Juan Gatti's drawings representing human anatomy alongside exotic animals and plants with taxonomic references conveys a visually indulging collaboration. What is most attractive about the works is the mixture of human and animal. for me the visual effect of stripping the skin off man to then be displayed more harmoniously with 'nature' is an insightful congruence into the development of man. These drawing also attest a reference to a personal int rest in medical and natural illustration. Seeing the way this is done is always an intrest of mine.

link to video

http://traubeck.com/years/

Bartholomäus Traubeck has created a record player that interprets tree rings into music. By a complex light system, fluctuations in the trees life span from a cross- section similar in size to a record are reproduced by a link up to a piano. This interrelation is suggestive of a mechanised relationship to the 'natural' that is creatively in tune.

Artist Matthew J. Rangel collates maps, observational drawings of landscapes, photographs and ethnographic research to produce a convergence that references 'our vital connection to the land' His work shares great similarities to my own practice where an attempt to distil a sense of sterility and documentation into the presentation and production of work is a significant factor. His project Across the Sierra is a series of works depicting topographically the Sierra range of mountains through either, digital, cartographic and lithographic techniques. The work appears clear, concise yet full of energy and meaning. His own experience of walking through the mountains and letting himself be enveloped into that environment feeds back into this series of works.

Artist Ryo Shimura’s plastic endangered animals convey a quantified declination of animal numbers. Numerous small plastic white hippos scattered on the floor describe the exact numbers left remaining in the wild. His work brought under attention by the Eco & Art award 2011 forms an apt visualization of habitat loss and poaching. The figures of the hippo's cast in white appear desensitized and removed in their setting displaying confusion of their displacement from an ecological environment.

Reading Ursula k. Le Guin's novel the Dispossessed the word anarchism appears frequently when describing positive and even spiritually revolutionary movements. From researching use of the word in contemporary media and literature an article from the New Internationalist magazine conveyed an interesting insight on the allegory that is perceived the the "a words" use.

From a historical context the word anarchism was conceived to depict different disposition than it's current conception of being evil, dangerous and destructive:

‘Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion; the liberation of the human body from the dominion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals.’

Emma Goldman 1910 ( http://www.newint.org/features/2011/06/01/anarchism-explained

Intersecting Goldman's words with the fictional writings of le Guin a comparison may be drawn concerning the subversion from the reticent nature of modern civilization. In the Dispossessed an escape from the cultural norm on earth is represented by an alternate population resident on the moon who have attained a totally annexed ideology based on volunteering and comradeship. When Juxtaposed with anarchistic movements a similarity can be construed that upholds virtues in anti-profiteering and survival of the harmony of the self in relation to the world. In this positivity however during the development of the main character Shevec in the novel he begins to question how the supposed ideological evolution of the human race after generations of the initial revolution occurring post relocating to the moon has developed another isolated society becoming more and more similar to that on earth.