The Petri Island Project (detail)
In our time, the great naturalist E.O.Wilson suggests
that culture and rituals are products of human nature,
not parts of it. He goes further to say that art is not a
part of human nature but that our appreciation for
art is. Wilson ultimately espouses the idea of “consilience,” an intellectual unity synthesizing questions
now held as property of individual disciplines.
Where do you see your work in the context of these
two iconic conceptualizations?
JT: These are not mutually exclusive ideas and
I don’t see a conflict in siding with both perspectives. I think we enter dangerous territory
when we believe we are separate from nature,
and ultimately we fail ourselves and fail the
planet when we disengage from that acknowledgement. The tragic state of our world and the
depletion of its resources while polluting our
air, land, and water are the result of the false
assumption that we are above such concerns.
These are such deep-seated and complicated
SciArt in America June 2014
social and political problems compounded by
most first world nations’ embrace of Adam
Smith’s doctrine, The Wealth of Nations, and the
total disregard of the industrial complex’s environmental impact. It is a tragic flaw, but only
one of many that puts us in our predicament.
But I’ve avoided the question. I would disagree with one aspect of Wilson’s argument. I
agree that the production of art—art as a pure
aesthetic expression with no other purpose—is
not of nature, perhaps of human nature, but
not of nature. Whereas I agree with him that
the appreciation of art is indeed natural. How
can anyone argue with the aesthetic qualities of a male bowerbird’s den? I hope that,
when viewed, my work allows for the viewer to
glimpse what we so busily walk past so that for
a moment we may be seduced by a state of wonder or released from the grip of the routine.
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