Tracing the Subnatural: Understanding the Aesthetic of Urban Nature

Abstract

This studio-based research focuses on my visual exploration of ideas about nature, specifically, urban nature. Through my practice of mark making I investigate and find inspiration in the many non-human forms of nature, seen and unseen, on the surfaces and in the margins of cities. Urban ecological thinking has enabled me to argue that cities are natural, and that ideas we continue to hold onto, of a pristine wilderness, do not necessarily help advance our appreciation of, and value for, the nature where we live. This exegesis also discusses a shift in the anti-aesthetic and aesthetic aspects of contemporary art and nature. I discover that there is a shift in the aesthetic appreciation of nature due to an awareness of different forms of nature that we now live with, and even create, like weeds, dust, and pollution. The artists I survey highlight the value of the urban. While they are ecologically aware, they are not overtly environmentalist. This research contributes to the extensive discourse on art and the environment, and about critically thinking about urban nature, and the nature humans create. Throughout, this chronological investigation sets out the changes and shifts in location and resulting studio outcomes. I begin by outlining my exploration of the traces of nature on surfaces of the city, focusing on marks of wear and effects of time, age and decay as aesthetic qualities of desire and nature. These forms of nature are referred to as subnature. I examine concepts of the human/non-human connections through the marks of nature on man-made structures, and of man-made marks on nature. My studio work explores ideas of artificiality by experimenting with surfaces, stains, and mark making, in relation those observed in the urban environment.