Ecology Collage Series
rewriting the order of the anthropocene
“Ecology” comes from the Greek oikos meaning “house, dwelling place, habitation” and logia meaning “study of”.
Traversing themes of art, literature, nature, society, technology, science and religion, Arthur Mee’s Children's Encyclopedias (circa 1960s) remain an unsettling testimony to the ongoing destruction of our original home—Earth—as they extol the virtues of Man, his paradoxical fascination with the “wonders” of nature, and his so-called omnipotent triumph over nature through the capitalist myth of progress.
Upcycling both the imagery and the ideologies within these volumes, the Ecology series exploits the cutting power of collage and the magnetism of surrealism to invert historical hierarchies, rewrite the divine rule of cosmic order, create worlds within worlds, and collapse human-centric ideologies preserved in western art and literature.
please note Arthur Mee's Children's Encyclopaedia was first published in 1908 and ceased publication in 1964. The US franchise The Book of Knowledge was first published in 1910... While one appreciates the legitimate critique of capitalism and imperialism, and their eco-catastrophic (not to mention culturally catastrophic) consequences, poor old Arthur was a bloke of his time and the book is of its time... I'm sure Diderot has a few things to answer for too but the encyclopaedic project was a pretty good idea at the time ... just my tuppence worth
ReplyDeleteYES, Arthur must be understood as a great lover of both the human and natural worlds, and inevitably caught in the maw of their dissonance... rigorous philosophical critique aside, I love the books, and being able to reimagine the world through them, and so perhaps Arthur lives on in this new incarnation?
ReplyDeleteFabulous concoctions!
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