make the most of our thumbs and brains and maybe stop actively decimating nature for profit at every turn. It becomes a question of where to draw the line.

As for Colin Ives work, I found it very visually striking and quite often a nice commentary. (I thought the Clearing was especially accessible and poignant.) Unfortunately, I was dissatisfied with his response about reconciliation of the use of technology for project regarding environmentalism. I wanted him to have an answer that was not beholden to middleclasswhiteguilt, I wanted an out, and I was hoping he'd have one- especially because I liked his work so much. I am not sure if there will ever be a solution to this: a true compromise. The reality is if you're using iPods to project salmon on a sidewalk, there are a host of ecological and socio-economic implications, conversely I think the world is better for him having done that. I am glad at least to be having the discussion.

***Above is the work of my friend Joey Malone. He is a talented artist, curmudgeonly punk bastard, and total plant geek. I love him dearly. The drawing is of the tree more commonly known as chinkapin.