Home: Do You Know Where You Live?
The first time I became aware of the unique project being undertaken by photographer Yann Arthus-Bertrand was when I unexpectedly stumbled across his “Earth from the Air” exhibition outside the Science Museum in London a few years ago.
Like the other people walking between the giant photographs, I was quite awe-stuck by the experience.
The images were pin-sharp powerful unique statements, wondefully composed and in many cases looking for all the world like beautiful abstract paintings. There were some of the most beautiful landscapes I had ever seen, while other images could quite easily have been details of the human body seen through an electron microscope (like mother, like child?).
They were all aspects of the surface of the planet taken from the air.
The film is simply and appropriately called “Home”
It is one of the most important films ever released, and certainly one of the most visually impressive. The earth is given a voice in images, allowed to describe herself to us, simply by sharing some portraits of who she is. We are all children of the earth, this astoundingly beautiful being that deserves our love, respect and care.
This classic film that took so many years to create has been given as a gift to all the people of the planet by its creator, Yann Athus-Bertrand and with the support of its sponsors it has been released totally free to the public.
It is free – you are encouraged to share it, and the organisation will even help you to arrange public screenings of it, because the message it carries is so important.
It is yours – watch it, and then share it with someone else.
Home, a film by Yann Arthus-Bertrand – click the link to view it
A Message from the Photographer
“We are living in exceptional times. Scientists tell us that we have 10 years to change the way we live, avert the depletion of natural resources and the catastrophic evolution of the Earth’s climate.
The stakes are high for us and our children. Everyone should take part in the effort, and HOME has been conceived to take a message of mobilization out to every human being.
For this purpose, HOME needs to be free. A patron, the PPR Group, made this possible. EuropaCorp, the distributor, also pledged not to make any profit because Home is a non-profit film.
HOME has been made for you : share it! And act for the planet.”
Yann Arthus-Bertrand, GoodPlanet Fundation President
Read MoreShea Hembrey: How I became 100 artists
“Seek” is a new international biennale consisting of hundreds of works of art, by 100 artists with widely varying approaches, styles and techniques.
On this level it works as an intriguing exploration of interesting work by unknown artists from across the world, selected by curators Calinda Salazar and Fletcher Ramsey.
The surprise comes when you realise that they all work together as a single artistic statement, skillfully created and curated by a one artist, with plenty of warm wit and humour for good measure.
The artist, Shea Hembrey, (born 1974) grew up in rural Hickory Grove, Arkansas in a family of farmers, factory workers, hunters, trappers, musicians, and cockfighters.
His interest in nature and an early fascination with birds (as a teenager he was a licensed breeder of migratory waterfowl) led his explorations as an artist on a journey to try to appreciate the influence of nature on humans and to understand how they have learnt from it and appropriated its forms for their own development.
Folk and Faith and Free Association
He has produced works on folk and faith healing inspired by his healer grandfather, and his view of art was profoundly changed while studying Maori art while he was a Rotary International Ambassadorial Scholar to New Zealand.
Hembrey focuses his concentration on a single project at a time allowing his research into the subject matter to direct the media and methods of the final product. His fascination with birds led to his exhibition “Mirror Nests”, a series of metal replicas of bird nests exhibited at Cornell University’s Lab of Ornithology observatory.
Exploring the self-obsession of modern art elitists, the visual language of different cultures, social stereotypes and the variety of methods artists choose to express themselves as individuals resulted in his current “Biennial” – “Seek: 100 in 2011—The Inaugural Exhibition”.
“I love contemporary art, but I am often frustrated at the contemporary art world and the contemporary art scene.”
After travelling around Europe to see the “major art exhibitions that have the pulse of what is supposed to be going on in the art world, I was struck by going to so many one after the other with some clarity of what it was that I was longing for.”
“Two of the main things: I was longing for more work that was appealing to a broad public, that was accessible, and the second thing was: more exquisite craftsmanship and technique.”
The Mimov Test and the Three H’s
After considering what the ingredients would be that he thought would make a perfect Biennale, “I decided: I’m going to start my own biennale. I’m going to start it and direct it and get it going in the world… I have to have some criteria of how to choose work.
Amongst all the criteria I have there are two main things, one of them I call my Mimov Test – I imagine explaining a work of art to my grandmother in five minutes, and if I can’t explain it in five minutes then it’s too obtuse or esoteric and it hasn’t been refined enough yet, it needs to be worked on until it can speak fluently.”
“My second set of criteria would be the three H’s, which is : Head, Heart and Hands. Great art would have Head; it would have interesting intellectual ideas and concepts. It would have Heart in that it would have passion and heart and soul, and it would have Hand in that it would be greatly crafted.”
Read MoreAelita Andre: the World’s Youngest Professional Painter
They say you’re never too young to make a start, and one Australian artist has certainly proved the point with the opening of her latest exhibition, this time in New York…
At four years old, Australian abstract artist Aelita Andre is the youngest professional painter in the world. She has been compared to Jackson Pollock, Wassily Kandinsky and Salvador Dali among others.
Aelita Andre – the pure pleasure of creation
Aelita had just turned two when her first solo show opened in 2009, featuring all the works she had painted as a one-year old. The show at the prestigious BSG gallery in Melbourne, Australia attracted
worldwide attention. The BBC London rang to congratulate her on her second birthday for her immense achievement, the Chinese press called her paintings “the work of a master”, 60 Minutes called her “the next big thing” and the Australian media dubbed her “Pee Wee Picasso”.
While still only two years old she was invited to Hong Kong where she staged a solo exhibition and painted live for over an hour in front of more than 60 Chinese and international media crews, after having been scheduled only to paint for five minutes.
Aelita is currently living in Melbourne, Australia with her parents Michael Andre and Nikka Kalashnikova who are of Russian origin and are both artists.
On one occasion when her father put one or his canvases on the floor to paint, Aelita crawled onto it and began dabbing and smearing paint across it with such conviction that her father just left her to continue, and placed a second canvas next to it for his own work.
Her works are vivid, expressive and full of energy and she is obsessed with painting. She runs around demanding “painting! painting!” and “kist! kist!” which is the Russian word for paintbrush. Her work has been featured by every major TV network and her paintings which are so admired by viewers continue to ignite heated debates around the world, about art.
Aelita has painted over 200 paintings, many of them large canvases. She paints with dedicated single-mindedness, but also with obvious joy and pleasure. Her world is explored through an “innocent eye” that opens a bright sunlit window into the primal and subconscious creative process.
She has a Solo Exhibition on currently in New York that opened on June 4th and runs to June 25th 2011, at the Agora Gallery, Chelsea, New York.
Aelita Andre – website:
http://www.aelitaandreart.com/aelitaandre/Home.html
Her works are available to buy at: http://www.art-mine.com/artistpage/aelita_andre.aspx
 003003:Best Friends Dolls – Pillow/Cushion by RainbowZebra Created by RainbowZebra Artist Elena McMillan — Part of a project by RainbowZebra Artists to raise money for charity. |
