ART and Research

Nourishing with Language

One of the works I presented in the installation, The Art of Germination, was a Webster Encyclopedia Unabridged Dictionary that I had transformed.

Paradoxically, the definition of Nature in the encyclopaedia takes a microscopic portion of the space in the book, considering how big Nature is actually.  Additionally, this definition begins with the explanation of human nature – “1. the particular combination of qualities belonging to a person, animal, thing, or class by birth, origin, or constitution; native or inherent character: the nature of man…” . In itself, this evidences our anthropocentric perspective on Nature as concept. Point nr 7 scarcely mentions NATURE, by which I mean this big organic world we grow out of. This upside down formulation of the hierarchy of explanations of the term provoked this particular work.

I carved a hole in the book and “planted” an island of moss. The island is watered by the drip labelled with a definition of Nature taken from the encyclopaedia. This work performs a visual experiment where Nature is nourished with its own definition. Nature is being kept in an artificial life by the “linguistic straitjacket”. I wish we had one and only one word for this “Thing” we call NATURE, so that it’s not mixed with culture. I wish this word would be protected and not allowed to be applied to other things.