SEE NO EVIL Acrylic 43cm x 32cm
Text from the Book
"Behind the Kimono"
"Behind the Kimono"
See No Evil exists around the very small and the very large symbols of contemporary Japan. At first we see the compact digital camera. Secondly the screen shows the colossal sea defences of concrete Tetrapods that line over 55% of their coastline. On the one hand we have the serenity of the Geisha, the ancient love of order and detail that led to creation of microelectronics. In contrast, the photo reveals extensive concrete macro engineering holding back an agitated sea, itself a symbol of the nation’s understandable anxiety over the wider dangers of nature found in Tsunami’s, Earthquakes, Volcanoes and Typhoons.
Sometimes this collective apprehension leans towards the absurd spectre of overdevelopment seeded from a powerful construction ministry that has at times become an almost unstoppable force of environmental destruction not only by the sea but across the land. Andy says;
“When one sees these Tetrapods around the coast, who can resist (to paraphrase H.P Lovecraft) an unutterable thrill of ghastliness yet at the same time an admiration for their synthetic beauty. It is like some fantastical land art whose single collective structure may be the only significant future human artefact left in the region, an ancient testament to an understandable yet fruitless fear than man could conquer nature”.
Sometimes this collective apprehension leans towards the absurd spectre of overdevelopment seeded from a powerful construction ministry that has at times become an almost unstoppable force of environmental destruction not only by the sea but across the land. Andy says;
“When one sees these Tetrapods around the coast, who can resist (to paraphrase H.P Lovecraft) an unutterable thrill of ghastliness yet at the same time an admiration for their synthetic beauty. It is like some fantastical land art whose single collective structure may be the only significant future human artefact left in the region, an ancient testament to an understandable yet fruitless fear than man could conquer nature”.
IDEAS AND STAGES
LINKS TO OTHERS IN TRIPTYCH
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