Beast Nature
Loosely following the outline of The Architecture of a Session developed by Paolo Knill along with Steven and Ellen Levine, I explored a discordance that I have with western ideas of time and schedule (Knill et al., 2005). I experience something known as time blindness, wherein I struggle to conceptualize how much time is passing without having access to a clock. This frequently causes me to be late. As a disabled person, I also sometimes have more complex needs that need to be met which also take up extra time. I have spent a good portion of my life rushing to get places and feeling bad about myself for seemingly being unable to be on time. I was feeling this particularly strongly in the midst of this project.
While others in my program were plowing ahead with their work, I was moving at a snails pace. So I chose to confront these feelings through art as they were thematically relevant to my topic. I worked in a fluid manner with no plan and made choices based on what felt right. All understanding was arrived at following the art making. I began with the collage which represents a calendar. The dots represent scheduled plans. The days are made up of natural elements as days occur naturally with the rotation of the Earth. In the collage, the days are divided by words strips which create the human imposed calendar.
After the collage was complete I went into a process of reflection which led to the accompanying poem. I discovered that there were strong themes of nature through my process. Ultimately the understanding that I came to was that I do not need to abandon "time" altogether in order to exist in a more embodied way. I am a child of the Earth and there is rhythm and routine in nature. Spring arrives every year at approximately the same time and we can count on that. But it does not arrive on a specific day at a specific time. It arrives when it is ready.
A grid of 7 columns and 5 rows made up of squares featuring natural elements cut from magazines. From left to right, top to bottom, the images include close ups of: ice with sun shining through, flames, a sky at sunset or sunrise, tree branches with green leaves, a painted sky at sunset or sunrise, colourful flowers made from leather with a background of a painted sky at sunset or sunrise, a view from a thermal imaging camera, bark of a tree, plant life, pearls on a reflective surface, an illustrations of pine trees, an illustrations of leaves, photo of stacked sandbags in black and white, snow falling on a pine tree, blurry view of blues and greens through a foggy window, a stone sculpture, some kind of anemone, gently rippling water, run reflecting in dew on grass, muted grey large rocks by the ocean covered in sea life, yellow pine needles in the sun, a gentle wave, pine boughs, orange light in the dark, a pink sunset reflected in water, sea life, moss, a rock formation cover in lichen, auburn human hair, an orange sunset reflected in water, an explosion in water, a cloudy sky, a fence made of bamboo, corn stalks, a stone relief. The boxes are divided by thin strips of text from magazines and there are small dots at the bottom of each box made of text from magazines. Some boxes have only one dot, others have two, three, or four.
Beast Nature
By Michaela Kaplan
I cannot thrive in a world where days are defined by the letters that separate them, instead of the rising and setting of the sun.
Where we must postpone fatigue, illness, and emotion to be seen to on the weekend.
I am human and so I make, but my body is not a machine.
I am both human made and animal.
I am the child of calendars and the seasons, of time and the path of the sun,
And my beast nature demands to be considered.
The video begins with a view of grass and weeds with some dead leaves and a lady bug crawling about. There is the sound of birds singing. The view changes to a view of a purple, flowering plant surrounded by mulch with a bee moving between the flowers. A female voice recites the poem Beast Nature. The view changes to that of tree branches with leaves blowing in the breeze. The poem ends and the view returns to the lady bug in the grass. The birds sing in the background throughout.