A world society in pictures

An exemplary illustration of an artistic statement about the constructive interaction between civilisation and nature

Karin Pliem

TRANS 23/Tassili

Auf Deutsch

Abstract
My artistic
interpretation of a world society comprises creatures from a variety of species and origins who interact with artefacts from equally worldwide explored cultures and civilizations. Some of what is painted here has never been sighted in reality. In its detail, it is often conflicting, but on the painting as a whole the symbiotic coexistence of all these actors eventually arises. And their visual common denominator is the language of art, and their ideal common denominator the language of nature. But as homo sapiens have unlearned the latter, they do not directly belong to my world society—they are represented by individual manifestations of a cultural or technological ‘nature’. As actual beings, homo sapiens are assigned to the roles of observers of my images of a world society which can also based loosely on Lynn Margulis be described as symbiotic unions, and may get involved in the visual arrangement of chaos and order, opulence, concentration and emptiness, in order to understand themselves as part of these scenarios. By way of some visual examples, I illustrate the intention of my work and its communication within the art world. Finally, my video animation ‘l’infinito della natura’ is presented for the first time. Its title refers back to a work of Friedrich Engels, the ‘Dialectics of Nature’, which states: ‘we by no means rule over nature […] we belong to nature, and exist in its midst. […] Let us not, however, flatter ourselves overmuch on account of our human victories over nature…’.

My name is Karin Pliem, I am a fine artist who lives and works in Vienna, Austria, and I am delighted to be invited to this international conference in Oran, to talk about my work and also, to have the opportunity to show my recently produced video entitled ‘L’infinito della natura’1 to the public for the first time.

In my work, I am concerned with the interconnectedness of nature, culture and civilisation.

I am first and foremost a painter—and therefore I would like to illustrate the topic, I am dealing with by way of photographs of my paintings and show you how the pictures evolve that constitute the basis of my video installations.

I produce videos because this medium enables me to make my work and its content more widely available and to a far larger audience than it would be possible via traditional exhibitions at galleries or cultural institutions. Thus, I will also talk briefly about the communication, distribution and the—indeed vital—selling of my art.

I prepare my oil paintings in a traditional manner, respectively by mounting the canvas onto the stretcher that is coated with animal glue and then primed with white gesso. On this chalk basis, I paint the background of the picture with oil paint—diluted with linseed oil—in quick, generous strokes.

Ill. 1: early stage of painting Concursus naturae IV, 2015, oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

The motif preferably constitutes an architectural work that is characterized by an amalgamation of a variety of cultural influences —for instance, this medieval cloister of Monreale in Sicily, here Norman, Byzantine and Moorish-Arabic styles have encountered and merged into a novel and art-historically meaningful symbiosis.

Ill. 2: Concursus naturae IV, 2015, oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

On top of this background sketch, layer upon layer of a diverse range of plants are painted—blossoms and leaves in the different stages of their growth and decay, seeds and fruits, but also animals and cultural artefacts of humans, such as African or Oceanic masks, mannerist and modernistic sculptures. These elements alternate, change their form, size, and colour, during the lengthy painting process, they attract and repel each other, mix into hybrids. Hence, I often create new, purely fictional blossoms, leaves, seeds or animals…

My sources of inspiration are important to me. I own a collection of plants and artefacts which I gathered during my travels across the world, furthermore the drawings and photographs, I take from objects I cannot bring into the studio in my botanist’s container, plus the visual material I collect from books, magazines and from the internet.

Ill 3a, b: Plant collection, installation at Egon Schiele Art Center Cesky Krumlov, 2016

Most of the plants that I collect have ‘multicultural’ or ‘multifunctional’ backgrounds similar to the aforementioned architecture: they are used by humans as medicinal plants, toxic plants, to make drugs, as food, or for the purpose of cultivation, and hybridisation, respectively for the ‘genetically engineered optimization’. Hence, they are often closely connected with humans and their use of nature or rather their interference with it.

I also have a special interest in neophytesthese are plants that expand their native habitat by way of transport, either naturally or meditated by humans—and also in invasive plants such as kudzu (pueraria montana). This plant has a variety of positive qualities, it is considered a medicinal plant, its roots are edible, baskets can be woven from the fibres of its stems, and much more, so it has been introduced to many countries due to its positive diversity, but it has also extensively overgrown the landscape and robs the native flora of its habitat.

Ill. 4: Ayasofya in conflitto, 2017, oil on canvas, 200 x 250 cm

Just like in real life, my art deals with life, death, change and new beginnings, it is about broadening perspectives, in order to allow something new, to say goodbye to the old and leave room for emotional aspects. And thus, I am not afraid of intense, contrasting colours, or even of scientific ‘inaccuracies’science is very useful for many concerns of our coexistence and in order to understand and explore nature, life and society, but its language describes emotional aspects, the universe of our sensations and feelings at best in a rational manner, but remains unable to articulate them. Thus, humans have used art from the very beginningpoetry, music, sign language, painting, sculpture… —to be able to phrase what we fail to depict and to internalize by way of pure reason or through geometrical or mathematical description. Here in Algeria, we have, for instance, wonderful examples of earliest artistic depictions of the coexistence of humans and nature in the rock art in Tassili, created during an age in which no word for ‘nature’ or ‘art’ yet existed. This differentiation occurred many centuries later, presumably only when humans started to grow apart from nature. And although I wasn’t able to travel to Tassili like Herbert Arlt, I would like to refer to his image material for my future works and incorporate some of its parts in my paintings. Because there, as it is known, we are at the cradle of the civilisation that should give us writing, and therefore a new medium for the communication and storage of our different social identities and origins.

Flowers, leaves, moss… and also the animals I choose—crabs, calamari, freshwater animals, now and then a severed head of a pig or fish from a market—always originate from a variety of countries and ecosystems, ranging from high mountain regions to the deep sea. They are unlikely to encounter in nature like they do in my pictures. Sometimes, only those plants are incorporated that attract me aesthetically and simultaneously fit into the composition.

The painting process continues until everything has found its place and a symbiotic unity of diversity arises. So it is also ultimately about the painting that is faced by an observer. The painting has to be able to explain itself by itself.

The human standing in front of the painting as an observer, has been invited by me, to enter, to open up and feel part of nature. Because I believe that humans are part of nature, of the universe, and it is in our own interest not to be so arrogant as to detach ourselves from it in order to rule as super beings. I would like to give an impetus for homo sapiens to think about their place in the world and their responsibility for it.

As an artist am trying to utilize my given potential in order to convey what touches me and what I have been concerned with for many years. The best way for me to achieve this is by painting, but also by using animated images in the form of video. Here the images can be connected with movement and sounds. So far, I have been using a form of modern jazz that is primarily improvised and recorded live and directly in front of the still ‘silent’ videos. Thus, the soundtrack is not the affirmative interpretation of the visual action, but an original, re-active artistic articulation that runs parallel to the painterly work.

As I said before, a ‘message’ can be transmitted on a wider and broader basis via the digital medium video than via painting itself. The painted original has always just one place to be observed at, but it has the advantage to be perceived without a time limit, as well as under different spatial and lighting conditions. And not least, ‘real’ artworks can be sold. And with the change of ownership comes also a change of the ways it is observed and interpreted.

To exhibit my painting is therefore very important to me. But the options for presentation are always dependent on the evaluation of the work within the art system as a whole. This ‘value’ is certainly also defined in a material way. The material value is generated by the market, which in turn is oriented towards international recognition, the ‘ranking’ of the institutions, at which artists show their work. Hence there is a fierce competition within this system, amongst art institutions as well as amongst those who produce the art.

Yet this capitalist driving force can be counterproductive to the artistic impetus: We, the artists, do aim at making a critical contribution to society with our work, aim at broadening horizons, instead of walking in the footsteps of the mainstream, only oriented towards profit and growth.

And still we have to make a living from our works, therefore sell our products. In my experience, both aspects are compatible, if we, the artists, prioritize our ideas and our work while consistently developing them further and finding ways to communicate them. Hard times do not necessarily lead to death! At some point, also the ‘system’ will reward such consistency.

Before we will now watch and listen to the video ‘l’infinitio della natura’, I would like to give a brief introduction:

The video animation starts with the sketch I showed at the beginning as a background, the colonnade of Monreale in Sicily. In this frame plants that were ‘cut out’ from about 20 painted pictures are displayed. They move across and through the frame and try to find their place. Then a sculpture emerges from the background, a reclining giantess, who marks the gate to the underworld, according to the concept of the mannerist Garden of Bomarzo, in Umbria, Italy, and represents the importance of rest, of creative breaks in-between rational and bustling activities at the same time. Here the sleep of reason does not, as later in Goya’s works, produce monsters of stupidity and violence, but instead, sleep gives birth to new ideas, puts our outer sense of time back into perspective, and creates a potential for knowledge.

Ill. 5: Screenshot 1a from L’infinito della natura, 2018

This is one of the reasons why surrealist artists like Salvador Dali rediscovered this sculpture garden after it had fallen into a deep slumber of 400 years, following the death of its creator. Subsequently, this figure withdraws, to give way to other tones—those of a mechanical and technical thought, the building of frontiers and the fear of the ‘strange’, the narrowing of our awareness and knowledge.

Ill. 6: Screenshot 1b from L’infinito della natura, 2018

Ill. 7: Screenshot 1c from L’infinito della natura, 2018

This is all I would like to say for now—I hope that the animation is self-explanatory and I would like to invite you to get involved, to watch and to listen. Thank you very much!

1 L’infinito della natura, 2018. An animated film by Karin Pliem, 8:08 min., music: Klemens Pliem, Armin Pokorn. See online: https://player.vimeo.com/video/259206669

Code: VKP1801

2 Composer and leader of the performing jazz formation: Klemens Pliem, www.klemenspliem.bplaced.net

Translated from German into English by Susanna Fahle