A BEAUTIFUL MORNING - WORK IN PROGRESS - TOWARDS A NEW INTERNATIONALISM
A Beautiful Morning (first edition)
TOWARDS A NEW INTERNATIONALISM
PREFACE
Overarching this proposed exhibition is a belief that the Museum or Gallery is a touchstone for humanity (perhaps like the church of old) a place of refuge and enlightenment.
CONTEXT AND RATIONALE
I was told that when I was born the doctor held me up to the window light and quietly said “It’s a beautiful morning”. For me, for many years it was, and my belief is that it can be once again.
Increasingly I have been struggling to see ‘a beautiful morning’ so poisoned and torn the national and international socio political landscapes have become.
This century, the darkness of deceit, greed and intolerance have somehow suppressed the ‘light’ of honesty, compassion and hope. The bloody hammer of archaic territorial claims, the divisive protectionism of nation states and the lust for material gain through fossil fuels have all contributed to this. The hellions of this darkness - the media barons, politicians (strong men leaders), oligarchs and fossil fuel advocates. Those who spread misinformation and lies and happily wield power that causes others suffering.
Is it time for a new internationalism? This is the call of many and the root of this proposed artistic expression. A call for reason, to understand our finite relationship with this tiny rock flying through infinite space and a global whisper for compassion and understanding.
A GALLERY OF FRAMES FROM THE WORK IN PROGRESS
EXHIBITION
A large scale immersive installation, the centrepiece of which is an imposing structure based on the Berlin TV Tower - a symbol of unification. In many languages, the words - A New Internationalism rise slowly up the tower to a rotating globe, telling a story of profligacy and ruin yet leading to hope - a changing image of environmental destruction, national flags and propaganda sequence through to images denoting International Organisations - UN Agencies, Charities, NGO’S and images and words of benevolence and healing. The revolving sphere of planetary imagery tells a story of destruction yet also suggests a new way.
Beneath the tower, an explosion of reason/anger hurled again a wall. Forest fires, devastating storms, and ignorance to vulnerability. Within this ‘socio politico eco art-scape’ instances of physical protest, manifest in street banners, earth songs and dream poems.
The darkness of times slowly turns towards light. Hanging round the space, canvas screens, prints like battered oil paintings - each with a message of change, a poem, a lyric, an abstract image. And the canvases become larger - a forest, an ocean. No more words, the soundtrack just birdsong and the repetition of waves on a shore. At the far end of the space, a round window opens onto an arcadian scene. A giant sun rotates behind a faint image of a figure, kneeling in a field of wheat. A river into the distance, winding its way through green fields and a cluster of small dwellings towards a distant mountain range.
JOURNEY AND DELIVERY
The journey of A Beautiful Morning is rooted in the culture of museums and galleries - museums as a touchstone for humanity. The exhibition includes film poems that also espouse looking closer at who and where we are in the light of the magical and absurd chance of existence. The prospect could include an adaptable touring exhibition that features the work of local and international artists on the same track, curated by the host museum or gallery.
SUMMARY
This may all sound naive, but I believe there is a stronger force for progress and understanding than there is for regression. Museums, galleries, NGO’s, International Organisations, United Nations, science institutions, eco technologists, writers, artists, teachers - all future thinking for coming generations. Presenting the argument in art form is my way of trying to make sense of this.
MUSEUMS - A TOUCHSTONE FOR HUMANITY
ENDS