EL FARO - THE LIGHTHOUSE - this page outlines the context and rationale of EL FARO and nascent visual ideas
PREMISE
EL FARO considers a new way of seeing things in the light of existential crises. A visceral call for reason, to understand our finite relationship with this tiny rock we call home, flying through infinite space. This is the call of many and the root of this artistic expression.
A large scale immersive installation, earth, hessian, oil painting, poetry, ambient sound and Arcadian landscape, featuring an imposing structure, abstracted, broken and forgotten perhaps, based on the Berlin TV Tower, a symbol of unification.
An initial moving image manifestation of El Faro
THE EXHIBITION
Entering a large darkened space, through a hessian doorway, at the far side, in many languages, the words ‘un nuevo internacionalismo’ rise slowly up a five metre tower to a rotating sphere, telling a story of profligacy and ruin yet leading to hope. Blurred, broken, images of national flags, propaganda and environmental destruction, transitioning through the globe.
Behind the tower, forest fires, devastating storms, fossil fuel pollution, the ignorance of war. Within this ‘socio politico eco art-scape’ instances of physical protest, manifest in street banners and earth songs.
Images of havoc sequence through to images of regeneration, charity and refuge, words of benevolence and healing and a deeper value to be found in art, including Titian’s The Three Ages of Man - ‘a poetic meditation on the transience of human life and love set in a pastoral landscape’.
Beyond El Faro, the viewer is drawn to walk along a pathway through illuminated images. Ambient music follows through, intertwining with the spoken word. Hanging round the space, large canvas screens, prints reminiscent of battered oil paintings - each with a message of change, a poem, a lyric, an abstract image. We walk through imagery of forests, an ocean, indigenous truths, an urgency to drag us out of competitive ideologies, multitudes of people, dance and peaceful light.
No more words, the soundtrack just birdsong, ambient music and the repetition of waves on a shore. At the far end of the space, light glimmers through an opening leading to an Arcadian scene. A faint image of a figure, kneeling, a river into the distance, winding its way through green fields and a cluster of small dwellings towards a distant mountain range.
ARGUMENT/CAUSE
This century, the darkness of deceit - parasitic 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.
El Faro 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.
Further pilot images
PRODUCTION REQUIREMENTS
Studio time: Much of the proposal can be prepared away from a studio but there will need to be a period of at least eight weeks studio time to prepare the installation, in particular experimenting with the representation of El Faro so that it becomes not just an abstraction of a structure but an artwork in itself. This could be a rough hewn tower of wood, a clay sculpture or an LED array. Smashed then repaired.
There will be a ‘path’ of sound and images creating a journey through the installation that will need delicate staging along with construction and technical requirements as well as printing and consumables.
EL FARO - 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.
ENDS