“ROLL OF THE DICE”
April and May, 2014
At the MBK Galerie
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| The MBK Galerie. My dice, 2D and 3D, are falling from every corner of the building. I enjoyed texturing from floor to ceiling, inside this attractive building on a German sim. If you visit, also tour the sim. |
The opening
reception for Roll of the Dice was Sunday April 13. Asmita Duranjaya arranged for
Miriam Evanier to stream traditional music from all over the world, with a
focus on India and Indonesia, because she knows I love that style. There were
also Western pieces included. Asmita at the sitar, and Miriam at the tablas,
the reception began with a performance of raga music and Indian dancing.
THE EXHIBIT
Survival is a
gamble. For many, it is a series of moves in a game of chance. On the face of
each die is a number from 1 to 6. The odds are we have a one in six chance of
hitting our desired number. The approach we take to the environment is akin to
a throw of the dice. The survival of the planet in our hands is a game.
I’ve referenced
Sally Painter’s list of the seven biggest threats to the environment for my
exhibit. There are so many others. The melting of the polar ice caps, for
instance, is not mentioned. These are seven among the ambassadors of an ailing
planet. While creating my build, I couldn’t help from noticing a correlation
with the seven deadly sins. These sins turn an indifferent eye to the planet’s
rapidly diminishing health. The largest threats to the environment are most
surely earned from our deadly sins.
In each of the
six nooks of the MBK gallery, I’ve represented one face of the die. Each roll
of the die tells a story for which we gamble. Their faces are represented as follows:
1. Human Population (Over population with resulting
depletion of resources)
2. Earth Changes (Human induced climatic changes)
3. Deforestation (Losing biodiversity)
4. Ozone depletion
5. Acid rain
6. 160 Dead Zones in the ocean
And what of the
seventh face of a six sided die? Where is that? And what is the threat related
to it? At the end of the center isle of the building, in place of an altar, is
the last die. All its faces are blank; there are no punctuated numbers on its
surface. It falls upon this last die to reflect a resultant threat:
7. Species Extinction
Is the Earth real
estate? Are its life forms, vegetation, and resources rightfully subject to our
beliefs? To what extent do we own it? The classical answer is ‘might makes
right’. We are greedily consuming resources, polluting the planet from the
oceans to the skies, from a compromised present to an endangered future. The
vast majority of humanity doesn’t recognize this emergency state, and find
little wrong with our specie’s domination of the planet. But in truth, we did
not inherit the earth, we stole it. It is not ours any more than the other
non-human inhabitants. We still haven’t learned to share. The Earth is not
ours, but the responsibility to clean it up immediately is only ours. That is
our charge. Denial is the eighth sin: that sin which escapes the traditional
list, the deadliest of all, for which there can be no die face capable of
holding a number which erases itself. This 8th nook is not represented in the
exhibit. It is something we already carry with us daily, and everywhere we go.
Haveit Neox
2014
XXX
