Karl F. Stewart - Fish RED

Two-channel video installation to either be projected or shown on large monitors.

The video draws attention to the use of Simulated Nature in today's world. Specifically the video addresses the concept that contemporary society has relegated Nature to second-class status and has substituted it with plastic.

The video images are of fish in a shallow fountain located outside a major corporate headquarters in Düsseldorf, Germany. Aesthetically the fountain harmonizes well with the building. It is a motif architects use with success in many localities in urban areas. The title Fish Red points to the design function of the fish. The audio track instead, represents ocean sounds from Nature. And the text, overlaid on the images, discusses the concept of our relationship to Nature in contemporary society - is humanity today still a representative of its Source.

The theme revolving around the contrast of decorative nature to Nature as the original source of life is a concept I have touched on before in San Francisco : The unearthly beauty of simulated nature in contemporary architecture, and The Trilogy of Noise, Fish Pool and Transgenesis. These works are glances at the idea Nature has been supplanted by aesthetically ethereal manufactured realities which lack primordial essence.

The installation could also be accompanied by photographic prints . HERE .