Kate MacDowell

Kate MacDowell is a contemporary sculptor. We read in her SITE:

We do not want merely to see beauty, though, God knows, even that is bounty enough. We want something else which can hardly be put into words--to be united with the beauty we see, to pass into it, to receive it into ourselves, to bathe in it, to become part of it. – C.S. Lewis. 

 In my work this romantic ideal of union with the natural world conflicts with our contemporary impact on the environment. These pieces are in part responses to environmental stressors including climate change, toxic pollution, and gm crops. They also borrow from myth, art history, figures of speech and other cultural touchstones. In some pieces aspects of the human figure stand-in for ourselves and act out sometimes harrowing, sometimes humorous transformations which illustrate our current relationship with the natural world. In others, animals take on anthropomorphic qualities when they are given safety equipment to attempt to protect them from man-made environmental threats. In each case the union between man and nature is shown to be one of friction and discomfort with the disturbing implication that we too are vulnerable to being victimized by our destructive practices.... I see each piece as a captured and preserved specimen, a painstaking record of endangered natural forms and a commentary on our own culpability.

Mummified Birds in lake Natron-Tanzania

"Across the Ravaged Land" is an album by the photographer Nick Brand about the animals in Africa that are in danger to extinction. The most stunning series of photos are those from lake Natron in Tanzania. The extreme temperature (60 degrees Centigrade) salinity and alcalitity of the lake is lethal for any bird falls into the waters. The bodoies wer covered with crystalized minerals and became hard like carved in stone keeping all the details of their body. Some such petrified birds were collected and photographed like being alive. The result was so macabre and shocking. You can visit his site to have a view about this album, not only about the macabre exhibits of lake Natron.

When dolphins cry

Αυτή η φρίκη αποτελεί όντως «παράδοση» σε κάποιες περιοχές της Ιαπωνίας και της Ευρώπης. Αλλά το γεγονός ότι αποτελούν παραδόσεις δεν τους δίνει την παραμικρή ηθική νομιμοποίηση για να διατηρούνται και να συνεχίζονται. Ποιος σας είπε πως κάθε λογής παράδοση είναι καλή και σεβαστή μόνο και μόνο επειδή είναι παράδοση; Ποιος σας είπε ότι κάθε λογής παράδοση και έθιμο πρέπει να συνεχίζεται ανά τους αιώνες έξω από ιστορικά πλαίσια, αναγκαιότητες και κοινό αίσθημα; Μήπως ο κανιβαλισμός, η δουλεία, η κατωτερότητα των γυναικών, η παιδεραστία, κλπ ευρέως καταδικασμένα έθιμα και βάρβαρες παραδοσιακές πρακτικές δεν θα έπρεπε να καταργηθούν μόνο και μόνο επειδή ήταν «παραδόσεις»; Οι παραδόσεις των λαών και των πολιτισμών δεν είναι ipso facto καλές και ευγενικές πρακτικές και δείγμα πολιτισμού. Κάποιες είναι όντως καλές και προάγουν τον πολιτισμό, κάποιες όμως είναι απεχθέστατες και ευρέως απαράδεκτες σήμερα.

This horrible stuff is unquestionably a tradition, in some places in Japan, Europe, etc. But the fact that they are traditions doesn’t give them a single excuse to be preserved and continued. Who told you that any kind of tradition is good and respectful for the reason because it's a tradition? Who told you that any kind of tradition must be kept intact through the ages, out of historical context, necessities and common sense? Do cannibalism, slavery, pederasty, female inferiority, and various old violent customs, widely condemned nowadays, keep on being in practice today because they were traditions? Traditions are not ipso facto good and noble. Some traditions are good and noble and some are bad, disgusting and widely inacceptable.

Whale and Dolphin hunting has been the tradition of the inhabitants of Faroe Islands (near Denmark) since the 10th century. And most of the descendants of the medieval whalers have passed this tradition from generations to generations. For the record, there are 17 villages in the island that have these kind of scenario every year which are authorized to conduct such massacre. After killing the whales in methods so gruesome, the villages part take the meat of their hunt and distribute them among the inhabitants. Some carcasses or what has been left from meat scraping and fat extractions of the killed whales and dolphins are laid right on the pier where most birds and flies scavenge on what is left of the poor creature, skin and bones.

This Tradition has met worldwide outrage and criticism that even Greenpeace Activists tried to stop this from ever occurring again. But the islanders insist that the outsiders doesn’t know the implication of this tradition to their identity and culture as Faroe islanders. Activists however argued that during the medieval times, Faroe islanders have shortage of food comphttp://www.blogger.com/img/blank.gifare to this time of ours that food is already abundant and that using tradition as an excuse for the slaughter of these gentle animals is truly unacceptable. (Romuald Matthieson)

The Jananese small town of Taiji, located in the Higashimuro District of Wakayama, is a place of picturesque beauty and hidden horrors. To travelers not aware of its dark secret, Taiji could easily be viewed as just another quaint, historic Japanese village. However, this is not the case. Beginning in September of every year dolphins and small whales are corralled by fisherman and slaughtered in the coves that dot the Taiji shores. Hundreds of dolphins are killed in these coves between September and March. Fishermen slay the dolphins by driving a pin into their necks, by slashing their throats with knives or by spearing them with long harpoons from their boats. In addition, members of the international dolphin display industry attend these dolphin slaughters to purchase show-quality dolphins for use in captive dolphin shows and dolphin swim programs; the dolphins not selected are slaughtered. This is the largest scale dolphin slaughter in the world and unfortunately very few know it even takes place. Even in Japan, not many people are aware of this atrocity occurring.

How is it possible for these acts to continue to take place? The answer is not simple, yet it is fair to say that in large part this problem persists due to lack of education, and a lack of knowledge about what is taking place in Japan. Basically, the Japanese government does not want the international community to become aware of the annual slaughter. It is up to everyone, especially travelers visiting Japan, to spread the word.

Japan is not alone in hunting cetaceans, which are any of an order of aquatic mammals that includes whales, porpoises, dolphins, and related forms. But it’s fair to say that Japan is a global leader when it comes to continuing these practices. It has been argued that the Japanese are keeping an ancient tradition alive by allowing these slaughters to continue, but the case that they are killing dolphins for “the preservation of tradition” isn’t a strong one.

Travelers are not allowed anywhere near the coves where the killings take place and are not encouraged to seek information about this “cultural tradition” of dolphin hunting in the town of Taiji. Also, harsh punishments can result if travelers are too inquisitive around the Taiji coves. It is recommended that you don’t get involved in any protests or activist movements when visiting Japan, because arrests and imprisonment may result, followed by deportation. (Charles Timko)

Bullfights: When the victim strikes back!

Impacts of our Plastic Age

I found them HERE where you can see much more such shocking photos

These photographs of albatross chicks were made in September, 2009, on Midway Atoll, a tiny stretch of sand and coral near the middle of the North Pacific. The nesting babies are fed bellies-full of plastic by their parents, who soar out over the vast polluted ocean collecting what looks to them like food to bring back to their young. On this diet of human trash, every year tens of thousands of albatross chicks die on Midway from starvation, toxicity, and choking.

To document this phenomenon as faithfully as possible, not a single piece of plastic in any of these photographs was moved, placed, manipulated, arranged, or altered in any way. These images depict the actual stomach contents of baby birds in one of the world's most remote marine sanctuaries, more than 2000 miles from the nearest continent.

Cynthia Vanderlip, manager of the State of Hawaii’s Kure Atoll Wildlife Sanctuary, cut open the dead body of a fledgling Laysan albatross (nicknamed “Shed Bird”) to find more than half a pound of plastic in its stomach.

Plastic lighters, bottle caps, and other plastics that are carelessly tossed often wind up floating on the ocean surface, where they are occasionally consumed by foraging seabirds and other marine creatures. (neversealand)

Τα παραπάνω κείμενα είναι από επισκέπτες και ερευνητές ατολλών του Β. Ειρηνικού, οι οποίοι ανακάλυψαν πολλούς νεκρούς νεοσσούς από άλμπαντρος των οποίων τα στομάχια ήταν γεμάτα απο κάθε λογής κομμάτια πλαστικών, τα οποία τους με έδιναν οι γονείς τους, οι οποίοι τα κατάπιναν μαζί με τα ψάρια. Δεκάδες χιλιάδες ψαροπούλια πεθαίνουν το χρόνο στην περιοχή από κατάποση πλαστικών και άλλων τοξικών απορριμάτων.






Look beneath your lids one morning
see those things you did't quite consume
the world's a can for your fresh garbage

"Pollution Monsters", A shocking collection of photos from the Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil spilling tragedy

Environmental disasters transform poor marine wildlife creatures into zombie-like living monsters,that suffer a lot before their certain death. Let these photos from the Gulf of Mexico 2010 oil disaster be the visionary scream of Nature that is dying by corporations' greed, putting their profitable interests over nature, humans and society.