SPEAK NO EVIL
Acrylic 43cm x 32cm
Acrylic 43cm x 32cm
Text from the book "BEHIND THE KIMONO"
This painting was largely inspired by research into the Sugi (杉) the native Japanese cedar tree. After the war extensive planting of the cedar was a saviour of sorts, when it was used to reforest mountains throughout the country that had been stripped bare by excessive logging during and after the war for use as fuel and lumber.
Unfortunately, cheap imported wood left many planned plantations to grow unmanaged and larger trees produce great plumes of pollen in the season. Travelling up to 100km, there has been a surge in people in Japan suffering Hay fever to the extent that is has been classified a national health problem. Seeing Japanese wearing the face masks to limit cold infections is not new but in recent years the mask has also become a symbol of environmental mismanagement (a prescient reminder of the current Covid pandemic at the time of the website construction).
This has also sparked a controversy over the building of inappropriate and expensive roads in remote wildernesses to harvest the wood and large logging machines to replace rural labour. Low pollen trees have been developed but this could take decades to implement.
The painting Speak no Evil we see a contradiction. On the one hand the Geisha and the Sugi represent modest tradition, beauty and harmony. However the adornment on her hair, far from being an old floral tradition is the cone of the tree that causes this modern pestilence and the self-inflicted reason why she has to wear a mask.
Like See No Evil and Hear No Evil, Speak no Evil melds the old to the new with three very distinct narratives about not only Japanese society but the whole of humanity
Unfortunately, cheap imported wood left many planned plantations to grow unmanaged and larger trees produce great plumes of pollen in the season. Travelling up to 100km, there has been a surge in people in Japan suffering Hay fever to the extent that is has been classified a national health problem. Seeing Japanese wearing the face masks to limit cold infections is not new but in recent years the mask has also become a symbol of environmental mismanagement (a prescient reminder of the current Covid pandemic at the time of the website construction).
This has also sparked a controversy over the building of inappropriate and expensive roads in remote wildernesses to harvest the wood and large logging machines to replace rural labour. Low pollen trees have been developed but this could take decades to implement.
The painting Speak no Evil we see a contradiction. On the one hand the Geisha and the Sugi represent modest tradition, beauty and harmony. However the adornment on her hair, far from being an old floral tradition is the cone of the tree that causes this modern pestilence and the self-inflicted reason why she has to wear a mask.
Like See No Evil and Hear No Evil, Speak no Evil melds the old to the new with three very distinct narratives about not only Japanese society but the whole of humanity
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