How do we question our roles and interdependence to the natural world? How are we interconnected to this dynamic, incredibly complex and fragile networks that has developed Earth slowly since  the last 4.5 billion years or so.  In the midst of our living in the cities and urban areas while being caught in the rat race to achieve our perceived needs of material possessions, do we even have time to pause and ponder what goes on at the planetary level-or even about the uniqueness of our planet?

This solo show titled Pause… A Collective Consciousness by Jayshree Ramasamy is to offer a space of contemplation to the audience. It is a space for us to reflect on our role to the natural world.  Inadvertently,  our existence on Earth is completely and inextricably dependent  on it. The different series of artworks exhibited are very interconnected to each other through the commonality of existence in the evolutionary cycle.

The  Five Elements series consisting of five oil on canvas paintings measuring 66cm x 66cm with similar titles aspire to bring the audience to look into the physical dimensions of space and time in relation to the different phases of a solid state. Things that exist beyond physicality and cannot be seen by the naked eyes but they form the fundamental components of physical existence. From newly born mass of energy and elements that form evolved structure consisting of dynamic system of solids, liquids and gasses to the smallest  of organisms and largest animals, all life on Earth has a common ancestor.

“We are here, can you see us” Series

This commonality is imprinted in every memory of the existence through evolutions of species. The evolution that keeps unfolding for billions of years in such a unique way that eventually enable life to foster.  Then why and how can we remove ourselves further and further from Nature while assuming the right to dominate the landscape in such a short time? Instead of re-evaluating our role to nature, we have  used our cognitive capacity to cause a perceived divisions between man and nature.

Insects Series

The Insect Series are oil on canvas paintings  measuring  that accentuate the beauty of physical form. Various species of insects were chosen to portray the myriads of the macroworlds teeming with life  and in its own ecosystem. They form a community that plays a significant role in the ecology of the world due to their vast diversity of form, function and life-style. It is a portrayal of direct and indirect interaction that we have with the ecosystem around us,  be it as symbiotic, competitiveness or even predatorial. It questions our role in the landscape of existence that defines a community and what differentiates one from another.

Leading from the Insect Series, Jayshree explores human consumption through the form of installation arts in the Endangered Series.  In the Endangered Series , Jay shift our focus to those objects which are normally part of the background into the foreground for critical scrutiny. Jay uses wood and metal as the medium for this series. The base of these installations will be wood. According to her, the wood represents Earth and the circular shape represents rings in a tree trunk. This means beginning to see things simultaneously as solid (in the sense in which they are composed of matter which impacts on us and others as we interact with them) and mutable (in the sense in which we attribute particular meanings to them, and their meanings change depending on the contexts through which they travel); as both tangible and symbolic.

Jay rationale for this “artificial looking”  insect which she called as Mathematician is her way of seeking new expressive resources in conveying her experience for representing organic life form using industrialised material. To me she has symbolically used inanimate object which are rigid and lifeless to portray life itself. Is there a deeper meaning to her choice of materials or  is it just some sort of the convenience in mimetic resemblance of life form???

The dry sound of constant whirring of mimicking the buzzing sound of honey bees tend to lull you in putting it as background noise,  de-sensitizing and disconnect us from the primal and atavistic  origins of our ethical sentience. We become numb to the ugliness and environmental destruction that we see (BUT DO NOT FEEL) all around us.

In speaking out her concern on our obsession with convenience and efficiency beckoned a new perspective on the environment at the peak of the industrial age. We have thus moved from a subsistent, sustainable environment to one of greed and exploitation. Here, audience is impacted with products of consumption questioning again on our role within nature whether it should be one of subsistence rather than commercialization.

In A Sand County Almanac, Aldo Leopold set forth his most enduring idea, the “land ethic,” a moral responsibility of humans to the natural world. As one of foremost thinkers in environmental ethics, Leopold quote that:

“A thing is right when it tends to preserve the integrity, stability, and beauty of the biotic community. It is wrong when it tends otherwise” (p.262)

The biotic community is group of organisms that live together and interact with each other within an environment or habitat. These messages are clearly communicated all through this exhibition.  Leopold’s ethical theory  challenges the mainstream moral theory by claiming that a community consists of a collection of interdependent parts, moving from the usual bounds of anthropocentric morality, individualistic humanism and universal cosmopolitanism.  In accepting the fact of interdependence is not only human centric but to include other members of biotic community and that human interdependence with the biotic system exists whether human recognised it or not and respond to it.

This show concludes with “Neither here nor there”, Leaving us with something to ponder, some time to pause and some space to reflect.

We as human through our own ignorance and insensitivities, can refuse to be the “good citizen” of this biotic community BUT we cannot alter our memberships in it. We are part of the community in this whole ecosystem in which, our ethics are founded through instinctive moral sentiments; an aesthetic that connects and sensitizes us to our surrounding and experience that teaches us to expand our environmental awareness.

About the Curator:

Lyne Ismail has always been fascinated with the dual conceptions of art and science and how they influenced one another. She found that creating art provides avenues for her to express creatively and a safe space for experimentation and exploration over new possibilities. She has graduated in 2017 with MA in Fine Arts and Technology majoring in Painting from UiTM, Shah Alam, Malaysia. She also has a PhD in Engineering (Nanotechnology) and MEng.Sc. in Advanced Materials from the University of Malaya, Malaysia. Her first degree is in Chemistry from UMIST, UK. She is currently the Deputy Director of Research and Postgraduate Studies and a Senior Lecturer in Visual Arts at University Malaya Cultural Centre. She is also an Allied Research Fellow at the Institute of Microengineering and Nanolelectronics (IMEN), National University of Malaysia (UKM).  Her roles in both disciplines guide her in closing the gaps where cross-fertilization can occur on both sides of the divide.