PETRICOR - UN NUEVO INTERNACIONALISMO : PLEASE NOTE, THIS IS A WORKING DRAFT
Petrichor - A New Internationalism
First Draft Poster
FOREWORD
Roger Thorp remembers, as a child, visiting the library in the village where he was born. The essential quiet. Always warm. The slightly sweet aroma of the books stacked on the old wooden shelves. The images on the covers inviting him in. A way of seeing the world.
Is there anywhere quiet to go anymore, a sanctuary, away from the ‘noise’? The church is no longer a touchstone, the library has been abandoned or lost its warmth to the incivilities of the internet. We are bombarded with trash imagery begging us to buy or worse, submit. The popular press applauds sensationalism and chills the truth. Arts and culture are being erased from education. No sanctuary.
Connect the spiritual crises to the ecological crisis that we face and there is a desperate need for long-term thinking alongside an injection into the system of something immediate – some kind of honesty, reasonableness and vision?
An initial (abridged) moving image manifestation of Un Nuevo Internacionalismo
RATIONALE
Could the idea of A New Internationalism finally make sense of the internet? Speaking to the global population, grass roots, ground up and across borders. Beyond divisive short-termist national hierarchies.
Advocating an earthly truth based on humility, ecology and kindness. Learning what we are via the arts, science and humanities. Inspiring populations by creating an informed awareness about what really matters, if we are to prosper, in an equitable way.
This is why we need a new internationalism, listening to people with integrity, who give a fuck, who know stuff. Who listen.
SYNOPSIS
Petricor - Un Nuevo Internacionalismo is a large scale immersive installation:
Earth, hessian, oil painting, poetry, voices of reason, ambient sound, scent and Arcadian landscape featuring an imposing structure (abstracted, broken and forgotten), based on the Berlin TV Tower, a symbol of unification.
The exhibition is located in three interconnected studios, each 12x5m aproximately, each staging related moving image works that together tell the story.
Entering the Epacio Pulpo the viewer is drawn towards a moving image in a distant doorway. Along a pathway towards the doorway are three monitors, each screening talking heads reflecting on system change.
Among the voices: ’We can either continue on our current path, a treacherous ‘new normal’ and sleepwalk into a dystopian future, or we can wake up and turn things around for the better, for humanity and the planet.' Volker Turk, United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights. ‘We are living at a time in which art is even more important, literature is even more important, and I think we need stories to connect us at an age when we are constantly being pushed into polarisations and artificial tribes.’ Elif Shafak, Female Poets Society
TALKING HEADS V1
NB. This is an example. There will be 3 monitors with 9 Talking Heads in total.
Through the doorway a back projection. An international airport scene - people pass through a revolving door and along an automated walkway. Strangers, crossing paths, accepting of others, no feeling of their own boundaries, guide the viewer into a lofty courtyard with distressed terracotta walls and climbing plants, open to the sky.
At the far side of the courtyard stands an imposing five metre tower, a model based on the Berlin TV Tower. In many languages, the phrase ‘un nuevo internacionalismo’ rises slowly up to the rotating sphere. Images tell a story of profligacy and ruin yet leading to hope. Blurred and broken, national flags, propaganda and environmental destruction, transitioning through the globe while, behind the tower, images of forest fires, devastating storms, fossil fuel pollution and the ignorance of war. Within this ‘socio-politico eco art-scape’ instances of physical protest, manifest in street banners and earth songs.
Slowly, the images of havoc sequence through to images of regeneration and refuge, words and symbols of benevolence and healing. Slowly, the tower becomes dominated by nature, wild grasses, the ancient sun and a deeper value to be found in art.
Turning from the tower, a banner above a doorway- P E T R I C H O R.
ABOUT PETRICHOR
Petrichor (/ˈpɛtrɪkɔːr/ PET-rih-kor)[1] is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The word was coined by Isabel Joy Bear and Richard Grenfell Thomas[2] from Ancient Greek πέτρα (pétra) 'rock' or πέτρος (pétros) 'stone' and ἰχώρ (ikhṓr), the ethereal fluid that is the blood of the gods in Greek mythology.
From an earlier text about Thomas Lambe Phipson …..the odour "... was due to the presence of organic substances closely related to the essential oils of plants ..." and that these substances consist of "... the fragrance emitted by thousands of flowers ..." absorbed into the pores of the soil, and only released when displaced by rain. After attempts to isolate it, he found that it "... appeared to be very similar to, if not identical with, bromo-cedren derived from essence of cedar."
THOUGHTS ON THE FINAL WORK IN THE EXHIBITION
DENOUEMENT
Passing through the doorway we leave behind the ‘outer world’….no more words, the soundtrack just birdsong, ambient music and the distant repetition of waves on a shore.
Hessian curtains, a ‘hanging cloth’, perhaps evocative of old theatre drapes hang partway through the room, receiving abstracted projections - an ancient forest, the ocean, the firmament.
As we approach, the sound of gentle rain falling onto the earth and beyond the curtain threshold, at the far end of the space, light glimmers, becoming an Arcadian scene. A faint image of a figure, kneeling, as rain falls. A river into the distance, winding its way through green fields and a cluster of small dwellings towards a distant mountain range.
And as we draw closer, we notice something else too. A change in the air, a scent, the scent of petrichor (the scent of cedar).
A poem is recited within the sound of the rain.
Tan Libre Como el Petricor - As Free as Petrichor (in progress)
when you rise
as the rain falls
upon the flowers of the soil
a simple truth, to adore
when you rise, you rise
free as petrichor, oh earth,
near and far, borders fall…
when you rise
as the rain falls
you are in my soul
to the earth, oh petrichor
here, stone, vein and sky
we entreat the world to see
this earthy liberty
as we kneel, you rise
you rise around us all
in fields of grace
the forest floor
a handful deep of soil
without you we fall
oh sweet petrichor
as the rain falls
oh petrichor, rising
the scent of the earth
from the flowers of the soil
as the mountain calls
and the river roars
as free as petrichor
oh when you rise, sweet petrichor, the borders fall
ENDS
FURTHER BACKGROUND MATERIAL RELATING TO THE EXHIBITION
UN NUEVO INTERNACIONALISMO - ART FOR CHANGE
The element of art activism, existing yet not obviously apparent in the work.
Background into the substrata of the work to establish context and and the sometimes, cross over relationship with activism. Many artists - an army in fact, increasingly apply their practice towards social issues as the world descends apparently deeper into societal chaos. As an illustration, this came into my inbox recently from ART-2030 : Art for Action
Outside of my art practice but in some ways aligned, is the Olive Network (ON) - a fledgling exploration in new media - its ethos stands in the same field as, for example, Art for Action and, increasingly, ON references the arts as key to progressive advance. The museum/gallery/exhibition paradigm has shifted in recent times, in particular, in the public space.
ARGUMENT/CAUSE
This century, the darkness of deceit - disinformation in the landscape of the internet - greed and intolerance have somehow suppressed the ‘light’ of honesty, compassion and hope.
But there is a stronger force for progress and understanding than there is for regression. Museums, galleries, NGO’s, International Organisations, scientists, eco warriors, writers, artists, teachers - all long term, future thinking for coming generations. Speaking to the global population, beyond borders, advocating an earthly truth, based on ecology and kindness.
Un Nuevo Internacionalismo is rooted in the culture of museums and galleries - museums as a touchstone for humanity. Presenting the argument in art form is one way of amplifying and making sense of a need for a new internationalism.
ENDS