Carsten Höller

SOMA, 2010

SOMA, 2010

Andrew Bird - "Imitosis"

Noble Beast - Limited Edition CD, 2009

Bik van der Pol - Are you really sure...?

Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?

Bik van der Pol

"Are you really sure that a floor can't also be a ceiling?"

    Introduction

In this time of increasing globalization, not only economies, financial markets, nations and people become more and more dynamically intertwined with each other. Also the global ecological system, the biosphere, integrating all living beings and their relationships and interactions on our planet, is influenced by the continuous increase of human activities. Slowly, the world population is starting to become aware of their impact on their environment. The climate summits in Kyoto and recently in Copenhagen, where all the world leaders gather to negotiate possible solutions, are proof of that, though outcomes of these tops are still uncertain. Is it enough, is it early enough, or is it already too late?

Climate changes are clearly happening, and result - so far - in rising sea levels, melting gletchers and poles, extreme rainfalls, hurricanes and flooding, and in some areas radical changes in the seasonal patterns. This all is increasingly creating awareness among the people that something might really be changing on a global scale.

Meanwhile, modest measures are being taken on a domestic small level, on the level of national governments, and on the level of industrial production: low energy light bulbs, insulation, hybrid cars, green energy... it is not easy to negotiate financial repercussions, to force a new approach towards the production of energy and to maybe even take some steps back, while economic growth is still the magic word. If the people want to survive as a species, they will have to take some huge and radical steps to be able to bridge the concept of growth with sustainability and neutral effects. The unimaginable has to become real. A completely different way of thinking is necessary.

Butterflies are a special species: they are important economically and environmentally as agents of ‘pollination’: like bees, and some other insects and birds, they move the pollen from one plant to another. They are indispensable agents in the food chain: without them, no fertilization, and without fertilization - in the end - no life.

In recent years, a significant loss of pollinators has been noticed. In the case of bees, for example, whole colonies of bees leave their hives; they go on the run, collapse and die, and these observed losses have already significant economic impacts. Explanations for this decline include increasing urbanization (causing a lack food and longer travel times), use of pesticides, and climate change. Butterflies are considered by scientists to be ‘indicator species’ because they are particularly sensitive to environmental degradation; their decline there for serves as an ‘early warning’ on environmental conditions.

With The Farnsworth house (1951), architect Mies van der Rohe emphasized on the tight relationship between man and nature: "We should attempt to bring nature, houses, and the human being to a higher unity". It is considered one of the most radically minimalist houses ever designed. Glass walls and open interior space are the features that create an intense connection with the outdoor environment, while the exposed structure provides a framework that reduces opaque exterior walls to a minimum. Mies van der Rohe conceived the building as an indoor-outdoor architectural shelter simultaneously independent of and intertwined with the domain of nature. The Farnsworth House is located in the landscape, parallel to a river, and has been carefully maintained and restored throughout the years. In 1972, the house was restored to its original state. The house was purposely built on poles: the architect calculated the expected rise of the river, and made the elevation such that the house would able to resist flooding. Still, the past decennia, several floods heavily damaged the interior of the house, since waters have risen above the raised level six times in 60 years, caused by increased building in the surrounding area.

The concept of the butterfly effect is a term from chaos theory, to describe the sensitive (inter) dependence of different tendencies on initial conditions: how tiny variations can affect giant and complex systems. The butterfly effect suggests that the flapping wings of a butterfly represents a small change in the initial condition of the system, causing a chain of events leading to large-scale alterations of events. These small gestures eventually potentially would lead to significant repercussions on wind and movements throughout the weather systems of the world, and theoretically, could cause tornadoes around the world. True or not, had the butterfly not flapped its wings, the trajectory of the system might have been vastly different. Small actions can certainly affect change in complex systems in unexpected and unpredictable ways.

  The proposal

Our project brings the above-mentioned elements together in an architectural model loosely based on the design of the icon of modernism, the Farnsworth house. Instead of functioning as a dwelling, this (circa 75%) downscaled, demountable model will function as a temporary home for butterflies, as the ultimate agents for idealist ideas of transformation, change and recycling. With radical change incorporated in their life-cycle, capable of transforming from one state to another, they never are what they appear to be. The different stages of these animals of total metamorphosis can be observed and experienced in the model. Nature becomes spectacle, a spectacle inside the confinements of the museum wall.

Visitors are invited to enter the house. The glass walls of the model function both ways: giving a full view on the man-made greenhouse and its visitors wandering inside, as well as creating a link between the interior space and the museum space.

The butterflies can be purchased from special butterfly farms in Thailand and Costa Rica, thus contributing to the protection of natural habitat in these parts of the world: areas of tropical land that might otherwise be deforested produce a new value through breeding and trade of tropical butterflies without exhausting natural resources or causing severe ecological damage. These butterfly farms generate new sources of income and employment for the often-poor local population, and since it is, by nature, environmentally friendly, it is a sustainable alternative to agriculture.

The environment inside the model will be made in collaboration with local specialists and through a leasing program of tropical plants, which can be returned after the end of the installation. A preferably local keeper will take care of the butterflies and the environment.

The title of the work, Are you really sure that a floor can’t also be a ceiling?, is made as a neon piece on the wall, thus functioning as a footnote or reference to the installation.

¹ Quote from M.C. Escher

Progetto vincitore Enel Contemporanea Award 2010

Link:
www.enelcontemporaneablog.com
www.bikvanderpol.net

Rivane Neuenschwander - ant confetti

Rivane Neuenschwander

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006) 

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006)

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006)

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006)

Pertence. Nao pertence. - Belong. Not belong (2000)

Rivane Neuenschwander in collaboration with Cao Guimaraes, Stills from Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006), DVD projection; 5 minutes, 45 seconds.

Brazilian artist Rivane Neuenschwander’s Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue (2006)  is a short video depicting ants carrying sugar-soaked pieces of confetti across the floor of a rainforest. Created in collaboration with Brazilian filmmaker Cao Guimarães, the video reveals a society where red and black ants of various sizes work together and rival one another while transporting the colorful confections to and from their nest. Accompanying the film is a soundtrack by O Grivo, a Brazilian experimental band, featuring a samba rhythm mixed with the ambient sounds of the rainforest. Together the audio and visual components combine to create a poetic and playful work that explores the blurred boundaries between the natural and constructed world.

Quarta-Feira de Cinzas, literally translated as Ash Wednesday, is the restful and melancholic day following the lavish, spectacular parties of the annual Carnival celebration in Brazil. In lush color and with masterful filmic techniques, Quarta-Feira de Cinzas/Epilogue captures typically unseen moments on the forest floor while suggesting a playful scenario in which the viewer might imagine the ants to be cleaning up in the aftermath of Carnival’s revelry.

Catherine Chalmers

Houseflies

Sex

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Female After Sex

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Male Standing

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Male

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Female, Male, Male

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Mutation

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Male, Female

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Flying

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Birth

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Old Age

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

The Fly & The Man

Published in VISIONAIRE, Sound, Issue 53 

http://www.catherinechalmers.com/fly_and_the_man.cfm

American cockroach_executions

Electric Chair

Gelatin Silver Print

40" x 40"

Electrocution

Gelatin Silver Print

30" x 45"

Burning at the Stake

Gelatin Silver Print

45" x 30"

Burning at the Stake

Gelatin Silver Print

45" x 30"

Floating Corpses

Gelatin Silver Print

30" x 45"

Hanging

Gelatin Silver Print

30" x 45"

Gas Chamber

Gelatin Silver Print

30" x 45"

Foodchain_sex

Sex (Before)

C-Print

40" x 60"

Sex (During)

C-Print

40" x 60"

Sex (After)

C-Print

40" x 60"

Sex (After)

C-Print

40" x 60"

Sex (After)

C-Print

40" x 60"

Catherine Chalmers - Safari

Tom Sachs

Large Roach (medium), 2006, Acrylic on panel

Vladimir Nabokov

 

Vladimir Nabokov, Berlin,  1925

 Photographer unknown

 Berg Collection

 

Vladimir Nabokov

 [Poems]

 Holograph notebook, St. Petersburg, August-September 1917

 Berg Collection

 

V. Sirin [Vladimir  Nabokov]

 [Poems]

 Holograph notebook, January-October 1923

 Berg Collection

 

W. J. Holland

The Butterfly Book

 Garden City, New York: Doubleday Doran, 1933

 Nabokov's copy, with his extensive holograph annotations throughout, signed on the title page, Dmitri Nabokov, etc.

 Berg Collection

 

Franz Kafka

The Metamorphosis

 Translated by A. L. Lloyd

 New York: Vanguard Press, 1946

 Nabokov's copy, with his holograph annotations and retranslations

 Berg Collection

Simone Berti

Senza titolo

2006

Alchidico su tela

120 x 150 cm

Senza titolo

2006

Alchidico su tela

120 x 150 cm

Senza titolo

2006

Polvere di marmo, resina epossidica, pigmento, legno

300 x 250 x 300 cm

Federico Pepe

SINFLEX (Excerpts 2006/2007)

SINFLEX (Excerpts 2006/2007)

Zhang Huan

12 Square Metres, 1994, Performance, Beijing, China

12 Square Metres, 1994, Performance, Beijing, China

12 Square Metres, 1994, Performance, Beijing, China

Richard Avedon

Ronald Fischer, beekeeper, Davis, California, May 9, 1981

Gelatin silver print; 151.4 x 119.7 cm (59 5/8 x 47 1/8 in.)

Collection of the artist  © Richard Avedon

John Dominis

John Dominis (for Life Magazine), Butterfly Breeder Carl Anderson with Monarch Butterflies on his Face (1954).

Matteo Fato

Vespa morta 6, 2005

Vespa morta 3, 2005

Senza titolo, 2007

Senza titolo, 2007