What if culture was nature all along?
What if nature has always been literate, numerate, social? And what happens to ‘the human’ if its exceptional identity and status is conceded quantum, non-local and ecological implication?
Vicki Kirby, What if Culture was Nature all along?
The desert has often been regarded as a stage where the codes of civilisation can become scrambled, pre-conceived ideas can be dissolved and new awareness becomes possible.
During my stay at JOYA–an artists residency in a desertified area of southern Spain–I experienced such a shift in perception. Whilst walking in a gorge created by a Gota Fría, I found it difficult to distinguish between sculptures made by artists and naturally occurring phenomena. Since I received stimulation from both, I began to question why I should make such distinctions.
What if nature was culture all along? uses the empirical nature of photography to unmoor distinctions between nature and culture–a duality that could be said to be at the heart of our current environmental dilemma.
With support from UAL AER Art for the Environment Residency Programme.