FINNISH BROWN BEARS JUUSU AND TESSU COLLABORATE WITH TEA MÄKIPÄÄ...

An  exhibition of "How to be an Animal: Works in Progress"  by Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää includes an intriguing mix of photographs of Australian native animals, bear prints and a video installation showing artist bears in action. Visitors to the  Esperance Community Arts Gallery  at the Museum Park Village are definitely  in for a treat! 

The images of Australian native animals are from the artist's recent 8 week artist in residence program at the Cannery Art Centre which was  sponsored by Perth based International Art Space and DADAA Inc. The final outcomes of her Esperance residency will be exhibited both in Esperance and Perth in February 2015.

The video installation and bear prints document  Juuso and Tessu, two Finnish brown bears, venturing into the world of art making as they collaborate with artist Tea Mäkipää.   Their material investigations include painting (with non-toxic acrylic paint) and carefully dismantling a clay installation created by Tea Mäkipää.  

Some may be throwing their hands  in despair by now at the thought of "humanising" the mother bear and her cub. However, the artist might be  right and  there  is not enough "humanising" happening and as a result we humans cannot relate to other species all that well?  As a consequence we do not understand their needs or do not respect their rights to life, habitat and resources which would allow them to survive in the wilderness. The Finnish brown bear, for example,  is usually portrayed as a wild and dangerous creature. 

Tea Makipaa's collaboration must be seen in the context of her  passion for conservation of native animals anywhere. She constantly invents new ways to engage her audience with animal rights. Hence I am not surprised to find that there are only an estimated 900  - 1000 brown bears still living in the wild in Finnland. And, whilst the bear has the honour of being Finnland's national animal -  it is still being hunted!

Some humans kill for pleasure and disguised as a sport, bear hunting adverts can be found online.  The killing is  officially  sanctioned by the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry who set the number of bear hunting permits at 132 last year. 

"However the Finnish Wildlife agency has issued additional permits in areas with dense bear populations or where the bruins cause the most damage. 

The Agency granted 45 additional hunting licenses to hunters in eastern Finland, while 36 extra permits were issued in central and southeast Finland. Hunters in southern and western Finland received 9 additional permits..." 

( http://yle.fi/uutiset/bears_in_the_cross_hairs__hunting_season_fires_up/6784842)

This means that almost a quarter of the bear population in Finland got culled in 2013! 

Mäkipää's  collaboration  with the mother and cub reveals some very endearing characteristics about bears. The Finnish brown bear is  an intelligent, curious, gentle, playful and cooperative creature when circumstances allow it - no different to (most)  humans!

The outcomes of Juuso's and Tessu's artistic endeavours are delightful and sophisticated works of art. With Mäkipää's assistance the bear painters create unique compositions on wooden panels which display a surprisingly large variety of marks  from bold to whimsical -   a credit to the animals' innate motor skills, intuition and playfulness with the materials. The bears' engagement with the installation reminds us of both the creative and destructive impulse in both animals and humans and how entwined those impulses are at times! 

Juuso and Tessu. have become worthy representatives of their species in our contemporary art world. Their works can be recognised as spontaneous acts of creation. This artistic collaboration between Tea Mäkipää and the bear artist duo draws attention to the mechanical intelligence and creative capacity of all species. Further, the need for conservation and respect for all native animals is highlighted by the artist and her bear collaborators.  

It is a real shame that the exhibition is only on display for 4 days and closes at 2 PM tomorrow afternoon (31. of January). I hope many Esperance people and visitors will go and  see the exhibition before it closes!


Monika Thomas



All Images are copyright Tea Mäkipää.

My Artist Manifesto...

KNOW WHO YOU ARE AND BEWARE OF GLITTER.
THE FAINTHEARTED WILL CRUMBLE AND AQUIT THEMSELVES.
THE IMPETUS FOR CREATING EMINATES FROM WITHIN
TO REVEAL AND TRANSFORM ANCIENT LIFE PATTERNS.

SMITHSONS ENTROPY IS VERY REAL.
WE MUST SURRENDER FEAR OR FACE EXTINCTION.
 YOU ARE A SERVANT TO NATURE AND TO NURTURE!

Monika Thomas 2013

I merged my manifesto text with an  image that represents "misery".  Misery can be an honest friend, producing new insights and inviting contemplation. For example, the  word "nature" in my  manifesto refers to its original meaning which is  "to give birth". Artists are meant to give birth to their work. The process can be  really messy - not unlike childbirth. 

For me things don’t fit neatly. Words attempt to create an illusion of stability and permanence about what is essentially fragile, transitory and elusive. Even this artist manifesto is history the moment it has been written. It becomes contestable but also serves as a loose framework to be fleshed out and tested by the artist and the future. So it stands as a sign post.

Art making is laborious and  always happens in somebody's presence. My philosophy is to evoke and  capture moments of insight before they escape me.  Visual art is much more than words can express but  they also adhere to visual symbols and hint at new meanings. 

Manifestos hold creative and political conviction. 

Why art is meant to be civilising - not war!

How we respond to art is at times unpredictable.   Works of art are interventions to the spaces they occupy -    public or private -  and they provide  us with opportunities for real encounters where we come face to face with our physical,   intellectual, spiritual and emotional potential and limitations. Encounters with art can create unique personal experiences,  narratives and conflicts within us which are not necessarily related to the artist, even though the trigger  was an encounter with art. 

Western Australian born artist  Gail Hastings uses the term  "intersubjetive“ spaces for those places where encounters with art can happen.   She explains such experiences  as  ‘that which occurs between two subjects' - mostly communications, miscommunications and misunderstandings.   Hastings  likens  an "intersubjective space of visual art" as  a

... field of foibles in which we often find ourselves stranded when faced by another, whether the person across the counter, who tells us we can't be served because we didn't wait in queue (of which, behind us, there is none), or the boss we try to impress who continually forgets our name. Maybe, 'intersubjectivity' is sounding a little too familiar now -  need I go on?  So what has this to do with visual art?

Hastings refers to the psychoanalyst Jacques Lacon when she says that what we fear is not what we ‘see of the work of art’ but rather what we uncover about ourselves through the process of experiencing art'. She points out how this guessing leads to fear and distrust that the artist may be fooling or shutting them out. They become ‘scared of losing the upper-hand, of being exposed... '. It is in that moment, when communications break down between art object and the viewer that the "battle lines" are being drawn:  the art object on one hand and the disgruntled and confused viewer on the other.  And exactly at this very moment the act of seeing art  becomes  an opportunity for  'laying down our gaze as one lays down one's weapons' because art is meant to be civilising - not war‘.

Art making and experiencing art are both active ways of  part-taking in our ongoing democratic experiment in my view.  Every time an artist is censored or shut down democracy dies a little! 

So we have to become more mindful how we respond to art. Censorship or aggression is not the answer.

If our democratic ambitions include a vision for a healthier, fairer, more balanced society then conflicting or startling ideas should lead to dialog not aggression. Imagine if this was our shared reality and normal? It would be so much better for our physical and mental health! I for one salute Hastings for saying it aloud: 

'Art is meant to  be civilising - not war!' 

Hastings, G (2007) The intersubjective space of visual art, Art Monthly June 2007 (No. 200). pp. 44-45, National Capital Printing, Canberra.

"ESPERANCE BUSINESS HOTSPOT?" - Finnish artist Tea Mäkipää proposes public artwork for Cape LeGrand National Park in Esperance (WA)

The Cannery Art Centre  in Esperance is currently hosting international, Finnish-born, artist Tea Mäkipää. Her residency in Esperance forms part of Spaced 2 future recallll, an international arts residency program by IASKA. I was fortunate to catch up with Mäkipää several times over the last few weeks and had some interesting conversations with her,  and I experienced first hand her affinity for all creatures great and small!

Tea Mäkipää     (photo Monika Thomas, 2013)

A few days ago we  enjoyed a  trip to a local farm in Gibson.  After a guided  tour  (including a visit to  the chook-yard!) we were treated  to a  beautiful lunch by  Monika and Mick Liebeck  and their children Oskar and Britney.  Then we were  allowed a ride on the "header". It was an experience to see the sheer scale and efficiency of modern farming. 

                                                                                                                                                               Photo: Monika Thomas, 2013

The other day Tea mentioned an idea for a public artwork which I hope will go ahead - hence this blogpost is not only about  introducing the  artist (in case you have not heard about her residency in Esperance)  but also about  seeking your support so this project can be materialised. 



Mäkipää‘s primary concerns are biodiversity and sustainability. She works across several disciplines, including installation, photography, video and sculpture to interrogate the relationship between nature and technology. 

Over the past few weeks Mäkipää has been busy visiting local tourist attractions and wildlife sanctuaries, has given lectures about her previous work and provided valuable feedback to aspiring local artists. Esperance residents have been invited to contribute to her project via sharing personal stories and anecdotes about their experiences with native wildlife, including wildlife rehabilitation. As a focus group, members of the local DADAA Emergence project have been enthusiastic participants in several of these events. 



Whilst the larger part of the project will come to fruition in 2015, her vision for the Esperance community includes a public artwork which will attract international attention to Esperance as a tourist destination. 

The proposed work titled   BUSINESS HOTSPOT    will be an intervention in the "wilderness" (ideally the setting will be in Cape LeGrand National Park).


The artist's quirky installation concept is based on the notion that native animals play no active role on financial markets, they do not appear on spreadsheets and seem to have no direct economic value to us. This makes them the voiceless stakeholders of their natural habitats - always at the mercy of human unpredictability. Yet, the most efficient and busiest  exchange of materials and energy happens in nature between living organisms. It is a complex, self-balancing system", Mäkepää explains. 



BUSINESS HOTSPOT will highlight the value of Australia's unique wildlife per se and draws attention to the natural bushlands, such as Cape Le Grand National Park,  as precious habitat for local fauna and flora. Mäkipää asserts that native animals deserve to be noted as one of Australia's most valuable assets because they help keep those "business hotspots" alive. 



Mäkipää often uses irony as a vehicle to get her message across. However, she clearly points at the need for humans to develop a more  cooperative relationship with nature! At the same time she also empathises with rural communities who suffer economically and socially due to insufficient access to communication services which puts them into a „chasing position“ or in danger of being left behind by an increasingly fast and furious global society.



For this project to go ahead Mäkipää needs an additional 2000.00 dollars approximately, of which $ 800.00 have already been secured via private sponsorship. Any amounts donated by an individual or organization/business is appreciated and will help MAKE IT HAPPEN! 

If you can help please pop in at the Cannery Art Centre in Norseman Road, phone Karen McClurkin on  08 90713599 or email her  Karen@canneryartscentre.com.au. 

If you would like to follow Tea Mäkipää's offical project updates visit spaced 2 future recall website http://www.spaced.org.au/posts/projects/tea-makipaa/


Monika Thomas 

2020?, 2008 ASH KEATING - SO MUCH MORE THAN A COUPLE OF LOADS OF RUBBISH...

2020?, 2008 was a beautiful and inspiring "evolving art installation". With this project, Melbourne based artist Ash Keating, together with a number of invited artists,  aimed to draw attention to the sheer amount of CLEAN WASTE that goes into our landfills each year. This included exploring issues such as  excessive consumerism, questioning industrial waste management and exploring sustainability in artistic practice. 

By all means a huge agenda! However,  the advantage of an artistic cross-disciplinary  collaboration is that you can achieve greater impact because the outcomes usually exceed one person's professional and personal capacity. 

INSPIRATION AND CONCEPT

Keating says his  inspiration for 2020?  came during his employment as a waste auditor in Melbourne and Adelaide in 2003/04 where he witnessed hundreds of trucks dumping large quantities of good resource and materials. 

The type of clean waste Keating was talking about included a variety of wood, steel, aluminium   electrical wiring and plastic, vinyl and so forth - resources many artists cannot afford! 

 

'Waste' -  Photo: Ash Keating (copyright Ash Keating) 

Keating's concept, an "evolving installation ", became  part of the Next Wave Festival in Melbourne. The festival's theme 'Closer Together' acted as the 

 ... the thematic string that links the projects and performances of the festival, the notion of being closer together sought to solicit from the viewer an emotional and critical response—an intense physical shudder, a yearning for something better or possibly a reflective exploration of one’s sense of self in an increasingly hyper real world..   (Goh 2008)

Therefore, participating artists played an important role in educating the public about the massive amounts of clean industrial waste that ends up in landfills around Australia. 

According to The National Waste Report 2010 

• 43,777,000 tonnes of waste were generated in Australia in 2006-07

• If waste generation grows at 4.5 % per annum, Australia will generate 81,072,593 tonnes of waste in 2020-21

This effectively halves the life cycle of our landfills in the future! For this alone, and for many other reasons it is not difficult to comprehend why this project was publicly funded and supported by various government bodies and industry partners. 

2020?, 2008 Sponsors

EPA Victoria, The Department of Sustainability and Environment, SITA Environmental Solutions provided in kind support with materials and workers to help identify, collect and transport to the Meat Factory. Other supporter included the Ergas Collection, the City of Melbourne, Trafficlight, Australian Food and Grocery Commission, Australian Sustainable Industry Research Centre and Sustainable Learning Australasia

THE EVOLVING INSTALLATION PROCESS

For 2020, 2008 Keating intercepted two  23 metre bulk bins of industrial waste collected at Hampton Park landfill. With the help of SITA it was delivered the Melbourne Meat Markets for the purpose of an evolving installation project. The project ran from the 23.5. 2008  to the 31. of May 2008 during the Melbourne Next Wave Festival.

The evolving installation process began with Keating...

creating a structure and foundation with the waste in the centre of the space, and on the evening of May 15^th condensed the waste into a large pile with assistance from Mark Freeman, Lucas Maddock, Campbell Drake, Ardi Gunawan and Darren Munce. Following the opening night the pile was dismantled and went through a  'process of segregation' with the  assistance of Bridie Lunney, Kay Abude, Ariel Aguilera, Lindsay Cox, John Borely and Next Wave volunteers Tessa Chong, Sophia Constandine and Alex Hamilton Smith. (Keating 2008).

For the Opening Night Installation the collected materials were piled up against a backdrop of re-cycled and painted billboards and illuminated with theatrical lighting. According to Keating (2008) the pile was formed similar to how 30 to 40 meter trucks dump waste at a landfill.  Different materials ’get caught up and tangled amongst one another and poke out as the gravity of the load comes crashing down'. 

 

Opening night  installation view, photo  Louis Porter (copyright Ash Keating)

From then onwards the space was a beehive of activity in a state of constant flux with invited artists transforming  the materials and space which was recorded and video streamed into an exhibition area.



View the evolving installation process 

Kay Abude explains that  her performance was about  

... .physically pushing waste out of the spotlight - the waste that is often hidden from public view and the amount of waste that goes into landfill that most people are unaware of. The performance was about 6-7 minutes long and it involved waste materials scattered on the cobblestone of the Meat Market with a spotlight above focusing on the waste. The spotlight moved 5 times and my task was to repetitively push the waste out of the spotlight back into the darkness out of sight and out of mind.  

Working process Kay Abude '2020 in the spotlight'

Photos: Amy Johannes and Ryan L. Foote (copyright Ash Keating)

Working process Kay Abude '2020 in the spotlight'

Photos: Amy Johannes and Ryan L. Foote (copyright Ash Keating)

A VERY TRICKY QUESTION...

At some stage Fayden d'Evie (cited in Keating 2008) poses the  question  if

 ...by fetishising the materials, has 2020? subverted its own premise and unwittingly reinforced the desirability of industrial waste? One logic could run: if big waste leads to big possibilities for big art, then maybe bigger waste might lead to bigger possibilities for bigger art?

2020?’s intention was to temporarily intervene the dumping of the materials used in the installation to create awareness of  daily excessive industry wastage. When it was decided to allow artists to stake a claim to their works and select materials from the remaining waste/resources most refused! And  so -  after a short lived existence as art - most of the materials continued their journey to the landfill. 

The tension created by exposing the materials as resource/art and then discarding them was a powerful act to raise awareness because it does not allow the reality of the daily burials of clean waste in our landfills be cushioned by a small "rescue operation" or great sales at closing night. Rather, as Bianca Hester  pointed out, for artists the  challenge is to  to radically re-conceptualise and consider a move to a non-material art practice with zero waste.   2020?  successfully stirred a   "yearning for something  better" in artists and audience....reaching towards a 2020 with ZERO WASTE becoming a reality! For that to happen we all need to cooperate...

What can we learn from 2020?, 2008 Ash Keating?

2020?, 2008 raised many questions which should be helpful in finding a way forward. If "creativity" is 'an adaptive feature of normal cognitive functioning that evolved to aid problem solving under conditions of uncertainty" (Heerwagen 2002) then the  first step to problem solving is surely the awareness that there is a problem and the belief that a solution can be found. Otherwise, we will be looking at   81,072,593 tonnes of waste per year going into landfills in Australia alone by  2020-21! 

Here are a few lessons I have learned from my own trips to the landfill and access to documentation about 2020?, 2008: 

• More respect  for workers at our landfills  is warranted not only for the nature of the work they do but also for the  risks workers are exposed to and the skills necessary to deal with an increasingly complex mixture of waste. This means that local authorities will need to ask themselves how they can lift the profile of waste management. 
• When a landfill site is audited the results could be used to educate the public. 
• Accessing clean waste from a landfill site is a time consuming and expensive undertaking. Collected from multiple sites, clean waste is transported to the landfill and buried. However, if it was to be re-used it would need  to be audited and stored before being sold with permission from the original creators of the waste.
• Unless making clean waste available as a resource has a measurable value or  benefit (as an income or saving) for the industries who create it as well as the  local authorities who bury it currently there will be no real incentive to view clean waste as a resource. How can we turn old perceptions on it's head and open up to the possibility of re-using at least that which is desired at a local level to begin with? 
• For this to happen, how can we, as a community,  become more aware about the type and amounts of clean waste that ends up in our landfills and gain access to it at a reasonable cost? 
• Who could be the possible customers and partners  of clean waste reduction in our own community? (Private businesses, NGOs, NPOs and private individuals who would like to support a move towards ZERO WASTE? How can those people become known to those who generate clean waste? 
• How can Shire Council initiate/support initiatives that create new networks within our town boundary? How can a system be  put in place that allows for  access to clean waste? Who would manage this. 
• The need for  transport to and from the landfill excludes many who might contribute and benefit. How can we create win-win situations for local people and the town as a whole who will benefit from a cleaner environment and longer life cycle of their landfill? 
• The need for physical labour makes working with clean waste a time consuming and exhausting exercise. How can the need for physical labour in clean waste management be reduced?  
• One of the most important questions is: How can "clean industrial waste" re-enter a community without reinforcing the idea that wastefulness is OK?
• What existing online sites  such as Facebook, twitter or  physical building sites  could be utilised to trade clean waste - trying to stop any clean waste from going to landfills in the first place? 
• Communication between authorities, interested parties and the public will be the key to creating ZERO WASTE communities. The challenge will be to go beyond the usual low key educational approaches and instigate a new era of collaborating with the whole community, including the arts. A festival - as demonstrated by Ash Keating -  is the perfect opportunity to kick-start the process anywhere  ... 

2020?, 2008 artists included

Ash Keating  coordinator, curator,  artist and collaborator with Kay Abude (installation/sculpture/performance), Campbell Drake (architect /artist/lecturer), Ardi Gunawan (sculpture and installation) , James Guerts, Bianca Hester (sculpture),  Inverted Topology, Susan Jacobs (drawing/sculpture, performance, video and installation) , Rus Kitchin, Bridie Lunney (sculpture, installation) , Lucas Maddock  (street art, graphic communication, art & text, installation, urban intervention, Pandarosa (Ariel Aguilera & Andrea Benyi - design, installation, interior and illustration work, Mia Salsjo (sound composition)  and Soo-Joo Yoo. 

THANK YOU 

Ash Keating for your generosity - providing information, photos  and feedback 

Kay Abude for information and images relating to your contribution.

All the inspiring artists out there who keep me motivated and inspired...

Selected Bibliography

2020? (2008) Project Publication (catalogue) via email by Ash Keating

Abude, K (2013) "2020? in the spotlight" - email exchange 

Alan, D (2010).  2020? Art and Rubbish A Project By Ash Keating (video),   Scarab Studio Film,  

http://artfilms-digital.com.wwwproxy0.library.unsw.edu.au/ScreeningDetail.aspx?

CategoryID=23&ItemID=4073

Davis, J (2009).   2020? - Review by Jared Davis (blog contribution) retrieved 13.3.2013 from                              

http://2020question.blogspot.com.au/2009/05/2020-review-by-jared-davis.html

Goh, L. (2008). Ash Keating 2020? in eyeline contemporary visual arts (np),

http://www.eyelinepublishing.com/eyeline-68/review/ash-keating

Keating,  A  (2010).  2020?  video at Youtube http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IuIZcCwDkCk

Keating, A (2008). Accounting part one and two of 2020? in  2020? project catalogue

"E-WASTELAND" - Have you ever wondered what happens to your electronics at the end of their life?

       

DAVID FEDELE  is an Australian award-winning independent documentary filmmaker, musician, philosopher and full-time self-declared incessant thinker.

With his latest documentary movie  E-WASTELAND David takes us to Ghana where much of our e-waste ends up. 

INVISIBLE MAN

Hey, over here, can’t you see me?

Or am I an invisible man with an invisible soul?

Always standing on the outside,

Capturing moments in time with a troubled mind.

The flow of life all around me,

Like a never-ending ride that I can’t get on.

Always the promise of something greater,

The unattainable goal of a searching soul.

Image and poem: David Fedele, 2012  (copyright)

   

David entered the world of documentary filmmaking through his love of travel  and exploring different cultures.  He travelled extensively throughout Australasia, Europe, the Middle East, South America and Africa. 

His  films, photography and writing cover a wide range of issues, from logging in Papua New Guinea to electronic waste in Ghana. It is  evident that he is interested in the people and places he portrays and has a keen sense of social justice. 

David is one-man filmmaker – directing, producing, shooting and editing his own films. His work has been broadcast and screened widely, winning numerous awards on the International Film Festival circuit.

About his latest venture David says

My latest film “E-WASTELAND” is a visual portrait of unregulated electronic waste (e-waste) recycling in Ghana, West Africa. It premiered at the Environmental Film Festival of Accra, Ghana, in June 2012, and is currently screening at numerous International film festivals. This film was recently awarded the prize for “Best Editing” at the Social Impact Media Awards in the U.S.A., “Special Prize of the Jury” at the Matsalu Nature Film Festival in Estonia, and Low Budget - Big Impact” award at the Wildlife Vaasa Nature Film Festival in Finland.  

    Thanks to David and a safe journey...

          VISIT DAVID FEDELE FILM WEBSITE   -  here
          CONNECT WITH DAVID ON FACEBOOK  -   here

The more serious side of toys makes me ponder...

From 2010 through to the end of 2011 I was walking the local “tipface”,  wearing  steel boots, safety jacket and gloves. I spend my  time at Wylie Bay Waste Disposal site to experience the landscape, watch a dozer perform its daily burial rituals and to take photographs as part of my final year BA art project (Curtin University).  I decided to create this blog as a summery of the project, revised and edited - during a semester in Creative Thinking with Assistant Professor Emma Robertson of UNSW Art and Design. 

In my approach I was first inspired by Richard Long  and his nature walks. I was encouraged to follow my own instinct in finding out how we, as a community, have  made a mark on this once unspoiled piece of land and reflect this back to my audience.  

Our landfills are alive with the sounds of heavy machinery, birds, cars coming and going and the falling and crushing of what we gladly dispatch from our lives - household waste.  Not unlike the birds scavenging for food, I dared to collect  some items for my artistic explorations along the way - with permission from Esperance Shire Council.

As I walked, shoes littering the tip surface became my metaphor for how we journey through life wanting, using, marking and discarding.  Toys littering the tip face instantly grabbed my attention. Once loved and cherished - with their bright colours and cheerful expressions still intact- they  became my symbols for unbridled human desire and quickly fading attachments.

I became increasingly interested in the connection between human desire and waste. Like most of us I take part in the never-ending rituals of giving and taking - it connects me with family and friends, to culture, to the economy and ultimately to our local landfill. Even though this blog  is not about "finger pointing" it does touch on moral and ethics.   Essentially my work is a visual inquiry and a call to take responsibility for the "after life" of our consumer goods. 

Countless toys are daily banished from our lives to landfills with little or no thought given to the materials’ properties and their environmental  impact. Not only will some outlive their former owners by hundreds of years whilst suffering a slow death in the landscape - they will do so leaching their chemicals into the soil and waterways.

Unlike industrial waste which is tightly controlled, local authorities have no way of telling what is in those sealed house-hold rubbish bags when they change ownership to our local shires on collection days.  

Choices and Consequences

What sort of product knowledge guides our choices when we buy toys and other goods?

Emma Robertson, an artist and  Program Director of the Bachelor of Design degree at the University of New South Wales in Sydney  (Australia),   talks about the connection between the need to remember and human survival in one of her lectures (Creative Thinking): 

'Systems of memory ensured survival, and in pre-civilisation it took precedence over creativity and other modes of thinking. If early homo sapiens forgot, it was not only a matter of not remembering, it was often a matter of no longer living: if you could not remember which snakes were poisonous; which fruit was nutritious; where your secret supplies of food were; where quicksands were located, then you did not get many more opportunities to try to remember anything else! The first known calendars were scratches on stones, notches on sticks, and knots tied on strings to document the passing of days and the movement of the moon: these were memory systems to facilitate recall." (Emma Robertson)

Today we have the most sophisticated memory systems in the history of human kind  and boundless knowledge at our finger tips.   Yet, we are unable to make  choices which ensure long-term human survival and environmental sustainability. Our landfills have become the quicksands of the future! Is it possible that the time has come for creativity to move closer to the  forefront of our thinking to enable us to make better choices? How would we act differently?  

How serious toy safety alone has become is evident in this video. Please consider that "recalls" usually end up in landfills too.  

I think a  simple conclusion can be drawn: If it is not safe for humans it is not safe for the environment either.

Health Watch - Toy Saftey

Video Published on Dec 6, 2012

On this edition of Health Watch, host Terrance Afer-Anderson explores stats and measures to keep kids safe when playing with toys ....

Richard Long - Links 

http://www.richardlong.org/
https://www.artsy.net/artist/richard-long

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_Long_(artist)

All images are Copyright © 2010 - 2013 Monika Thomas