animals are important

August 29th, 2009 pianist

Trap

chicken trap, 2009, ICZ

I am not saying animal traps and animal experiments in the name of science are a cruel representation of our relationship with nature. In fact, I find these traps and experiments a necessary process and development between our relationship with animals and nature. This may sound ironic but we live in ironic times. I am not an activist and I approach my observations through art.

My friend who worked for one of those ’society of prevention of cruelty to animals’ once told me that he felt the society’s agenda had an objective play on subjectivity and their political agenda was problematic. My friend later moved to Africa and opened up a wildlife hunting ranch. His ranch, along with other hunting ranches, now supports some of the biggest wildlife conservation projects in Africa.

Zoos are important to us today. Zoos must be important because without Zebras in Zoos, my niece might never comprehend the true meaning of the alphabet ‘Z’. She could not remember what Z was for until I brought her to the Singapore Zoo. Now, to her, Z is both for Zoos and Zebras. The idea is not so much that animals are living in un-natural spaces and that they are suffering but rather it has become of one the last ‘refuge’ which animals can still survive alongside humans.

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Wildlife photography and its trauma

August 24th, 2009 pianist

I was 8 when I saw a wildlife photographer in action.

He was dressed in green and brown. He was rather well camouflaged in the park. This will later seem rather useless in the  the kind of images he was going to create.

It was in the park where I got my first profound understanding of how wildlife images are created.

He was going around with a camera mounted on a tripod, with a large flash and lens. He was shooting everything and anything. I was sitting on the bench waiting for my dad.

I remembered he suddenly squatted down. I could hear a little bird chirping, it had fallen out of its nest. I could hear the photographer’s camera clicks getting more frequent.

I walked towards the commotion. The photographer didn’t really mind my curiosity. I offered some ice-cream to the bird for comfort, and the photographer carried on snapping.

The bird wasn’t exactly little, it was like a little adult, with a three quarter grown plumage.

I remembered lying on the the grass to get a  better look at the bird. The bird hopped towards me and stared at me.

I was looking at the bird for the longest time. I remembered looking into the bird’s eyes and my mind started to travel.

I realized from the bird, I was part of a system larger then my family. Maybe I was projecting my thoughts too much on the mute animal, maybe I was already separating my distinct human self from the animal. But something profound happened that made me realize I was rather lonely without animals and somehow the bird had a more beautiful concept of freedom then me. I was the one that was trapped. Later in my adult life I will proceed to trap many other animals to make sense of the natural system we are apart from or rather a part of. I am lonely and at the same time, I yearn to be together with animals.

The little bird hopped onto my hands and after singing a little chirp of a song, it flew off into the sky.

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Paradise Lost

August 2nd, 2009 pianist


ID, 2006 Zhao Renhui

ID, 2006 Zhao Renhui

“7.59. What happens a minute before 8am? Straits Time photographers show their interpretation of that moment in the Prime pages every Monday entitled 7.59. We aim to capture everyday scenes across the island with a different perspective, bringing readers a slice of life that would perhaps go unnoticed.” From The Straits Time, every Monday.

The document as Local God

For Paradise Lost, I assume a role of an artist for artists.

Documentary photography to me, is an attempt to ‘document’ ‘reality’. The photographer documents in his own perspective (be it a staged narrative or a pre-existing scenario) and creates a perceivable and apparent reality. This reality can slip and slide in different contexts. In the context of a newspaper, the construct of this reality can be naive. (In the context of a gallery exhibition, it can be confusing.) Regardless of whether the photographs in the 7.59 section in The Straits Times were really taken at 7.59, we tend to believe and even worship images passively, indirectly or sub-consciously.


Mobile Upload, Saddam Hussein

Read the rest of this entry »

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about photography by Thomas Ruff

July 4th, 2009 pianist

Pocock: What do you mean by real reality?

Ruff: Photography has been used for all kinds of interests for the past 150 years. Most of the photos we come across today aren’t really authentic anymore–they have the authenticity of a manipulated and prearranged reality. You have to know the conditions of a particular photograph in order to understand it properly because the camera just copes what is in front of it.

Pocock: Why did photography become so important in the art world?

Ruff: Maybe it’s a question of generations. My generation, maybe the generation before, grew up with photography, television, magazines. The surrounding is different from a hundred years ago. Photography became the most influential medium in the Western world. So nowadays you don’t have to paint to be an artist. You can use photography in a realistic, sachlich way. You can even do abstract photographs. It’s become autonomous.

From, The journal of contemporary art

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BESTIARY by Boria Sax

June 27th, 2009 pianist

BESTIARY

The elephant,
An asteroid
That struck earth
And walked.

The moth,
An autumn leaf
Still flying
Without a breeze.

Dolphins,
Waves
That did not vanish
Into the sea.

Jellyfish,
Dreams
Of drowned
Mariners.

The lion,
A field of sun
Curled up
For the night.

Each minnow,
A pebble
The ocean caressed
And coaxed to life.

Boria Sax, 2009,

originally from The Raven’s Wing

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December 14th, 2008 pianist

Setting up of new tiger farms, Japan 2008, Official Opening

My photographs examine the curiosity and increasing disconnection that exists between humans and the natural world. My work explores simulation, spectacle, and reconstruction. My practice looks at points of intersection with animals in our human-made world—our coexistence—and explores notions of their spectacle and the reality of loss through mediation.

In the past five years, my interest has been filtered through  documentations and current trends on the zoological gaze in zoos, natural history museums and circuses. I wanted to know why looking at  live and dead animals is considered enjoyable in our society. My work  serves as a point of imagination and discussion upon our relationship  with animals.

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The Animal Crusade

November 10th, 2008 pianist

Some of us will love animals.

http://hypnozoo.blogspot.com/2008/10/frre-le-tigre.html

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jzlimages.com

October 16th, 2008 pianist

http://webfarm.foliolink.com/Artists/6350/I AM CMP.pdf

“The reality is that we are merely human and can never hope fully to understand animals. The successful portrait will capture that mystery by distilling what John Berger describes:

“The animal scrutinizes [Man] across a narrow abyss of non-comprehension…
The man too is looking across a similar, but not identical, abyss of non- comprehension…He is always looking across ignorance and fear.”

In ages past, animals were surrounded by a sense of mystery and humans had a
heightened respect for them as a result.  Our perception of ever-accumulating
knowledge has destroyed that respect. Re-discovery of a sense of mystery
surrounding animals may help revive our respect for our fellow creatures.
How can one engage the viewer in an attempt to get closer and have a
metaphorical conversation with these animals yet emerge with a heightened
sense of mystery and a recognition of our limitations, as mere humans, in ever being
able to understand the non-human animal?

Taken from Dr Joe Zammit-Lucia Musings on Animal Portraiture
… and its role as a Conservation tool   .

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ICZ presentation at the National Museum, Singapore

October 15th, 2008 pianist

It is important to me that I reveal the fictions in my work to my audience. I have always worked with scientific facts and aesthetic fictions.

There are some models of fiction that I work with, and I am beginning to think that certain things between humans and animals can only exist in fiction. The fiction takes place on the internet, in the news, in wildlife documentaries, in museums, in zoos and in our imagination.

I have long ago disabused myself of this trajectory that my work should unveil some hidden information and bring about some enlighted consciousness that will prompt some progressive action. I think this trajectory has long ago been proven or rendered ineffective and it is not the way that we work or experience the world around us. To me, my previous body of work remains problematic and my work in the Institute of Critical Zoologists serves as a balance, or an outlet for an alternative answer to the confusing and represented relationship we have with animals. I remain disturbed and guilty of indulging in the dire straits that animals are in today when they come into conflict with humans.

Once I remember searching for the most dramatic situations for animal activists groups and NGOs and to capture a story for all to see. I did the story and still I felt guilty. I was guilty for a fact that comments on my work like “I love this” and “This image is gorgeous” did not really satisfy my investigation into the relationship between humans and animals. What was represented became a consumable drama and the reality of the problem was ignored. There must be a way to portray this problematic relationship without having to exploit the subjects over and over again. To me, my older series of work in animal menageries have failed.

In John Berger’s famous essay in which is titled ” Why look at animals? “, I try hard to find an answer in his essay. He laments on the distanced relationship we have with animals but does not offer an answer on why we look at animals. His biggest clue to me was that the spectator-ship is always wrong.

Today, the way I work is that I produce my own documents within an institution. I find facts, trends in wildlife conservation and objects that affect me, and I imagine a sort of universe in which they exists and sometimes it is necessary for me to imagine events from which they happen. But like all wildlife documentaries that carries a bit of truth, I have always layered my work with facts and truths.

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Contact

June 6th, 2008 pianist

There was an error on my part when I applied for the Project Assistant Awards with the British Journal of Photography on http://www.bjp-online.com/public/showPage.html?page=797830

The email should have been renhui@criticalzoologists.org.

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medicinal tigers

May 11th, 2008 pianist

I was speaking to Tako from the institute of critical zoologists earlier this evening, and he told me that the concept of tiger farming reflects a unique situation of our present age. Not only are we living in an era where we, as a civilization, are not able to personally kill our chicken for poultry, but we are also selling our magnificent tigers in order to save it. The situation reflects closely to what is being done in Africa where wild life ranches are being set aside for hunters to kill wild game. The ranches are being set aside for hunting and at the same, preserve wildlife.

from http://www.criticalzoologists.org/projects/medicinal_tigers/medicine_tiger.html

“This proposal is based upon the premise that biodiversity is best preserved by commercialization. Medical farming may possibly be the most positive and widespread economic incentive for the conservation of tigers in Asia.

Maintaining a species survival will be more profitable as a sustainable resource, whether as a spectacle for tourists, coffee for Star Bucks free trade, ingredients for skin lotion, quarry for big-game hunters, or raw material for pharmaceutical firms. Our medicinal tiger farm model closely follows the wildlife ranches in Africa.

In Zimbabwe, to promote the conservation of the wildlife resources found on communal lands, private game reserves have been established where revenues from hunting are paid to local communities. Recreational hunting is now the most positive and widespread economical incentive for the conservation of large mammals in Zimbabwe.

Jeffrey A. McNeely, “Economic Incentives for Conserving Biodiversity:
Lessons for Africa,” Ambio 22 (1993): 147.

Since poachers have decimated the wild tiger population, commercial captive breeding of tigers appears to be smart resource management. Huge financial resources has been allocated for wild tiger preservation to date and the results has been disappointing.”

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