Tag Archives: environment

Mixed Media Artworks from my Land Art Project

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I realised that I have never put up my mixed media artworks from my land art project on my webpage…

So let me share some of the works and the thoughts behind them with you today!

What will be left, Acrylic and cutting away of tourist map 69 x 49cm

What will be left (Acrylic and cutting away of tourist map 69 x 49cm)

This artwork is called ‘What will be left’

All currently awarded mining licences were cut out from a tourist map, to make the actual impact visible. Not all licenses will be used immediately or at all, but companies would not pay for such licenses if they did not have the intention of using it sooner or later. Also many of the areas are awarded more than once, for instance for diamonds and for nuclear fuels at the same time.

(This information can be found on the webpage of the Ministry of Mines & Energy of Namibia).

Open Pit Near You
Photo of the Namib Desert, acrylic, cardboard (Recycled), wood glue
14,7 x 19,7 x 1,7cm

From photographs which I took of the Namib desert I cut out an ‘open-pit mine’.

Concessions Areas 2
Digitally manipulated photo of the Namib Desert
Digital print on photo paper
15 x 20cm
Numbered Edition

Concessions Areas 1
Digitally manipulated photo of the Namib Desert
Digital print on photo paper
15 x 20cm
Numbered Edition

Most of the Namib desert is sliced up into different concession areas for mining purposes, awarded by the government to interested parties, very often foreign companies. Once again I used my photographs and imagined what it would look like, if we could see these areas while we are in the desert.

Repeating History
(Maharero & Leutwein)
Ball-point pen on magazine image
27,5 x 43cm

There is a pretty famous old photograph of the Herero Chief Samuel Maharero and Governor Leutwein. Samuel Maharero has sold off much of the land of his people to the Germans for very cheap in return for being helped to fight the Herero people who did not accept him as chief.

I used this photograph as a reference and drew the people into a modern-day setting (an interior from a magazine) as I imagine similar dubious and far-reaching deals are happening still today, especially in awarding mining concessions.

The problem with selling off our countries resources in such a big way, is that we will never be able to get them back. Once they are depleted, they are gone forever and we are left with big scars in the earth and probably a lot of pollution.

Fata Morgana Welwitschia
Acrylic and pencil on canvas
15 x 20cm

Or: Not everything that shines is gold…

I guess only Namibians will understand this work immediately. The Welwitschia is a unique plant found in the Namib desert. An abstract representation has been used as decoration for the statehouse’s fence. The golden Welwitschia decoration is made by North-Koreans and it is not cast in metal, but in plastic. The statehouse has been the source of much dispute, since it was build mostly by foreigners and at a huge cost to the nation. The lavishness and pomp and huge expense feels like a laugh in the face of all the Namibian people who are living in real poverty with no roofs over their head.

Also, the Welwitschia is a special ancient, protected plant found in the desert and just like the minerals, metals and nuclear fuels which can be found here, I feel that our government would sell it off to some foreign investor without further thought, if they were offered the faintest promise of getting rich quick.

If you would like to see some more works from this project, please visit this LINK.

Rainmaking Experiment #3

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Notes – Rainmaker Experiment #3:

Finding the rain inside of me

23/01/13 – Farm Otukaru, Namibia

A hot day – dry earth, clouds on the distant horizon and an empty dam. Ideal to start this experiment.

Be.
Rain.
Have the intention.
Imagine.

Have fun.
Lighthearted play.

Notice.
The bringer of rain.
The wind.
Swaying my body.

Recognize it everywhere I look.
My blue toenails like large water drops.
The butterflies…
The clouds on the distant horizon.

Blue raindrop nails and butterflys attracted by them...

Blue raindrop nails and butterflies attracted by them…

Feel the heat.
Be grateful for it.

Touch a tree. Climb it.
Touch the earth. Caress it.

On my favourite tree – in awe how they survive through so much dryness and still have grey-green leaves.

Looking down at the earth…

Touch water. Play with it.
Throw it into the air to create drops.

Happiness.

Throwing water drops…

Use my fingers, dipped into water
To paint raining clouds on rusted surfaces.

Drawing water

Rain cloud painted with water on a rusted drum. drying quickly.

Use a stick to draw a raining cloud
On the dry sandy road.

Believe.

Rain cloud drawn onto dry earth with a stick

Notice how I sweat.
Being in touch with my own wetness.
Be grateful for the water inside of me.
Pouring out.

Take a cold shower,
A cool, wet relief.
Closing my eyes,
Imagining the cold water as rain on my skin.
More gratefulness.

Drops start falling outside.
Finally.
Rain.

Finally it is raining

Today it is raining in Berlin. The rain reminded me of my rainmaking experiments in Namibia. I always wanted to share the notes and pics I have made of this experiment, but the time never felt right. So, sitting with a grey sky and the sound of rain outside of my window, I am enjoying the memories of some time gone by and sharing them with you!

This also links up nicely to my previous post about rituals, explaining how the ancient rainmaker or shaman would connect with the spirit of the rain through a ritual.

Today I am grateful for the rain and joyously breathe in the fresh, wet air!

About Abundance

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Do you ever long for more abundance in your life?
I do.

Imke Rust Tree Glow
When I struggle with really grasping a concept, really feeling its truth in my body, then I try to look at it from different and unusual angles. Usually I stumble onto something that helps me to understand.

In this case, I looked at it in two different ways:
I looked at the word.
And I looked at my environment.

Abundance.
Abound dance
Ab bound dance ab(away from) latin
Away from – being bound
Bound by what?
Spellbound?
Bound by the spell of scarcity.
So dance away from the scarcity spell!

Good Riddance!

Long ago somebody told me that the phrase of ‘Good Riddance’ actually stems from an old tradition of dancing when something has left your life or you want to get rid of something: a good rid-dance.

So dancing to break the spell and bring abundance into your life and dancing to rid yourself of things that you do not want in your life anymore…
So let’s dance and keep dancing!

In German it is called Überfluss.
In a way it is very similar and gives additional clues.
Keep flowing.
In the flow.
Over flow – move flowing-ly. Dance. Water. Move.

And then I have looked at the environment.

I grew up in a desert environment.
Desert is THE epitome of scarcity.
Of death, starving, limits, dryness…
Of barely surviving.
Backing down to the barest minimum.

Now I am in a lusher environment.
With forests nearby.
Forests are THE epitome of abundant life.
Of life, growth, exuberance, lush-ness, humidity, flow.

So lets dance the forest…

Dancing up a forest (Imke Rust)

I have to admit, that I have written this several weeks ago, and just found it yesterday and decided to finally share it. Mostly to try to cheer myself up, to rid myself from my fears, from the pain that is keeping my body from dancing and my soul from believing in abundance…

The following would be a truer depiction of my current state:

Detail of a painting (Acrylic on Canvas, Imke Rust)

I guess sometimes, we need to entertain the words, thoughts and images of a more positive state of being to try to get us back into that state. 🙂

Wishing you a beautiful, overflowing and abundant weekend!

Falling in Love With the Unknown

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Cherry Blossoms Close-up

On Easter morning we went for a cycle trip, when we noticed that the street was lined with thousands of pink flowers. More leaves were floating down from the pink blooming cherry trees with every new breeze. What a beautiful view!

A lady was watching from the window ( I heard that this used to be regarded as the favourite pastime of Germans for many years, before TV took over), as we stopped and started to pick up hands full of these fresh blossoms and packing them into my shopping bag. Curious about our actions, she asked, what we plan to do with it and was not too impressed when I told her that I do not know.

I really did not know. I just knew they were pretty, they were abundant and available and easy to collect. And I knew I would find something to do with it…

For two days I just did not have the time to even think about it. On the third, I knew the time is running out, as the petals will start to rot. I enjoyed watching the petals float from the trees, so I thought lots and lots of floating petals would be something fun to film.

Fortunately my husband and his daughter had a bit of time and were willing to assist me on the very vague idea and so off we went with some cameras, the buckets of petals and – in the last moment I thought of taking along our mirror as a large round shape.

The vague idea turned into a bit of frustration, as we tried to find a way of doing it and make it look good. Look good for me from an artist point of view and look good for my husband who is the expert in filming. But the beauty of creativity and working with what you have, is that if one idea does not work out, there are millions of possible alternatives. And there is always something one can do.

Maybe it is not the grandest of projects or delivers the most spectacular results, but we sure had lots of creative fun, excellent teamwork and a great time together. There might be a short video one day and there are some photos.

And we brought some excitement and beauty to the life of some people and dogs who passed by ‘a woman in a tree playing cherry blossom fairy’…

Being the cherry blossom fairy sprinkler

Alarmed dog who was not allowed to investigate

The camera crew seen from up the tree

Creative assistants having fun

View from the tree: My favourite image…

Displaced mirror with petals

Finished Work: Spring Circle

Leopard Sighting in the Forest

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Once again I have swopped the warm African sun for the cold, dark and wet winter in Germany.

As a reminder of the creative fun that can be had in the cold I decided to share with you a little sketch I did on an outing to our favourite forest last year.

There were lots of frozen puddles of water and I liked how clear they were, like solid three-dimensional piece of nature art. Feeling a bit homesick I instinctively decided to add some African imagery to it. Maybe something like rock-art on ice?

I happened to have a white Tippex marker with me and started to draw a kudu. I was moderately happy with that. So a bit further away I started again, drawing a person, thinking this might turn into a traditional hunting scene.

Kudu and man on ice in the forest

The lines I drew dissolved and moved in weird ways on the ice surface, so I did not have much control, and thought adding a bow and arrow would totally mess it up. I felt awkward and unhappy with both figures. It needed something interesting to happen to save it…

Along came the leopard.

Leopard and man on ice in the forest

Interestingly the leopard started to chase the person and not the kudu, who was watching from a safe distance.

Unfortunately I cannot tell you how the story ended, as it got so cold, that I rather put on my gloves again and walked on.

Last view of the scene with the leopard chasing the man into the distance

Wishing you a happy and playful week and the perfect weather for your creative expressions!

Imke

Last days of summer

Are You Walking in Circles?

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I am suspicious of video art…

Usually I either do not understand it, or it is boring or I just do not feel like watching for what feels like a lifetime to ‘get’ it. And yet, I have been lured into making my own video art. At least I hope that my video art is short and easy to understand. And if you do not understand it, at least it will have been so short, that you hopefully will not feel like you have wasted half your day on it.

And so, today I would like to introduce to you one of the works of my last exhibition, Walking in Circles. The work is conceptualised to be running continuously without any stops. So much for me disliking long videos… 😉 Don’t worry, in reality it is only an 18 second clip, looped and presented to you here in a bite-size piece of 3 minutes (or shorter if you press the stop button 😉 ). After you have watched the video, please feel free to read on, as I share my thoughts behind the work below.

A Meditation On Life and Change

This is a meditative work, where seemingly nothing changes, no matter how long you keep watching. When watching a video, we somehow expect that something new will happen, that there is a story to be told, a new action introduced or at least a beginning and an end. This video is moving along, but nothing changes. I could have been walking for 10 minutes or 24 hours, but you will not know. And there is no end, unless you leave the room or press the Stop button.

This could have a calming effect. Just like the cycles of nature, or day and night following each other without fail. So if you have a lot of turbulence in your life, this video could bring calm to it. It provides repetitive, calming stability and presence. Step for step, circle for circle you can let yourself be drawn into the moment and know that the important things will always remain constant. The cycles of nature will turn. The sun will rise again. You can rest, slow down and trust the process.

This could also have a very different effect on you. You might feel stuck in a rut. You might yearn for a change. But the video does not provide that, no matter how long you stare and wait. In this case, watching the video could be a meditation, leading you to the understanding, that if you want something to change, YOU need to change. Unless the person walking in the circles actually makes the conscious decision to step out of that ring into the next, everything will stay the same.

Are you willing to step outside of the circle? And change the course of history?

Consciously stepping out of the circle... © Imke Rust

About the work:
‘Walking in Circles’ by Imke Rust
 18 seconds, looped indefinitely,  projected against a wall. or on a vertically placed screen.
 Performance /  HD Video piece
 Concept & Performance: Imke Rust ©
 Video: Steffen Holzkamp
 April 2012
 Location: grounds of the Salt Company (PTY) Ltd, Namib Desert.

Memories of a Tree Taking Flight

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An exploration in a forest and trying to reconnect with its magic…

Taking flight...

Memories of a Tree Taking Flight

Running through a forest of departed trees

Running through a forest of departed trees

Zwiegespräch mit einem Bieber (Dialog with a Beaver)

Zwiegespräch mit einem Bieber (Dialog with a Beaver)

My artwork seen from space

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Wow – what a surprise! I just realised that Google has updated their satellite views, and one can clearly see my land art installations ‘Salt Circles’ right from outer space! Isn’t that cool?

Land art installation ‘Salt Circles’ by Imke Rust, as seen on Google Satellite View. (Correct Coordinates: 22° 36’ 21” S,14° 31’ 51” E)

I have taken this photo from my screen, but you can go and have a look on Google Maps/Satellite View yourself. (Coordinates: 22° 36’ 21” S,14° 31’ 51” E)

Even if one cannot see each circle on its own, one can clearly see the smallest and largest circle and some lighter/white shade in between.

And I have another special treat for you! Outer space pictures are amazing, but looking very closely at something is equally breathtaking. Here are some close up pictures, taken by my father a few months after completion of the installation:

chestnut banded plover in the centre of my salt installation

Chestnut banded plover (near threatened species) in the centre of my salt installation

While photographing the salt circles for me, my father noticed this chestnut banded plover (thank you to Jean-Paul Roux for pointing out the correct name) in the centre of the circles, and the bird did not want to leave, dispite all the action. So on closer inspeciton my father found the reason why it was spending time in the centre of the salt circles:

Strandloopertjie nest with eggs

Yes, she has choosen the salt ridges of the circles as perfect shelter for laying her eggs. 🙂 🙂 🙂

The artwork was supposed to be a symbolic blessing and protection of the surrounding land. The concentric circles were selected as a shape to symbolise the outward ripple-effect which I hope this blessing and protection would have. To me the nest of the bird seems to confirm in a small but beautiful way, that my intentions are recognised and appreciated by nature.

Another close-up view

For more information and pictures of this artwork, click here.

Film production almost completed

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An Inifinte Scream – The Documentary: Trailer

How did you make this? Where do you get all your ideas? Why are you working with salt? And what is a Tokoloshe Trap?

Did you ever wonder about these things when you see my art? Well, this time you are lucky and soon you will get some answers.

Documenting SubRosa IRust (c)

We have made a documentary film about my latest land art project ‘…and I sensed and infinite scream passing through the Namib’. It gives you a great behind-the-scene glimpse into the project and an insight how I work and think.

You can join me in the exciting journey from the making of the artworks, the thoughts behind them, the challenges along the way and finally the exhibition. It is a personal portrait as much as a film about the art and its role in society.

Until we can finally publicly release the film, you can already view the trailer and check out the film’s webpage. It will give you a taste of what to expect in the full documentary once it is released. Do not forget to sign up for the blog to find out when and where it will be screened. (I will also keep you updated here.)

A great thank you, to filmmaker and my partner Steffen Holzkamp for the excellent work and the super-cool film. I am really looking forward to sharing the full film with everybody soon.