Nature as the Other
As an artist and as a backpacker, I constantly observe how I live in and react to nature both aesthetically and psychologically. In this thesis paper, I will explore how Western societies co-exist with Nature by deeming it the Other. By looking at our constantly changing environment–geologically, botanically and atmospherically–my thesis titled, “Nature as the Other,” represents a journey where natural disasters, the sublime, exploration, cultivation and technology make impressions on both daily life and in creative expressions of art. The paper will discuss the theories of Immanuel Kant and Edmond Burke, and the works of art by J.M.W Turner, Thomas Cole, Maria Sibylla Merian, Richard Long and Robert Smithson.
My thesis work is an exploration in disorienting psychological map-making, where highly detailed natural elements are coinciding in an unreal space. I have made an attempt to seek the sublime–that which is awe-inspiring or overpowering. Understanding the improbability of being able to depict the sublime, I have juxtaposed opposing perspectives and scale; these composition decisions are meant to make the viewer feel uneasy. Additionally, two disorienting etchings, representing imagined landscapes have been indexed of their objects and made into books to further perplex and disorient.