Please think of our Natural Resources!

Recently, an interesting topic- Environmental Art was being discussed on many blogs. It was intriguing to read about artists and architects engaged in shaping the future of our natural resources; and redefining Art and Architecture for people at large. Not only have they challenged themselves but have also made a paradigm shift towards generating green economy.

One of the blogs on the topic mentioned about a Canadian artist, Sean Martindale and his group of friends who had creatively designed the edges of the neglected tree planter boxes and replanted them by adding, real as well as paper flowers to it. According to the artist it turned out to be an economic project. He mentioned that the money used on the project added to the green economy. Also, directly engaging with the urban fabric, his project delivered a dynamic collective participation between the living beings and the natural resources (here trees).

With such initiatives towards building a green economy, we still face the question that how much of the Environmental art will be really advantageous to our natural resources? And, will it be beneficial to the smallest of the organism? Sadly, we think in parts and not in whole. For instance, until and unless an artist considers natural resources as one of the most important aspects of his/her works, he/she will never be able to connect with it. For example an architect creates a building that shapes the land and socially connects with the surroundings. But, it is the land that is the point of intersection of the building and the human activity. Hence, natural resources form the most important organs of any work of art.

Christopher Alexander, author of the book The Pattern Language, quotes from it that when you build a thing, you cannot merely build that thing in isolation, but must also repair the world around it, and within it, so that the larger world at that one place becomes more coherent, and more whole; and the thing which you make takes its place in the web of nature, as you make it. In other words, any individual (whether an artist or architect) should strive to contextualize his/her project rather than showcasing it as a preposterous dog-and-pony show. Not being concupiscent will help in rejuvenating our ideas that are buried in the debris of concrete and steel.