TO THE EXTREME OF GREEN
TO THE EXTREME OF GREEN Garden of Even
This floor piece is exploring the tradition of painting and the history of perspective using the tool of map-making. It has been taken off its frame and is lying structureless but not formless on the floor. It is a movable body, and will take a new shape each time it is placed. It features a spherical coordinate system made of glued ripped paper pieces painted red, creating various sizes of what appears like cracked or scarred fields.
ID or identity formation, how we are shaped and how we map our existence happebs without a road map. How we learn to love without instructions is a fascinating Gordian knot. What makes perspective so important? A map is a tool you can use to find your way, or a tool that shows a way. It is both passive and active.
The history of painting, until relatively recently, is a form of charting the history of human beings and of humanity itself. It is a history written by and about men, eluding half of humanity which until resently must be said to be largely missing from art history, with the exception of being an object within the depictions.
Beyond the cartographic representation of perspective and the skewed art historical representation, the piece inspects the symbolism of the Garden of Eden, which was a place early on in history, that navigators and map makers tried to find and pin onto maps - Mappe Mundie, they are called. Garden of Eden as a symbol of peace and for escaping the actual world’s complexities, is also a potential space for imagining something better, finding solutions to current problems.
By pursuing this ideal yet never arriving at this unattainable destination, without considering the factual world and the possible negative consequences of such a pursuit, excessive consumption including its heavy amount of waste materials and so forth, are likely to incur disturbing imbalances in our eco-system.
@ Camilla Howalt
>> Detail of TO THE EXTREME OF GREEN Garden of Even, 2023 - Linnen / Graph paper / Glue / Ink / Embroidery thread | 196 x 145 cm by Camilla Howalt
