Maris
Emergency Object, 2005
Forest, 2002 - 2009
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Maris (Scotland, UK) |
Maris
Emergency Object, 2005
Forest, 2002 - 2009
Maris presented two art works in the RISK exhibition. Emergency Object, 1995; and Forest: In Advance of The Pack, 2002 - 2009 ongoing.
Emergency Object, 1995 comprised of a deactivated AK47 Rifle and two archival photographs. Forest is represented by a GPS reciever locked in a metal cabinet.
Emergency Object / Artist with AK47
Since it's creation in 1947, the Kalashnikov AK47 has remained the definitive and emblematic weapon of both the 'freedom fighter' and the 'extremist'.Emergency Object is the artist's own AK47. As such, it questions the simplistic assumptions that semi-automatic weapons are innately 'evil objects' that can only be entrusted to those 'authorised persons' whose job it is to protect us from 'evil people'. But more importantly, it asks us to consider the possibility of an emergency situation in which even pacifistic artists might be morally compelled to take up arms:
In defence of themselves?
In defence of Artistic Freedom?
In defence of Nature? (see Forest below)
FOREST: In Advance of The Pack, from ARBOS 2002-2009
The title of this piece is more than a wry reference to Michael Craig-Martin's infamous and conceptually elevated glass of water - An Oak Tree (1973). This GPS receiver in actual fact contains the precise positional data of every seed of Scots Pine sown by the Marises in the deforested wilderness of Rannoch Moor. Here is a virtual forest which, despite its present invisibility, is rendered physically navigable by the military technology of the Global Positioning System. Although this particular brand of GPS was chosen by the artists primarily for it's technical and aesthetic qualities, by a stroke of good fortune, the device is manufactured by the Swedish company SILVA - the latin word for Forest.When activated, the GPS receiver is capable of directing its user to the precise location of every 'tree' within its electronic memory. Moreover, the GPS data accumulated within the device is an accurate archival record of the Marises 'symbolically futile' reforestation project for Rannoch Moor - 56 square miles of land upon which they have no legal permission to plant trees.
There is a popular myth that the last wolf in Britain was killed on Rannoch Moor, which is more than a symbolic loss, for nowadays the natural regeneration of Scottish woodland is thwarted by the overgrazing of Red Deer and any attempts to replant are necessarily restricted to fenced enclosures. Reintroduction of wolves into the Scottish Highlands would naturally redress this ecological imbalance and could pave the way for the reintroduction of other native species such as Wild Boar, Lynx and even the European Black Bear.
The subtitle of the Marises work In Advance of The Pack anticipates the return of the Wolf to the Caledonian Forest, and to this end it homages the ecological restructuring of the Wester Ross Estate, which makes this proposition a very real one.